76 2. Tools of the Trade
z $(OutDir). The value of the “Output Directory” fi eld specifi ed in this
dialog.
z $(IntDir). The value of the “Intermediate Directory” fi eld in this
dialog.
z $(VCInstallDir). The directory in which Visual Studio’s standard C
library is currently installed.
The benefi t of using macros instead of hard-wiring your confi guration
sett ings is that a simple change of the global macro’s value will automatically
aff ect all confi guration sett ings in which the macro is used. Also, some macros
like $(ConfigurationName) automatically change their values depending
on the build confi guration, so using them can permit you to use identical set-
tings across all your confi gurations.
To see a complete list of all available macros, click in either the “Output
Directory” fi eld or the “Intermediate Directory” fi eld on the “General” tab,
click the litt le arrow to the right of the text fi eld, select “Edit...” and then click
the “Macros” butt on in the dialog that comes up.Debugging Tab
The “Debugging” tab is where the name and location of the executable to
debug is specifi ed. On this page, you can also specify the command-line
argument(s) that should be passed to the program when it runs. We’ll discuss
debugging your program in more depth below.
C/C++ Tab
The C/C++ tab controls compile-time language sett ings—things that aff ect
how your source fi les will be compiled into object fi les (.obj extension). The
sett ings on this page do not aff ect how your object fi les are linked into a fi nal
executable or DLL.
You are encouraged to explore the various subpages of the C/C++ tab to
see what kinds of sett ings are available. Some of the most commonly used set-
tings include the following.
z General Tab/Include Directories. This fi eld lists the on-disk directories that
will be searched when looking for #included header fi les.
Important: It is always best to specify these directories using relative
paths and/or with Visual Studio macros like $(OutDir) or $(IntDir).
That way, if you move your build tree to a diff erent location on disk or to
another computer with a diff erent root folder, everything will continue
to work properly.
z General Tab/Debug Information. This fi eld controls whether or not debug
information is generated. Typically both debug and release confi gura-