Using an external compiler from Visual Studio

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Hi all,

I am trying to switch from Eclipse to Visual Studio to compile some of my projects more comfortably. This is not a new problem I guess.

My need is as follows:
- be able to manage all source files in a project using the Solution Explorer;
- be able to specify compilation switches, either globally but preferably per file;
- be able to launch a compilation as a normal Build, using the external compiler;
- dependencies should be handled, as well as error message output;
- jumping to the location of compilation errors in the source code would be a great plus;
- at present time, linking and building the executable is not mandated.

I know that VS supports NMAKE builds, but that does not tell me how to create and maintain makefiles for my purpose.

Suggestions are welcome.

Posted 31-Oct-12 0:24am

YvesDaoust

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Richard MacCutchan 31-Oct-12 9:56am

Visual Studio use 'projects' rather than make files, but it does have the ability to convert them into NMAKE files. Why not just use the built in compiler?

YvesDaoust 31-Oct-12 11:16am

Because I need my code to be compliant with another compiler.

How do you turn a VS project into a makefile ??

Richard MacCutchan 31-Oct-12 11:30am

You can do that and still compile it with Microsoft's C++ compiler; I have done so in the past. It may need a few extra #defines but it is not a big deal.

Once you have your project set up then I think there is a menu option somewhere to export to a make file; I only have VC++ Express which does not have this.

YvesDaoust 31-Oct-12 11:49am

I must compile with all my compilers (6 or 7 of them) to check portability. This is my daily preoccupation. I'd like to simplify my configuration by avoiding Eclipse.
It indeed seems that VC6 was able to export makefiles. But I don't see this feature in later versions :( And I wonder if that would fit with my requirement #1.

Richard MacCutchan 31-Oct-12 12:12pm

As far as I can discover Visual Studio does not make this easy. Maybe staying with eclipse is a better option. In my experience of building the same project on multiple platforms, using Make was always the easiest method for all the Unix & Linux flavours, and having a VS Project for the Windows version. But I still had to use other IDEs along with Visual Studio.

YvesDaoust 31-Oct-12 12:55pm

I want Visual Studio. My productivity with Eclipse is much lower, this is why I want to bypass it. It is slow and error prone. Make is not in order.

Richard MacCutchan 31-Oct-12 13:45pm

Your choice.

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