The Microsoft Visual C++TM Development Environment (also called Developer Studio) organizes development into projects. A project consists of the source files required for your application, along with the specifications for building the project. The build process involves defining your project, setting options for it, and building the program or library.
Each project can specify one or more configurations to build from its source files. A configuration specifies such things as the type of application to build, the platform on which it is to run, and the tool settings to use when building. Having multiple configurations lets you extend the scope of a project but still maintain a consistent source code base from which to work.
When you create a new project, the Microsoft visual development environment automatically creates Debug and Release configurations for you. The default configuration is the Debug configuration. To specify the current configuration, select Set Active Configuration from the Build menu.
Projects are contained in a workspace. When you create a new project, you indicate whether the project is created in a new workspace or an existing workspace. To open an existing project, you open its workspace. A workspace can contain multiple projects.
Once you open a workspace, the development environment displays a FileView pane, which displays the files contained in the project, and lets you examine visually the relationships among the files in your project. Modules, include files, or special libraries your program uses are automatically listed as dependencies. The output window displays information produced by the compiler, linker, Find in Files utility, and the profiler.
You can specify build options in the Project menu Settings dialog box, for one of the following:
For example, you can specify certain kinds of compiler optimizations for your project in general, but turn them off for certain configurations or certain files.
Once you have specified the files in your project, the configurations that your project is to build, and the tool settings for those configurations, you can build the project with the commands on the Build menu.
In addition to using the visual development environment, you can also use the command line (DF command). You can also develop the application from the visual development environment and export a makefile for use in command-line processing (NMAKE command). Your choice of development environment determines what you can do at each stage.
The following diagram illustrates the development process for using the visual development environment or command line:
Example of Development Process
For more overview information about building projects with the visual development environment, see: