Porting code from Linux to Windows

Question

Hi all,

I'm using Visual Studio .NET 2003, and I'm trying to port code I've written and compiled/run successfully in Linux GCC to Windows.

I'm a newbie when using VS. I've created a new project, and added all the .c and .h files I have into the project by Project -> Add Existing Items, then chose all the .c and .h files.

I'm not familiar with how exactly compilers and linkers etc work, but is there a difference between how VS and gcc compile/link #include files? My habit of programming in Linux has been to have one main.c file, and #include all other .h or .c files that I need. Then I would only compile the main.c file. But in VS, it seems as if the #include files are not "seen" by the program, because I'm getting errors that tell me certain structures or variables were not declared, even though they are in my user-defined header files.

I'm also getting errors like DIR is an undeclared identifier. I've included , so why can't it recognize DIR?

Thank you.

Regards, Rayne

Answer 1

Consider compiling your program with windows port of gcc (from Mingw32 or Cygwin) first. This will provide you with more familiar environment. If you'll still have to compile everything with VC++, you'll have more incremental process of porting.

Also, it is not evident from your post, but it seems you are trying to use dirent.h. Note that dirent.h (and corresponding libs) is not included with VC++.

Answer 2

Yes, I am trying to use . What is the alternative for VC++?

Answer 3

One of the best ways to learn would be to start with the smallest application that you can compile on both. Expand this working and portable application step by step into the more fully featured application you desire.

Remember to add all .c/.cpp files to the 'Source Files' directory in the project as they won't be compiled otherwise.

Restrict any non-portable code (that you will need) to a single place. For example if you need to create threads, have a common create thread function used throughout (but implemented differently). Using portable libraries such as Boost can help here.