Getting started with a cross platform C++ project

Question

I am starting a c++ project which I would like to compile equally well in Eclipse (Linux) and vs2010 from the same repository and could use some help getting started. While many of the aspects can individually be Google'd, I was hoping for advice on how to approach the problem on a whole.

For example, where to keep the library sources, how to structure the make file, and how to integrate googletest (finding a novice tutorial on googletest alone is hard). A link to a tutorial that addresses these aspects would be great, or a series of tutorials that together could help.

My background is in C# and I'm trying to maintain the "cleanness" and organization of my VS projects.

Answer 1

One thing that I could suggest if you're going strongly cross-platform and you want everything to be as "clean" as possible: Centralize your build system with a modern cross-platform build tool like Scons. It's written in Python, it's quite concise and powerful, and it works everywhere.

Or, if you're a fan of Eclipse, just install Eclipse on both Windows and GNU/Linux. As I mentioned above, it's cross-platform, and you can get it working for compilers on all sorts of different systems.

Answer 2

You'll want to look at cmake.

Answer 3

I have done cross platform projects that used the "native" build systems on both platforms (vsproj files on windows and makefiles on linux), but it was definitely a pain to maintain both project files. So, yes, I would agree with the other suggestions that you should try to start with a solid cross platform build utility. CMake or possibly Boost build seem like decent options - likely there are many others.

When it comes to 3rd party libraries, you'll want to stick to stuff that is solidly tested cross platform. Boost is the best general purpose library for c++ (yes, you see it mentioned here in just about every c++ thread...but that's because it really is a nice collection of useful stuff). As for XML, HTTP, image libs, UI - there are all good cross platform options - just look around or ask here if you have specific requirements. Whatever you do, don't use some library from CodeProject or other MS oriented site that has only been tested with Visual Studio 6 - that will just lead to misery. Most of the GNU libs build on windows these days, so you should be reasonably safe with that stuff.

Although it will be tempting, try to minimize the platform#ifdefs in your code - prefer instead to abstract any platform specific stuff in a library wherever possible.

Good luck!