Lab Session 01

Objective
Demonstration of Visual studio 2020. Use of Program Editor, Compiler, linker & debugger

Introduction to Visual C++

Visual C++ comes within Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. Visual Studio 2010 also contains Visual Basic,
Visual C#, and Visual J#. Using Visual Studio.NET, you can mix and match languages within one
"solution". We will, however, focus on developing C++ code throughout these labs.

Creating Your First C++ Program

For your first C++ program, you will build a console mode application that displays a greeting message.
This (i.e. a console mode application) is the kind of VC++ programs that you will build for all your lab
and class exercises.
Console mode programs are often simpler to build than Windows applications, and this example will take
you through the steps of creating, building and executing a program in Visual C++. We will use the built-
in code editor in Visual Studio to edit your code; then we will show you how to build and run your C++
programs.

How to start
You can double click on the Visual Studio 2010 icon on the desktop. You can also click on the
startup menu at the left bottom corner on your window desktop, choose All Programs from the popup
menu, then choose Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, and then select Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 again.

Starting Your First Program

When it is open, you would see the Start Page that looks like this picture

To get started on your first program, you must create a "project" that will keep track of all the parts of
your program, including the C++ source code, the header files, etc.
To open a new project, you can use either of the following two methods:
 1. Click on the File memu, select New, and then select Project.
OR
2. Click on the new project button in the following picture:

Then you will see the new project window:

Make sure that "Win32 Console Application" is checked.

Follow the following steps to complete the new project:
1. For a "Name:", type a project name ("hello")
2. "Location:", make sure it is in D:\Workarea
Make sure that the box for "Create directory for solution" is not checked.
3. Click on "OK"
4. The "Win32 Application Wizard" will appear. As demonstrated below, click on "Application
Settings" and select "Empty Project". And then, click on "Finish".
You will notice that it doesn't appear like anything has changed (you still see the "Start Page"). However,
look at the "Solution Explorer" on the right-hand side you will see "Solution 'hello' (1 project)".

To add C++ source code to this project, do the following:

Select Project --> Add New Item... from the main menu, and select C++ File (.cpp) from the
"Templates" section in the middle section.
Type in the file name: "hello.cpp" in the Name: box.
Click on "Add".

This file will be added to the hello work space that we have just created, and a blank document will be
opened for editing. Please look at the following screen capture for you.

Type the following program in the source code editor:

// FILE: hello.cpp
// PURPOSE: An example of a simple I/O stream

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
char name[50];
cout << "Please enter your name" << endl;
 cin >> name;
cout << "Hello, " << name << endl;
return 0;
}

Building the hello Project

In order to compile any code in Visual C++, you have to create a project. A project holds three major
types of information:

1. It remembers all of the source code files that combine together to create one executable. In this
simple example, the file hello.cpp will be the only source file, but in larger applications you often
break the code up into several different files to make it easier to understand (and also to make it
possible for several people to work on it simultaneously). The project maintains a list of the
different source files and compiles all of them as necessary each time you want to create a new
executable.
2. It remembers compiler and linker options particular to this specific application. For example, it
remembers which libraries to link into the executable, whether or not you want to use pre-
compiled headers, and so on.
3. It remembers what type of project you wish to build: a console application, a windows
application, etc.
For now we will create a very simple project file and use it to compile hello.cpp.

Compile & Build:

1. Compile the hello project by selecting Build --> Compile from the main menu.
It simply compiles the source file and forms the object file (hello.obj) for it. It does not perform a
link, so it is useful only for quickly compiling a file to check for errors.
2. Select Build --> Build hello from the menu bar to link the program.
It compiles all of the source files in the project that have been modified since the last build, and
then links them to create an executable.
3. Choose Debug --> Start Without Debugging to run the program.
A DOS window will popup. If errors or warnings are displayed in the Build status window, there is
probably an error in the source file. Check your source file again for missing semicolons, quotes, or
braces and so on.

Brief Explanation of the Program

/* ...... */
// ... until the end of the line
These are called comments. Comments are NOT executable and are ignored by the compiler; but
they provide useful explanation and documentation to your readers (and to yourself three days
later). There are two kinds of comments:

Multi-line Comment: begins with /* and ends with */. It may span more than one lines
End-of-line Comment: begins with // and lasts until the end of the current line

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

The "#include" is called a preprocessor directive. Preprocessor directives begin with a # sign.
They are processed before compilation. The directive "#include <iostream>" tells the
preprocessor to include the "iostream" header file to support input/output operations. The "using
namespace std;" statement declares std as the default namespace used in this program. The
names cout and endl, which is used in this program, belong to the std namespace. These two
lines shall be present in all our programs. I will explain their meaning later.

int main()
{
statement 1;
statement 2;

return 0;
}

defines the so-called main() function. The main() function is the entry point of program
execution. main() is required to return an int (integer).

cout << "hello, world" << endl;

"cout" refers to the standard output (or Console OUTput). The symbol << is called the stream
insertion operator (or put-to operator), which is used to put the string "hello, world" to the
console. "endl" denotes the END-of-Line or newline, which is put to the console to bring the
cursor to the beginning of the next line.

return 0;

terminates the main() function and returns a value of 0 to the operating system. Typically, return
value of 0 signals normal termination; whereas value of non-zero (usually 1) signals abnormal
termination. This line is optional. C++ compiler will implicitly insert a "return 0;" to the end of
the main() function.

Task:
Create a Project , add CPP file in the source folder and then write a simple program to display
WELCOME TO FOP LAB message. Build and run this project.