The difference between visual c + + project and solution

Item:

A project is a container for all the components of a program, which may be a console program, a window based program, or some other program. A program usually consists of one or more source files containing user code, and possibly additional files containing other auxiliary data. All files of a project are stored in the corresponding project folder, and details about the project are stored in an XML file with the extension of. Vcproj, which is also stored in the corresponding project folder. The project folder also includes other folders, which are used to store the output generated when compiling and linking projects.

Solution:

As the name implies, a solution is a mechanism that brings together all programs and other resources that are solutions to a specific data processing problem. For example, the distributed order entry system for enterprise operation may be composed of several different programs, and each program is developed as a project within the same solution. Therefore, the solution is a file folder that stores all information related to one or more projects, so that one or more project folders are subfolders of the solution folder. Information about projects in the solution is stored in two files with. SLN and. Suo extensions. When you create a project, if you do not choose to add the project to the existing solution, a new solution will be created automatically.

When you create projects and solutions, you can add more projects to the same solution. We can add any kind of project to an existing solution, but usually only projects related to existing projects in the solution. Generally speaking, each project should have its own solution, unless we have a good reason not to do so.

When VS2010 creates a project, the default project folder name is the same as the project name, and the folder also holds the files that make up the project definition. If it is not modified, the solution folder has the same name as the project folder, which contains the project folder and the file defining the solution content. The solution folder contains the following four files:

• a file with an. SLN extension that records information about projects in the solution.

• a file with an. Suo extension that records the user options applied to the solution.

• a file with an. SDF extension that records data related to the IntelliSense of the solution. IntelliSense is a tool that provides automatic completion and prompt when entering code in the editor window.

• a file with the. Opensdf extension records information about the status of the project, which is available only when the project is open.

The readme.txt file in the project folder contains a summary of the contents of all files that have been created for the project.

Files created when building a project:

After building the project, you will see a new subfolder, debug, in the solution folder. This folder contains the output generated when you just built the project. This folder contains three files.

•. EXE file: executable

•. Ilk file: used by linker when rebuilding the project, it enables linker to incrementally link to the existing. EXE file according to the target file generated by modified source code, so as to avoid relinking all files every time the program is modified.

. pdb file: contains debugging information, which is used by the program executing in debugging mode. In debug mode, you can dynamically check the information generated during program execution.

There is also a debug directory in the project folder, which contains many files generated during the construction process. You can see what information they contain from the type description of Windows Explorer.

What are the IPCH folder and. SDF files?

The folder of IPCH, and a. SDF file with the same name as the project, and the files under IPCH and. SDF files are large. These files are used by visual studio to save precompiled header files and IntelliSense files. Deleting these files has no impact on the development of the project. What if I want to use precompiled headers and IntelliSense without seeing these boring files?

Tools - > Options - > text editor - > C / C + + > Advanced - > fallback location, where both are set to true

If you set the fallback location, then IPCH and so on will go there. Otherwise, there will be a VC + + folder in the system temp.

Another interpretation of VS2010 solutions and engineering documents:

All files are divided into six parts: solution related files, project related files, application header files and source files, resource files, precompiled header files and compile link generation files.

1. Solution related documents

Solution related files include. SDF files,. SLN files,. Suo files and IPCH folders under the solution folder.