CTC Virtual Workshop

Console Projects

A Win32 Console Application is one of the template choices available for Visual C++. The Application Settings should be set to Console application for the Application type: and Empty project under Additional options:.

The Intel(R) Fortran Project type provides a separate set of project templates; a Console Application is one of those options. The Application Settings should be set to Empty project for the Console Application type:.

Compile Configurations

By default two configurations of your project will be generated:

Debug
Release

External Libraries

As an example, the Intel Math Kernal Library (MKL) provides a host of optimized mathematical routines including linear algebra routines, discrete Fourier transforms, vector transcendental math functions and vectorized statistical functions.

To make these routines available to your application:

MKL must be installed on the machine where you are compiling the executable (MKL is available on the winlogin nodes and in the Collaboratory)
The MKL library must be added as an additional dependency to the Linker (To add the MKL library as an additional dependency go to project properties; make sure that All Configurations is selected in the Configuration: window, then go to Linker | Input and add mkl_c.lib to the Additional Dependencies list)
The MKL include path must be added either to the default path or as a project specific path
The MKL library path must be added either to the default path or as a project specific path

Default paths

If you are going to be writing many programs using MKL, consider customizing your VS .NET environment so that the include files and libraries will be found automatically for every project.

Go to:

[Microsoft C/C++]:
Tools | Options | Projects and Solutions| VC++ Directories
[Intel C/C++]:
Tools | Options | Intel(R) C++ | Directories
[Intel Fortran]:
Tools | Options | Intel(R) Fortran | Directories

Add:

[To the Include Files Section]:
C:\Program Files\Intel\MKL\8.0.1\Include
[To the Library Files Section]:
C:\Program Files\Intel\MKL\8.0.1\ia32\Lib

(These paths can be typed in or found by browsing.)

Project Specific Paths

If you don't set up default paths, each project will need to be customized by putting in the include path and the library path on its properties page. This would make sense for a project that needs specific libraries that none of your other projects need. Go to the project's properties page and make sure that All Configurations shows in the Configuration: window

Microsoft and Intel C/C++:
- add C:\Program Files\Intel\MKL\8.0.1\Include
  to C/C++ | General | Additional Include Directories
- add C:\Program Files\Intel\MKL\8.0.1\ia32\Lib
  to Linker | General | Additional Libraries Directories

Intel Fortran
- add C:\Program Files\Intel\MKL\8.0.1\Include
  to Fortran | General | Additional Include Directories
- add C:\Program Files\Intel\MKL\8.0.1\ia32\Lib
  to Linker | General | Additional Libraries Directories

Note: Exporting of makefiles is not available for VS .NET Projects.

A Win32 Console Application is one of the template choices available for Visual C++ that pops up when you create a new project. The Application Settings should be set to Console application for the Application type:. To start with a blank console project, click on Empty project under Additional options:.

The Intel (R) Fortran Project type provides a separate set of project templates; a Console Application is one of those options. The Application Settings should be set to Empty project for the Console Application type:.

Compile Configurations

By default two configurations of your project will be generated.

You choose which configuration is currently being built via the Solution Configurations popup near the middle of the top toolbar.

When the program is compiled in the Debug configuration, the .exe and associated files will be placed in the bin\Debug subdirectory
Similarly, when the Release configuration is built, the files will go into the bin\Release subdirectory

These directory choices can be overridden. In particular, the target for the Debug and Release builds can be made the same (such as the project directory) so that the two versions of the .exe file overwrite one another. The one you get is the one that was compiled last.

The options associated with these configurations are specified in the project properties dialog box. The list of properties in the left pane of the Property Pages window depends on whether you have selected (highlighted)a solution, a particular kind of project, or a source file. The list of properties in the right pane depends on your choice in the left pane and on your choice in the Configuration popup at the top of the window. Your choices are typically:

Debug
Release
All Configurations

In this manner, you can set a special option for an individual source file in the Release configuration, for example. Your choices are more limited in All Configurations because you can change only settings that are common to both the Debug and Release configurations. The higher you stay in this hierarchy, the better; that way, changes are automatically replicated across multiple files and/or configurations.

External Libraries

To build a code that makes use of libraries, the information in the following sections will be helpful. We will use the Math Kernal Library(MKL) from Intel as an example of how to include external libraries in your application. MKL provides a host of optimized mathematical routines including linear algebra routines, discrete Fourier transforms, vector transcendental math functions and vectorized statistical functions.