How do you separate a program from the compiler?
That title may be confusing. What I'm trying to figure out is how do I take a program that I've created in my compiler(Visual Studio), and separate it from the compiler so that it can run outside of the compiler, like a normal program. Let's say I create a program that helps kids learn times tables-- I've got it written and tested and it works-- now how do I take it from my compiler and make it a stand alone program that I can put online and share with people, or put on a thumb-drive and give to someone, or put on my computer and run it as it's own program without the compiler? Does that question make sense? For instance, I have Microsoft Word on my computer, but I don't have to open up a compiler like Visual Studio to run it-- I just find the program in my list of programs, double click, and it opens. How do you get a written program out of the compiler to be a stand alone program?
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It looks like there's some fundamental confusion about what tools are what.
Microsoft Visual Studio isn't just a compiler. It's an IDE, or "integrated development environment". The idea is that it puts everything you need to develop software in the same place, and presents a consistent GUI for all of it. So aside from a compiler, MSVS contains a text editor, a debugger, source-control integration, RC editor, profiler, navigator, build system, and quite a few other miscellaneous tools a developer will theoretically need.
When you click the "build" button (or is it the "debug" button?) the IDE takes all the translation units that have been modified and re-compiles them. The output of the compiler is object code; the object code gets passed into the linker and the linker strings all the object code and static libraries together to create an executable program. The IDE then runs that program and (optionally) attaches a debugger to it.
It's this program that you need to distribute, possibly along with any dependencies. IIRC, MSVC++ requires that the target computer has the correct version of the Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime library is available. This library used to be named
You can find the resulting program somewhere beneath your project's directory.
Microsoft Visual Studio isn't just a compiler. It's an IDE, or "integrated development environment". The idea is that it puts everything you need to develop software in the same place, and presents a consistent GUI for all of it. So aside from a compiler, MSVS contains a text editor, a debugger, source-control integration, RC editor, profiler, navigator, build system, and quite a few other miscellaneous tools a developer will theoretically need.
When you click the "build" button (or is it the "debug" button?) the IDE takes all the translation units that have been modified and re-compiles them. The output of the compiler is object code; the object code gets passed into the linker and the linker strings all the object code and static libraries together to create an executable program. The IDE then runs that program and (optionally) attaches a debugger to it.
It's this program that you need to distribute, possibly along with any dependencies. IIRC, MSVC++ requires that the target computer has the correct version of the Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime library is available. This library used to be named
msvcrXXX.dll where XXX is a version number. You can find the resulting program somewhere beneath your project's directory.
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