Setup Visual Studio Express

Setup Visual C++ (2008)

Visual C++ Express Edition is a integrated development environments (IDE) developed by Microsoft that is a lightweight version of the Microsoft Visual Studio C++ product line. The idea of express editions, according to Microsoft, is to provide streamlined, easy-to-use and easy-to-learn IDEs for users other than professional software developers, such as hobbyists and students.

Download and install

Download the webinstaller from the Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition Website and run it. Go through the installer wizard - Visual C++ will be downloaded and installed accordingly. Alternatively you could download the whole DVD containing the complete Visual Studio 2008 Express Edition set (scroll to the bottom) to install the tools offline.

Setup

To configure and compile plplot with MinGW it is best to use the Windows CLI. Please follow the instructions in [setup_cli Setup CLI] to get the Windows Command Line Interface ready for development. Then open your favorite text editor and enter the following CLI commands

@echo off

rem setup MinGW compiler
set MINGWDIR=C:\MinGW-4.3.1
set PATH=%MINGWDIR%\bin;%PATH%

rem setup PLplot library
set PLPLOTDIR=path_to_plplot
set PLPLOT_LIB=%PLPLOTDIR%\data
set PATH=%PLPLOTDIR%\dll;%PATH%

and save this to e.g. mingwvars.bat. If you installed the MinGW 3.4.5 command line tools, exchange in the script 4.3.1 with 3.4.5 (twice). Start you Windows CLI, cd into the directory where the batch file was saved and run mingwvars.bat. Run gcc --version, gfortran --version and gnat to see if everything works. Your MinGW developing environment is now ready.