Generate VS Solutions and Projects From a Given MakeFile

Question

I downloaded a few open source c++ projects from the internet, which makes use of makefile for compilation purpose.

Is there anyway to import those makefiles into the VS 2008, make VS 2008 to use the makefiles to generate binaries?

Answer 1

If the projects in question rely on GNU Make or Autotools (autoconf, automake, ...) then there is no easy+automatic way to do so. You could install the MingGW to build them.

If they are using tools like CMake, QMake or Scons (non exhaustive list), then you can ask the build tool to generate Visual Studio solutions and projects.

In other words, it all depends on the build tools used by the authors of those open source C++ projects in the first place.