Anyone use Dev-C++?

[Berty]

Hi,

i was just wondering if anybody out there uses Dev-C++? I have been having trouble compiling my CPP files under Windows XP Pro. I can compile them using Windows 98 though. The strange thing is that i can compile DOS programs under WIN XP, but nothing else. I have inlcuded all of the neccassry libs and headers but no success. I keep on getting problems with makefile.win. I think that it may be to do with 32bit Kernal incopatability but even if it is that, i have no idea how to get around it

Has anybody had the same problems?

(side note...

the reason why i ask here is that other message boards, namely those specific to Dev-C++ and Irrlicht havent been any helpand the ppl on them arent nearly as nice as those hear :bow

Cheers 😀

 

[mal]

Anyone use the PC Discussion forum?

(moved from general)

 

[Curtis]

I've used it under XP with no problems in the past. It's under pretty heavy development, or at least it used to be, so maybe you could try an older version. I may have one, if you're interested.

 

[Sundance_2]

Are these linking errors? semantic errors? syntax errors?

If it's syntactic, then it's possible some small aspect of the language changed (rare but possible). Things such as variable declaration scopes have changed over the years due to changes to the ANSI C++ specification.

If the errors are complaining about casting problems though, then its possible that it could be a Unicode/ASCII character format problem.

Windows XP/2000/NT use Unicode character sets natively while Windows 95/98/ME use ASCII (and multi-byte for when you need larger character ranges) character formats. Windows XP can run applications that assume the ASCII character format however (as evident by the fact that you can run older applications on it) but the inclusion of Unicode makes things more complicated, since you have to make sure you are careful what you link to. Often when you link to certain libraries/dlls or use certain APIs, the libraries you use expect a certain character format. If it manages to compile, you can get some funny results (even crashes) since

1.) A Library may potentially think that an ASCII string uses Unicode, thus interpreting everything as junk.

2.) A library may potentially think that a Unicode string uses ASCII, thus causing the parsing of that string to end after the first character.

These types of problems are especially prevalent when you have COM interfaces and are using BSTRs to pass data between interface methods.

Regardless, the compiler will usually catch may of these errors and will complain that there is no correct conversion between two types of strings.

If your really lucky your compiler will be smart enough and will automatically link to the right object file or dll (ex. MFC71U.dll or MFC71.dll (for ASCII) in Visual Studio). This usually requires specifying the character format to the compiler/linker however. Usually this is just a trivial operation since it can be done by most IDEs by changing a few project options, but it may not be true with Dev-C++ (since I don't use it).

If this isn't it however and your errors are linking errors, then you'll need to use something like Dependency Walker to figure out what is linking to. Determine if the files are on your system and then go from there.

 

[Berty]

I have been messing with the code more and have added...

#pragma comment(lib, "Irrlicht.lib")

as a global variable. The library im using is Irrlicht. but i'm still getting the prob with makefile.win, which leads me to believe that there is some low-level incompatability with Dev-C++ and my windows config somehow (as you mentioned)

I have got Visual Studio and Borland C++ on order from my uni's software services so hopefully that will fix the problem. Its just been really bugging me as i have spent all day writing code (that i know is right) and not actually being able to compile it.

 

[Berty]

Curtis, what libs do you use with Dev-C++ and if so have you installed them using the devpak file format? I am just wondering if that has anything to do with it. I installed SDL as a devpak and when you go to new project SDL appears under multimedia, but Irrlicht (which i also installed using a devpak) doesnt appear at all and must be manually configured.