“Hello World” with the Microsoft Visual STUDIO .NET "IDE" by CDR McKenna

Preliminaries   We will use Microsoft Visual Studio .NET to create, compile and execute your C++ programs.  Microsoft Visual Studio .NET (abbreviated as VS.NET) is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) which contains:

Solutions and Projects. 

Our C++ program (source code) will be entered as a file.  This is the actual file that you will type using the editor.  Other files will be used along with our source code to enable the IDE to execute the program.  For example, another type of file that may make up your project is a "header" file, or "include" file. An "include" file allows you to use additional source code that you or others have written.  They comprise a library of helpful tools -- for example, they can provide input/output capabilities, standard math functions (like cosine, or finding the square-root), among others. In fact, they are often called standard library files. You reference a "header" file by "including" it into your source file.  The only file you need to worry about today is the source file you type.

The complete collection of files needed to run our program is termed a project.  So, a project is the collection of files that make up the program (or application) that you are developing.  The files for our program are grouped together in a project just as, in general, you would tend to group related files into a folder, and these related files are combined together by VS.NET to create a single executable program.  

Just as files are collected into projects, projects, in turn, are collected into solutions.  So, a solution will hold one or more projects, and each project will hold a set of files, one of which will be a C++ source code file.  In this class, your “solutions” will likely involve only one project composed of at least one file.

            PROJECT 1                                         PROJECT 2
 
SOLUTIONS

 

 

 

 


In this course, we will place each project in ids our workspace, so for this course,

 

 

Using Microsoft Visual STUDIO .NET

Let’s get down to business and learn how to code, compile, link, and execute a simple program.  A program the just outputs “Hello World” is the traditional first program.

CS DEPARTMENT VISUAL STUDIO .NET C++ HELLO WORLD

STEP

INFORMATION

1

Open up Visual Studio .NET

 

2

Select Create a New Project

 

3

Select Visual C++ Project and the Win32 Project template. Give a name to your project (HelloWorld for example).  Recommend you click on Browse, double click on the network drive labeled: m05xxxx on ‘cs-students-DC1…’.   You should see two folders labeled m05xxxx Docs and SI204.  Double click on SI204 and create a folder called Labs.  Click OK.  The project name (HelloWorld) will be the name of the folder in your Labs folder.  Click the OK button.

 

4

Click on the Application Settings tab and under Application type: choose Console Application, and under Additional options: choose Empty project.  Finally, click on the Finish button.

 

 

 

5

 

 

 

You have created a solution containing one project named HelloWorld.  The project contains no files.  We will now add a file to the project that will contain the program source code.  Select the Project Menu and then select add new item .

 

6

Select the Visual C++ folder and the C++ File (.cpp) option.  Assign a name to your new source file.  It is typical to give your source file the same name as the project. 

 

 

7

The next screen will display an empty Visual C++ window for the application development environment.  Let’s take a moment to examine the parts of the IDE.   The default workspace is comprised of three parts

The file view, which provides a "bird's eye" view of all the files that your programming project needs to run. The editor window, in which you can type in your source code. The output window, which will display messages to you as the programmer whenever you compile or build or debug a project.

The editor uses something called syntax coloring to make it easier for you to read the programs you have written.  Syntax coloring highlights the different program elements such as comments, keywords, numbers, and variables.  This allows you to easily identify elements of your source code and find common syntax mistakes quickly.  For example, the comments are in green.  If you see your source code is green then you likely forgot to close a comment block.  Additionally, the IDE attempts to help in other ways such as by providing automatic indenting, aligning braces, and so forth.

 

 

    solution

 

      project

 

        file
 

8

Create your main and add your include statements.  If you do not understand what you are typing DO NOT BE CONCERNED.  You instructor will soon explain required and essential elements of C++ programs.  Type the code exactly as shown below.  When done, save your file:  file => save (or select the save icon)

 


 

9

Compile.  If you want the programs you write to actually do something then you must compile them (turn source code into machine language).  Converting high-level C++ source code into machine language is very complex, but compiler vendors are solving this problem for you.  To compile your program, select Build => Build HelloWorld (or click the build button on the toolbar).  If your compile is successful you output window will give the following message:

                Build: 1 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 skipped

If you do not see this message then get assistance from the instructor.  If there are errors, they will be listed in the output window.  Tips for deciphering error messages are given at the end of this tutorial. 

10

Link and Run!  Once you successfully compiled the program (no syntax errors) then you are ready to run the program.  Select Debug => Start Without Debugging.  The linker will import required code and place it into your compiled program creating an executable file.  The program will automatically execute and you should see the following output window. 

 

 

 Program Output

Now, minimize the VS.NET window.  Double-click on My Computer and go to your lab folder. Inside you will see a folder called HelloWorld.  Open it.  There is a file named HelloWorld.cpp – it is your source code file. Note the size of the file (~ 1 kb).  Now, double-click on the Debug folder.  The file titled HelloWorld contains the executable file—that is, your program’s object code combined with all of the other necessary object code to run your program.  Note the size (~450 kb)!!