Selecting a Configuration

A configuration defines the final binary output file that you create within a project. When you create a new project, the visual development environment creates the following configurations:

Debug configuration	By default, the debug configuration sets project options to include the debugging information in the debug configuration. It also turns off optimizations. Before you can debug an application, you must build a debug configuration for the project.
Release configuration	The release configuration does not include the debugging information, and it uses any optimizations that you have chosen.

Select the configuration in the Build menu, Set Active Configuration item. Only one configuration can be active at one time.

When you build your project, the currently selected configuration is built:

If you selected the debug configuration, a subfolder called Debug contains the output files created by the build for the debug version of your project.
If you selected the release configuration, a subfolder called Release contains the output files created by the build for the release version of your project.

A configuration has the following characteristics:

Project type: specifies the type of Fortran application to build, such as a Fortran Static Library, Fortran Console application, Fortran QuickWin application, Fortran Windows application, and so on.
Build options: specifies the build options, which include the compiler and linker options (project settings).

Although debug and release configurations usually use the same set of source files, the information about project settings usually differs. For example, the default debug configuration supplies full debug information and no optimizations, whereas the default release configuration supplies minimal debug information and full optimizations.

You can also define new configurations within your project. These configurations can use the existing source files in your project, the existing project settings, or other characteristics of existing configurations. A new configuration does not have to share any of the characteristics or content of existing configurations, however.

You could, for instance, create an initial project with debug and release configurations specifying an application for the Win32 environment, and add source files to the project. Later, within the project, you could create debug and release configurations specifying a DLL for the Win32 environment, add an entirely disjoint set of files to this configuration, and make these configurations dependencies of the application configurations.

Platform Types

The platform type specifies the operating environment for a project. The platform type sets options required specifically for a given platform, such as options that the compiler uses for the source files, the static libraries that the linker uses for the platform, the default locations for output files, defined constants, and so on. Visual Fortran supports the Win32 platform type.

For more information:

On viewing and changing the project build options for the current configuration, use the Project settings dialog box (see Setting Build Options).
On errors during the build process, see Errors During the Build Process.