Compiling and Running CPP Programs

General Overview

These are the instructions for setting up, compiling, building, running, and debugging C++ programs per platform. The settings included in this repo should work on any computer with Visual Studio Code. You will also need to have the proper compilers and debuggers installed (see below). These instructions assume the default directories for the compilers.

Using VSC

Installation instructions for specific platforms are found in the subsequent sections. These next steps assume you have VSC and your compiler installed.

1. Open up the workspace using the file _LaunchThis.code-workspace. This should open up VSC as a workspace with all of the necessary settings. If the file type is not already associated with VSC, do so.
2. Create a new, blank file (File->New File) from VSC.
3. Compile and run by hitting [Ctrl]+[Shift]+B on Windozzze or [command]+[shift]+B on Mac. You can also just use the menu Terminal->Run Build Task.... Select Build and Run C/C++ Application.
4. To debug, you can select [F5] or the menu Debug->Start Debugging.

File Names
All files MUST be named correctly as the assignment instructions dictate. This includes spacing (don't use any!), capitalization, name of the file, and the correct extensions (.cpp). Major points will be taken off for incorrect file names and/or missing files.

Header Information
Please include all requested documents for this assignment in this repository. Each file MUST include a COMMENT AREA near the top of the page. The comment area must include the following three lines. All assignments for the remainder of this course must contain a variation of the following three lines. You will need to fill in the bracketed sections with the appropriate information (without the square brackets).

Project Name: [Title of the Project]
Author: [Your Full Name]
Date Last Modified: [Date Modified]

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Installing (do these once)

General Installation (all platforms)

Install Visual Studio Code ( https://code.visualstudio.com/ )

1. Go to the website above. Download and install the version appropriate to your computer.
2. The first time you launch VSC, it will probably try to install a few plugins for handling cpp files. This is good! If it needs a little push, you can start the plugin manager ([command or Ctrl]+[Shift]+X) and install C/C++ for Visual Studio Code.
3. Generally, you will start projects using the file _LaunchThis.code-workspace. This should open up VSC as a workspace with all of the necessary settings. If this file type is not already associated with VSC, do so.

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Windows Installation Specifics

Install MinGW ( https://github.com/cosc-course-starter-codes/COSC_Tools/raw/main/msys2-x86_64-current.exe )

You can find a longer, illustrated version of these instructions at: ( https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/cpp/config-mingw#_installing-the-mingww64-toolchain )

1. Download and run the latest version of the installer (msys2-x86_64-\[releasedate\].exe) with the default options (in the default location--C:\msys64\).
2. The installer will do a few things and then ask to run MSYS2 when it is done. Make sure it is selected and run MSYS2. (You can also now find “MSYS2 MSYS” in the start menu).
3. This brings you to a command prompt. From here just type (or copy/paste!) the line below. This runs the package manager (not what you were thinking?) to download the current MinGW version. Then hit enter a few times to install the mingw packages.

pacman -S --needed base-devel mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc

4. When it is done, you will be brought back to the command prompt. Exit this by typing exit or just closing the window.

Set your Path

1. Click the Windozzze start button and type advanced system settings to bring up the system properties window.
2. Click on Environment Variables button.
3. In the System variables box at the bottom, select Path and press the Edit button (at the bottom!).
4. Click the New button and type C:\msys64\mingw64\bin.
5. Close all windows and make sure to reboot when done.

Optional: Install OpenGL and GLUT ( http://www.transmissionzero.co.uk/software/freeglut-devel/ )

1. Grab the latest version of FreeGLUT for MinGW from the link above and extract the files to your computer. Make sure to get the version for MinGW!
2. Go to the subdirectories of that archive and find three folders: bin, include, and lib. Each of these contains files that need to be copied to the correct location for your program to compile and run. Just use the 64-bit versions (ignore any files not in the x64 subfolders).
3. Copy the x64 file freeglut.dll from bin to the mingw64\bin directory (by default, this should be something like C:\msys64\mingw64\bin).
4. Copy the four files in the folder GL under include to the mingw64/include/GL directory (by default, this should be C:\msys64\mingw64\include\GL).
5. Copy the two x64 a (libfreeglut.a and libfreeglut_static.a) files from lib to the mingw64/lib directory (by default, this should be C:\msys64\mingw64\lib).

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Mac Installation Specifics

Install XCode with C++ Compiler

1. Launch the MacOS Terminal application. In case you are unfamiliar with this, it is a tool that allows you to type in commands and get their results as text output. You will be using the Terminal intermittently during the course. Type [command]+space to bring up Spotlight Search and type terminal. Press [return] to launch.
2. To install the basic C++ compiler and utilities, type xcode-select --install and hit [return]. When you do this, it will prompt you to confirm installation. From this point on, the installation is graphical. You will see a download window showing download and installation progress.
   • Note the option Get Xcode. Xcode is Apple's integrated development environment for developing software for its computers, phones, and other devices. If you find that interesting, go ahead and download it! However, it is not needed for the course, it is a very large download (9+ GB), the install takes longer, and you can always download it again later.

Optional: Install OpenGL and GLUT

There is no need to install anything other than the above to get OpenGL working on a Mac. However, instead of including <GL/glut.h>, you will need to include <GLUT/glut.h> where ever appropriate. Also, note that not all features (especially advanced concepts like materials and textures) may not work properly.

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Linux (Raspbian) Installation Specifics

Install Visual Studio Code (Code-OSS)

1. If you've previously installed code-oss andit is not working properly (installs other than version 1.29), you'll need to purge it prior to starting:

   sudo apt-get purge code-oss
   

2. Download GPG signing key from PackageCloud: https://packagecloud.io/headmelted/codebuilds/gpgkey
3. Import GPG key

   gpg --import /home/pi/Downloads/headmelted-code-oss-0CC3FD642696BFC8.pub.gpg
   gpg --list-keys
   

4. Install the PackageCloud repository for code-oss

   curl -s https://packagecloud.io/install/repositories/headmelted/codebuilds/script.deb.sh | sudo bash
   

5. Install code-oss

   sudo apt-get install code-oss=1.29.0-1539702238
   

6. Tell apt to hold at version 1.29, since 1.32 doesn't work properly

   sudo apt-mark hold code-oss
   

Install GLUT

1. From the terminal, simply type:

   sudo apt-get install freeglut3-dev g++