beginner question

[tron]

i am new to programming with C and i am trying to make a file that has already been written by someone else. i have the .mak file and the .c file, plus all of the libraries and header files in the right place. however i am not sure how to make the executable. i have Visual Studio as well and I can compile the program file, but i keep getting build errors. any suggestions?

[C_Coder]

can we see the code and the errors?

[Shiro]

Suggestion: give us an overview of the errors you get.

[tron]

i am getting a link error:
LIBC.lib(wwincrt0.obj) : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol _wWinMain@16

i have read about what this error means and have tried a number of different solutions but i can't seem to get things working.

[Shiro]

The linker is missing the main-function. Does a main-function appear in your sourcefiles?

What is your OS?

[Brian]

You need to compile it using a 32-bit windows compiler.

16 bit doesn't support winMain.

[tron]

ya, i have a main function and my OS is 2000. my main is called NotesMain because I am using this with some Notes API stuff.

[Shiro]

>my main is called NotesMain

Your main function MUST be called main.

Example:

int main (int argc, char **argv)
{   
    return 0;
}

[tron]

i don't think that is it. basically the code i have has already been built into an executable so i know that it is correct. i am trying to figure out how to rebuild it (so i can make changes to it). but so far i have been worthless on trying to just get an executable. that is kind of why i asked if having the .mak file would help. i did not know if just by having the .mak and .c files you could get the executable...i guess that was my main question.

[Shiro]

I'm not sure about Visual Studio, but I know from other compilers there is a make-utility which you can use to make your software. You do something like:

make makefile.mak

But according to your error, I'm quite sure it is complaining about a missing main-function. It says:

unresolved external symbol

This often means that a function or variable which is declared as extern is used, but the linker can't find that function or variable.

[tron]

i will try to figure it out. thank you for the help.

[tron]

thank you for all of your insight guys, but i figured it out. since i already had the .mak file i just ran nmake -f fileName.mak and it worked great.