I'm not sure which one should I pick.
Visual Studio is trying to find an instance of the program that matches the cpp file you opened to debug the program. Not what you want to do.
You need to create a Visual Studio project to manage the program you're going to build. Select File->New->Project
From the Dialog that brings up, Track down and expand Visual C++ in the tree structure on the left. Look for and select Win32. Click Win32 Console Project from the pane in the middle. Name the project appropriately and place it somewhere on the hard drive where you can find it easily later. Click OK.
Now you get the Application Wizard. Click Next. Uncheck Precompiled Header. You probably don't care about the SDL checks either, but they won't give you the kinds of grief the Precompiled Headers will at this stage of your career. I don't think anyone really knows why Precompiled Headers are on by default, but by the time you need them, you know what they are and how to take advantage of them. A one file program doesn't need them and leaving them on will give you a bunch of errors. Click Finish.
Select all of the code in the editor. Paste the code provided by the instructor over top of it.
To build and run the program click the green Play button.
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Basically, I have a Visual Studio project that builds a DLL (a VST audio plugin). Where this type of project scenario has been set up for me in the past, I would be able to build, run, and debug the plugin. Visual studio would automatically launch whichever program I was using to host the plugin. I am trying to achieve the same effect in my current project, but I don't know how to set that up. Currently when I build and run my DLL in Visual Studio, I get the error "Unable to start program". The DLL still builds, and I can still run it, but I can't debug it from Visual Studio, because I don't know what I need to do in my project settings to make this happen. How can I do this?
MORE INFO:
What I do know is that, in projects where this sucessfully works, there are some modifications made to the Visual Studio project settings under fields marked 'pre-build events' and 'post-build events', so presumably what I want to do is edit these in some way to tell Visual Studio the following: "Hey, before you try and run and debug this DLL, you have to launch another program (my program is called Max.exe), and then you have to wait until that program loads the DLL. Then you can debug! Don't be a stupid computer and try to debug it before it's even loaded in Max.exe..."
What I do not know : EVERYTHING ELSE. This is literally all I know about what I'm trying to do, hense the colourful attempt to talk to a computer in English.
Currently when I build and run my DLL in Visual Studio, I get the error "Unable to start program". This is unsurprising seeing as the project knows nothing about the environment I want to use to test the DLL, but the problem is that I don't have a clue what Visual Studio needs to know. I really don't know enough about programming to understand the implications of what I'm trying to do either. Yes, I did mention those fields marked pre-build and post-build because I remember them being important, but I don't know exactly what or how to write in those fields, and I also do not know if there will be more things I need to tell Visual Studio before this will work.
Q.E.D I'm not actually sure what pre and post build events are, or how they work. And I barely know the first thing about customizing VS project settings. All I know is how to write audio processing code. I felt the need for this disclaimer because typically my questions are met with angry programmers who think I don't do my own research; they fail to realize I am an audio engineer who skipped programming 101. Yes, how to debug a dll is a common question I'm sure, but answers to those questions tend to assume pre-requisite knowledge that I do not have.
You will want to edit the Command field in your project's Debugging properties. Right-click on your project in the solution explorer and click Properties (it's generally the last item). Open the Debugging page under Configuration Properties. The Command field indicates which executable to launch when debugging.
By default this contains $(TargetPath) which refers to the final binary your project compiles. This is useless for DLLs since DLLs are not executable. Change this to the path of whatever third party application you are writing a plugin for.
With this change, launching with debugging will actually launch the third party application and attach the debugger to it. Once the application loads your plugin, you will be able to debug it normally.
For Visual Studio,
In Solution Explorer, right click on project and select Properties.
In Properties, choose Configuration Properties -> Debugging.
For Command, enter the full path of the executable that will be loading your DLL. Fill in the Command Arguments and Working Directory accordingly.
In addition, you need to make sure that the executable actually loads the DLL you are building. A mistake that a lot make is to launch their executable, and not realize the executable is loading another version of the DLL they are trying to debug. This can happen due to Windows searching for the first DLL that it finds using the DLL searching logic (exe directory, path, etc.).
I'm just starting off with VS (2015 version) (C++ in general) and, knowing my luck, I immediately stumble upon an issue: VS 2015 doesn't open saved projects. I believe that it loads them up but doesn't bother to view them. I can't really describe it in words so I'll post a GIF. Any and all help would be appreciated.
A more detailed GIF
On the right side of your screen there should be a vertical tab called "Solution Explorer".
Clicking on it reveals your solution, its projects, and all the files associated with it. From there you should be able to find the files.
If you still can't find the files, it is likely that you didn't include them. You can add them to a directory in "Solution Explorer" by Right-clicking -> Add -> New Item -> C++ File
This happens when you close every tab in your project, and because VS saves the state of your tabs, when you reopen the project, they are all closed.
Also note that by default, when creating a whole new project, there are no files to open, so the screen will also be empty.
You can also use the shortcut key to show the solution explorer. Ctrl-Alt-L by default I believe.
I am going to be making a project with OpenCV and (probably) Qt for GUI and I was just wondering what kind of project I should create in visual studio? Would it be the Win32 Project or Win32 Console Application or just an Empty Project? A lot of them are quite obvious as I am not making a Dll or makefile but do not know the difference between the others. Thanks in advance.
Which type of project you decide to pick in Visual Studio depends what will best fits your needs. Since I do not know your exact needs, the best answer I can give is explain the difference between the types of Project Options and give examples when you would choose to use the given project:
Win32 Project: A Win32 Project is one of the options Visual Studio provides to you, and if chosen will provide the user with template code that generates a "window", that window being just like any other window (browser window, folder window, etc), but one that your program controls.
Examples: Making a calculator, making an application that needs a window with buttons for the user to communicate with the program, etc.
Win32 Console Application: In this option, Visual Studio provides a Command Prompt interface where the user can input data and also where output can appear. Basically it's the black window where you can input commands and receive information of what is happening in your program.
Examples: When testing out code (it makes debugging easier in some cases), when the program really doesn't need to be too elaborate, etc.
There are other options available, thou these two were mentioned in your post and are probably the most popular among developers.
After installing Qt and maybe a Qt-VisualStudio-Plugin you have some new options when creating a New Project:
You should choose Qt Application in most cases. Not sure if you can use a GUI with Qt Console Application, but you'll get a terminal/console in that case.
After choosing project name, you can easily choose the Qt Modules you'll need. This adds them to your project settings, so you don't have to add the manually (but I guess you can do so later if you need more modules).
The project will create a .ui file which you can open/edit with QtDesigner. The project will perform all the moc and uic compile steps automatically and you don't have to add those things manually.
I think this is the easiest way to use the combination of Qt and Visual Studio.
Adding OpenCV to Visual Studio is easy:
Just add the include directories and the correct OpenCV libraries.
The question whether to use a consolse application or not depends on your needs.
Personally, I like printing development output to a console, but maybe you don't want that in your final project ;)
I have a large project that I have to load and work on. Nothing I can do about it - just load the solution and all projects within it.
Problem is that first several minutes VS loads project one by one and it constantly inform me about it by constantly displaying some "Loading project is required..." window. Sure, I know it is required, but cannot it be somehow done in the background? I would be content if I could just open some text editor and tune configs or read documentation without popups stealing the focus.
It happens on all project regeneration (we use GYP) - since VS solution and projects are generated each time I have to work on new C++ defines/flags/dependencies settings I have to sit and watch VS spamming those little windows.
It has another drawback - if right after project regeneration I'll try to build it VS will "block" - it will complain that it cannot close the project when build is running and I have to terminate the build in order to "close" the project. I understand that what it really does is close and reopen it in order to update settings... but popup that locks whole IDE certainly makes it more annoying.
I know that I can disable automatic reload of source file when it was edited outside by e.g. Sublime Text. Are there some solutions that would allow me to do the same for projects? Some settings, plugins or register entries that would prevent those windows from spamming or which would reload project when it suits me? It's really annoying when I have to switch to ST each time I regenerate and build projects because Visual Studio will stay locked until the build is finished.
I have a similar issue with CMake-generated Visual Studio solutions. While I don't have a solution, I've found a workaround which works just fine for me - close the solution before re-running the generator, and open it again when the re-run's finished. Under normal keymappings, it's Alt+FT to close, and Alt+FJ1 to open again.
Disable Intellisense, Visual Studio usually takes a great deal of time during project load parsing headers and building up its intellisense database. Disable that and see if your load times improve.
Might not be applicable if you can't change your solution, but I'd try to move less important modules/projects to DLL or prebuilt libraries. Candidates for this are 3rd party / external libraries that you don't plan on changing or potentially really stable sections of your code base.
Good luck.
The VS system records the last solution associated with each project in the .SUO files. If you delete the .SUO files, you will then be able to open the project files individually, and then save a solution containing just the projects you want to open.
Okey, I am REALLY having problems with the Visual Studio 2012, and looked all over for a solution, with no result.
So the problem is this... Usually the play button, starts building and debugging in the end running the program. And each time a source file is updated, it should do that again. Well, for me it does not. Every time I write something new in a file, I need to REBUILD the program and then hit play, when before, just hitting the F5 button would do the trick.
The thing is, I have checked, all probable causes that were diagnosed over the internet, so no it's not related to the settings in visual studio, and no, it's not a timestamp issue.
The oddest thing though, is that sometimes, some of the files inside the project look excluded( they have a tiny red circle on them and I have to select and reinclude them). I do not understand why that happens, they were not implemented by me, they are just some "dependency" files on which other classes that I am ussing are built.
Furthermore, the problem of not updating the program. At the moment I have 2 classes. If I write code inside one of them, F5 will work properly and run with the expected modified result. On the other class though, nothing will happen. F5 will find no errors, but it will run without any modification, altough there was code added in one of the classes.
This is really driving me crazy, and I really need a conclusive answer. Why are the dependencies file being involuntarely excluded? Why does visual Build correctly changes from one file but not from another?
You made your visual studio to do it (i.e to launch code with errors).
By default when there is an error you get this popup:
Now if you tick the checkbox - VS will not bother asking you again;
even when errors occur - it will just execute last executable that it has.
To revert this change - go to: Tools > Options > Project & Solutions > Build & Run:
Change this setting to *Prompt to Launch and you are done.