A Win32/x86 application is a stand-alone, executable program that launches
when the user double-clicks it in Windows® (or calls it from the
command line). Word processors, spreadsheets, paint programs,
and utilities are examples of applications.
This chapter includes the following topics:
Choosing Libraries for Applications
For additional information, see "Creating Static Libraries for Win32/x86" and "Creating Win32/x86 Dynamic Link Libraries." These sections provide information on creating library projects. For more information on projects in general, refer to the IDE User Guide.
An application, or "EXE" as it is sometimes called (since the file name usually ends
in .EXE), is an executable piece of binary code. It is built using the
CodeWarrior® IDE and runs on the platform you choose. You can
build an EXE for AMD® processors, generic x86 processors, or Pentium-class
processors.
NOTE To find a list of all the processors you can target, see "x86 Processor."
An EXE can work in conjunction other types of code, such as dynamic-link
libraries (DLLs) loaded at runtime, and static libraries linked
when you build your EXE. In other words, your EXE can link with or load other types of code to make your application
more modular. You can learn more about DLLs and static libraries
in "About Static Libraries." and "About Dynamic Link Libraries,"
To create a Win32/x86 application, perform the following steps:
Choose File > New. The New dialog appears, as shown in Figure 4.1.
2. Select the project category.
Select the preferred project category from the list in the Project tab.
Type a name for your project in the Project name field. By convention, a project name ends with .mcp. You may use the Location field or Set button to choose a different location to store the project. Then
click OK.
There are several stationaries to choose from. Which one you use will depend on the task at hand. Select the preferred stationary from the Project Stationary area of the New Project dialog, as shown in Figure 4.2. Then, click OK.
5. Add source files to the project.
The project window appears, as shown in Figure 4.3. Most stationery projects contain source files that are just placeholders. If they contain any code at all, the code will not have been written with your particular task in mind. Thus, these placeholder files need to be deleted and replaced with your own code.
If you do not already have source files prepared, then you will need to write them. Click New Text File in the CodeWarrior IDE tool bar. An edit window appears, as shown in Figure 4.4. Write your source code, then choose File > Save. The Save document as dialog appears, as shown in Figure 4.5. Type a name for your source file in the File name field, then click Save.
Edit window:
Save document as dialog:
Once you have written your source files or if you already have source files written, select the Source folder in the project window, then choose Project > Add Files. The Select files to add dialog appears, as shown in Figure 4.6. Navigate to your source files, select them (use Control-click to select multiple files), then click Add. The Add Files dialog appears, as shown in Figure 4.7. Add the files to the preferred targets by enabling the options in the Targets area, then click OK.
Select files to add dialog:
Add Files dialog:
6. Remove the source file placeholders from your project.
Select the placeholder files in the Sources folder of the project window and choose Edit > Delete.
Choose Edit > Target Settings, where Target is the name of the project's currently selected
target. The Target Settings window appears, as shown in Figure 4.8. Use this window to specify various optional settings for your
project. The exact settings you can specify depend on:
the language in which your source code is written
the platform for which you are compiling
For Win32/x86 projects, you must specify settings for the target platform, the project type, the compiler, and the linker. There are various other, optional settings that you can specify as well. To learn more about specifying settings beyond what we do here, refer to "Target Settings for Win32/x86."
The Target Settings panel appears by default in the Target Settings window. The settings in this panel are preset by the project
stationery, but you can change them if necessary. See "Target Settings" for more information on the Target Settings panel.
Select x86 Target in the Target Settings Panels area. The x86 Target panel appears, as shown in Figure 4.9. Again, the settings are preset for you by the project stationery, but you can modify them if you wish. See "x86 Target" for more information on the x86 Target panel.
x86 Target
x86 Target
10. Specify language settings.
Select C/C++ Language in the Target Settings Panels area. The C/C++ Language panel appears, as shown in Figure 4.10. Ordinarily, the default settings are fine as they are in this
panel, but you are free to change them. For more information about
setting language preferences, refer to the C Compilers Reference.
C/C++ Language
C/C++ Language
11. Specify additional settings.
You can continue to examine other target settings panels and change any settings you wish. For more information on the various panels and settings available, see "Settings Panels for Win32/x86" as well as the relevant sections of the IDE User Guide, and the C Compilers Reference. When you are finished examining project settings, click OK to save your settings and close the Target Settings window.
If you want, you can click on the Targets tab of the project window and choose Project > Create New Target. This allows you to add a special target group to better organize your build. You can also delete targets in this view. If you want to have certain files included in some targets but not in others, select the file and choose View > Project Inspector. The Project Inspector window appears, as shown in Figure 4.11. This window allows you to view information about a selected files and to assign files to specific targets. Click the Targets tab, then enable or disable the options in the Targets area to include or exclude the file from the targets in the project. Refer to the IDE User Guide for more information on managing multiple targets.
After your project is created and its contents and all necessary
settings are specified, you are ready to compile and debug your
code. Choose Project > Make to compile and link your project. If all goes well, the IDE stores
the resulting output file in your project folder under the name
you specified in the x86 Target settings panel. For more information on compiling and linking,
refer to the IDE User Guide. In addition, if you have checked
the SYM Format option on the x86 Processor panel and Generate SYM File on the x86 Linker panel, the CodeWarrior IDE will generate a symbol file, which
you will need for debugging your code.
Once you have successfully built your application, you can run
it in the usual way, such as by double-clicking the .exe file icon or selecting it with the mouse and choosing the Open command. If all goes well, congratulations! You have used the
CodeWarrior IDE to build a running Win32/x86 application. If not,
see "Debugging for Win32/x86" and the IDE User Guide for information on debugging.
This section briefly describes which CodeWarrior libraries you should include in your Win32 application projects. For a more in-depth discussion, see "Libraries and Runtime Code for Win32/x86."
Generally, you will create an application project with project stationery, so you will not need to add libraries on your own. But, if you change certain project options, this section explains which libraries you may need to change.
The topics in this section include:
Table 4.1 lists some of the CodeWarrior libraries you might need to add to a C or C++ project. Note that if your application is a C++ application, you must also include the C runtime libraries.
Libraries for a Win32 application project (Partial List):
| Library |
Use |
|---|---|
In addition to the standard libraries, there are variations for
specialized compilers. These include 3DNow!, Microsoft Exceptions
settings. Versions of libraries with a final "D" before the filename
extension have debug information embedded in them. For example,
mwcrtld.lib is the debug version of the Metrowerks C/C++ runtime library.
NOTE Libraries with a 60 number in them are intermediate steps in creating the final library.
Any libraries that you may need to include to resolve (at link time) Win32 API calls you made in your code are discussed on the World Wide Web at:
http://msdn.microsoft.com
This site includes information on all the libraries you may need, including the commonly used ones listed in Table 4.2. For a more in-depth discussion, see "Libraries for Win32 Development."
Common Win32 SDK Libraries (Partial List):
| Library Name |
Functionality |
|---|---|
Any libraries that you need to include to resolve (at link time) Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) API calls you made in your code are discussed on the World Wide Web at:
http://msdn.microsoft.com
This site includes information on all the libraries you may need, including the commonly used ones listed in Table 4.3. Documentation and resources, including more sample code, for using MFC is also found there.
| Library Name |
Functionality |
|---|---|
Note that you can also build your application to include the MFC DLL instead of statically linking-in the MFC libraries. This is an option that is made available to you when you use project stationery, as described in "Creating an Application." This allows the size of your application to be smaller because the MFC DLL file that is required would need to be installed or already present on the computer on which you are running it.
