Windows binaries: visual studio 2013 vs 2014

[springmeyer]

Recording here my thinking on how node-mapnik windows binaries work:

• node-mapnik 3.x series has a hard dependency on Mapnik 3.x
• Mapnik 3.x has a hard dependency on C++11
• To support C++11 we need to use at least Visual Studio >= 2014
• Therefore node-mapnik windows binaries are all built with Visual Studio 2014, and;
• Should therefore only be used with a node.exe and other native modules built with Visual Studio 2014 (using a node.exe or other native modules built against vs 2013 could lead to instability)

So, anyone using node-mapnik 3.x should use the Node.exe x64 and the Redistributable installer from https://github.com/mapbox/node-cpp11/blob/master/README.md#downloads.

Anyone wishing to use the node.exe from http://nodejs.org/download/ should stick with the node-mapnik@1.x series which is also built with Visual Studio 2013. Specifically v1.4.17 provides 32 bit (x86) windows binaries.

Other modules support and provide windows binaries for both Visual Studio 2013 and 2014. For example, by default npm install will pull 2013 binaries for node-gdal, node-srs, and node-sqlite3 and if you want 2014 binaries you can do npm install --toolset=v140. More details at naturalatlas/node-gdal#77