[Dev-C++] Large project support

[Timo K S. <tks...@cc...>]

I have a large project, and Dev C++ does not like large
projects. Does anyone know if it is possible to work around
the second problem? I managed to get around the first one.

- The project manager should be aware of the directory
  structure. I have a large project, and the source is
  distributed to several subdirectories.

  While Dev C++ currently allows me to add files from
  multiple directories, it is not a good idea to use
  Dev C++ that way. Dev C++ puts all object files to
  a single directory, and if there are several files
  with same name, some object files get overwritten,
  and I get undefined symbols.

  The project manager should create a copy of the
  source directory structure and place object files
  in the correct copy of the source directory.

  Also the project manager GUI should use treeview
  showing the directory structure instead of the
  current listview. And when I add files to project,
  I certainly do not want it to open each file.

- The building process is way too simplified. Gcc
  links given object files from left to right and only
  picks those symbols which have been referenced so far.
  This means that if there is two-way dependencies,
  simply listing all object files to gcc does result
  undefined symbols.

  A hack to work around this would be to list all
  object files twice. But a complex source can have
  even more complex dependencies, and you may have to
  list the object files three or even more times.

  A better solution is to make a one big library from
  the object files just before linking to executable.
  Then use ranlib to create nice symboltable for the
  library, finally linking the library into executable
  with gcc. This works great for me - when I use gnu
  make manually and not Dev C++.

I was able to work around the first problem, by making
sure my project only had unique source filenames, but
I think there is no way to make current Dev C++ to work
around the second problem :/

There is an example of my current Makefile(.in) at..

http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/glelite/Teddy/src/Makefile.in?rev=HEAD&content-type=text/vnd.viewcvs-markup

..for example of use of ar and ranlib before executable
linking. The project I'm working on is glelite.sf.net


-- Timo Suoranta -- tks...@cc... --