C Gauge Programming for FS9 : Win7x64, VS2005

Writing my first gauge and have been working through Dai's sd2gau18.zip tutorial. It was the only FS9 example that I could find and it appears that there might have been others which followed. Would love to have the last version of his tutorial before FSX was introduced but for all I can see, 18 was it. At least so far.

Anyway, I've pulled out a shiny new copy of VS2005 Pro and installed it on a Win7x64 SP1 box. Brought VS2005 up to SP1 but have not applied the SP1 Update for Windows Vista just yet. I was wondering if someone would tell me if that update is needed for gauges to work properly in FS9.

Also and while searching around the web, I've noticed that there aren't many posts with the compiler and the linker options delineated. Now the options I've listed below are working, or should I say, compile without errors. I've placed Dia's Aeromarine Asi gauge into a new variation of the default FS9 C172 and it works.

However, there are now issues with the kneeboard behaving poorly in full screen mode. When using the gauge in full screen mode, the kneeboard hides behind the main panel (or is transparent) and the mouse cursor turns black.

I'm hoping that someone could take a look at the compiler and linker options, especially (Compiler /TC) and (LInker /DEBUG). So as to let me know if there are glaring bugs at startup or if I've missed something important.

Compiler Command Line...

/O2 
/GL 
/D "WIN32" 
/D "NDEBUG" 
/D "_WINDOWS" 
/D "_USRDLL" 
/D "AEROMARINE_EXPORTS" 
/D "_WINDLL" 
/D "_MBCS" 
/FD
/EHsc 
/MT 
/Fo"Release" 
/Fd"Release\vc80.pdb" 
/W3 
/nologo 
/c 
/Wp64 
/Zi 
/TC 
/errorReport:prompt

Linker Command Line...

/OUT:"M:\VS2005\MyStuff\Aeromarine\Release\Aeromarine.gau" 
/INCREMENTAL:NO 
/NOLOGO 
/DLL 
/MANIFEST
/MANIFESTFILE:"Release\Aeromarine.gau.intermediate.manifest" 
/DEBUG 
/PDB:"m:\VS2005\MyStuff\Aeromarine\release\Aeromarine.pdb" 
/SUBSYSTEM:WINDOWS 
/OPT:REF 
/OPT:ICF 
/LTCG 
/MACHINE:X86 
/ERRORREPORT:PROMPT 
user32.lib gdi32.lib kernel32.lib  kernel32.lib user32.lib gdi32.lib winspool.lib comdlg32.lib 
advapi32.lib shell32.lib ole32.lib oleaut32.lib uuid.lib odbc32.lib odbccp32.lib

At this time, my preference is not to use XML gauges until working through their C compliments. Haven't written anything in C for years and am busy remembering. Wish that the FS9 documentation was a bit more than it is as C can be a difficult language when it needs to be.

Please advise and thanks for the help!

To be perfectly honest, while I've dabbled in C, C++ and GDI+ over the years, it's been many years since I last coded any gauges for FS9, FSX or P3D.

I suggest that you join FS Developer and post your question there, as some of the very best C geek coders hang out there. In fact, it seems that nearly everyone involved in FS development has congregate there over the past few years.

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/

Note also the "Sticky Posts" in this forum where I have posted information on how to set up gauge projects in Visual Studio, including the various options for compiling. It may be "old news" but it is still current enough to be some help.

To be perfectly honest, while I've dabbled in C, C++ and GDI+ over the years, it's been many years since I last coded any gauges for FS9, FSX or P3D.

 

I suggest that you join FS Developer and post your question there, as some of the very best C geek coders hang out there. In fact, it seems that nearly everyone involved in FS development has congregate there over the past few years.

 

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/

 

Note also the "Sticky Posts" in this forum where I have posted information on how to set up gauge projects in Visual Studio, including the various options for compiling. It may be "old news" but it is still current enough to be some help.

But Bill, that can't be true as you're still over here! Well, if you have the time, of course u don't have too. But I think it important and helpful to organize the way C components are built for FS9, rather than leave it as a passing fancy. And I did read through the stickies, as well as, the last 15 pages of this forum.

By the way, geeky is not a very succinct term for some of us. Old, maybe, but I've surfed quadruple overhead Threes, Bolsa Chica, and County Line. Watched the Huntington beach pier get clobbered in an El Nino back in the 80's. The waves were taller than the old restaurant and smashed it to bits. Nearly drowned in two feet of washing machine that day. Surfed a bit here in Australia as well.

Well, if you think of something relevant, please let me (everyone) know as I suspect you're full of knowledge and great advice. I've read your work and its a good foundation. Just need to add a few more easy to use shortcuts to get things started. Got MinGW revving-up in the background, waitng for someone to disclose...

EDIT: Bill, just to be clear, I asked the question here because I knew you are here.

I'm over there too! Why am I here at all? Well only because I volunteered to moderate this forum several decades ago. I also was the moderator for the same type of forum at AVSIM, but since activity there has dwindled to a crawl also, almost all mods at AVSIM are now "Global Moderators..." :)

I never actually "used" MinGW at all directly. It was the core engine for a neat program I paid mega-bucks for decades ago called "Easy Gauge." Unfortunately, the two German brothers who authored the program abandoned "Easy Gauge" and left us all us customers in the lurch. I'm still rather annoyed by this, since the program was hardware bound to a specific computer, and cannot be moved to my newest dev computer.

I've had to keep that ancient machine (WinXP) on my LAN so I could at least use it to generate the required .c, .h and .rc files for simple gauge projects. That's why my "tutorials" were based on their peculiar xxxG.c file for the actual gauge code. I could then copy those source files into my Visual Studio Express (which I no longer use) and with a bit of re-working get to compile nicely. I now use Visual Studio 2005 rarely for the same purpose. When that antique computer dies though, so too does Easy Gauge. :(

In any event, I recommended FS Developer because there are far better and more knowledgable C coders there, such as Jonathon (narutokun), Tom Aguilo, and Doug Dawson who're light years beyond my modest skills!

BTW, at the age of sixty-seven I now consider myself to be a "Geeky Old Fart", er... I mean Curmudgeon. Yeah, that's about right!