Upgrade build system for Visual Studio 2022 and Windows 11 compatibility

[devin-ai-integration]

Upgrade build system for Visual Studio 2022 and Windows 11 compatibility

Summary

This PR modernizes the dictationBridge-core build system to support Visual Studio 2022 and Windows 11 while maintaining backward compatibility. The changes focus on three main areas:

1. Visual Studio version support: Updated MSVC version checks to accept Visual Studio 2015+ (MSVC 14.x and 19.x) instead of only VS 2015
2. Python 3 compatibility: Replaced deprecated Python 2.7 syntax (_winreg → winreg, iteritems() → items(), print statements → print functions) with backward-compatible implementations
3. Windows SDK modernization: Updated SDK targeting to try Windows 10 SDK first, then fallback to Windows SDK 7.1A for compatibility

The C++ code itself uses standard Windows APIs and should be compatible with Windows 11 without changes. The MinHook dependency already supports Visual Studio 2015+ so it will work with newer versions.

Review & Testing Checklist for Human

• Test building with Visual Studio 2022 on Windows 11 - This is the primary goal and highest risk item since I couldn't test this locally
• Verify Visual Studio 2017-2019 still work - Ensure backward compatibility wasn't broken by the MSVC version check changes
• Test Windows SDK detection - Verify that the v10.0 → v7.1A fallback logic works correctly and doesn't break existing builds
• Check Python 3 compatibility - Run the build with Python 3.7+ to ensure the winreg import changes work properly
• Verify submodule builds - Ensure minhook submodule still compiles correctly with the updated toolchain

Recommended test plan: Try building the project on Windows 11 with Visual Studio 2022, then test with an older VS version to verify backward compatibility.

---

Diagram

%%{ init : { "theme" : "default" }}%%
graph TD
    README["README.md<br/>Build requirements"]:::minor-edit
    SConstruct["SConstruct<br/>Main build script"]:::minor-edit
    archBuild["archBuild_SConscript<br/>MSVC version check"]:::major-edit
    windowsSdk["site_scons/site_tools/<br/>windowsSdk.py<br/>SDK detection"]:::major-edit
    jawsCommand["commands/commands/<br/>jawsDragonCommand.py<br/>Print syntax fix"]:::minor-edit
    
    SConstruct -->|imports| windowsSdk
    archBuild -->|uses| windowsSdk
    archBuild -->|version check| SConstruct
    
    subgraph Legend
        L1[Major Edit]:::major-edit
        L2[Minor Edit]:::minor-edit
        L3[Context/No Edit]:::context
    end
    
    classDef major-edit fill:#90EE90
    classDef minor-edit fill:#87CEEB
    classDef context fill:#F5F5F5

Loading

Notes

• Link to Devin run: https://app.devin.ai/sessions/33edeabead304ed382dd5559ad73f939
• Requested by: @pranavlal
• Risk level: 🟡 Yellow - Changes are straightforward but involve build system components that couldn't be tested locally
• Key files modified: 5 files (README.md, SConstruct, archBuild_SConscript, windowsSdk.py, jawsDragonCommand.py)
• Backward compatibility: Maintained through try/except blocks for Python imports and fallback logic for Windows SDK versions

[devin-ai-integration]

🤖 Devin AI Engineer

I'll be helping with this pull request! Here's what you should know:

✅ I will automatically:

• Address comments on this PR. Add '(aside)' to your comment to have me ignore it.
• Look at CI failures and help fix them

Note: I can only respond to comments from users who have write access to this repository.

⚙️ Control Options:

• Disable automatic comment and CI monitoring