Msvc

From wikinotes

MSVC (visualstudio) is window's official compiler (that that platform is built around).

Versioning

Visual studio versioning is frustrating, but wikipedia has a fantastic chart that maps years to versions.

Install

Download specific visualstudio versions from here: https://my.visualstudio.com/Downloads?q=visual%20studio%202015&wt.mc_id=o~msft~vscom~older-downloads

visualstudio 11 (2012) maya2015-2017
visualstudio 14 (2015) maya2018-2019
visualstudio 15 (2017) python-3.4+, maya2020+
visualstudio 16 (2019)

NOTE:

visualstudio installs can succeed with exit code 0 or 3010(needs reboot)

Usage

vcvarsall locations
visualstudio 9.0 - 14.0 C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\\VC\\vcvarsall.bat
visualstudio 15.0 + C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2017\\Community\\VC\\Auxiliary\\Build\\vcvarsall.bat
REM  run vcvarsall.bat to setup your environment to build for a specific platform/arch
vcvarsall.bat amd86_64

REM ? have not compiled directly yet...

References

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/install/build-tools-container (vs2017) docker container with buildtools only
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/vcblog/2015/11/02/announcing-visual-c-build-tools-2015-standalone-c-tools-for-build-environments/ intro to vs2015 standalone buildtools (and note that included in vs2017 buildtools)
https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/e2h7fzkw.aspx (vs2015) docs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4E_nU2F-iY introduction to visualstudio2017 installer