Can I use Visual Studio express 2005 with Intel Fortran Compiler?

[sangupta]

I have downloaded an evaluation version of IVF. This is what is given in the getting Started document;

Using the Compiler with Visual Studio

The Intel Visual Fortran Compiler integration (optional installation) is supported with the following versions of the Microsoft Visual Studio integrated development environment:

• Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2002

• Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2005

Can I use the express edition of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005with Intel Fortran Compiler?I am not trying to use the IDE but I am trying to use the compiled object file to create a DLL. To run my application with this custom created DLL, I need some runtime C++ libraries etc. I can see these libraries in the Express ediction also, but am getting a runtime error. And hence the question: Can I use the Microsoft Visual Studio Express edition?

Thanks,
Sandeep.

Message Edited by sangupta@gmail.com on 06-07-200604:28 PM

[TimP]

If you want help, you will have to divulge some specifics of your problem. As you read, ifort is not formally supported with express, so you take on some risk yourself. Successes using ifort with express command line have been reported, but we have no way of guessing exactly what you are trying to do.

[Steven_L_Intel1]

If you have Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition, then you can install Intel Visual Fortran 9.1, but you have access to the command line build environment only. You cannot use the Visual Studio IDE for Fortran development or debugging. This is a Microsoft restriction.

Note that there is no longer really such a thing as "Visual Studio 2005 Express" - there is a collection of individual language packages that you can install. The only one we support is Visual C++.

For full functionality, you need the Standard Edition or higher of Visual Studio.

Message Edited by Steve_Lionel on 06-07-2006 08:56 PM

[sangupta]

Steve,

Thanks for your reply. I am using Microsoft Visual C++ express IDE. I am actually only using the command line compile for ifort and not using the IDE. However, it seems IVF is somehow dependent on Visual C++ libraries. I have tried to read on MSDN forums but with no success.

What I am doing is to create an object file from a Fortran 90 file. I am then linking this object file to a commercial code called ADAMS to produce a user specific DLL. I get the compilation and linking done.

But when I run the application with the my DLL, it gives me a run-time error of "R6034; Trying to load incorrect run-time C libraries". I read on the discussion group for ADAMS that IVF needs to be installed before Visual Studio, so I thought that this might have to do something with the fact that I have an express version of the Visual C++.

[TimP]

ifort for Windows definitely depends on MS C++ libraries. ADAMS is a complex application, also depending on C++ libraries. It's not hard to imagine a conflict between the expectations of ADAMS for C++ libraries, and the effects brought in by using ifort to link against a different version of C++ libraries. Also, I don't find it difficult to imagine that the owners of ADAMS would decline to support combinations involving link against MS Express or to be supportive of our efforts to make suggestions on how it might work.
I don't understand your comment about installing ifort before Visual Studio. If you do that, you must fix up the ifort configuration yourself in an unsupported manner, or perform a repair installation to get the effect of installing in the normal order.

[Steven_L_Intel1]

Yes, IVF does use the Visual C++ libraries. You may have what we call "Mixed C Library Syndrome". Visual C++ has several different kinds of libraries - static multithread, DLL single-thread, DLL multithread. You need to make sure that your Fortran and C code uses the same set.

Try building the Fortran code with /libs:dll and see if that helps.

[djbenton]

Imagine in your mind a dead pig floating on its back with its feet up in the air so bloated that it's barely identifiable. The legs look like bumps on the surface of an impossibly stretched membrane filled with the most putrid gas imaginable. Now imagine one hundred thousand of these pigs floating in the flood waters of hurricane Floyd in 1999. This is a tiny glimpse of what the term BLOATWARE means when applied to Microsoft Visual Studio .NET! I can appreciate why you wouldn't want to install it. For that matter, why does it take hundreds of megabytes for Intel's compilers? In short, it doesn't. It's just bloat. All you need to run Intel's FORTRAN 9.1 is the following files:

fortcom.exe
ifconsol.lib
ifort.cfg
ifort.exe
ImageHlp.Lib
kernel32.lib
libc.lib
libifcore.lib
libifport.lib
libirc.lib
libm.lib
mspdb70.dll
oldnames.lib
Uuid.Lib
xilink.exe

It's only 22MB total. Install the whole bloated mess, move the necessary files to one directory, then delete all the other crud. Or if you have a valid license I could just send you these necessary files. You must have the license in order to run the compiler.

JUST SAY NO! TO BLOATWARE!

[Steven_L_Intel1]

The Intel compiler product does a lot more than what the files you have show. It includes compilers for three hardware platforms, the Intel Debugger, Visual Studio integration, Win32 API interfaces and documentation. Maybe you don't want them but many others do.

We are, in fact, working on what we call "cafeteria-style downloads" where you can pick and choose which components you want. We already offer a reduced-size download for IA-32 developers.

As for Visual Studio, if you're just doing command-line builds, then the much smaller Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition will do.

[djbenton]

I noticed this when I was installing the Intel packages (FORTRAN, C++, and VTune). I don't mean to complain... after all, beggars can't be too fussy; but I only have one platform, and that's not likely to change. Why would anyone want to install all the stuff for all possible platforms on a single machine? I could see having this as a special option, but not as the default.

By the way. THANKS SO MUCH for having a trial version! It says a lot about Intel's confidence in their product! Test drive it. Take it home. We believe you'll buy it. What a refreshing attitude. I just love it!

[Steven_L_Intel1]

I agree, which is why we started the "subset downloads". The problem is that from our perspective, it is much easier to build and sell a single package that serves all the platforms. If you get the compiler on a CD, it hardly matters, but downloads are another thing.

You don't HAVE to install all the platforms, and in fact if you don't have the proper PSDK support, the EM64T and Itanium compilers won't install.

Again, we recognize the problem and have work in progress to provide leaner downloads and installations. For downloads, you can choose the IA-32 subsets today and save 150MB.

[djbenton]

I selected only the IA32 options at every opportunity and avoided every choice that involved 64 anything; yet I still ended up with folders having names associated with these other platforms filled with files. Oh well. At least disk space is cheap these days.

[djbenton]

sangupta, thanks for suggesting Visual Studio Express! It's about 340MB, still unnecessarily large, but much smaller than the 1.7GB of the standard issue! It's hard to believe that Microsoft did anything "lite" for a change.

[Steven_L_Intel1]

Please note that you want "Visual C++ 2005 Express" (initially, MS did have a "Visual Studio Express" but now that's a blanket term that encompasses the individual language packages.) This will not give you Fortran access to the visual development environment or VS debugger. You can build from the command line and debug using the Intel Debugger (idb).