dev-cpp-users Mailing List for Dev-C++

At 10:51 PM 7/4/02 +0200, Hongli Lai wrote:
>On Thu, 2002-07-04 at 21:38, Mac Reiter wrote:
>> I am not especially interested in the "free, as in beer" aspect of Dev-C++,
>
>Actually it's "free, as in freedom".


My apologies.  I did not mean to imply that the "free" aspect of Dev-C++
was limited only to the price.  My appreciation of the open-source nature
of Dev-C++ is even greater than my appreciation for its monetarily
uncommitted nature.  

I only meant to state what I personally would be willing to pay for an IDE
that met my needs.  I also meant to emphasize that I was not looking for
the best "free" IDE, but that I was looking for the best IDE even including
commercial offerings.  

My reasoning is that when I have complained about the state of IDEs to
friends/family/coworkers, the usual response is "Well why don't you go buy
a good one instead of limiting yourself to the free ones."  And the point I
was trying to make (and failed, obviously), is that money doesn't solve
this problem -- there isn't a "good one" to buy, either...

Anyway, sorry for the confusion.  Thank you all -- Colin, Hongli, and
anyone else who has been contributing to the code base -- for your efforts,
and for making your efforts available both in their end product form and in
their source code form.  And, of course, thank you for your ongoing efforts
to continually improve the product.

Mac
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On Thu, 2002-07-04 at 21:38, Mac Reiter wrote:
> I am not especially interested in the "free, as in beer" aspect of Dev-C++,

Actually it's "free, as in freedom".

At 04:11 PM 7/4/02 -0230, Adam Vardy wrote:
>This list could really use some spark. What kinds of apps are people
aiming for?
>
>How many pure beginners are here? How many advanced developers?
>
>Do we just write freeware?  Do you use this compiler exclusively, or
>others?
>
>Throw out some practical topics please.

I would consider myself a moderately advanced C++ developer.  At least,
it's what I've been doing professionally for the last several years.  My
knowledge of STL and BOOST libraries is currently more "book learning" than
practical experience, though I hope to remedy that in the very near future
with some new projects I am working on.

I sought out Dev-C++ in an attempt to find:
1. A Win32 C++ compiler.
2. that handles most language features properly (templates, partial
template specialization, iostreams, stl, etc)
3. that had an IDE -- and I don't consider a text editor with a "Tools"
menu to be an IDE.
4. that had an integrated debugger.

I am not especially interested in the "free, as in beer" aspect of Dev-C++,
though I do appreciate that the developers want to give something to the
world.  If I was happy with Dev-C++, and felt that it did everything I
wanted, I would be comfortable paying around $100 for it.  My standards are
rather high, however, and when you hear what I want, that $100 is gonna
sound like I'm being a skinflint:

1. Code completion, and not the trivial kind.  I am not impressed with
editors that have databases of the Win32 API functions and will tell me
what arguments to pass to them.  Visual C++ 6.0 has the closest
functionality that I have ever seen, though I have not worked with
C++Builder lately.  And I am unhappy enough with VC6 that I am endeavoring
to develop my own system.  I want code completion that understands the
#defines that are active, recognizes my variables as concrete
instantiations of templates, and gives me valid sets of arguments even in
the face of function overloading of templatized member functions of
templatized classes.  Basically, if compile time errors are easier to fix
than runtime errors, then "edit time" signature information is better than
compile time signature information.  Oh, and it would have to track all of
the #include induced dependencies for files, so that if a header was
modified and then it went back to editing a .cpp file that depended on that
header, the completion would be accurate.  This, of course, requires
writing a moderate chunk of a C++ compiler just to support this feature.
At least I don't have to worry about code generation...

2. Serious integrated debugger support.  A combination of the capabilities
of Insight, GVD, and DDD.  Insight supports most of the views of data that
I like, including (and I consider this a pretty important one) the ability
to expand structures in a tree view.  Unfortunately, I loathe the "giant
collection of floating windows" approach to GUI design.  I like docking
windows, or at least sub-windows with splitter bars that remember where I
put them.  GVD and DDD both bring structured display to the mix.  You can
place structures on a graphical display, like boxy nodes, and if it ever
evaluates a pointer and sees that the address matches the address of one of
these structures, it draws an arrow to the box.  Makes it really nice for
visualizing list and tree structures.  One thing I do not like, at least
about DDD, is how it adds new nodes based on pointer values.  When I
double-click on a pointer and the node doesn't already exist, it adds the
node and draws an arrow to it.  So far, so good.  What I don't like is that
the expression for the new node is based on how I got to it, not to its
actual value.  OK, that won't make any sense without an example, so here
goes:  Say I have a NODE * pListHead, and I've gotten the node that it
points to displayed in a box.  Now I go to that structure and doubleclick
on its pNext field, and it puts in the box, and I repeat the process in the
new box.  I now have three nodes with arrows between them.  The first box
is based on the expression (*pListHead).  The second box is based on the
expression *((*pListHead).Next).  The third box is based on the expression
*(*((*pListHead).Next).Next).  Now, I try to step through my
DeleteFirstNode() function to make sure it is working.  When I get to the
point where I say 

pListHead->Next = pListHead->Next->Next;

what I would *PREFER* to see is the arrow (that used to go from the head to
the second box) to change so that it goes from the head to the third box.
However, because the boxes are based on the expressions constructed as I
doubleclicked, what I actually see is *NO CHANGE* to any of the arrows, but
the contents of the second and third boxes change.  This is not intuitively
obvious, at all.  Worse, and this was the real life example where I first
saw this problem (and also the first time I was trying to use DDD), if you
have a circular doubly-linked list, you might start expanding it from the
head by following Next pointers, then worry that maybe you have a bad link
and start expanding it from the tail by following Prev pointers.  When the
two chains finally meet up, everything looks good.  But if you modify any
of the linkages, the "sliding contents" problem I described becomes much
stranger.  

What I would like to see is that when I expand a pointer to a node that
doesn't exist, the new box would be based on an expression that just
evaluates the memory address.  That way, the box on the screen represents a
fixed piece of the heap that I have allocated and am using.  Then, when I
modify a pointer, none of the boxes change their contents, and the arrow
shifts to point to a different node on screen, just like it internally
shifted to point to a different chunk of the heap.

I have also used Digital Mars (used to by Symantec C++, for any of you who
might have used that product).  It has a nice feature that unfortunately is
not very stable, where it will expand an entire structure and all of the
structures that it points to.  So you could start at the root of a tree and
tell it to expand, and it would generate a graph on screen of the entire
tree, one box per node, with all the data fields of the nodes inside the
boxes.  Quite nice.  Unfortunately, if your structure size is big enough to
need it, it is probably big enough to break the algorithms they use, and it
generates garbage on screen.  But I would like to see someone do it
properly...

3. Graphical class hierarchy management.  At a minimum, it should allow
creation of classes, attachment of derivation links, changing of derivation
links, easy access from graphical display to member display, and from
member display to source code editing.  I would strongly prefer that this
system remain current as source code is edited, rather than requiring a
system recompile.

Those are my biggies.  For what it is worth, I have not yet found any
single tool with all of these features.  For some of the features, I have
not yet found any tool that supports that single feature.  My search has
included professional level commercial tools as well as open source and/or
other free tools.  If anyone knows of a tool that seems to fit this bill
that I have overlooked, I would really appreciate a reference link.  If
not, well, Colin and Hongli now have some really big feature requests that
will keep them busy for the rest of their lives, should they choose to
accept them...

Actually, I would probably be happy (as in my $100 remark earlier) with
much less than that:
1. The clock skew thing worked out, or worked around.  Whatever it takes so
that when I press "Rebuild All" it does whatever it has to do to ensure
that I have a complete and proper build.
2. Structure expansion in the integrated debugger.
3. Watchpoints (as defined by GDB -- ability to say that "if *ANYTHING,
ANYWHERE* modifies this variable, stop the program and show me where it was.")

That's all I can think of at present.  Being picky as I am, I'm sure I'd
think of something else, but those are the biggest irritations to me right
now (I am assuming that my inability to use breakpoints is a failure on my
part to set some setting correctly.  If, instead, it is a Dev-C++ problem,
then that would obviously be added to the preceding list...)

Dunno if that sparked anything or not, but it is the current state of my
thinking.

Mac
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I've been using Dev-C++ for probably a little over a month, and just 
completed my first "semester" of C++ at a nearby college, in which they 
crammed the content of a 15-week term into 4 weeks. We just started the 
second class yesterday, which will involve a great deal of Windows 
programming, so the professor requires that we use M$ Visual C++ for the 
Windows-specific assignments.

I've done some OOP in Python and Java, and have distant memories of a 
Pascal class back in the Spring of 1992.  I guess I can call myself an 
intermediate developer, since I seem to basically understand a lot of 
the beginner-level material and have even written a few tutorials on 
different topics. (See my Useless Python website at 
http://uselesspython.com if you care to find out more about that stuff.)

As far as topics go, I guess I can throw out the list of topics I'll be 
expected to grasp by the beginning of August:

Implementation Hiding & Object Execution
Function Overloading
CONST Objects and Special Functions
References & Pointers
Operator Overloading & Dynamic Objects
Inheritance
Polymorphism
Templates

Rob Andrews
http://uselesspython.com

Adam Vardy wrote:

> This list could really use some spark. What kinds of apps are people aiming for?
> 
> How many pure beginners are here? How many advanced developers?
> 
> Do we just write freeware?  Do you use this compiler exclusively, or
> others?
> 
> Throw out some practical topics please.
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> 


-- 
"Giving the Linus Torvalds Award to the Free Software Foundation is a 
bit like giving the Han Solo Award to the Rebel Alliance."
--Richard Stallman at the 1999 LinuxWorld show

I just installed Dev-C++ on a win2k box with no other c++ compiler.
Installation was to the default directory, C:\Dev-C++\.  I made a new
"Windows Application" Project, and saved all the files.  Then I went to
Compiler Options, selected the Linker tab, and checked the bold blue line
for including debugging information.  I did a Rebuild All, set a breakpoint
inside WinMain, and hit Debug.  Watching the output window down at the
bottom, I got a complaint about the breakpoint being invalid.

I have tried it with breakpoints in different places.  I always get the
same result.  I have tried it with different numbers of breakpoints, and it
always knows how many breakpoints I have set, but they are all claimed to
be invalid.

The program runs properly.  If I don't set any breakpoints, it even runs in
the debugger.  But since I can't ever set any breakpoints, I can't get the
program to stop so that I can attempt to look at any of the variables.

I watched the command lines being sent to the compiler, and "-g3" was
included during the compilation of main.cpp into main.o, and also during
the linking of main.o into FirstDevCpp.exe (the name of my test project).

I feel certain that I have missed something, probably something obvious,
but I can't seem to find it in the dialogs.

Any help would be appreciated, because the IDE is not much use to me
without the debugger.  Thanks,
Mac
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: dev...@li... 
> [mailto:dev...@li...] On Behalf 
> Of Daniel Glenfield
> Sent: Thursday, July 04, 2002 3:37 PM
> To: jav...@ci...; dev...@li...
> Subject: Re: [Dev-C++] Memory
> 
> 
> Ok I'm a little lost...
> you can't destroy classes, only instances of classes 
> (objects). If you 
> destroy the object the memory is released - I assume by 
> "losing memory" you 
> mean memory is not deallocated i.e. made available.
> 
> does anyone know if it is possible to allocate X memory for 
> an application 
> and only let it use that much? I'm thinking that X MB of 
> memory could be 
> allocated then at the end of the program check to see if it 
> is all available 
> again.
> 
> like if ( CurrentMem == InitialMem )
>      {
>         cout << "Memory has been managed perfectly.";
>      }



There is no need for such mess in the first place. Use the standard
library containers instead of manually allocating and deallocating
memory, and using built in arrays. For normal situations use the
standard library vector.



Ioannis

* Ioannis Vranos
* Programming pages: http://www.noicys.cjb.net
* Alternative URL: http://run.to/noicys

This list could really use some spark. What kinds of apps are people aiming for?

How many pure beginners are here? How many advanced developers?

Do we just write freeware?  Do you use this compiler exclusively, or
others?

Throw out some practical topics please.

These days has been some flux with this subject answering to ME, if I
understood right, about something I said about the possibility of seeing the
code of a program while it is running with the run command of dev's menu,
answering something Mr Glenfield said answering another message. That is
because you understood my answer as I was saying I have a problem with dev,
well, it is a misunderstanding of what I said. I have no problems, my dev works
exactly as it must work. If you understood something different, forgot it,
don't consider it.

END OF THIS SUBJECT (while nobody has anything to say to anybody and NOT TO ME,
and INDEPENDENTLY of my messages with this subject).

Thank you.

Don't answer this message!.

First, some generic GCC usage notes, and then some specific instructions
for Dev-C++ 4.9.4.0.

Usually, you would add the following command line argument to GCC:

-dSTRICT

That argument causes GCC to act as if it had seen the line:

#define STRICT

at the top of the file that it is compiling.  This can be used for any
#define that you need to apply across your project.  Another common one is
DEBUG, which is used to turn on debugging code that would be removed from a
release build.  If you need to do the equivalent of:

#define DEBUG_LEVEL 3

you would use the command line argument:

-dDEBUG_LEVEL=3

I have not been using Dev-C++ heavily (I seem to have an inordinate amount
of difficulty, but it may have something to do with having five other C++
IDEs and compilers installed on that machine...), but I would expect there
to be a place to enter "additional compiler arguments", either under the
Projects menu or the Compiler Options menu.

I just looked at 5beta (4.9.4.0), and after you open your project, you can
go to the Project menu, then at the bottom is "Project Options".  When you
select that, it should open a dialog, and at the bottom of the dialog you
should have an entry box for "Additional Command-line options:  Compiler:".
 If not, look for the "General" tab near the top of the dialog and make
sure it is selected.

Hope that helps,
Mac

At 01:45 PM 7/4/02 +0100, Napoleon Ahiable wrote:
>   Hi, I'm compiling a program and I need to define STRICT  in the make
>file but since DevC++ generates the makefile automatically, I was 
>wondering if there was some place where I could put it for the makefile 
>generator to pick it up. Also what should the syntax be for defining STRICT
>as  part of a makefile. Should I just type #define STRICT wherever it is
>supposed to  go ?   Napoleon.   
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On Thu, 2002-07-04 at 14:45, Napoleon Ahiable wrote:
> Hi,
> I'm compiling a program and I need to define STRICT in the make file but since DevC++ generates the makefile automatically, I was wondering if there was some place where I could put it for the makefile generator to pick it up. Also what should the syntax be for defining STRICT as part of a makefile. Should I just type #define STRICT wherever it is supposed to go ?
> 

Add -DSTRICT to Compiler Options in Project Options.

Hi,
I'm compiling a program and I need to define STRICT in the make file but =
since DevC++ generates the makefile automatically, I was wondering if =
there was some place where I could put it for the makefile generator to =
pick it up. Also what should the syntax be for defining STRICT as part =
of a makefile. Should I just type #define STRICT wherever it is supposed =
to go ?

Napoleon.


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Version: 6.0.372 / Virus Database: 207 - Release Date: 20/06/02

Ok I'm a little lost...
you can't destroy classes, only instances of classes (objects). If you 
destroy the object the memory is released - I assume by "losing memory" you 
mean memory is not deallocated i.e. made available.

does anyone know if it is possible to allocate X memory for an application 
and only let it use that much? I'm thinking that X MB of memory could be 
allocated then at the end of the program check to see if it is all available 
again.

like if ( CurrentMem == InitialMem )
     {
        cout << "Memory has been managed perfectly.";
     }

>Thank you.
>I will try to explain myself better.
>I have to make some classes for the univesity
>and the profesor told me that my program
>doesn't has to lose memory. For example:
>I've got an structure that uses a list of nodes.
>If I destroy the class, maybe, I'll need to
>destroy all nodes. I need to verify that
>I'm not loosing memory (asking for it and don't
>release it) at the end of the program.
>I know there are modules which you can use
>for these things.
>
>Thanks again,
>Javier
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Daniel Glenfield" <sp...@ho...>
>To: <jav...@ci...>; <dev...@li...>
>Sent: Thursday, July 04, 2002 4:18 AM
>Subject: Re: [Dev-C++] Memory
>
>
> > Hmm...well you could write a function yourself that kept track of the
> > memory, or use a global variable.
> >
> > Very basically, you'd have a global variable for memory allocated, and
>each
> > time you did Pointer = new Class you could call the sizeof function with
> > that object and do sizeof(*Pointer)
> >
> > Maybe it would look like the following:
> >
> >
> > #include <iostream>
> >
> > class Car
> > {
> > public:
> > //...
> > };
> >
> > double gVariable;   // global variable
> >
> > int main( int argc, char *argv[] )
> > {
> >    Car *Pointer = NULL;
> >    Pointer = new Car;
> >    gVariable += ( sizeof(*Pointer) );
> >
> >    //...
> >
> >    std::cout << "The memory allocated in total was " << gVariable;
> >    return 0;
> > }
> >
> >
> > What does everyone think?
> >
> > >From: "Javier Turek" <jav...@ci...>
> > >Reply-To: "Javier Turek" <jav...@ci...>
> > >To: "DEVC" <dev...@li...>
> > >Subject: [Dev-C++] Memory
> > >Date: Thu, 4 Jul 2002 01:53:31 -0300
> > >
> > >Hello!
> > >Does somebody know of a library to use with dev-c++
> > >to control what is going on with the memory?
> > >I mean that I want to know how much memory
> > >I use for my variables and pointers, and at the end
> > >of my program I must know if all the memory I asked for,
> > >has been freed.
> > >
> > >Thanks.
> > >Javier
> > >from Argentina
> > >
> >





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Hmm...well you could write a function yourself that kept track of the 
memory, or use a global variable.

Very basically, you'd have a global variable for memory allocated, and each 
time you did Pointer = new Class you could call the sizeof function with 
that object and do sizeof(*Pointer)

Maybe it would look like the following:


#include <iostream>

class Car
{
public:
//...
};

double gVariable;   // global variable

int main( int argc, char *argv[] )
{
   Car *Pointer = NULL;
   Pointer = new Car;
   gVariable += ( sizeof(*Pointer) );

   //...

   std::cout << "The memory allocated in total was " << gVariable;
   return 0;
}


What does everyone think?

>From: "Javier Turek" <jav...@ci...>
>Reply-To: "Javier Turek" <jav...@ci...>
>To: "DEVC" <dev...@li...>
>Subject: [Dev-C++] Memory
>Date: Thu, 4 Jul 2002 01:53:31 -0300
>
>Hello!
>Does somebody know of a library to use with dev-c++
>to control what is going on with the memory?
>I mean that I want to know how much memory
>I use for my variables and pointers, and at the end
>of my program I must know if all the memory I asked for,
>has been freed.
>
>Thanks.
>Javier
>from Argentina
>




_________________________________________________________________
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Hello!=20
Does somebody know of a library to use with dev-c++
to control what is going on with the memory?=20
I mean that I want to know how much memory=20
I use for my variables and pointers, and at the end
of my program I must know if all the memory I asked for,=20
has been freed.

Thanks.
Javier
from Argentina

Hello !

Dev-C++ 4.9.4.1 has just been released :)

This version is released mainly because we are going back to GCC 2.95.3, until
GCC 3.1 is considered stable. 

Here are the changes :
* start of Profiling support
* new update/packages checker (vUpdate)
* Lots of bug fixes

Greetings,
Colin Laplace

I used the full path to the resource archives and it worked for me.

I didn't make wxWindows build, I am using Dev-Cpp package.

Tks for the support.

Flávio.

Brazil champions of the world cup !!!!

------------------------
In the resource the archives like hand.cur, or icon.ico are typed
folder/file, and Dev does not find it, since it is a folder out of the
folders it searches, you must substitute folder/ with the full path to th=
e
file. In my failed trials first appears this error I solve that way, that=
's
the problem.
[Then come the linker errors! (Posted some days ago)]
If after this the program compiles rigth, tell me, I want know if I try
something more or delete wxwindows.

This remembers me that in the resource editor you cannot copy and paste,
something that shall be implemented.

I suspect my problems with wxwindows are due to a bad building of it, I m=
iss
somethig. I make -f makefile.g95 in wx/msw, then it seems to compile
everything, when I try other makefiles (for other parts, libararies of pn=
g,
tiff, etc) it says there is nothing to do. Can you e-mail me a short
description of how did you build it?
-- 
Flávio de Souza
fla...@ya...
ICQ: 78458203



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Yes, it worked. tks

Flávio.

Zodiaq wrote:
> Hello Flavio,
> 
> [cut]
> 
> FdS> When I do not use resource files I can compile wxWindows normally.
> 
> FdS> Any ideas?
> 
> Yeah, lots of... first of all try using full paths:
> "c:/Program Files/Dev-C++/Icon/MAINICON.ICO"
> then... compile your apps...
> 
> FdS> tks,
> 
> 
> 
> 


-- 
Flávio de Souza
fla...@ya...
ICQ: 78458203



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