Compiling C code in Windows XP

Question

I have C code that was compiled on Windows NT with Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0. I am porting this code to a new machine using Windows XP. Which IDE is suitable for this? I do not think that MS Visual 6.0 was developed for XP ... Can I just use Visual Studio C ++ to compile C code and keep the same functions?

Answer 1

You can still use Visual Studio 6 with Windows XP.

You can also download Visual Studio C ++ Express

Downloading and installing MinGW may be an option as well as compatible with C.

Answer 2

From your wording, I assume that you already have a later version of Visual Studio than VC6, so yes - you should be able to open any project / solution and continue with a few warnings:

• Be sure to do this with a copy of your project (probably actually a copy of the entire source tree), since VS will offer you to do one-way conversion of the old VC6 project to the new format. Once this is done, you will not be able to open it again in VC6.
• When you try to create a project, you may find compilation errors or links. Most likely, this is due to changes in the C ++ language or the libraries used between the two versions, but if the code was well processed, it should not be too difficult to fix.

But as others have said, yes - VC6 still works fine on XP. The only drawback is that you will not be able to access the newer C ++ language functions or the Windows SDK functions directly.

Good luck

Answer 3

You can download Microsoft Visual C ++ Express Edition for free. This is pretty much what everyone uses on Windows.

Answer 4

Yes, you can use any Visual Studio that you have installed or install on your Windows XP. The code should compile just fine, but there may be some compiler warnings if you use "unsafe" versions of some C functions.

Answer 5

I had good results with LCC-Win32:

http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~lcc-win32/

It is free and takes up only 50 MB of disk space.

Answer 6

MSVC 6 works great on XP. I highly recommend using Service Pack 6, though.

Answer 7

MSVC ++ 2008 Express may be the answer; however, this free version of VC ++ does not support MFC out of the box; you can make it work with MFC libraries from VC ++ 6 (but not with "visual" design tools). However, it will generate Win32 API code and can be used for .NET / Windows Forms applications with visual development capabilities.

If you need MFC, you might be better off sticking with v6.0, which works in XP (get the latest service pack) or a paid version of Visual Studio.

Answer 8

You can use pelles, this is c ide for windows. This compiler is based on lcc.

http://www.pellesc.de/index.php?page=overview&lang=en