When I compile code on my computer into an executable it runs on my computer. Presumably, if I moved the executable to a similar computer it would also run. How do I determine what the (minimum) hardware and software requirements are for this computer?
you wrote the program so you should already know that information. MS Visual Studio has a program called depends.exe that will show all the DLLs that the program needs, but I don't know of anything that shows the hardware.
As far as hardware goes, the processor needs to be the same number of bits (although some 64 bit processors can run 32 bit applications). Also the processor needs to have the same instruction set, and the same endianess.
For software, any libraries which are dynamically linked must be present on the target machine. Also, the binary executable format needs to be the same. For instance, Windows uses the PE format, whereas Linux uses ELF.
In reality? test it. run your program on as many machines as you can get your hands on. post your app on the web and ask people to test it on their machines.Originally Posted by thetinman
For a beginning project? since beginners projects are usually fairly small, it should run on almost any hardware that supports windows!
"I saw a sign that said 'Drink Canada Dry', so I started"
-- Brendan Behan
Free Compiler: Visual C++ 2005 Express
If you program in C++, you need Boost. You should also know how to use the Standard Library (STL). Want to make games? After reading this, I don't like WxWidgets anymore.Want to add some scripting to your App?
If your project is huge, you probably should have the time/budget/reputation to obtain many test platforms. Otherwise, you probably won't need to run it on multiple platforms anyway.
Note that large, complex programs often depend on machine/platform-specific features, such as APIs, so you shouldn't worry about your Windows app not running on a Mac. You'll need to recompile it for different platforms. That said, you should try to make your code as platform-independent as possible in the first place.
Run it in benchmark mode, then measure the CPU/memory it uses.How do I determine what the (minimum) hardware requirements are for this computer?
So if I compile my code on an Athlon 3700 using the laster MS compiler, it could very well run on an Pentium 200? My concern is that the program might try to use some instruction set that exists on my Athlon, but not on the ancient Pentium.
Can I compile for Macs using MSVC++ or some other Windows compiler?
And by the way, the file itself is a DLL file.
No -- you have to compile it for the target operating system and MSVC is not a cross-compiler. I think MS-Windows is the only os that uses DLLs. They are unusable in *nix and probably MAC too. So attempting to port that DLL to another os will probably entail a 100% rewrite.Can I compile for Macs using MSVC++ or some other Windows compiler?
And by the way, the file itself is a DLL file.
Hi, if the code used in the library is not Windows platform-specific code but general C/C++ code then (*IN THEORY*) all you'd have to do was to compile it again on another platform. Of course almost 100% of the times you'll need to rewrite some code. Apart from all the huge platform differences even subtle differences like function names or arguments will need to be taken care of. Like Sleep() on windows vs sleep() on linux. All those will need to be taken care of.
Cheers
Last edited by LinuxCoder; 04-04-2006 at 06:07 AM.
