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An Introduction to Microsoft® Visual Studio


The C++ Tutorial for Java Programmers assumes you will be using the C++ compiler from the unix command line, which you are not.  All of the material presented on the C++ language is completly valid for this course.  However, the section Compiling and Running a C++ Program does not pertain to Visual Studio and hence this course.  Visual Studio is an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) from within which you write, compile, execute, and debug your programs.  The following tutorial will walk you through setting up a console application in the IDE, compiling your program, and executing said program within Visual Studio.


Visual Studio Tutorial


This tutorial will walk you through your first Visual Studio project.  It will give you experience with the Visual Studio IDE.  This tutorial is linked from the University of Virginia Tech.  Consequently, lab names and numbers obviously do not pertain to the University of Wisconsin.  Also, the directories in the given pictures are incorrect.  You should save your work on your U drive.

The tutorial was written for Visual Studio 5.0 (6.0 is installed in the labs).  The only difference you should notice while completing the tutorial is this etxra popup window, which will appear at the end of the Creating a Project section.

Choose An empty project and click Finish. You may then contiue with the remainder of the Virginia Tech tutorial.


Visual Studio Debugger


The use of the Visual Studio Debugger is not within the scope of this tutorial.  The MSDN (Microsoft® Developers Network) Library, which is installed on the machines in B240, provides some help for the Visual Studio debugger.

To access the MSDN's information on the debugger:

    Open the MSDN and choose the Index tab.
    Enter debugger into the keyword box and hit enter.
    Choose Visual C++ User's Guide from the popup window.
    Then click the Debugger link.