T4 did not work for C++ projects in Visual Studio 2008 since it did not use msbuild for C++ projects. (Yes there were workarounds) In Visual Studio 2010, C++ projects uses MsBuild, so do anyone know if C++ projects can use T4 in the same way as C# or VB?
The main integration mechanism for T4 in C# and Visual Basic projects is the TextTemplatingFileGenerator custom tool. Although in Visual Studio 2010 C++ projects now use MSBuild, they still don't support custom tools. As a workaround, you could use T4 Toolbox, which allows you to put a .tt file in a C# or Visual Basic project and have the files it generates added to your C++ project automatically.
I was interested in finding a way of using C++ with the T4 Templating myself and ended up just using the command line and the TextTransform.exe tool directly. You can then write a batch file that will call the TextTransform.exe against all your individual template.tt files, then just call the Batch file as part of your build in visual studio.
As I was learning it I decided to write up my findings in a tutorial which can be found here... http://www.gamelogicdesign.com/2012/04/12/c-code-generation-using-t4-templates/
Maybe this will be of use to people who would like to do something similar.
Related
So, I'm in awkward situation - I wanted to create Windows Form App using Visual Studio, but I can't find any place to create Visual C++ Windows Form template. I tried even to reinstall Visual C++, add other libraries and search answer online - no results.
I can of course create new Winforms in C#:
But not in C++:
Also, all possible modules in Visual Studio Update was checked:
I tried even add template from Online list:
What should I do next? I use Visual Studio 2017 Community Edition.
Ok, I found a working way to creating Windows Forms in Visual Studio 2017.
Create new CLR Empty Project:
Add .cpp file for main function.
In project add new item from UI->Windows Forms:
(If we didn't add main loop before the error will occur)
Now we can add new elements to form from the Toolbox to the left (i spent measurable time looking for that).
To run application we have to declare this instead of main function:
Also we need to tell Visual Studio that we are making Windows Application instead of Console Application:
WinForms designer support for C++/CLI was dropped a long time ago in VS 2012. MS suggests using C# for your WinForms code, and only use C++/CLI if you need to interop with native code.
And if you do end up using C++/CLI for interop, keep that layer as small as possible. It's a second-class citizen in the .NET world and isn't even mentioned in Microsoft's recent post on their language strategy.
I have to make a program which can operate with Word documents (edit, view, create) and use C++ with Visual Studio 2013.
I have searched the net and found out VSTO is only available for Visual Basic and C#.
On the Microsoft site there is "How to create an automation project using MFC and a type library" here but seems it is written for very old versions of Visual Studio (like 5.0 and 6.0). When I reach the ninth step "Select the Automation tab." it seems there is no such tab in ClassWizzard in my version of Visual Studio.
Is there any way to perform automation with C++ in newer versions of Visual Studio like 2013?
I found a way here. Actually I am using the "import" method and it worked for me in console mode(COM method also worked, but it seems to me more complicated), I haven`t tested it for GUI yet. There is not C++ documentation, but can be used Visual Basic API with a bit thinking here.
I have already created a simple source code analyses tool for C/C++, but I wanted it to be an extension or tool for Visual Studio 2010 and 2012 editions. It is written completely in C++. For this reason I created it using "Create an Add-in using Visual C++/ATL" option. And then under "Choose Add-in Options", I have some problems. I don't know which one or ones to select. I want it to have a name and icon under Tools section, but on the other hand, my code analyzer can be used from command line too. If someone can advice me which option(s) to select there I would be glad.
My second question is this, when I have opened a source file in Visual Studio, and if I go to Tools -> MyAddin, and press it, I want it to do its job and analyze the code, and show the results in the output section below.
And my last question is that, if I have a C/C++ project with few files let's say, and if I right-click one of the files, I want to see my add-in and be able to execute the add-in from there, not to go always to Tools -> MyAddin. And also the same thing to work if I right-click the project, then it should analyze the all files and show the problems in the output section.
Please note that I have already created the source code analyzer tool in C++, and I have it as a DLL. I can also use it in Linux from terminal, and if I want I can also create a GUI for it, which I plan to do later. But I'm not that much experienced with Visual Studio, especially about add-ins, that's why I need your help. As you can see my first question is a kind of advice, but I think my second and third questions require some source code. I know that it is very hard for you to give me some help without seeing my code, but if you would help me somehow I would be glad.
For Visual Studio 2010 and 2012 you should consider using Extensions, not Add-Ins. It is a new technology introduced in Visual Studio 2010. Extensions come in form of a VSIX packages and are automatically installed in all applicable versions of Visual Studio. If you are not targeting Visual Studio version prior to 2010, I strongly recommend using extensions.
From this point of view, I will not answer any of your technical questions about Add-Ins. Here are a couple of links to start using extensions instead:
Anatomy of a VSIX Package
Building and publishing an extension for Visual Studio 2010
VSX FAQ
Walkthrough: Creating an Options Page
I think you will find valuable information on this topic here: Developing extension packages for Visual Studio 2005/2008/2010/2012 using C# with real-life samples
I'm confused in my understanding of the relationship between Visual Studio and .NET. I want to write a C++ application, but not a ".NET C++" application. By this, I mean that my understanding is that everything built in .NET land gets compiled to a CLI-compatible intermediary code (just like "JVM" languages like Java and Groovy compile to the same bytecode).
But I don't want my app compiled to an intermediary bytecode...I want it compiled down to raw binary!
Does Visual Studio do this? Or is .NET forced down my throat the minute I choose VS as my C++ IDE? If so, whats a "raw C++" alternative to VS?
Thanks in advance!
Visual Studio is an IDE, which is orthogonal to any specific language or compiler.
Visual C++ is a compiler that supports the C, C++, and C++/CLI languages.
In Visual Studio, create a Visual C++ project from one of the 'Win32' (as opposed to 'CLR') project templates and your program won't have any .NET dependency.
there is that /clr compiler switch when compiling a c++ app. Without it, you will get a pure native binary and cannot use any. NET specific features within your code.
By selecting a project template or by setting the corresponding project property, VS will automatically choose if the switch is on or off.
Visual Studio still supports 100% native C++ applications as will as managed applications. When creating a new app just choose the "Win32 Console Application" to create a native application. For existing applications you can change / verify by doing the following
Right Click on the project and select "Properties"
Navigate to Configuration Properties -> C/C++
Make sure that "Common Language Runtime Support" is set to "No Common Language Runtime Support"
I have a huge Visual Studio 2010 solution. I work with Visual Studio 2005, so I want to convert the solution to the desired version. Basically, it's a portable C++ code so it should compile on Visual Studio 2005 too. Changing the version in the *.sln file doesn't help because the *.vcxproj format is completely different from the old *.vcproj format.
Recreating the solution by hand is not an option because of its size. Also there may be some non-default compiler flags, dependencies, etc. that I don't know of (and I can't look through ALL this XML junk that I don't understand).
There is already a related question on How Do I Downgrade a C++ Visual Studio 2008 Project to 2005. However, the utility suggested there supports at most Visual Studio 2008.
Any suggestions?
It really totally sucks, that every proprietary IDE today thinks it needs to create its own project file format.
"Dear IDE developers, just use Makefiles and create a nice GUI for it so that also people without Makefile knowledge can use it!" In VS6 it was at least possible to import/export Makefiles, but not today anymore. And it was possible to use nmake for automated builds. No IDE needed to be installed, just the toolchain which could be grabbed by a simple checkout without installation.
I use CMake now. It's free, it's cross-platform, it is well supported in free IDEs like KDevelop, QtCreator, etc. It can generate Makefiles and Visual Studio projects.
So you maintain only one project source, the CMakeLists.txt file and can work with any IDE. No pain with different versions of Visual Studio or with other proprietary project file formats.
This way you can generate or VS projects for developing and you can generate Makefiles for commandline builds using nmake like in the good old days.
BTW, it's much easier to change settings in a CMakeLists.txt than clicking through various GUI dialogs. But this is a matter of personal preferences.
In my work made a utility which utilized the EnvDTE.dll and scanned a vcproj-file and optionally all vcproj-files within a sln-file. It compared all settings with a "template" and would issue a warning or optionally update the setting to correct values. We used this utility so that settings would be verified to be correct and consistent throughout all projects. I haven't updated the utility to 2010 yet due to other priorities.
EnvDTE hasn't changed much from Visual Studio 2008 to Visual Studio 2010. Perhaps it is possible to create a simple utility which opens the vcxproj-file using DTE100 and saves it using DTE90, or earlier.
Easiest way is probably to create a new project in VS 2005, and use the add existing item dialog to add the code to the project. I'd suggest using 'Empty Project' as the project type, so you don't have a lot of rubbish autogenerated for you that you'll just delete anyway.
I haven't tried it, but this looks promising:
http://www.emmet-gray.com/Articles/ProjectConverter.htm
edit: Nope, not promising, sorry :-(