C++ – Configuring Visual Studio to create 32-bit and 64-bit configurations

64-bitcvisual studiox86

I'm currently trying to configure Visual Studio to automatically set up the appropriate configurations for 32-bit and 64-bit compilation.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to have Visual Studio automatically show x64 as a platform under the Configuration Manager.

How can I configure VS so any new project I create has this?

Thanks!

Best Answer

Visual Studio 2010 and 2008 both provide a way to do this.

Project Templates are used by VS to create new projects. These templates can be copied and updated as alternate versions or the originals can even modified in place. You can either use the VS editor to modify the Project Template or you can do it manually; it's your choice:

To use the Visual Studio editor:

Create a new project
Configure the Project and Build Configuration settings the way you'd like to see all future projects of the same type configured. In your case, you'll want to add "x64" to the Configuration Manager, then use it in your project's configurations.
Export the project as a template: File -> Export Template

To dig into the Project Template files yourself:

Project Template files are stored here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\ProjectTemplates

An example is the Windows Forms Application project template, which is housed in this ZIP file: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\ProjectTemplates\CSharp\Windows\1033\WindowsApplication.zip

The ZIP file contains a handful of files that form the structure of the project (ie: form1.cs) and contain templatized versions of what you get when you create a project of this type.

The important file you'll want to modify is: windowsapplication.csproj. The name of the file will be different for each template, but the .csproj will remain consistent. It is the templatized project file, so modifying this will modify the project settings for all future projects made from this template.

To modify it, simply extract it from the ZIP, make your changes, then put it back into the ZIP file, overwriting the existing one.

In all cases, the result will be:

Now, when you create a new project of that type in the future, just pick YOUR template instead of the default one and you'll have x64 as a Configuration. You can even share the configuration with your friends since it's stored as a ZIP file.

This MSDN page documents the steps needed for 2010. Click "Other Versions" at the top of that page to see the instructions for VS 2008:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms185319(v=VS.100).aspx

Setting a bit

Use the bitwise OR operator (|) to set a bit.

number |= 1UL << n;

That will set the nth bit of number. n should be zero, if you want to set the 1st bit and so on upto n-1, if you want to set the nth bit.

Use 1ULL if number is wider than unsigned long; promotion of 1UL << n doesn't happen until after evaluating 1UL << n where it's undefined behaviour to shift by more than the width of a long. The same applies to all the rest of the examples.

Clearing a bit

Use the bitwise AND operator (&) to clear a bit.

number &= ~(1UL << n);

That will clear the nth bit of number. You must invert the bit string with the bitwise NOT operator (~), then AND it.

Toggling a bit

The XOR operator (^) can be used to toggle a bit.

number ^= 1UL << n;

That will toggle the nth bit of number.

Checking a bit

You didn't ask for this, but I might as well add it.

To check a bit, shift the number n to the right, then bitwise AND it:

bit = (number >> n) & 1U;

That will put the value of the nth bit of number into the variable bit.

Changing the nth bit to x

Setting the nth bit to either 1 or 0 can be achieved with the following on a 2's complement C++ implementation:

number ^= (-x ^ number) & (1UL << n);

Bit n will be set if x is 1, and cleared if x is 0. If x has some other value, you get garbage. x = !!x will booleanize it to 0 or 1.

To make this independent of 2's complement negation behaviour (where -1 has all bits set, unlike on a 1's complement or sign/magnitude C++ implementation), use unsigned negation.

number ^= (-(unsigned long)x ^ number) & (1UL << n);

unsigned long newbit = !!x;    // Also booleanize to force 0 or 1
number ^= (-newbit ^ number) & (1UL << n);

It's generally a good idea to use unsigned types for portable bit manipulation.

number = (number & ~(1UL << n)) | (x << n);

(number & ~(1UL << n)) will clear the nth bit and (x << n) will set the nth bit to x.

It's also generally a good idea to not to copy/paste code in general and so many people use preprocessor macros (like the community wiki answer further down) or some sort of encapsulation.

Visual-studio – Should I add the Visual Studio .suo and .user files to source control

These files contain user preference configurations that are in general specific to your machine, so it's better not to put it in SCM. Also, VS will change it almost every time you execute it, so it will always be marked by the SCM as 'changed'. I don't include either, I'm in a project using VS for 2 years and had no problems doing that. The only minor annoyance is that the debug parameters (execution path, deployment target, etc.) are stored in one of those files (don't know which), so if you have a standard for them you won't be able to 'publish' it via SCM for other developers to have the entire development environment 'ready to use'.