I've got a problem for which I would very much like a solution please:
All I'm trying to do is use wxWidgets in Visual Studio 2012 (in C++), and make it accessible to my code project. That shouldn't be so hard, should it? But as usual, even though there are programming tutorials for it, wxWidgets is evidently one of those things that has no proper documentation just to simply get it running, or if it does then I sure can't find it.
I downloaded the installer for Windows and installed it. When it finished, it gave me a message that said:
wxWidgets was installed successfully!
Please note: before using wxWidgets in your application,
you must build the library using the same compiler you
use for building your program.
Please see docs/msw/install.md file in the installation
directory for the detailed instructions about how to build
wxWidgets and use it from your application.
It should be noted that I think I remember something on the website or somewhere saying that I can just include a header file into my project and forego the DLL altogether (which is what I'd prefer to do, if possible), though I may possibly be misremembering that or confusing it with something else.
Anyway, when I opened the docs/msw/install.md file, I found (amongst other things) these instructions:
--- From the IDE
Ready to use project files are provided for VC++ versions 8, 9,
10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 (also known as MSVS 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012,
2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2022 respectively).
Simply open wx_vcN.sln (for N=8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 or 17) file,
select the appropriate configuration (Debug or Release, static or DLL)
and build the solution. Notice that when building a DLL configuration,
you may need to perform the build several times because the projects
are not always built in the correct order, and this may result in link
errors. Simply do the build again, up to 3 times, to fix this.
Of course, it doesn't even say WHERE the "wx_vcN.sln" files are, but I ran a file search and found them in C:\wxWidgets-3.1.6\build\msw and I opened the one called wx_vc11.sln, because that seems to be the one that corresponds to VS2012, right?
Anyway, it took a LONG time to load, because it had to keep scanning through thousands of files and so forth, but when it was finally finished, I did the "Rebuild All" command thrice in a row, like it says to do (which also took a while).
But I'm not sure where it even put the actual DLL file. It says that it's in C:\wxWidgets-3.1.6\build\msw....\lib\vc_lib\wxmsw31ud_xrc.lib, but where the hell is "...."? It doesn't even bother to specify the entire path! What kind of nonsense is that?! I just want the file so that I can put it into my project! Or better yet, just a .h file that takes care of everything would be great. Supposedly there's one to include called "wx/wx.h", which then includes everything else, I think, but I don't know if that one indirectly also requires a DLL.
I always have problems with DLLs, anyway, though I'll use one if I absolutely have to. You'd think it would be the easiest thing to import a DLL into a project, but for some reason, I've never been able to find any sort of tutorial that explains a specific, step-by-step way to do it which is guaranteed to work, so on the rare occasion that I actually need to use a DLL (99% of the time I can just rely on my own code and the .h files included with Visual Studio), I always end up muddling through it until it FINALLY works by sheer accident (if I'm lucky). Mostly, it just reports errors for one reason or another, that it's not properly included or compatible, or that the header files that I'm using which reference it keep showing the same errors, as though I hadn't even imported the DLL file at all! I've been programming for about 30 years, and I work on things like AI and compression and cryptographic algorithms. I don't say this to brag, but to point out that if someone as experienced as me has trouble getting a DLL to attach properly to a roject, then there's something severely wrong with the whole process, or the documentation for it! I HATE using DLLS, because it's always a HUGE chore, but I'll do it if there's absolutely no other way (though I'd appreciate step-by-step instructions, if you don't mind).
But enough about that. In any case, I have an example project in which wxWidgets is being used in conjunction with Vulkan, and though it has compilation errors (because Vulkan didn't properly install on my machine (when I try to run the sample programs it says they're missing DLLs - big surprise) and as it turns out, I don't think it's compatible with my video card, anyway (which might possibly be why it didn't install properly), so I think I'll have to resort to OpenGL instead - PLEASE tell me that's compatible with wxWidgets!), but even in that example project, it has errors where it's trying to include and use wxWidgets stuff (like "wx/wx.h"), even though that's supposed to be a complete and already working project! I can't find any DLL files or the header files in question anywhere in the project directories!
So anyway, there's got to be an easier way to get this all set up, just to the point that I can make a simple test program using wxWidgets, and compile it. I'd REALLY like to be able to get at least that much working sometime tomorrow morning, so I'd greatly appreciate any help you can give me! Thank you.
#ThisIsMe,
First of all you need to educate yourself on properly using C++.
When you acquire the C++ code it contains of 2 portion - header file and source code.
Header file is what you call a declaration you declare you classes there - class name, member variable and method.
In the source files You define what you declared and you put an actual code there.
Now with that in mind:
wxWidgets contains both header and source files. When you downloaded the installer and did the installation it just copied the "text file" (headers and sources) into the folder of you choice.
Now as you can imagine text files are not executable - you need to compile them into the binary files And that is exactly what you did. (I don't know why you did it 3 times though - I guess you got an errors after building 1st and 2nd time).
Now, you said you have a project that (either uses wxWidgets or you want to incorporate wxWidgets into - which one is it, BTW?). The answer to this question will help direct you to a proper solution.
Now, you said that you tried the Vulkan and it fails to run the demo. How did it fails? Did it produce an error? What was it? Did it even run?
Now wxWidgets does support OpenGL as can be seen by looking at the documentation and checking the different samples that comes with the library, but I'm just curious if what you are seeing from Vulkan is really an incompatibility with the Video Card.
So, we need you to answer the questions I put and so we can help you further. Just keep in mind - C++ is not for the beginner programmers and if you are struggling with understanding the difference between compilation, installation , headers and sources - it will be very hard for you.
Maybe you should start with something simpler - like wxPython and forget about C++ for now.
Related
Question:
Once my code is working how should I prepare my files so that a stranger on a different computer can compile it without difficulty?
Additional Details:
I am sending a code sample to a company as part of an application so obviously an elegant solution would be better (i.e. minimise number of files required etc) and no work should be necessary by the stranger at the other end.
Although I am only using one simple library, even so I need to set include directories, include lib files, images, dll files etc so that it all compiles correctly.
If it matters, I am using Visual Studio 2015 and the simple library is SDL.
Sorry if this is a duplicate, I was sure that this question would have been asked before but if it exists I just don't know the correct terminology to find it amongst the noise.
Apologies if this is overly simplistic, but you might want to bound the scope of your project by deciding which computers you want to support, and build your code yourself on those platforms, in advance, just to be sure.
List the supported platforms in your release notes, including any platform-specific instructions or information (which VC++ versions, which C++ versions, which OS versions, which DLLs, directory structure, etc.).
You may have to stick some "#ifdef"s and such in your code, but only by building on a particular platform/configuration will you really know for sure.
You can use properties/props files in your VS solution which sets the paths to includes and precompiled libs, then reference the build variables in your project files.
To compile on another machine, you just need to change the values in the properties files.
I'm lost here and I have no clue how to proceed. This is not a question about how to make my program work, this is a question about how to stop wasting my time.
My programming environment is Visual Studio 2013 on windows, in C++.
I use 3 libraries extensively, namely: boost (using dynamic linking), OpenCV, and Qt.
During the development, I have configured VS to look at those 3 libraries by default for include and .lib. I have also added the 3 folders containing all the dlls to my PATH environment variable.
It works, but it is sometime painful, let me explain you when.
First hassle: Anytime I have a LNK error telling me I miss a function, it is usually on OpenCV since it has only one include file referencing all the functions. I have to look at OpenCV's source code to see what module this function belongs to and to know what I must link my program to.
Second Hassle: When comes the time to deploy my application, I have to ship it with all the relevant dlls. To know which one I need, I open dependency walker and try to forget nothing, I have then to test it on a different computer because 102% of the time I have missed a couple, and then I have to configure my Installer generator to include all those one by one.
Third Hassle: To ease a little bit the process of configuring a new development machine, I have recently switched to NuGet. It is great, I add boost with a couple of clicks to any project. But now my boost DLLs are everywhere, I have one folder per boost library, and since there are dozens of those I can't even add them all at once to my PATH now, so I have to move them manually to the appropriate folder, and that is really not what I want to do with my not-so-precious-but-who-are-you-to-judge time
I have looked around and couldn't find any good practice regarding this issue, maybe because they are too obvious, or too specific to a particular setup.
How do you do? How would you do if you were me?
We put all our external dependencies in version control along with the code. This ensures that all code can build "out of the box" on any of our development machines and also ensures that for any given version of the code, we know exactly which dependencies is has.
The best way to check for missing dependencies is how have a good automated test suite, if you've got comprehensive converge then if your tests pass you must have deployed the required libraries.
In terms of linking to the appropriate libraries, unfortunately, that just sounds like an issue with the structure of OpenCV (I'm not familiar with OpenCV). I tend to use dumpbin under Windows and nm under Linux to easily grep for symbols when I get link errors with an unfamiliar library.
The situation is the following: I have the source code of one programm (lets call it programA) (written in C and C++), as well as the CMakeLists.txt and CTestConfig.cmake files. I already installed programA using CMake's graphical user interface and, as it is obvious, it worked. It created the .exe file (I'm working on Windows 7 OS).
The problem is that, right now, I've been asked to edit the program (and so, I must be able to edit the code and degugging it as changes are made). I also need to compile it but not in .exe anymore but in .dll so I can add it to a website we have.
I've read in forums that CMake can compile programA into a .dll if I need to, but as I would need to make some changes I consider that CMake debugging is not as useful and easy as using entirely VS. From the little I know from CMake language, the CMakeLists.txt is mainly used to check the OS of the user as well as adding some libraries in case they are not found.
I have to admit I have no idea in programming CMake directives, as I have been working with ASP.NET, C, C++ and C# mostly. Then, my idea is to try to work only in visual studio 2010 instead of using cmake as well, so once I have the program 'adapted' to VS and can be compiled just using VS, I'm ready to start my job. So the question I have is how can I perform the same task CMake did just using Visual Studio (Is there any way of implementing CMake directives in VS?), can VS compile by receiving as an argument something similar to that CMake.txt file (though it needs to be translated into another language)?
To skip the use of CMake I tried to copy the source code into a new project in VS. However as it does not use the CMake directives when compiling, it gives several errors, most of them related to the fact that some headers.h can't be found (cause they might be in a subfolder). And there are so many subfolders to add the paths to the predefined directories of search that it would take ages.
I'm sorry I can't be more precise in my explanation. I'm good at programming little projects on my own, but it's the first time I have to work on other's programm. Please don't hesitate to ask if anything was not properly understood
I would appreciate a lot any suggestion / advice /guidance you can give.
To make a dll, use add_library command and the SHARED keyword
add_library(mylib SHARED ${files})
this is easy with CMake, don't go back in visual that will be harder at the end
The Good News
Fortunately, cmake can generate VS Projects automaticaly for you (this tutorial s specific for OpenTissue, but Steps 1 to 3 should be the same for you).
The [not so] Bad News
Depending on the complexity of the project, VS Projects automaticaly generated by cmake can get pretty nasty, to the point of illegibility. It will, for example, hard link any library dependencies using the specific paths of your machine, so the project will most certainly not be portable across setups. In any case, that's the intended bahavior, because the primary idea of supporting this generator is simply making it work, thus allowing users to easily compile projects using MSVC, so there's not much you can do here. Nonetheless, it should work in your machine and will certainly be a great starting point for you, just create a project yourself from scratch copying the relevant parts out of the automatic generated version.
I am starting to learn DX11 and running into trouble with the effects framework. I know it was released as source and I have to build it, but the output from the build is not what I expected.
According to the research I've done on this question, the output from the build should be
D3DX11EffectsD.lib for debug
D3DX11Effects.lib for release
However, when I look into the 'Effects11\Debug' directory after building the project, I only see a file Effects11.lib (well, an Effects11 Object Library file which I assume is a .lib, I'm new to c++), and the exact same file in 'Effects11\Release'. Whats going on here? I've never used VS 2010 for c++ before now but I think I am building the solution correctly.
Is this a matter of renaming the files or have I done something wrong without realizing it? There really isn't much documentation on building and linking libraries in vs 2010 that I could find. Anybody have any suggestions?
Thanks
If you compiled exactly what you got off the web, then I think it would be just a naming convention problem.
You should try compiling it into your end application and see if it yells about debugging symbols missing.
You can also go into the build settings (it has been a while since I have used visual studio for anything other than C# so I don't know exactly where that menu option would be (I assume right clicking on the project should yield some useful results)...I generally do my C++ stuff on linux) and check to see what the built targets are for debug and release. If it turns out that the names are the same for both, but the build targets (i.e. the folder and a few other options, like including debugging symbols) are different then you should be good and it is just a naming problem.
Also, if the files are the exact same size it is likely that they are the same since the debug file should be at least a bit larger than the release one.
If it turns out that they are the same file, try re-downloading or re-extracting the source and just compiling the project again without any changes and see if that gets any results.
I experienced this problem in VS2010 before, and solved it looking at this SO question. However, now that I upgraded my VS to SP1, it appeared again. I tried to solve it the same way, enabling C++ projects logging and using DebugView. But I can't get to see any output in DebugView, no matter what I do. I also tried raising the Build output verbosity (Tools->Options->Projects and Solutions->Build And Run), but couldn't find any clue.
As in the original problem, the projects reported as out of date are always unmanaged C++ projects. The solution has C#, VB.NET, C++/CLI and C++ projects. What I'm trying to run is a VB.NET exe which uses some C++ projects through C++/CLI wrappers.
Any hint on how to troubleshoot this?
UPDATE: Solved it with a clean checkout. However, it's a shame that there is no longer a way to troubleshoot this kind of errors...
Is it possible you were testing with the date in the future and saved a source file in the future? While clean/rebuild all should fix this, VS seems to go batty and stay there until I resave the file in the present.
Another last-ditch thing that sometimes solves these problems that works 'like a reboot' if you have just the source-code in version control: Check everything in, close VS and anything using files in your project, move all your project folders to a backup folder, and do a force-get latest version of each. Sometimes 'clean project' doesn't cut it.
If that doesn't work and you can't find a missing .h ... You can always fire up Process Monitor, set a filter, and dig in there.
Admittely all just stabs in the dark. Hope one hits the burgler! ;-)
After a compiler upgrade you should do a rebuild-all, if you haven't done that already.
For native C++ projects you can get "project out of date", but still nothing to build, if you have some include files in your project that doesn't actually exits. Like if you have deleted some unused .h files, but they are still part of the project.