isnt the legacy version of ompt which was re-implimented after already dropping windows xp support already a kinda fork anyways?
Well either way, Can I suggest, as someone who has an old win xp laptop, that the last compiled version of ompt to work on xp be kept as a download for xp on the website (nothing prominent) with a disclaimer that it is no longer being developed then? maybe the source left for anyone who wants to mess with it in the future there too.
I am sure there are plenty of old boys who got so much from ompt on xp here, and something like that would be a fitting homage I think. And if someone, for some reason decides to take it up again to update it etc, then it would be easily accessed.
That way you guys can move entirely on from the old code that is holding you back, while old modplug and the tireless work you guys put into it will be trapped in amber and preserved for, if nothing else, historical reference.
I just want to say, I fully support moving on at this stage, and streamlining the code. Doing things the way our great programmers know will be better going forward into the future is vital. I mean even I am on a newer computer almost all the time now - this laptop is win 8.1 - but I do believe in historic preservation, and in this case, I wouldnt be surprised if there are still some people using xp who would appreciate the last compiled and working version of xp supported ompt being available online for download in a few clicks.

As it looks at the moment, 1.31 will still support Windows XP. There is just nothing to be really gained from dropping VS2017 at the moment (which is why I moved this issue away from targeting 1.31).

Can I suggest, as someone who has an old win xp laptop, that the last compiled version of ompt to work on xp be kept as a download for xp on the website (nothing prominent) with a disclaimer that it is no longer being developed then?

We already do exactly that further down on the Download page https://openmpt.org/download, and we maintain a more detailed table of system requirements of all old OpenMPT versions at https://forum.openmpt.org/index.php?topic=6188.0.

but I do believe in historic preservation

As do we, so we invest somewhat more time into keeping support for older system compared to other software projects. After all libopenmpt's main reason of existence is supporting outdated module formats for playback. libopenmpt's website also lists which version supports which outdated systems.

Further discussion as to why it is still necessary to sometimes increase the minimum requirements can be found in this forum thread: https://forum.openmpt.org/index.php?topic=5708.0