Windows 7: Visual Studio C++ Express

What an unbelievably cryptic piece of software.

The things I want to are obvious:

build a console application and not TEST it but just RUN it. You know WITH parameters from the command line. I've googled and others have asked how to do this. Evidently it's difficult to do.

For example, if I navigate to where the .exe has been stored, double-clicking yields a DOS message that it is NOT an executable.

Anyone want to tutor a newbie on doing basic things with VC++.

Compile with NO debug.
Compile WITH debug.
Execute console application from some command line somewhere.

Call me crazy, but if I wrote software for developing apps and CONSOLE was selected, I'd probably want to give the user a command window to test or run his program. I mean console applications usually have parameters to be entered, don't they?

You'd get more response here:
CodeGuru Forums - A Developer.com Community for C++, C#, VB, Java and .NET Solutions

I think there is a solution, but I am not sure if it would work. Most probably you need to clean build your project. Go to build > clean solution, Then try recompiling and running it. Do let me know what happens.

Writing and Compiling C Program using Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Express Edition « TechnoZeal

The alternative I use, once I build the app the first time, I open a prompt to that folder and type in the program name with arguments and leave the prompt open. To run again I just switch to the prompt and hit the up arrow. No more typing.

Okay...this cannot be that hard. Where the executable for your program is located, hold shift then right click on the folder that contains your executable. Select "Open command window here", type the name of your executable with what ever options and enter.

Almost all console applications require you to open the command line for you to use them, double click on one just runs it with no commands then when it is done the console window closes. It has always worked like that.

Jeebus am I stupid. I didn't enclose it in quotes. Obviously the parsing then stops at \visual. IOW, it was easier to cut paste then navigate all the way to the destination directory.

C:\Users\Jim\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\test\Release\test.exe

USER ERROR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd still like to know how to compile something so it doesn't have any debug stuff embedded in it.

MilesAhead, thanks for the great forum reference.

It's a good source from basic to very advanced questions. Only thing is if anything can be done with a container somebody will tell you "use STL" if you're programming in C++, like you never heard of it or something. But there's a lot of info there.

I forget where but somewhere along the road in Win9x they decided it would be cool to allow spaces in folder and file names. If a path or param has a space on the command line you have to wrap in double quotes. This:

c:\program file\myprog.exe

will generate "c:\program is not a valid command" blah blah

you have to do

"c:\program files\myprog.exe" with the double quotes.

That's one reason I suggest changing the default directory for the command prompt to the folder in question. Then you can just type:
myprog param1 param2 and hit Enter

if a param is really 2 words or path with a space you still need the double quotes
myprog "param one" "param two"

The Codeguru website will NOT send me a confirmation email. I've emailed the webmaster and zero reply.

Anyone know anyone who IS a registered member of Codeguru who can help me out?