Why does the new project wizard work this way?

There are a couple of things I don't understand about the new project wizard (I have only tested the Win32 Smart Device Project variety).

1. Why can't I make an empty static library project The checkbox is grayed out and a ReadMe file is always created. Not very useful at best and annoying when I am moving existing code to VS2005.

2. Why can't I choose not to use precompiled header files if I am making an executable The Microsoft way of doing precompiled headers make everything depend on everything else and it's also intrusive - but that's another discussion. I don't want it, so why do I have to fix that afterwards when there is a checkbox for it

This is with the July CTP Pro.

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Why does the new project wizard work this way?

Itzik Katzav
Hi Troff,

The answers to both of these questions are largely historical as far as I can tell from a brief glance at the code. You should log bugs against the product using the MSDN Feedback Center (Ladybug) if you'd like these features added. There's a reasonable technical explanation for why you can't make an empty static library project, which is that if you don't have any files using the C++ compiler (let's call it VCCLCompilerTool) in your project at project creation time, then it will not be in the tools collection of any of the configurations when the wizard code attempts to change the settings. This means that we would have to leave the compiler tool in a completely uninitialized state, which means that you wouldn't get any of the preprocessor definitions, optimization settings, etc. Given that the cost of taking an empty project and making it a static library project is pretty low (flip one setting on the general configuration settings page), this isn't super high priority. Of course, it's then a pretty easy argument that you shouldn't have any empty project options on the standard project types for this wizard, and that it should instead be its own project type.

For the second question, the main reason that I can see is that making this wizard generate an application that doesn't use precompiled headers requires changes in the code, and we haven't really had any requests for it that I'm aware of. The code was originally written assuming that PCH would always be what you wanted (yes, I realize this is a vicious circle/self-fulfilling prophecy), so it wasn't written to work both ways. It certainly wouldn't be that hard to do, we just haven't had it on the radar. It was observed earlier in the product cycle that PCH was the source of numerous bugs in the wizards

For both of these changes, another reason that they likely haven't been made is that the test cost is much higher than the dev cost, and we are very short on test time. Each new option in the product potentially doubles the test hit for the feature, and the test team would likely kill me if I just randomly added them (actually, at this stage of the product, they would have to get in line to kill me after the release team, the documentation team, etc :)).

Hopefully this response has been at least a little helpful, and we really do love getting feedback (positive and negative) on the product. Thanks,

Jeff Abraham
Visual Studio

Naras

Jeff Abraham wrote:
if you don't have any files using the C++ compiler (let's call it VCCLCompilerTool) in your project at project creation time, then it will not be in the tools collection of any of the configurations when the wizard code attempts to change the settings. This means that we would have to leave the compiler tool in a completely uninitialized state, which means that you wouldn't get any of the preprocessor definitions, optimization settings, etc.

But it just creates a ReadMe file Surely it doesn't use the C++ compiler

Jeff Abraham wrote:
Given that the cost of taking an empty project and making it a static library project is pretty low (flip one setting on the general configuration settings page), this isn't super high priority.

True - that never occured to me as it didn't use to be possible to change the type of a project. I guess I'd get precompiled headers though.

Jeff Abraham wrote:
the test team would likely kill me if I just randomly added them (actually, at this stage of the product, they would have to get in line to kill me after the release team, the documentation team, etc :)).

We all have our crosses to bear. Seriously though, these issues are really minor quirks although I think "I'm right". I'm mostly just curious.

klee310

D'oh! I was leaving the PCH option on, you're right that it only adds the stdafx.* files. The readme won't use the compiler tool, and in fact the compiler tool will still be present in the configuration to change settings on, it's only when you get down to file configurations that this changes (that's a whole other story that I'll blog about someday when I feel like talking about nested hierarchies of settings).

And you are right :)
Why does the new project wizard work this way?

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