I needed to compile boost1.47 in windows for win_ros so i decided to document what i did.

I tried different versions of boost but winros seems to only play nice with this one. If someone manages to compile winros with later version of boost that would be awesome and i’d like to know about it. But since we’re stuck with this boost version we need change a few things for it to compile under VC2013. Out of the box 1.47 doesn’t know about compilers later than VC2010, so we’ll teach it.

1. In "boost1470\boost\signals\detail\namedslotmap.hpp" and "boost1470\libs\signals\src\namedslotmap.cpp" change BOOSTWORKAROUND(MSCVER, <= 1600) to BOOSTWORKAROUND(MSCVER, <= 1900)
2. Run bootstrap.bat
3. Now we need to modify some build files. All i did was to get the latest version of boost and copy the parts of of these files that deal with specifying settings for the latest compilers. So in "boost147_0\tools\build\v2\engine\build.bat" replace

   if NOT "_%VS100COMNTOOLS%_" == "__" (

   with

       call :ClearError
       if NOT "%VS140COMNTOOLS%" == "" (
           set "BOOSTJAMTOOLSET=vc14"
           set "BOOSTJAMTOOLSETROOT=%VS140COMNTOOLS%....\VC\"
           goto :eof) 
       call :ClearError 
       if EXIST "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC\VCVARSALL.BAT" (
           set "BOOSTJAMTOOLSET=vc14"
           set "BOOSTJAMTOOLSETROOT=%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC\"
           goto :eof) 
       call :ClearError
       if NOT "%VS120COMNTOOLS%" == "" (
           set "BOOSTJAMTOOLSET=vc12"
           set "BOOSTJAMTOOLSETROOT=%VS120COMNTOOLS%....\VC\"
           goto :eof) 
       call :ClearError
       if EXIST "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\VC\VCVARSALL.BAT" (
           set "BOOSTJAMTOOLSET=vc12"
           set "BOOSTJAMTOOLSETROOT=%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\VC\"
           goto :eof) 
       call :ClearError 
       if NOT "%VS110COMNTOOLS%" == "" (
           set "BOOSTJAMTOOLSET=vc11"
           set "BOOSTJAMTOOLSETROOT=%VS110COMNTOOLS%....\VC\"
           goto :eof) 
       call :ClearError 
       if EXIST "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\VC\VCVARSALL.BAT" (
           set "BOOSTJAMTOOLSET=vc11"
           set "BOOSTJAMTOOLSETROOT=%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\VC\"
           goto :eof) 
       call :ClearError 
       if NOT "%VS100COMNTOOLS%" == "" (
        

   and later in the same file replace

   :SkipVC10

   with

       :SkipVC10
       if NOT "%BOOSTJAMTOOLSET%" == "vc11" goto SkipVC11
       if NOT "%VS110COMNTOOLS%" == "" (
           set "BOOSTJAMTOOLSETROOT=%VS110COMNTOOLS%....\VC\"
           )
       if "%VCINSTALLDIR%_" == "" call :CallIfExists "%BOOSTJAMTOOLSETROOT%VCVARSALL.BAT" %BOOSTJAMARGS%
       if NOT "%BOOSTJAMTOOLSETROOT%" == "" (
           if "%VCINSTALLDIR%" == "" (
               set "PATH=%BOOSTJAMTOOLSETROOT%bin;%PATH%"
               ) )
       set "BOOSTJAMCC=cl /nologo /RTC1 /Zi /MTd /Fobootstrap/ /Fdbootstrap/ -DNT -DYYDEBUG -wd4996 kernel32.lib advapi32.lib user32.lib"
       set "BOOSTJAMOPTJAM=/Febootstrap\jam0"
       set "BOOSTJAMOPTMKJAMBASE=/Febootstrap\mkjambase0"
       set "BOOSTJAMOPTYYACC=/Febootstrap\yyacc0"
       set "known=1"
       :SkipVC11
       if NOT "%BOOSTJAMTOOLSET%" == "vc12" goto SkipVC12
       if NOT "%VS120COMNTOOLS%" == "" (
           set "BOOSTJAMTOOLSETROOT=%VS120COMNTOOLS%....\VC\"
           )
       if "%VCINSTALLDIR%_" == "" call :CallIfExists "%BOOSTJAMTOOLSETROOT%VCVARSALL.BAT" %BOOSTJAMARGS%
       if NOT "%BOOSTJAMTOOLSETROOT%" == "" (
           if "%VCINSTALLDIR%" == "" (
               set "PATH=%BOOSTJAMTOOLSETROOT%bin;%PATH%"
               ) )
       set "BOOSTJAMCC=cl /nologo /RTC1 /Zi /MTd /Fobootstrap/ /Fdbootstrap/ -DNT -DYYDEBUG -wd4996 kernel32.lib advapi32.lib user32.lib"
       set "BOOSTJAMOPTJAM=/Febootstrap\jam0"
       set "BOOSTJAMOPTMKJAMBASE=/Febootstrap\mkjambase0"
       set "BOOSTJAMOPTYYACC=/Febootstrap\yyacc0"
       set "known=1"
       :SkipVC12
       if NOT "%BOOSTJAMTOOLSET%" == "vc14" goto SkipVC14
       if NOT "%VS140COMNTOOLS%" == "" (
           set "BOOSTJAMTOOLSETROOT=%VS140COMNTOOLS%....\VC\"
           )
       if "%VCINSTALLDIR%_" == "" call :CallIfExists "%BOOSTJAMTOOLSETROOT%VCVARSALL.BAT" %BOOSTJAMARGS%
       if NOT "%BOOSTJAMTOOLSETROOT%" == "" (
           if "%VCINSTALLDIR%" == "" (
               set "PATH=%BOOSTJAMTOOLSETROOT%bin;%PATH%"
               ) )
       set "BOOSTJAMCC=cl /nologo /RTC1 /Zi /MTd /Fobootstrap/ /Fdbootstrap/ -DNT -DYYDEBUG -wd4996 kernel32.lib advapi32.lib user32.lib"
       set "BOOSTJAMOPTJAM=/Febootstrap\jam0"
       set "BOOSTJAMOPTMKJAMBASE=/Febootstrap\mkjambase0"
       set "BOOSTJAMOPTYYACC=/Febootstrap\yyacc0"
       set "known=1"
       :Skip_VC14
   

4. Now in "boost147_0\tools\build\v2\engine\build.jam" replace

   ## Microsoft Visual C++ 2010
   toolset vc10 cl : /Fe /Fe /Fd /Fo : -D
       : /nologo
       [ opt --release : /MT /O2 /Ob2 /Gy /GF /GA /wd4996 ]
       [ opt --debug : /MTd /DEBUG /Z7 /Od /Ob0 /wd4996 ]
       -I$(--python-include) -I$(--extra-include)
       : kernel32.lib advapi32.lib user32.lib $(--python-lib[1]) ;
   

   with

   
   
   Microsoft Visual C++ 2010
   
   toolset vc10 cl : /Fe /Fe /Fd /Fo : -D
       : /nologo
       [ opt --release : /MT /O2 /Ob2 /Gy /GF /GA /wd4996 ]
       [ opt --debug : /MTd /DEBUG /Z7 /Od /Ob0 /wd4996 ]
       -I$(--python-include) -I$(--extra-include)
       : kernel32.lib advapi32.lib user32.lib $(--python-lib[1]) ;
   
   Microsoft Visual C++ 2012
   
   toolset vc11 cl : /Fe /Fe /Fd /Fo : -D
       : /nologo
       [ opt --release : /GL /MT /O2 /Ob2 /Gy /GF /GA /wd4996 ]
       [ opt --debug : /MTd /DEBUG /Z7 /Od /Ob0 /wd4996 ]
       -I$(--python-include) -I$(--extra-include)
       : kernel32.lib advapi32.lib user32.lib $(--python-lib[1]) ;
   
   Microsoft Visual C++ 2013
   
   toolset vc12 cl : /Fe /Fe /Fd /Fo : -D
       : /nologo
       [ opt --release : /GL /MT /O2 /Ob2 /Gy /GF /GA /wd4996 ]
       [ opt --debug : /MTd /DEBUG /Z7 /Od /Ob0 /wd4996 ]
       -I$(--python-include) -I$(--extra-include)
       : kernel32.lib advapi32.lib user32.lib $(--python-lib[1]) ;
   toolset vc14 cl : /Fe /Fe /Fd /Fo : -D
       : /nologo
       [ opt --release : /GL /MT /O2 /Ob2 /Gy /GF /GA /wd4996 ]
       [ opt --debug : /MTd /DEBUG /Z7 /Od /Ob0 /wd4996 ]
       -I$(--python-include) -I$(--extra-include)
       : kernel32.lib advapi32.lib user32.lib $(--python-lib[1]) ;
   

5. Last touch. We need to change one source file so the the compilation won't throw warnings about unknown compiler. Take a look at "boost\config\compiler\visualc.hpp" in the newer version of boost and incorporate options related to the new compilers.

6. And now comes the hack. I have VS2010 and VS2013 installed on the same machine and when i tired to compile boost it would grab vc10 compiler instead of vc12 like i wanted. So instead of getting to the bottom of it and doing it the right way i simply renamed my VS2010 folder for the time of the compilation and that seemed to do the trick. If someone knows how to make boost grab the right compiler please let me know. (specifying the compiler in the command line didn't help)
7. And finally compile boost with this command:
   b2 -d+2 --prefix=C:\boost --build-type=complete --build-dir=C:\boost\build --layout=tagged threading=multi variant=release address-model=64 link=shared