Overview of Visual Fortran Tools

The following tools are available in Visual Fortran:

Tool	Description
Integrated Tools in the Visual Development Environment
Editor	Provides general editing functionality. It recognizes Fortran syntax and can be customized. For more information, see "Text Editor" in the Visual C++ User's Guide.
Debugger	Provides general debug functionality. For more information, see Debugging Fortran Programs
Format Editor (FRMTEDIT)	Presents format code with resulting data layout. For more information, see Editing Format Descriptors with the Format Editor.
Module Wizard (MODWIZ)	Simplifies the use of Component Object Model (COM) and Automation (OLE Automation) objects with Fortran. For more information, see Using COM and Automation Objects.
Profiler (PROFILE, PLAITS, and PREP)	Determines unexecuted code or indicates where an application is spending most of its time. For more information, see Profiling Code from the Command Line.
Resource Editors	Develops user-interface components for projects; for example, to build a dialog box. For more information, see Using Dialogs and see "Resource Editors" in the Visual C++ User's Guide.
Source Browser (BSCMAKE)	Creates an information file with details about the symbols in your program. The browse window displays this information and lets you move among instances of the symbols in your source code. For more information, see Source Browser Information for a Configuration.
Additional Tools¹
Linker (LINK)	Lets you link object files and libraries, creating 32-bit executable images or DLLs. For more information, see Using the Compiler and Linker from the Command Line and Compiler and Linker Options.
Librarian (LIB)	Lets you manage object libraries, create import libraries to reference exported symbol definitions used when you build Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs), and extract library members. For more information, see Managing Libraries with LIB.
Microsoft Binary File Dumper (DUMPBIN)	Displays various information from .obj, .exe, and .libs files. For more information, see Examining Files with DUMPBIN.
Microsoft Binary File Editor (EDITBIN)	Lets you modify execution characteristics of a program. For more information, see Editing Files with EDITBIN.
BitViewer (BITVIEW)	Lets you view the binary representation of real numbers in single and double format. For more information, see Viewing Floating-Point Representations with BitViewer.
CVTRES	Lets you convert binary resource files (.res) to linkable object (.obj) files. For more information, see CVTRES below.
DDESpy (DDESPY)	Lets you monitor Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) activity between processes. For more information, see "Windows Utilities" in the Visual C++ User's Guide.
FPP	Lets you preprocess Fortran files; similar to the C preprocessor (CPP). For more information, see /fpp.
FPR	Lets you transform files formatted according to Fortran's carriage control conventions into files formatted according to line printer conventions. For more information, see Fortran Tools: FSPLIT and FPR.
FSPLIT and FSPLIT90	Lets you split a multi-routine Fortran file into individual files. FSPLIT works on FORTRAN 77 files, while FSPLIT90 works on Fortran 90 files. For more information, see Fortran Tools: FSPLIT and FPR.
Microsoft Program Maintenance Utility (NMAKE)	Lets you build projects based on commands contained in a description (makefile) file. For more information, see Building Projects with NMAKE.
OLE Object Viewer (OLEVIEW)	Lets you browse, configure, test, and activate any COM class on your system; also called the OLEViewer. For more information, see OLE Object Viewer below.
PView (PVIEW)	Lets you examine and modify processes and threads running on your system. For more information, see "Windows Utilities" in the Visual C++ User's Guide.
Resource Compiler (RC)	Compiles various resources so they can be included in an image. For more information, see Resource Compiler Command Line.
Running Object Table Viewer (IROTVIEW)	Lets you view the contents of the OLE Running Object Table. For more information, see Running Object Table Viewer below.
Spy++ (SPYXX)	Lets you monitor windows messages. For more information, see "Windows Utilities" in the Visual C++ User's Guide.
WinDiff (WINDIFF)	Lets you graphically compare the contents of two files or two directories. For more information, see "Windows Utilities" in the Visual C++ User's Guide.
ZoomIn (ZOOMIN)	Lets you capture and enlarge an area of the Windows desktop. For more information, see "Windows Utilities" in the Visual C++ User's Guide.

¹ To access these tools from a command window, the Visual Fortran environment must be initialized, as described in "Using the Command-Line Interface" in Compaq Visual Fortran Installing and Getting Started.

Miscellaneous Tool Information

This section briefly describes tools that are not described in detail elsewhere in the documentation.

CVTRES

Binary resource files (.res) cannot be linked. CVTRES lets you convert a binary resource file into a linkable object file (.obj). For example:

  cvtres /out:test.obj test.res

Running Object Table Viewer (IROTVIEW)

The Running Object Table Viewer lets you view the contents of the OLE Running Object Table (ROT). This table contains information about ActiveX and OLE objects currently existing in memory.

OLE Object Viewer (OLEVIEW)

The OLE/COM Object Viewer (OLEViewer) lets you do the following:

Browse, in a structured way, all of the Component Object Model (COM) classes installed on your machine.
See the registry entries for each class in an easy-to-read format.
Configure any COM class (including Java^TM-based classes) on your system. This includes Distributed COM activation and security settings.
Configure system-wide COM settings, including enabling or disabling Distributed COM.
Test any COM class by double-clicking its name. The list of interfaces that class supports will be displayed. Double-clicking an interface entry allows you to invoke a viewer that will "exercise" that interface.
Activate COM classes locally or remotely. Use this to test Distributed COM setups.
View type library contents. Use this to figure out what methods, properties, and events an ActiveX Control supports.
Copy a properly formatted OBJECT tag to the clipboard for inserting into an HTML document.

The OLEViewer supports plug-in interface viewers. The code for the interface viewers is included in OLEView (in IVIEWERS.DLL).