Creating a good directory structure

Question

This might be a silly question but I am still learning. I have read several books on creating application and creating a good directory structure. When people talk about creating a directory structure, do they mean the folders you make within the solution explorer (folders you actually find inside of a .sln file) or do they mean setting up and creating folders that reside in the same folder as your .sln file or your compiled application (.exe). I figured the solution explorer folders are different from a typical windows folder cause the folders I create inside my .sln file are no where to be found on my windows system.

Answer 1

With C++ in Visual Studio your solution directories need not match the filesystem, but they can.

Typically people refer to the directory structure as the filesystem layout of the project.

It's typical to have visual studio directories called headers and source, you wouldn't lay your project out like this on your filesystem though.

Visual Studio directories aren't just virtual folders though, they can contain filter rules so when you add a file to your project it will automatically get added to the correct filtered folder. They can also specify whether the folder should be under version control or not. And whether they should be parsed for auto complete or not.

Typically on filesystem I will create 1 folder per project and rarely create subfolders inside an individual project. But in the solution explorer I will create top level folders which I put projects into (For example: "Server Components" and "Client Components"), as well as in project folders to group things logically together (For example: Config, GUI, Controllers, ...) so I can find what i'm looking for faster.

Answer 2

a typical directory struction will be like

bin (binaries)
Src
  ->.sln
  ->common
      ->.prj
  ->Project1
      ->.prj
  ->Project2
      ->.prj
Lib (3rd party lib's)
Doc (documentation)
Tools (3rd party tools)
Setup (setup projects)
Test (test cases)

Answer 3

Visual Studio has a strange way of dealing with "folders" in solutions. A "Solution Folder" is not actually a physical folder, but more of a virtual folder managed by Visual Studio. Your files may end up in the root directoy, but VS will treat them as if they are in a "folder." This is configured and managed in the VS .sln or project file.

I'm not a fan of how this works in Visual Studio, I don't get why they don't just put files in physical folders. It's up to you whether you want to fight VS and try to keep your files in physical folders, or if you want to just let VS manage it, but ultimately, it really doesn't matter.