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You don't need a project/solution to use the VC++ debugger

Posted 14 years ago

You learn a lot of things on the job as a programmer. Years ago, at my first coop position, I was a little confused when my boss went to Visual C++, and tried to open the .EXE file as a project. What a dolt! I thought. That's not going to work.

Luckily I kept my mouth shut. You don't need to create projects or solution files to use Visual C++ as a debugger. Just open up the EXE file and run it. If it has debugging information, you can also manually open up the source files and create break points and everything.

Steve Hanov makes a living working on Rhymebrain.com, PriceMonkey.ca, www.websequencediagrams.com, and Zwibbler.com. He lives in Waterloo, Canada.

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ashok baktha

14 years ago

This may not be the case with all C++ compilers. If you are using GNU, then you must indicate a certain flag to tag along the corresponding source code as well, and it does make the binary that much bigger.

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