Practical 1

The purpose of this practical is simply to introduce the Microsoft Visual C++ IDE.

C++ programs are usually made up of a number of source files. Visual C++ allows us to manage source files in a project. We may work on a number of projects at once and these projects are arranged in a workspace. We can only open one workspace in the IDE and only one project may be "active" at once.

• Download example1.zip
• Uncompress the archive to a suitable folder
• Double click on Example1.dsw; this will open Visual C++ with the sample workspace
• Use the right mouse button (context menu) to set the active project
• Compile and run each project
• Practice navigating around the workspace

The simplest arrangement consists of our workspace with a single project and a single source file. We can now create our own simple program in this manner.

• Close the current workspace (File, Close Workspace)
• Create a new project (File, New, Projects)
  • Choose Win32 Console Application
  • Give your project a name
  • Change the location if you wish
  • Choose to create a new workspace for your project
  • Create an empty project
• Create a new source file (File, New, Files)
  • Select C++ Source File
  • Give your file a name
  • Choose to add the file to your project
• Enter the following short program (you can copy and paste it!)

  #include <iostream>
  
  int main()
  {
  	std::cout << "Hello World!" << std::endl;
  	return 0;
  }
  

• After studying this program try entering some of the example programs from the Chinese textbooks