windows.h

[harmonson]

hi, im trying to get started with some basic chooks. unfortunatly i dont have microsoft visual c++, so i am trying to use borland. when i go to compile my program, it tells me it can not open the header file windows.h. where can i get this file from, or why am i getting this error? thanks.

[harmonson]

never mind, i found that file, sorry. but now i am getting 3 other errors. the first two are from the m_vars.h file, and they say:

"redefinition of 'FALSE' is not identical", and i get the same error for true.

the third error i get is from the m_lvars.h file, and it says:

"undefined symbol in 'PATH_MAX'"

is there anyway i can fix these errors? thanks again.

[ProductDevelopmentGuy]

No need to worry about the 1st two. You have to add

#include

to use PATH_MAX.

PDG

 

[harmonson]

#include what?

i have included: m_vars.h, m_ncvars.h, m_menu.h, m_io.h, m_dbm.h, m_init.h

what am i missing?

thanks

 

[Mark H]

#include limits.h to use PATH_MAX

PDG had HTML on so the limits.h did not print out. When he typed it out it was surrounded by brackets.

[harmonson]

i tried including limits.h, but it still gave me the same error... it occurs in about 9 different places, twice in m_lvars.h, and the rest in m_avars.h

[Bullines]

Which Borland product and version are you using? Borland C++? Borland C++ Builder?

[harmonson]

borland c++ version 3.1

[Bullines]

Wow, that goes way back

Are you using extern when declaring Mastercam header files?

[This message has been edited by Bullines (edited 07-09-2001).]

[harmonson]

no, i hadn't been. i tried it, by typing extern #include "headerfile" but it said the #key was invalid, so i took it out, and it still didnt like it. i am probably using it wrong... thanks.

[Bullines]

To use extern, it looks something like this:

code:

---

// include Mastercam headers

extern "C"

{

#include "m_vars.h"

#include "m_ncvars.h"

#include "m_menu.h"

#include "m_io.h"

#include "m_dbm.h"

#include "m_init.h"

}

// now declare other C++ headers that

// you need like "limits.h", "math.h", etc...

---

Because the Mastercam headers are C-based, most (if not all) C++ compilers will usually mangle them and report errors in those headers; hence the need for extern. Hope this helps.

[This message has been edited by Bullines (edited 07-10-2001).]

[harmonson]

thanks bulliness. i put that in, still got the error, so i opened up my limits header file, and path_max doesnt exist in it. do you know what it should be set to? thanks.

[Bullines]

That's odd that PATH_MAX isn't defined in your "limits.h" header file. In my "limits.h" file that shipped with Borland C++ Builder 3 SP1 and Microsoft Visual C++ 6 SP5, PATH_MAX are defined as follows:

#define PATH_MAX 512

However, in "m_lvars.h" that ships with the Mastercam SDK, it's defined as follows:

#define PATH_MAX 259

You could try these to see which one makes the compiler happy. But are you actually using PATH_MAX in your C-Hook? PATH_MAX defines the maximum number of bytes in a pathname. If you are using it and you still have problems, maybe try hard-coding a path size instead, like this:

code:

---

char* szYourPath[256]; // instead of char* szYourPath[PATH_MAX]

---

Also, since you're using an old compiler, you may be interested in using Borland's latest. It's a free download from http://www.borland.com/bcppbuilder/freecom...ppc55steps.html , but it's only the compiler; there's no IDE. But if you combine it with a descent text editor, such as WinEdit, you'll have a low-cost and up-to-date C++ development environment.

[harmonson]

yea, im not sure why i need PATH_MAX either. im just trying to learn this stuff, so what i was doing was trying to compile the sample file shapes.cpp, and that is giving me all of these errors.

i downloaded the latest compiler, thanks a lot, i think i like it better... i am actually getting some new errors now... (it is never ending, sorry)

for some reason i dont have the stdafx header file. i dont even know what this one is for, although that doesnt say much...

the other new errors i get are with the stdlib header file, it says "templates and overloaded operators cannot ahve C linkage.

any ideas? thanks for all your help.

 

[Bullines]

If it's Shapes that you're playing around with, there's a good reason for the errors. It all centers around the use of MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes). MFC is an application framework for Microsoft Visual C++. It provides controls like dialogs, toolbars, buttons, etc and various mechanisms for tedious programming tasks (such as I/O stuff). The Shapes C-Hook is an MFC-based Microsoft Visual C++ project. Any newer C-Hooks that have a Windows-type interface are MFC-based. The only Borland product that supports MFC is Borland C++ Builder (not totally 100% either) along with Borland's own VCL. I'm almost certain that the only framework plain 'ol Borland C++ can support is OWL. I've never gotten a single C-Hook to work with OWL or VCL yet and just stick with MFC instead. So trying to compile an MFC-based project with Borland C++ won't happen.

To answer a little more, "stdafx.h" is a Visual C++ header for the standard application frame work (it tells Visual C++ which application frameworks or template libraries you're using in your app).

There's a few more sample C-Hooks included with the SDK that don't use an interface and are therefore not dependant on MFC. I'd suggestion trying those ones out first. And when you're ready to develop C-Hooks with interfaces, you could either try with OWL or VCL (which may or may not work), but getting a copy of Visual C++ would be much easier. Hope this helps.

[harmonson]

ahhh... so that would explain it. thanks a lot. i will look and see if i can find any that will compile with plain old borland c++... thanks again.

 

 

[Bullines]

No problem. Also don't forget the various compiler settings that you need to take into account. Here are a few of the major ones:

Target: Multithreaded DLL

Calling Convention: _cdecl *

Struct member alignment: 1 Byte

To elaborate, all C-Hooks must be compiled as multithreaded DLLs...yes, must be multithreaded. Using the "_cdecl *" calling convention is a safe bet. Simply put, the calling convention is the way functions are called and how they use arguments, returned values, etc... Structure member alignments are usually 8 bytes in the Windows development world, but for reasons beyond our control, C-Hooks use 1 byte alignment. All of these settings should be avaailable to be changed via the command line or a make file.

Good luck and have fun