Introduction

MakeApp does three things:

• Makes a new MFC Doc/View Application
• Makes a new MFC Dialog Application
• Rearranges tThe SlickEdit Build Menu

There are four important tool bar icons:

• The folder icon to specify where the app is to be placed
• The factory icon to open a dialog box in which the name is specified
• The SlickEidt icon to rearrange the SlickEdit Build Menu
• The floppy disk icon to specify saving the SlickEdit project file (i.e. xxx.vpj)

Here is a picture of the app when it starts up:

Selecting (Clicking On) the factory icon yields a Dialog Box to collect some information:

The Project name will be MyApp and this will be the name of the top of the tree directory, the solution directory and the executable file name (i.e. MyApp.exe). Furthermore a few other directories will be created and populated with files:

• MyApp -- Contains the Solution File of the project and the very large almost hiddent Visual Studio file created when the project is compiled.
• MyApp.hlp -- Contains the start for a help file that may be invoked from MyApp.exe
• MyApp.prj -- Contains the source and resource files of the project
• MyApp.wix -- Contains the WixApp source file, MyApp.wxd, which may be used as a starting point for creating a Product.wxs. However, until a Release Executable is created WixApp will not do a very good job.

Note, that MakeApp only produces one project directory for the solution. However, another project directory may be copied to a point parallel to the existing Project Directory and then linked into the solution with the Add Project command in Visual Studio.

Furthermore, when one opens the solution in either VS or SlickEdit one will find another project included in the Solution: Library.vcxproj. The Library Project is located in a directory that is in the same directory as the top of the MyApp tree. The Library contains a few files that have been found to be useful across a number of algorithms. It is organized as a static library and only the classes needed by MyApp will be included in the executable.

Compilling, linking and executing MyApp results in a starter application:

The starter version of the app comes equiped with a toolbar that has a button, drop down menu and a combo box as well as the traditional New File, Open, Save, Option, About and Quit icons that all do something... The author may change all or none of the commands in the app.

The dialog box option in MakeApp produces a single dialog box that contains a tool bar and may be customized as needed.

Reorganize SlickEdit Build Menu

The default build menu in SlickEdit puts the Build Solution way down the drop down menu. The Reorganized puts the Build Solution at the top. The default Build Solution appears where "Add New Build Tool..." appears in the menu when one opens a VS solution.

Reorganized Menu: