I have great sympathy with the problems Nicholas is having. I have tried VC++98,
VC++2003 and VC++2005 Express Beta 2 and they all have problems.

VC++98 a.k.a. VC++ 6 is seriously broken according to
http://tangentsoft.net/mysql++/ .

The free VC++2003 which I believe is VC++7.1 is command line only, but the
MySQL++ distribution does not include any suitable scripts for building the
MySQL++ library so the command line tools cannot be used. The project file
included in the distribution (which I presume is for the VC++7.1 IDE) is not
useful with the command line tools.

The free VC++ 2005 Express Beta 2 (which I believe is VC++ 8.0) does read the
project file included in the MySQL++ distribution (although it 'upgrades' it)
however the build very quickly fails because it cannot find 'windows.h' which is
included from 'platform.h' . I have searched the files installed by VC++2005 and
'windows.h' does not appear to be one of them, so as far as I can tell MySQL++
does not build under VC++ 8.

Warren's suggestion to write a Makefile is a logical step but not something you
would ask someone who is new to the package to do. Most windows developers are
not familiar with command line tools and I'd like to suggest the following:

1) Generate a Makefile from the VC++7.1 IDE using the VC++7.1 project file
supplied with the distribution( VC++6.0 IDE could do this so I'm assuming it is
also in 7.1) and include this Makefile in the distribution.

2) Provide a distribution containing Windows binarys. This would avoid the need
to build and the developers must build these otherwise how could MySQL++ be
tested on the Windows platform.

SURELY there is someone on this list who has the full VC++ 7.1 IDE and can
generate a Makefile or binary and make it available?