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.
Related
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.
The problem:
I'm writing an SDK that is primarily C++. The source code will be licensed to developers who pay for it, and the output libraries and include headers will be free for public usage. The SDK will target a plethora of platforms including Windows, Xbox, Playstation, Android, iOS, Mac OS X, and Linux. I'm a kind of guy who mostly likes Visual Studio and usually develops software using Windows machines. In the last few years, Visual Studio has made this quite a lot easier than it used to, where I have a mostly clear path to target all the previously mentioned platforms using a Visual Studio set of project files as the source of truth that brings all my source code files together... except for Mac OS X, unfortunately. Visual Studio is able to build executable code for iOS and Linux by remotely interfacing with a Mac or Linux box respectively for compilation and debugging, which is really quite cool, but for some reason Mac OS X as a target is left out here. Additionally I'm well aware that there are plenty of other professional developers out there that don't write code on Windows machines, nor do they have any interest in buying a commercial license for Visual Studio.
The question:
Since C++ still does not yet have a build system standard, and may not ever, how do I maintain a single source of truth that maintains the build configurations for all my source files targeting so many different platforms while simultaneously minimizing the barrier to entry of supporting software developer clients who need to build, run, and debug my source code?
Possible answers I'm aware of:
A) Visual Studio projects remain the source of truth from which any other C++ project types (such as Android Studio, XCode, and .make files) are derived. I'm aware of tools that can convert VS to .make and the like, but haven't actually tried them yet (my source code base is starting to get somewhat large already). Or I could just bite the bullet and write them by hand and try to keep them all in sync.
B) CMake. Sigh. So frustrating that it's very popular, and seems to exactly solve my issues, but it has its own set of problems that seem to be deal-breakers. For starters, once you go in on CMake, you pretty much can't come back. Using Visual Studio and property sheets, I've been able to tweak my build configurations with properties that are mostly inherited and rarely duplicated across projects and configurations. As far as I can see, CMake doesn't care about respecting such things, and for common properties, it just duplicates them on all vcxproj files. To make matters worse, all file paths it generates in the output projects are absolute, not relative, and to top it all off, it forces anyone else who builds your code to use CMake, disallowing distribution of the project build files it creates without it. Also, does this even work for game consoles? Last I checked I couldn't find a reasonable way of supporting them without hacking the source code.
C) Roll my own script that's similar to CMake, but allows redistribution of its output projects, and supports all the platforms I need. It goes without saying that this would consume a lot of dev time.
Any other options I'm missing here? Your input is greatly appreciated.
I agree with the comments from #Scheff and #arrowd. Use CMake. I have built and deployed software to multiple platforms and CMake is the best, though not perfect, solution I have found for building C++ code.
I have not had to hack the cmake code to get it to work on various platforms.
Do not worry about properties being duplicated in vcxproj files. With CMake the build language is in the CMakeLists.txt file(s). The vcxproj files are generated code. As long as you are do not have redundant cmake logic, you should not care about replicated properties in the generated vcxproj files. Similarly, you should not care that the generated vcxproj files have absolute paths; you do not reuse the vcxproj files you reuse the CMakeLists.txt files and regenerate vcxproj files for each new platform or build.
Use the top-level CMakeLists.txt to define the properties that are common to all targets. Then in individual target(s) CMakeLists.txt files use target properties to tweak builds of specific targets. In my experience the replication of properties in the generated files helps because they make the builds more consistent; I am able to minimize replication in the source CMake logic.
Various IDEs (VS 2017, CLion, QtCreator) can use cmake based projects directly.
There is nothing cmake specific about the generated artifacts. The headers, libraries (and dlls), and executables of our SDK are standalone artifacts. Yes, cmake can make it easier for your SDK users but using CMake in your SDK will not force your customers to use CMake.
Have you tried CMake and not been able to use it? Or are you looking for something better? There are certainly multiple C++ build systems, but despite its shortcomings I believe CMake is the best one available right now.
I am developing a project on C++ which relies on many of third-party libraries (*.lib files and *.h files). I store these libraries in a folder which is not dependant to project, like C:/thirdpartylib. Relative paths is not an option, since it becomes way too long. I have defined connections to libraries in linker setting and in general C++ settings.
But when I pass the project to supervisor he has to reset all paths to libraries to match his environment. We use git, and the project file is being tracked. He stores thirdparty libraries in another way than me.
Is there any way to make a project more portable? Maybe it is possible to store paths in some sort of config files?
As #gaurav says, the way to deal with this in Visual Studio is with property sheets. It's unfortunate that this term is used for two different things in VS, but I guess they just ran out of names (spoiler alert).
These are very powerful, once you learn how they work, and they're just what you need here because they let you define macros, and these macros can in turn be used in the rest of your project to refer to the (volatile) location of your various libraries. This is a trick that everyone who uses VS should know, but it seems that a lot of people don't.
I don't think it's worth me trying to walk you through the mechanics of setting one up here because Microsoft already document it in the Visual Studio help file. Suffice to say, you do it in the Property Manager, that should help you track down the relevant information.
There is also an excellent blog post here which I recommend you read before you do anything else:
http://www.dorodnic.com/blog/2014/03/20/visual-studio-macros/
It's also on Wayback Machine here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20171203113027/http://www.dorodnic.com/blog/2014/03/20/visual-studio-macros/
OK, so now we know how to define a macro, what can we do with it?
Well, that's actually the easy part. If we have a macro called, say, FOO, then wherever we want to expand that macro in some project setting or other we can just use $(FOO). There's also a bunch of macros built into the IDE as listed here:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/c02as0cs.aspx
So, you, I imagine, will want to define macros for the include and lib directories for each of your external libraries and you can then use these to replace the hard-coded paths you are currently using in your project.
And that, I reckon, should sort you out, because the definitions of the macros themselves are stored in a separate file, external to your project file, and different users / build machines can use different files. IIRC, these have extension .props.
Also, you can define a macro in terms of another macro or macros, and that makes the job easier still.
So, who still thinks that Microsoft don't know how to create a build system? Visual Studio is a fantastic piece of software once you get used to it, there's just a bit of a learning curve.
The way to go for large project is to use a package manager. There are some good options out there. Perhaps in windows and visual studio you can use vcpkg or NuGet unmanaged.
If you cannot use a package manager for some reason, the next thing to do is to commit all the dependencies to the GIT repo. If you only target windows platforms like windows 8 or 10 and want to support only VS2017 then committing the compiled dependencies is not a problem. The downside is that the repo will become huge.
For a tiny school project the latter option is viable.
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.