Using Visual C++.net IDE Computer and Information Sciences By: Ed Brunjes

What’s an IDE? What does it Do? IDE stands for “Integrated Development Environment” 1. It allows you to create and edit a program package 2. It allows you to build and compile the package 3. It allows you to “debug” the package 4. It tells you how badly you messed up!

Visual C++ IDE Components (1) Workspace – this is the main work area where you type in most of your program Windows – show the various aspects of the project. You can move or delete windows as you like by using the sizing buttons on the Window title bar. You can also hide a window or windows, or you can group windows together.

Visual C++ IDE Components (2) Toolbars – contain short-cut buttons to common operations that could be selected from the menus (there are LOTS of them). You can add toolbars from the “View” option on the Menu Bar Menus – Are always available and provide all of the actions you can do in the IDE. If you close a window – you can reopen it using the “View” option

The basic Visual C++ IDE Screen Visual C++ IDE 1. The workspace area 2. IDE Windows 3. Toolbars 4. Menus

Workspace The workspace is the largest of the windows. This is where the code is typed in.

Toolbars There are a “bucket full” of toolbars. These are collections of short-cut buttons for operations that can be selected from the menus on the Menu Bar.

Menus Each item on the “menu bar” is connected to a “pull- down” menu. The pull- down menu has two types of options: 1. Gray options – are options that are a part of the menu but are NOT available for this operation and are not active. 2. Black options – are options that ARE available and are active.