Creating the First Program By: Ed Brunjes

Overview Boot Visual C++.NET Create a new Visual C++ project Modify the “skeleton application” Build the program Execute the program Save the project

The Starting Screen After booting Visual C++, the “Start Screen” appears. At the bottom of the screen a “New Project” tab should be clicked.

The New Project window Select Visual C++ Projects – in the left pane of the window. Click on “Win32 Console Project” in the right pane of the window In the bottom portion of the window, name the project and specify the location to which the project will be saved. It is easiest to use the “Browse” button for this.

The New Project window After selecting the “New Project” tab, The “New Project” window appears.

The Application Setting window Make sure the “Console application” option is selected. Click on “Finish”.

The Application Edit Screen The Win32 Application Wizard creates a skeleton of a program. In addition there are a number of additional windows on the screen. For now minimize the side windows to be able to maximize the edit window. Notice that as the side windows are closed the edit window expands.

The Edit window After maximizing the edit window – the skeleton of your first program is ready to be modified.

Creating “Hello World” After “#include “stdafx.h”, type #include<iostream> using namespace std; Inside of the braces, before “return 0;” type cout << “Hello World” << endl; Your program should look like the following:

The Program

Building the Program Select the Build option from the Menu Bar. Then Select Build Solution from the pull-down menu. Status messages will be displayed in the “Output Window” while the program is compiling. If any errors are encountered, they will be displayed in the “Task List Window”

Running the Program After the compile (build) is successful, the program can be executed Click Debug form the menu bar Select Start Without Debugging A text window will open and the results of the program will be displayed. To close the window simply press any key.

“Save Early, Save Often” Saving Your Project “Save Early, Save Often” It is really important that you save your work often. This is the only safe-guard against loosing your work to an accident. The easiest way is to either click on the “Save All” icon or to select “Save All” from the File option on the Menu bar.

Accessing an Existing Project Use the Start Page of the Visual C++ IDE. The page displays recent projects. Click on the project name. An existing project can be accessed using the “Open” option from File on the menu bar.