Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Hint: Update Visual Studio 6 to 2003 for free and legal !

Author: Daniel Mehrmannn

Date: 09:48:49 04/06/05


HOWTO written by Daniel Mehrmann (v 001)

This is a HOWTO to upgrade your compiler under Visual Studio 6.0 (VC6) to Visual
Studio 2003 (VC2003).

This upgrade is free and legal, because you're owner of a VC6 and MS offer the
VC2003 Tookkit for free.

Well, that was my own idea. I had this idea because i wanted to test more
special CPU optimizion
options and VC6 only support up to x86 pentium CPU. I don't known if somebody
else have/had this idea.


1. First download the Microsoft Visual Toolkit 2003 at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/visualc/vctoolkit2003/ for free.

2. Install this Toolkit with all default options, included that this Kit should
use/set own vars on your system.
   (Then you could use both compiler at the same time if you whish)
3. Create a backup from the following directorys. The pathname could be not the
same as my one because i'm using a
   german version !! Allso the directory names could be not the same (see bin vs
Bin)

   Rookie way:
   -----------
   RootPath is C:\Programme\Microsoft Visual Studio (maybe english versions have
c:\Program files instead of c:\Programme)
   copy C:\Programme\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98 to C:\Programme\Microsoft
Visual Studio\VC98.bak (our backup)
   copy C:\Programme\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin to
C:\Programme\Microsoft Visual Studio\Bin (recursive !!)
   copy C:\Programme\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\lib to
C:\Programme\Microsoft Visual Studio\lib (recursive !!)
   copy C:\Programme\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\include to
C:\Programme\Microsoft Visual Studio\Include (recursive !!)


   Professional way:
   ----------------
   Maybe the experts are now realizing that we're changing our includes files
and maybe some of them have the
   addional SDK 2003 of Microsoft installed (see
http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sdkupdate/)

   At this poiunt do should not copy all stuff. Its enought if you're copy the
bin/lib directory at least. Well,
   i'm sure that you have own vars for your SDK packet and this should be used
by VC6 GUI or must be add under
   the option menu.

4. ready :)

5. A good ieda is to create the follow struct:
   VC98 (This is the current directory which used by VC6
   VC98.v6 (This is our old VC6 (original)
   VC98.v2003 This is our neW VC2003

   Now we could switch between the compilers with copy/rename VC98.* to VC98.

6. Try to compile your program with the GUI. You should see that the compiler
version is now 13.xxx instead 12.xxx

What we're doing?
-----------------

Well, we're changing the command line compiler from VC6 to VC2003. Nothing more.
The GUI will be the same and no updates are needed.


Known problems?
---------------
Yes, there are one big problem. Microsoft changed the debug data format. So our
GUI can't read the
VC2003 debug output. We're only can debug with the command line tools.


Which Version can be updated ?
------------------------------
I only have VC6 professional and it works, but it should with all others
variants too, because the GUI is even the same.


What i need ?
-------------
Well, first you need the Visual Studio 2003 Toolkit from Microsoft.
Download: http://msdn.microsoft.com/visualc/vctoolkit2003/


Can i switch between Vc6 and VC 2003 ?
------------------------------------
Of course. see above ;)

Do i need to change vars in VC6 GUI ?
-------------------------------------
Basicly no.






This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.