I did it!

After a two hour battle, I have successfully compiled my first application. I know it’s not curing cancer, but it was a big step in my plan. Microsoft has not put in a near rage as it decided where to put my files for me, what they should be named, and how they should be linked. But I am now set up correctly to compile the programs I will make in the book I am using.

I will stress to anyone reading this that the Visual C++ express is not build to help you, but instead to be a preview for people who already used previous versions and want to see the new version. I had to go through endless webpages and settings to find out that I needed to load SDK, then link the SDK libraries to the VC++ Express directories, and then edit the corewin_express.vsprops file to get it working. I read to edit the corewin.vsprops an hour earlier and found out later express had a file of its own, but I’ll not get into that frustrating moment.

Ok, so to sum it up. I have built a program and it has showed me it works. I have learned a great deal this past week, but the biggest lesson I have learned is that I have come into learning to program windows applications in the middle of the way you should learn it, and I have to expect a lot of backtracking in the lessons ahead.

A quick thanks to Doc and Adam for a few tips to get me closer. On to chapter 3.