Why change from CVF6.6c to Intel VF? - gains V losses

[anthonyrichards]

As an old user of DevStudio running Compaq Visual Fortran, I have found it fine for developing GUI programs (with much help at timesfrom Jugoslav Djugic's XLOGM code and advice and from other posters). Every now and then I get to thinkingmaybe I should get a bit more up-to-date and change to the Intel Fortran compiler. However, I have been jolted recently by a couple ofissues with IVFthat have appeared here that have reinforced my reluctance to do so.

Firstly, there would seem to be no resource compiler in the latest integration with Visual Studio used to run IVF, is that correct? If so, this is a massive loss to developing dialogs as far as I can see. Related to this, apparently the resource.hwas not automatically converted to resource.fd anyway. Is this also correct? (This objection would appear to be rendered irrelevant nowif the resource editor has disappeared anyway...)

Secondly, a recent post from Paul Curtis states that dependency checking ( and therefore updating) has never worked in IVF. Is this also correct?

Thirdly, there appears to be no simple analogues to the straightforward DevStudio 'compile..' 'Build..', 'Rebuild all' commands. Is this also correct?

These are just a few of the issues (there are more I am sure) that really make IVF (and Visual Studio, which I guess Intel cannot control)seem in important respects to take backward steps: not exactly what one is looking for in an 'upgrade'. Perhaps someone from Intel can put the record straight here on these points?

[Jugoslav_Dujic]

anthonyrichards:

Firstly, there would seem to be no resource compiler in the latest integration with Visual Studio used to run IVF, is that correct?

Partially. This is true for Visual Studio Premier Partner Edition (VS PPE) which comes bundled with IVF10. If you have a VS.NET 2003 or VS.NET 2005 purchased and installed previously (as was a prerequisite for previous IVF's), IVF will integrate with it normally, with resource editor available.

anthonyrichards:

Related to this, apparently the resource.hwas not automatically converted to resource.fd anyway. Is this also correct?

No. However, IVF integration into VS is less tight than CVF's, so it may happen under certain circumstances that the "custom build step" used for resource.h->fd translation is not added automatically. If that happens, you can always add the custom build step yourself (I'm not sure if it's applicable to VS PPE, but the question is moot, as you noted).

anthonyrichards:

Secondly, a recent post from Paul Curtis states that dependency checking ( and therefore updating) has never worked in IVF. Is this also correct?

No. I'm not sure what happened to Paul and I feel sympathetic for him, but the dependency checking has been working flawlessly for me, and for most other users AFAICT.

anthonyrichards:

Thirdly, there appears to be no simple analogues to the straightforward DevStudio 'compile..' 'Build..', 'Rebuild all' commands. Is this also correct?

No. VS.NET 2003/2005 has a bit different approach to solution building, but the commands are available. There was an issue with "single-file compile" in previous IVF integrations, but the last versions work for me flawlessly. VS.NET 2005 is much of an improvement to 2003 (well, in the sense that it feels more like the always-missed VS6). I, like many other users, feel that MS went couple of steps backwards in the VS6->VS.NET transition (rather than modernizing and fixing the VS6, they tried a significantly different approach more suited for VB programmers, somewhat fixed in VS2005), but it's still a fine and usable IDE.