Building AutoWin Packages

The piece of software you are installing uses the AutoWin build system to support Windows builds using Visual C++. This system is designed to provide a framework that will allow the package to be compiled using a wide range of compilers.

Setting up a command line environment to Visual C++

AutoWin achieves this by using the command-line interface to your compiler. It is important, therefore, that you know how to set up a command-line environment. If you already know how to this, skip to the next section.

If you use Visual Studio .NET or newer (or Visual C++ .NET or newer), you will already have a command line shortcut installed into your start menu. Simply open this item, and proceed to the next step.

If you use the Visual C++ Toolkit, or the Visual C++ Express Edition, you may have this item, but it is not sufficient. You will also need to have installed the Platform SDK, and incorporate the two environments together. You can do this by opening the Visual C++ item from the start menu, and running the SetEnv.bat file from your Platform SDK directory. If using the Visual C++ Toolkit, you will also have to add the path containing NMAKE.EXE to your path (at the end!). This file is distributed as part of the Win64 support in your Platform SDK.

If you use an older version of Visual C++, open a command prompt. You will need to run a batch file that initializes your environment. If running Visual Studio, Visual C++ is (by default) the Vc\ subdirectory of your Visual Studio directory. The locations are:

Determining your version of C++

Antinat may need to know what version of Visual C++ you are running. This version number represents the version of the Microsoft C/C++ compiler, not Visual C++ (which uses marketing-inspired versioning.) Sometimes defaults will work (but are not optimal.) Here is a conversion table for your convenience:

Determining your edition of C++

Antinat may need to know what edition of Visual C++ you are running. Sometimes defaults will work (but are not optimal.) Here is a conversion table for your convenience:

Performing a basic build

Change to the directory where you have unpacked the source, and run:

Performing standard customisations on a build

AutoWin supports a number of standard compilation options. These options are supported across the different versions of Visual C++ so no matter what version you're running, the option will be available.

This flag	...does this	Default	Legitimate values
CLIB_SHARED	Changes between using a static C library or the DLL (for your compiler.) Using a shared library makes smaller binaries, but users of your application must have it installed. Note that Windows Vista will not include shared libraries for MSC_VER 10 or older.	CLIB_SHARED=1 (for MSC_VER 11 or 12), CLIB_SHARED=0 (otherwise.)	CLIB_SHARED=0, CLIB_SHARED=1
DEBUG	Enables debugging information in the build. 2 is full debugging, 1 is hybrid (optimized with debug.)	DEBUG=0	DEBUG=0, DEBUG=1, DEBUG=2
PC_HEADERS	Enables or disables precompiled headers.	PC_HEADERS=0	PC_HEADERS=0, PC_HEADERS=1
RELOC	Enables a relocatable binary. The main reason for using this is to support Win32s. Ignored on Win16.	RELOC=0	RELOC=0, RELOC=1
UNICODE	Not all packages support this option. Attempts to build a Unicode binary, rather than ANSI.	UNICODE=0	UNICODE=0, UNICODE=1
WIN16	Not all packages support this option. Attempts to build a Win16 binary, rather than Win32. This will require a Win16 compiler (and is required if you're using a Win16 compiler.)	WIN16=0	WIN16=0, WIN16=1
WITH_3D	Not all versions of Visual C++ support this option. Attempts to use the ctl3d library, to provide a 3D interface. On MSC_VER 1000 and above, this is the default.	WITH_3D=0	WITH_3D=0, WITH_3D=1

Performing extra customisations on a build

Your particular package may include additional options beyond those AutoWin provides. To see a description of these options, run: