I am about to start writing a code in C++ for my PhD. Until now I worked with small code. All the files (sources and headers) in one directory.
Since I want to write a more organized code, I'll put files in different directories.
So what is the proper way to include files? Should I use something like
#include "../../folder/file.hpp"
It doesn't look very clean. And is the code portable to Windows if includes are done this way?
is the code portable to Windows
I don't see a reason why it wouldn't be, as long as you fix the syntax of the directive first. I don't have a windows to test at the moment, but that's a valid path.
However, I would recommend to avoid parent directory include paths. Instead, specify a directory as an include directory for the compiler, put all your headers there into sub-directories and include with a path relative to the include directory.
Related
I'm trying to load image with IMG_Load() function from SDL.
I saw from tutorials that they doesn't need full path for asset files.
But when I try to do that, it doesn't work.
My solution is include full path of those files, but I found that is clunky. Especially when I try to collaborate with my friend, it's hard to synchronize source files since we use different file paths.
May I ask what is typical way to collaborate between programmers when they have different setup, different file paths? I think that I need to simplify the file path for asset.
I tried to add include directories for compiler, but it only work with header files, not for asset files.
Relative paths are relative to the current working directory. On Windows, when starting a program from the exporer with a double-click, it matches the location of the .exe, but this isn't always the case, e.g. when running from some IDEs.
Use SDL_GetBasePath() to get the directory where the .exe is located. Prepend it to your asset paths.
So, we have all seen (some of you guys might have even made) professional libraries which have proper include directories which contain all the header files you need to use the library. An example would be the OpenCV library include folder which I have attached.
When we release libraries, what we do is just zip the headers for the lib and ask the recipient to extract them to somewhere convenient, which is, to be honest, quite fine. However, I would like to make an 'include' directory with all relevant headers if possible because I feel that my distribution can be organized better that way. How can we go about doing that?
You can just create a folder for all neccessary headers and specify path considering that folder when include them in code.
You can also specify that folder in preferences of your project, for example Visual Studio or Eclipse allow it, so you shouldn't write full path for those includes.
I have a project whose vcxproj file is auto generated prior of compilation by using a script during the build process.
this project dependes on a boost library which is installed in a known location on the build machine.
the project header file declares:
#include "boost/foreach.hpp"
which forces me to manually add the path to the boost root folder to the Additional Include Directories field in the vcxproj file.
As the project file is auto-generated it forces me to split the build process into two stages and edit the project file in between.
i have also tried to change the source file and add the full path in the #include statement:
#include "<path to boost root>/boost/foreach.hpp"
but then some boost internal include fails. Which means i can't proceed in this way.
I have read through Set #include directory from C++ code file to find there is no option to add the path from code.
As I'm now on VS2012/C++11 environment i wonder if anything changed in VS2012 / C++11?
Is it still impossible to add an Include directory using a code statement?
You mean dynamically? No, there is no way. The reason is simple:
When you are running your program, it's already compiled, hence the compiler has to know about all the files to include at compile time.
It seems you're using CMake. If that's the case, I recommend you to add the include dirs in the CMake file.
Firstly, doing this:
#include "<path to boost root>/boost/foreach.hpp"
should be strongly discouraged. By doing that, you're making your source code build-able only on your environment - as your project grows, it will be a nightmare to change the path, or for other developers to build it. And, as you discovered, you'll break any headers which are included further down the chain, which are using relative paths.
What kind of script is generating your project? Is it a custom one, or is it a well known build tool such as SCons or CMake? The correct solution is to fix your build script so that it generates the project with the additional include paths correctly.
I have code that must be shared between two executables in the same project (one build command will build them both). This code contains #ifdef preprocessor statements which change how it works in each project (a command-line macro definition is used as a switch).
The source is abstract in the sense that some headers are missing. For example, the shared file Application.cpp might include a file called gui/MainWindow.h which doesn't exist int he shared directory but does exist in the executable source directory. Or it may include a file called gui/Local.h that does exist in the shared directory.
Essentially I need the gui path to be a combination of two locations.
On unix I've done this before simply by setting up a series of file links, but this project now has windows as a target (Visual Studio). Also, I am aware of how to do this using a shared directory structure and setting compiler include switches, but I'm hoping there is a simpler way.
Any ideas?
I use CMake for the build generation and GCC and Visual Studio as compilers.
I've already looked at defining a directory for the preprocessor, but the #include directive unfortunately cannot combine several tokens to create a filename. A single name works, and this might be an option to have cmake spit out macros for all the shared file names.
I really think the simplest solution is to use include paths - have different paths for the different projects. Look at property sheets to share settings between projects and greatly simplify the management.
If you are using file links in unix, you could do the same in Windows with symbolic links.
How do I properly include libraries in C++? I'm used to doing the standard libraries in C++ and my own .h files.
I'm trying to include wxWidgets or GTK+ in code::blocks and/or netbeans C/C++ plugin. I've included ALL libraries but I constantly get errors such as file not found when it is explicitly in the include!
One error: test1.cpp:1:24: wx/msw/wx.rc: No such file or directory : Yes the .h file library is included; what am I missing?
Do I need to be importing other things as well? Is there a tutorial for this? Obviously my shoddy textbook hasn't prepared me for this.
Firstly, header files are not the same thing as libraries. A header is a C++ text file containing declarations of things, while a library is a container for compiled, binary code.
When you #include a header file, the compiler/IDE needs to know where to find it. There is typically an IDE setting which tells the compiler where to look, or you can do it from the command line, normally using the -I switch. It sounds to me as if you have not set up the path to search for header files on in your IDE.
This means that test.cpp included "wx/msw/wx.rc" but that file cannot be found by your compiler. How to fix this depends on your compiler, but you need to find where wxwidgets is installed and add that to your "Include Paths" so that your compiler knows where to search for it. You can also put a more complete path to it in the include directive.
If the files are present in the same directory as test1.cpp, then probably you use the wrong kind of include. #include <...> is usually used for code that resides outside of the directory that your project is in. #include "..." is for includes inside your project directory (and then if they aren't found there, search in the same places as #include <> would).
It is quite an old question and this didn't really answer it for me.
I reinstalled wxwidgets into the root directory as someone suggested that being in a directory with a space in the name may be part of the problem.
Then I went into project > build options > search directories and removed all entries pointing to original install.
And this fixed the problem