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Subject: Re: Slightly OT: Visual C++ 2005 Express Questions

Author: Omid David Tabibi

Date: 12:27:52 09/22/04

Go up one level in this thread


On September 22, 2004 at 11:49:57, Omid David Tabibi wrote:

>On September 22, 2004 at 10:55:42, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On September 22, 2004 at 07:53:03, Omid David Tabibi wrote:
>>
>>>On September 22, 2004 at 01:36:40, Eugene Nalimov wrote:
>>>
>>>>On September 21, 2004 at 17:35:48, Omid David Tabibi wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On September 21, 2004 at 11:54:25, Eugene Nalimov wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On September 21, 2004 at 04:26:22, GeoffW wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Hi
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I thought I would download the new : Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition beta to
>>>>>>>have a tinker with. It is proving trickier than expected to get my chess program
>>>>>>>to compile and run. Any help and tips would be appreciated please
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Q1
>>>>>>>This is not a stopper but would like an explanation
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>warning C4996: 'sprintf' was declared deprecated
>>>>>>>        D:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\include\stdio.h(285) : see
>>>>>>>declaration of 'sprintf'
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I am getting this deprecated warning on lots of standard C function calls ? How
>>>>>>>can a standard C function be possibly not supported in the future ?
>>>>>>>Unless I am misunderstanding the meaning of deprecated ?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>sprintf() is unsafe due to at least 2 reasons:
>>>>>>* possible buffer overrun,
>>>>>>* there is no runtime arguments type checks.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I doubt it ever will be eliminated as it is part of the standard, but it's
>>>>>>possible that in the future you'll have to use special compiler command-line
>>>>>>option to be able to use it. E.g. something like -Unsecure.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>We are shipping Secure C Run-Time library as part of VS 2005.
>>>>>
>>>>>What about the "programmer always knows what he is doing" philosophy of C? Using
>>>>>an "-Unsecure" flag to compile C is kind of funny, as the whole C language is
>>>>>"unsecure"...
>>>>
>>>>So you think C compiler should never emit warnings? After all, "programmer
>>>>always knows what he is doing", so compiler should just silently compile the
>>>>source, right?
>>>
>>>Giving warnings is all right. Quite to the contrary in fact, I believe the more
>>>the warnings, the better. My problem is not with the warnings, but with the
>>>"-Unsecure" flag. I don't think it is logical that a correctly written C code
>>>would not compile, unless some irregular compiler flag is used. It makes more
>>>sense to have a "-Secure" flag, for people who would like to consider those
>>>warnings as errors.
>>>
>>
>>
>>I'd stick with Eugene here.  I'd rather get flagged for something that looks
>>suspicious, and have to take explicit action to get away with it, rather than to
>>accept known problematic code unless the user is sophisticated enough to specify
>>that such code should produce a diagnostic.  The inexperienced programmer needs
>>all the help he can get.  The experienced programmer will already be playing
>>with compiler options for optimization tricks...
>
>A code that complies with ANSI C should compile with default compiler options.
>The warnings should be put in form of warnings, not errors.

As an example, a few months ago when I compiled my program with gcc on Linux, I
got the unsafe warning regarding "gets". It was nice to know that this function
is unsafe, and I wish MSVC would have generated similar warning. However, I
didn't have time to investigate the function at the time (being sure that I used
it correctly). A few days later, I studied gets in more detail and found that in
some parts of my program replacing it with fgets would be better.

However, had I seen that the compiler refused to compile my original code
because of an "unsafe" gets, I would be wondering what the hell is wrong with
this compiler that cannot compile a code perfectly complying with ANSI/ISO C.


>
>
>
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>Thanks,
>>>>Eugene
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Q2
>>>>>>>After having got it to build with some warnings but no errors I hit F5 to run
>>>>>>>but it comes up with the following error
>>>>>>>"The application failed to start because the Application configuration is
>>>>>>>incorrect. Reinstalling the Application may fix this problem ?"
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Is it telling me to install my program again, surely it is not telling me to
>>>>>>>reinstall Visual Studio again ? It doesnt give me any furher clues as to what
>>>>>>>the configuration problem might be. I did wonder if having an older version of
>>>>>>>VS on this PC might be screwing it up in some way ?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Please verify that msvcr80.dll was copied into \windows\system32 directory.
>>>>>>Otherwise I have no ideas, as I am not a "setup person". You can ask a question
>>>>>>or report a bug at http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Thanks,
>>>>>>Eugene
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Thanks for any ideas
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>        Regards Geoff



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