midl compiler random crash

Question

I have a project that defines an idl and it compiles it using MIDL. The issue is that I got a random crash when MIDL is processing C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\PlatformSDK\Include\WTypes.Idl

The compiler options are: midl /mktyplib203 /win32 /tlb lib\sample.olb /h lib\sample.h "$(InputPath)"

Answer 1

Midl.exe is pretty finicky. Hard to help you without any IDL to look at, I can only recommend Microsoft Support to get to the bottom of this. They will however likely recommend that you update your tools first, what you use is getting pretty dated. At least update the Windows SDK to version 7.1. I'm however not sure if it still supports VS2005, you'll need to try.

In general, beg, steal, borrow or threaten to quit to get your employer to pay for an MSDN subscription. Essential to keep tools updated completely friction-free. Not just to get good support from Microsoft or SO, also to avoid falling behind so far that it is a massive pain to update your projects some day when you have to. VS11 is coming soon with pretty massive changes for WinRT and C++11.