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Unable to build v4.12.3 on a modern Windows/CUDA environment #846

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@onetappy

Hello,

I am trying to build ALIEN v4.12.3 from source on a new Windows PC.

I understand that the project recommends using the latest version for development, and I also understand that maintaining old releases is difficult. However, there is an important reason why I need to use v4.12.3: older ALIEN versions support older NVIDIA GPUs that are no longer supported by newer versions of the project and/or their current CUDA requirements.

This creates a practical problem for users with older GPUs:

Newer ALIEN versions are recommended for development, but may no longer be compatible with older NVIDIA hardware.
v4.12.3 is still usable for this hardware, but its documented build environment is now quite old.
The v4.12.3 documentation mentions compatibility issues with newer versions of GCC, Visual Studio, and CUDA.
In 2026, reproducing the old build environment on a fresh Windows installation is increasingly difficult because the recommended toolchain versions are no longer the current versions.

For example, the v4.12.3 documentation currently mentions:

CUDA Toolkit 11.2+
GCC 9.x+
MSVC v142+
GCC 12+ reported as problematic
Visual Studio 17.10 reported as problematic
CUDA 12.5 reported as problematic
CUDA 12.4 expected to work

I would like to ask whether the project could provide one of the following for v4.12.3 (or whichever older release is the last version supporting these older GPUs):

A known-good Windows build environment, including exact versions of Visual Studio/MSVC, CMake, CUDA Toolkit, and other required tools.
A documented procedure for reproducing the v4.12.3 build environment in 2026.
Ideally, a container/VM/build script or other reproducible build configuration that preserves the required legacy toolchain.
If v4.12.3 is not the correct version, clarification about which release is the last version supporting older NVIDIA GPUs, together with its recommended build environment.

I am not asking for continued feature development or long-term maintenance of the old release. My main concern is being able to reproduce a working build of the last version that supports older NVIDIA hardware.

This would be especially useful for users who still have older GPUs but need to build ALIEN themselves from source.

Thank you for maintaining the project and for any guidance you can provide.

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