Viewing/editing dual build configurations

[longden_loo]

Is there a tool or method in Visual Studio / IVF that lets you view and edit two or more build configuration settings without having to toggle back and forth between one configuration panel and the other, and to avoid having to cut and paste one setting at a time?

I know the *.v?proj can be manually viewed/edited, but it seems like a simple visual configuration editor would be handy when two build configurations need to be checked for consistency to make sure settings done by one build team gets propagated over to the other build configuration (as appropriate).

I also know that new build configurations can be copied from existing ones, but it seems like they can drift apart over a long period of time unless there was a quick way to compare them periodically.

[Steven_L_Intel1]

Interesting idea. I have not seen anything like that.

[a_leonard]

Are you referring to the project settings for multiple configurations? If so, you can select multiple configurations and apply the same settings to all the configurations you have selected. Any values that are not the same between configurations will show up empty, I believe.

You can do the same thing with multiple projects.

I had one of our developers come up with a Java program to compare the different configurations for several projects and show the differences.

[longden_loo]

Quoting - a.leonard

Are you referring to the project settings for multiple configurations? If so, you can select multiple configurations and apply the same settings to all the configurations you have selected. Any values that are not the same between configurations will show up empty, I believe.

You can do the same thing with multiple projects.

I had one of our developers come up with a Java program to compare the different configurations for several projects and show the differences.

I'm aware you can select and change the same setting for multiple projects in a solution, but how do you select multiple build configurations?

Typically, using the Configuration Manager, a group usually works with a Debug configuration and then later usually a Release configuration ... but AFAIK, only one configuration is editable at any given time in VS.

Please correct me if I'm wrong and explain how to select multiple configurations. Also, is that Java program available for the public or is it proprietary? Since the v?proj file is simply XML, I was thinking it would make a nice little Java project for the weekend ... but I hate re-inventing things.

The bigger surprise is that Intel/MS doesn't already have the tool, unless they're planning that for a future feature since it seems something they must already do themselves now (comparing config settings for different builds of IVF/VS).

[bmchenry]

you CAN open two instances of your project and have one at Debig & one at Release and visually compare/edit them.
However, you can only save the edits to one of them.
It at least allows visually viewing and editing the options.

[a_leonard]

Quoting - longden_loo

I'm aware you can select and change the same setting for multiple projects in a solution, but how do you select multiple build configurations?

Typically, using the Configuration Manager, a group usually works with a Debug configuration and then later usually a Release configuration ... but AFAIK, only one configuration is editable at any given time in VS.

Please correct me if I'm wrong and explain how to select multiple configurations. Also, is that Java program available for the public or is it proprietary? Since the v?proj file is simply XML, I was thinking it would make a nice little Java project for the weekend ... but I hate re-inventing things.

The bigger surprise is that Intel/MS doesn't already have the tool, unless they're planning that for a future feature since it seems something they must already do themselves now (comparing config settings for different builds of IVF/VS).

In the "Property Pages" dialog, the dropdown menu for "Configuration" should have "Multiple Configurations..." at the bottom.

I don't think I can give you the Java program, but here is what I asked for:

Parse the *.sln file and make a list of *.vfproj files to analyze.
Read all *.vfproj files (which are XML) and
1) make a list of all configurations,
2) make a list of all compiler options (attributes of the element "Tool" when the value of "Name" is "VFFortranCompilerTool").
For each *.vfproj file, make a table of the values of each compiler option for each configuration. Then create a table of "standard settings" using the most common values for the different projects and modify the tables for each configuration to only show the differences from the "standard".
Repeat the process for all files that have "FileConfiguration" elements.