Tools55: Free Compiler and Linker Tools IDE Integration AddOn

• By Karst Drenth, Apeldoorn The Netherlands
• E-mail: karst@roccare.nl

This toolset is based on the "exaddon.ide" project from:

$env(BCROOT)\EXAMPLES\IDE\ADDON\TESTBED (BCROOT is C:\BORLAND\BC5 on my machine)

The objective to write this AddOn was a mail from Jogy, complaining about the hard way to find a normal tool command line string to let the Free 5.5 tools work. Also his, Kalin's and my problem is, that the way described give poor integration in the IDE 5.02.

With creating this AddOn I think I can accomplish total and tight integration, as well as complete MPD settings (Option Pages) transfer for every project node's settings.

To use this AddOn read on... (please)

Getting Started

Note: The Copy and Register steps are automatically performed by the installation.

• Copy "Tools55.dll" to "$env(BCROOT)\bin".

• For registering your DLL at install time, add your AddOn DLL key in the registry under the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
 SOFTWARE
  Borland
    Borland C++
     5.0
      IDE
       AddOns
        Tools55

Key: "Tools55"
 Value: "Path"     Data: "c:\bc5\bin\tools55.dll"
 Value: "Enabled"  Data: "Yes"

• During development, you can use "addonreg.exe" to quickly add, delete, enable and disable addon registry entries (or to see exactly what the entry should look like).

• After setup, create an evironment variable BC55ROOT to point to the location of the 5.5 executables. This variable will be used by Tools 5.5 by default.

Look at the Tools menu, there are 6 brand-new "5.5 Tools" appearing. Then check them out by selecting Options | Project, Options | Environment or right-click a node and select "Edit Local Options".

History

Version 1.0.0   03/03/2000
    Initial AddOn test version, does nothing but registering the
    tools and shows some messages during execution.

Version 1.0.1   03/06/2000
    Added Option Pages for: Environment; General settings.
    Added Option Pages for: Project; Compiler settings.
    ALL WITH FULL LocalOverride capabilities AND SAVED in .ide !

Version 1.0.2   03/07/2000
    Preliminary test of running the compiler without options, except
    -I from Project|Directories|Include,
    -D from Project|Compiler|Defines and
    BCC32.EXE from Environment|Tools 5.5|BCC32
    Note ! NO $env() expansions yet, still to be done

Version 1.0.3   03/08/2000
    Added (by Jogy) the Optimization Chapter

Version 1.0.4   03/10/2000
    Compiler is operational ! Only warnings not done yet
    Added "Bulletin" banners to Summary pages

Version 1.0.5   03/12/2000
    Improved the compiler, should work correctly now (including
    correct -o option)
    Added Preferences page to Environment|Tools 5.5, now includes default
    usage of 5.5. tools, including swapping of all the nodes in the project
    Added preliminary linker version, no options yet, other than
    -L -Tp? -I. Does include all dependencies (.obj, .lib, .def, .res).

Version 1.0.6   03/13/2000
    Added CPP Option pages
    Added Linker pages
    Completed running the linker with all applicable options

Version 1.0.7   03/13/2000
    Added Message pages
    Completed running the compiler with message (-wxxx) options
    Linker also recognizes AppExpert as an .exe

Version 1.0.8   03/14/2000
    Added Library pages
    Added Resource pages (not functional)
    Implemented Librarian

Version 1.0.9   03/15/2000
    Added Device Driver option to Linker page
    Added __msfastcall to compiler calling conventions
    Added Microsoft Visual C++ compatibility
    Added old-style Borland C++ structure layout
    Re-enabled Template generation options
    Added "dirty-editor" checker to RC and C/C++ compiler
    Added preliminary autodependency generator

Version 1.0.10  03/16/2000
    Added autodepchecker which reads from the .obj files just compiled
    Added "Abort" capability by pressing "Cancel"
    Basically completed the project for first release.

Version 1.0.11  03/18/2000
    Added About page including credits.
    Re-engineered the toolswitching algorithm between standard and 5.5 tools
    Modified the link and lib dependency checker, to also include nested
    targets, runtime-nodes without extension and sourcepools.
    Added "5.5 LinkLibrary" tool to support the above. (sets -Gi option on
    linker always automatically, and converts OutputLocation to .dll/.exe
    instead of .lib)
    Cleaned-up sources, headers to make full use of pch's

Version 1.0.12  03/19/2000
    Added preliminary and experimental TargetExpert page (does nothing)

Version 1.0.13  03/20/2000
    Fixed problem with "textlimit" in BRC32.exe field
    Completed classes for Target Expert pages, settings are save,
    node addition and deletion still has to be done.

Version 1.0.14  04/02/2000
    Changed autodependency checker for .rc's
    Changed Auto tool conversion to 5.5 to work only on Win32 targets,
    except when explicitly a 5.5 target has been created.
    Changed startup tool registering, now without tool conversion. This only
    happens now when modified in Preferences page after user presses OK
    Finally got Target Expert to work a bit, still needs property settings
    back in the project's nodes (like Image model, debugging etc.)

Version 1.0.15  04/02/2000
    Added -tW,-tWD, -tWC, -tWM to the compiler options to control the
    built-in predefined macro's: __DLL__ __MT__ and __CONSOLE__
    Options are taken from either the TargetServer or TX_xxx55_MODEL and
    TX_xxx55_MT properties of one of the Tools 55 targets (xxx is either APP
    or DLL). Todo: have to respect TX's settings about the model
    (GUI/Console) when linking, now still has to be set at the
    Linker's option page.

Version 1.0.16  04/04/2000
    Fixed some problems with "original" Target Expert targets, keeping
    history after being converted to 5.5 targets
    Added code to prefix Options|project|directories|Source during
    compilation

Version 1.1.0  04/11/2000
    Second Release version. This version has some known caveats:
    1) Although the "Source Directory" from Options|Project|Directories is
    obeyed by the compiler's and the linker, It may occur that the IDE it
    self cannot find the source by double clicking in the project tree.
    2) The compiler hase some problems finding-out to whether or not create
    a multitrhreaded .obj. Due to this fact I advise to change the
    "Original" target to a 5.5 counterpart.
    3) There are no provisions yet to create .lib's with an appropriate
    5.5 Target.
    4) After adding a node to a target, one still has to change manually to
    a 5.5 translator. This also happens when changing from original to 5.5
    targets. Prefered way of working:
    - Open original project,
    - Check Options|Environment|Preferences|Use as Default,
    - press OK (All translators will be changed)
    - Change the target to a 5.5 target
    - Optionally UN-check the option mentioned above, the automatic transfer
      will not have effects anymore on 5.5 targets
    5) When changing .dll targets to 5.5 .dll target, it's translator is
    changed to <5.5 LinkTarget> UNCONDITIONALLY. If you had <LinkLibrary>
    before, please change it by hand to <5.5 LinkLibrary>, otherwise no
    importlib will be created.

    Althoug the above may be enough reason to not use this version of
    Tools 5.5, I think it's a major improvement on the original release.

Version 1.1.1  05/20/2000
    On request of "bullock@mrcmry.com" (Greg) made error messages split
    across more than one line to prevent :
    !! Internal IDE Error: <Message formatting has failed for this message>

Version 1.1.2  07/03/2000
    Modified by Greg Bullock to partly emulate the IDE's internal compiler's
    treatment of white space in the Options:Compiler:Defines.
    With previous versions of the command line compiler, and I'm assuming
    this is true for 5.5 as well, the defines for the C++Compiler and the
    ResourceCompiler couldn't have white space.  But the
    Options:Compiler:Defines dialog allows the user to enter white space.
    Moreover, with the IDE compiler, carriage return/line feed combinations
    are legal and interpreted to be semicolons. This partly emulates that
    behavior by replacing initial white space characters with ';' and removing
    any adjacent white space.

Version 1.1.3  07/07/2000
    Modified by Greg Bullock to emulate the IDE's internal compiler's
    treatment of the source path.  Tools55 now permits the source path to
    be a "search" path, with multiple directories delimited by ';'.

Version 1.1.4  07/08/2000
    Re-combined Greg's changes into this version, changed About's
    Credits-Box to scrollable edit control.

Version 1.1.5  03/13/2001
    Incorporated Leo Sutic's fix of an exception which occurs when 
    creating New Project and selecting 5.5 exe or dll target.
    Changed the default paths to "$env(BC55ROOT)\bin\*"
    Fixed by Jogy a problem that targets with staticaly linked libraries
    are compiled always with multithreading regardless of the target settings.

Version 1.1.6  03/13/2001
    Added CodeGuard support in the options pages. It requires CG32.DLL and CG32.LIB
    from C++ Builder 5. The library and DLL from Borland C++ 5.x won't work!
    To turn on CodeGuard for a target it must be checked in the Target Expert options
    (either 5.5 or the standard), and also in the Compiler Options in the page for 
    CodeGuard all options must be checked. To remove CodeGuard, all of these must
    be manualy unchecked. This will be automated in the next version. 

Version 1.1.7  01/17/2002
    Fixed a bit the Compiler Options CodeGuard page - now when CG is turned off, 
    the three other options are grayed, and don't have to be turned off manually,
    like in the first version.

Version 1.1.8  05/29/2002
    In Options/Environment/Tools 5.5 added new field, which allows to specify additional 
    options to bcc32.exe

Version 1.1.9  06/24/2002
    Fixed a minor bug in Tools 5.5 Environment Options - they used the environment 
    variable BC55ROOT, but the instalation sets the variable BCC55ROOT.

Have fun, Karst.