Using Visual Studio .Net to develop Glast code

We have the capability to develop software with Microsoft's newest C++ compiler, vc7. This is a much more compliant compiler, and has a much improved STL library.

In addition, the IDE is much improved.

The steps to install it are:

1. Get Visual Studio .Net, minimally with the C++ compiler.
2. You should be running at least CMT v1r12p20021129, with Glast patches to write vs.net files. (The "version" output in the CMT status window should be: v1r12p20021129-vsnet. )
3. Change your PATH environment variable to allow "devenv.exe" to run. On most systems, this means adding
   C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET\Common7\IDE
   Test by typing "devenv" at the command prompt: it should bring up the IDE.
4. Get vcmt v17 That is, vcmt.wsf 1.111 and cmt.wsc 1.46 or later. The latter must be "registered" as usual. When you start vcmt, the debug  button on the new "vsnet" row should be enabled, and selected, if all the above is set properly. Note that you can also select Debug and Release, on the msdev row, which then uses vc6, as before, if it is installed. After selecting a different environment, you must "setup" packages before building or running applications.

Note that most libraries built with vc6 will link OK. One exception is Geant4.

Now the "start" button runs devenv, the name of the executable for vs.net. As before, the workspace has all projects in the selected package, and the static or shared libraries  from all dependent packages. A difference is that in order to clean or rebuild a package alone, and not affect the dependent libs, you must select an alternate configuration, Debug_norecurse from the "Solution configurations" pull-down menu.

This prevents vs.net from operating on any but the selected project. It also makes builds go faster.

Vsnet 2003

This was a minor update for the .Net development system, except for the C++ compiler, which is a major change. Implications for us are

• It is necessary to use a patched version of Gaudi v12r0; the old Gaudi can not be patched to compile, I think.
• One must patch and recompile g4
• One must recompile CLHEP
• You need a more recent version of vcmt, v18, that recognizes the existence of  this new compiler. It assigns tags "VC8" or "VC8debug".

All the code changes needed for Glast software have been made.

As of this writing 07/31/2003, these changes have been made and tested on my laptop, but have not yet been made available. Help would be appreciated.

Last update: (T. Burnett) 07/31/2003 13:32 -0700