MFC8 grmbl

Muji-FightR · #1 03-01-2007, 08:15

Heya,
I lately started having a look at C++ again, now I finally managed to find something worth coding and I have some strange problems with that goddamn MFC and the MSVCR.

Coding is fine and it compiles and runs on my comp properly.
I then gave the app to some dudes via ICQ and IRC and it didn't run for about 9/10 of them :/
The problem seems to be up to the manifest that the compiler adds to the exe:

Quote:

If I remove the VC80.MFC entry it says it can't find mfc80.dll, well I copied the dll from the VStudio redist folder to system32 and it works.
But if I also remove the VC80.CRT dependency it crashes with an error message like "unable to start blah 0x80000003".
I debugged the app and I stopped at a DebugBreak() probably inside the Windows Loader's actions.
It seems to load the MSVCR8.DLL but after DLLInit the DLL returns a string similar to "[...] trying to load msvcr8.dll in an inaccurate way. [...] exit".

Why is that ? What is the assembly needed for ? I always thought an Import table entry for the DLL is enough :/

I found out how to 'fix' the problem, I simply bound the whole static MFC library to the app, making it 3 times as big x(

Is there any other way to ensure compatible with most Windows version ?

Quall999 · #2 04-01-2007, 04:40

What version of Visual Studio are you using?

The file you are talking about is a manifest to the .net CLR libraries. If you are using (or including) anything that is part of the CLR library, then the manifest will be created. You can remove the CLR library options from your project, but anything .net related and probably (dunno for sure) GUI related will no longer be supported.

If you want to remove CLR (and required manifest), go into the properties of the project and set the Common Language Runtime support to "none" (probably found in the general tab).

If you don't want to have to lug around the mfc80.dll, then you can include it statically by changing the Use/Include MFC option to "statically", or something along the lines of that. It's also usually found in the general tab. Your exe will become much bigger, but you won't have to give it with your program in seperate files.

Joe Forster/STA · #3 04-01-2007, 05:52

I'm not sure what exactly you're trying to do but I'm not going to waste either time or money to buy or install or use such monolithic dinosaurs!

For developing my own Unix-style pipe stages, I'm using MinGW - Minimalist GNU for Windows (the downloads are confusing; install this for a not-so-recent but properly working-out-of-the-box release!), which is about 30-50 Megabytes, has no IDE of its own, and programs compiles with it use the MSVCRT.DLL rather than a custom one (see CYGWIN1.DLL for CygWin). I think, with proper libraries, it should be able to compile graphical stuff, too. (Or, if it doesn't, use CygWin instead.) I'm sure a graphical IDE also exists for these.

Just an idea...

Muji-FightR · #4 04-01-2007, 13:16

@Quall999: Not sure if you read my post lol
Anyway, I'm using VS2005 or VS 8 (Pro), dunno what it's actually called.
And it's not some C++ .NET nor does it have anything to do with the CLR, not at all, plain simple C++

And I removed the CLR support, that's what I first thought, too so i removed it instantly :/

As I said, binding the whole MFC is not my intention, well I'd do it if there's no other solution, but I think there has to be one ?

@Joe
I think it is an alternative, however I'm a very crappy coder and I'm not even able to properly work with Windows messages and all that, I simply use the MFC handlers such as OnClick etc
So I'm not really able to work with something rather complicated for a newb with about 1 month of coding experience
Nevertheless thanks for the suggestion

Quall999 · #5 04-01-2007, 17:56

oops, I missed the last few lines of your post, probably the most important ones lol.

If you use any MFC library functions, you will either need to bring a copy of the mfc80 dll along with the app, or include it statically like you tried. Your only alternative would be to do what Joe suggested and find an alternative api for events (or gui items). I personally use wxwidgets, but that can get large as well.