This manual describes how to use the CodeWarrior® IDE to develop code targeted at the Win32/x86 platform, including stand-alone application programs, dynamic link libraries (DLLs), and static libraries. This manual also shows how to set Win32/x86 project options and create Win32 resources, describes Win32/x86-specific run-time libraries, and tells how to debug Win32/x86 code with the IDE debugger. Specific information about targeting AMD®-based processor systems is also included.

If you are porting code from another platform, there may be information relevant to your project in the CodeWarrior Porting Guide.

Win32 programs created with the CodeWarrior IDE can run on any x86-class system supporting the Win32 API, such as systems based on processors from Intel®, Cyrix®, or AMD, including the following versions of the Microsoft® Windows® operating system:

• Windows 95
• Windows 98
• Windows NT
• Windows 2000

This introduction includes the following sections:

Read the Release Notes! What's New in This Release The CodeWarrior IDE and Its Documentation What's in This Manual Where to Go from Here

Read the Release Notes!

Before you use the CodeWarrior IDE or any particular tool, you should read the release notes. They contain important last-minute information about new features, bug fixes, and incompatibilities that may not be included in the printed documentation.

The release notes are always included in the standard installation. Additionally, the release notes have their own folder at the top level of the CodeWarrior CD.

What's New in This Release

The CodeWarrior IDE has been enhanced and streamlined for this release. The following changes those are most relevant to Win32 development:

• Improved Assembly Language Support-You can learn more about the improvements and assembly enhancements in "Assembly Code Support."
• Improved AMD Processor Support-See "Targeting AMD Processors" for information on new features and optimization improvements.
• Pascal Support Removed-The CodeWarrior IDE no longer includes tools for the Pascal language.

The CodeWarrior IDE and Its Documentation

The CodeWarrior IDE is a multi-host, multi-language, multi-target development environment. What does that mean?

Multiple hosts

The CodeWarrior IDE supports several different operating systems, including Windows, variants of UNIX, and Mac® OS. The features, human interface, and operation of the IDE is very similar on all hosts.

Multiple languages

You can use the CodeWarrior IDE to program in several languages, including C/C++ and Java. Third-party compilers provide support for other languages, such as Fortran. Which languages are available to you depend upon the target for which you are developing software.

Multiple targets

You can use the CodeWarrior IDE to write software for many different processors or operating systems. A variety of embedded processors and real-time operating systems, the Java Virtual Machine, and desktop operating systems such as Windows and Mac OS are all supported by the CodeWarrior IDE.

Most features of the CodeWarrior IDE function identically regardless of your preferred host, language, or target. General features of the CodeWarrior IDE are described in other manuals, such as the IDE User Guide.

However, each target has its own unique features. This manual describes those features unique to Win32/x86 development.

For a complete understanding of the CodeWarrior IDE, you must refer to both the general documentation and the documentation specific to your particular target, such as this manual.

The documentation is organized so that various chapters in this manual are extensions of particular generic manuals, as shown in Table 1.1. For a complete discussion of a particular subject, you may need to look in both the generic manual and the corresponding chapter in this Targeting manual.

The CodeWarrior IDE documentation organization:

This chapter...	Extends...
CodeWarrior for Win32: A Tutorial	Core Tutorials
Creating Win32/x86 Applications   Creating Static Libraries for Win32/x86   Creating Win32/x86 Dynamic Link Libraries   Target Settings for Win32/x86	IDE User Guide
Debugging for Win32/x86	IDE User Guide
C and C++ for Win32   Assembly Code Support	C Compilers Reference
Libraries and Runtime Code for Win32/x86	MSL C Reference   MSL C++ Reference

For example, to completely understand the C/C++ compiler, you need to know the information in the C Compilers Reference (which covers the C/C++ front-end compiler) and the information in the C and C++ for Win32 chapter of this manual, which covers the back-end compiler that generates target-specific code.

What's in This Manual

Table 1.2 lists every chapter in this manual, and describes the information contained in each. However, this manual only contains information specific to Win32/x86 software development. See "The CodeWarrior IDE and Its Documentation" for a discussion of how these chapters relate to other CodeWarrior IDE documentation.

Contents of chapters:

Chapter	Description
Introduction	This chapter
Getting Started	Installation and setup instructions, and an overview of the CodeWarrior IDE
CodeWarrior for Win32: A Tutorial	Learn how to use the tools for this target
Creating Win32/x86 Applications	How to build applications for Win32/x86
Creating Static Libraries for Win32/x86	How to build libraries for Win32/x86
Creating Win32/x86 Dynamic Link Libraries	How to build shared libraries for Win32/x86
Creating Win32 Resources	How to create resources for Win32/x86 projects
Target Settings for Win32/x86	How to control the compiler and linker for this target
C and C++ for Win32	Details of the back-end C/C++ compiler for Win32/x86 development
Assembly Code Support	Details support for inline assembly in the compiler
Targeting AMD Processors	Details for optimizing for AMD processors
Debugging for Win32/x86	Includes details on debugger settings panels for Win32/x86
Libraries and Runtime Code for Win32/x86	Libraries provided with the CodeWarrior IDE for this target
Batch File Plug-in	How to run an accompanying custom command file
Troubleshooting	Troubleshooting information specific to this target
x86 Command-Line Settings	Command-line options

Where to Go from Here

Every manual mentioned in this section is on the CodeWarrior Reference disc.

For everyone:

• See the IDE User Guide for complete information about the CodeWarrior integrated development environment and debugger.
• For information specific to a particular source language, see the relevant manual, such as the C Compiler Reference.
• For information on standard libraries for use with a particular source language, see the MSL C Reference, and the MSL C++ Reference.

If you're new to the CodeWarrior IDE:

• Look for the tutorials. For the Win32/x86-hosted version of the CodeWarrior IDE, these are currently in the form of HTML files.

For beginners

If you're new to Win32 programming, you may find the tutorial chapter of this manual particularly valuable. It provides a step-by-step tutorial for building a simple program to run on Win32 systems.

For reference information on Win32 programming:

• The CodeWarrior Reference disc includes full reference documentation, licensed from Microsoft, on the Win32 Application Programming Interface (API) and the Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) application framework.

NOTE

Online documentation for the CodeWarrior IDE is installed automatically; however, you will need to install third-party online help files, such as those for Microsoft API and MFC using the CodeWarrior installer. If you execute a search and receive a message saying the topic does not exist, this most likely means you have not installed the associated help files.

• Discover Programming can teach you how to program in C/C++ or JAVA.
• You can access the CodeWarrior University on the internet at http://www.codewarrioru.com. The CodeWarrior University offers courses on a variety of topics related to programming with the CodeWarrior IDE.