Setting both Debug and Release settings in Visual C++ 2008

Question

A common mistake when configuring the compilation/linking/etc. settings in VC++ 2008 is to set them in Release but not Debug (or vice versa) rather than setting them for "All Configurations". Any suggestions on how to avoid this kind of mistake?

Some beginnings of ideas that I have:

• Find a way to make VC++ go to the "All Configurations" settings by default when you open the property pages rather than the active (Release / Debug) settings.

• Have a VB script that can be run (inside or outside VC++) to check the project settings and raise any inconsistencies detected.

Answer 1

You can generate .vsproj files with CMake or Scons or similar cross platform build system.

Answer 2

We recently switched to Qt's build (qmake) tool which is capable of generating both makefiles (used in batch product build) as well as project (.vcproj) files when working on individual projects.

The nice thing about it is that we have enforced all settings one could ever wish for beforehand once for all available build targets (i.e. we have debug, release and non optimized release) and have forgotten about manipulating settings ever since.

Answer 3

vb or js script is perfectly ok for the task. Just dont forget to teach it that some settings should differ, such as preprocessor defines, or used runtime libraries.