Custom build steps broken in VS 2008 plugin !

It appears that none of the custom-build steps are working in the VS2008 plugin (haven't checked the latest build of the VS2005 plugin but previous ones used to work). It looks like it's trying to compile the custom build command line rather than just execute it.

If you create a new FTN95 project and set up a pre-build step, say running a batch file or just executing a command (I've been using mk32 to run fparam and compile a resource.rc), then try to build, you get something like:

------ Build started: Project: TestCustomBuild, Configuration: Debug .NET ------ Building project TestCustomBuild... Performing pre-build step... [FTN95/Win32 Ver. 5.20.1 Copyright (c) Silverfrost Ltd 1993-2008] Licensed to: xxxx Organisation: xxxx

*** More than one source file specified with names for and Microsoft

1 ERROR [for] - Compilation failed.

Updating References... Compiling file: FreeFormat1.f95 etc...

I don't think I've done anything wrong, and it always worked before. A fix for this would be greatly appreciated.

Alan

Have you tried looking at the build log to see what it is trying to do?

Does your prebuild step use macros that might have changed? I have had a similar problem with VS studio which turned out to be caused by Microsoft putting their tools in a different place.

Macros cannot be used in the implemetation of build steps with the plugin, command lines can (including therefore the ability to run batch files etc.). The code for this part of the plugin has not changed at all between releases. The same binaries are used between 2005 and 2008 now too. I have just tried this with a simple pre and post build step on 2005 and all works OK. The code that runs the build steps explicitly runs Ftn95PrjSpawn.exe (in the plugin dir) which actually runs the command.

I will look into it a bit more. I should add that this is VS2008 pro on Vista. I have another system running VS2008 Standard on XP and it seems to be okay. Also the Vista VS2008 is crashing when I start debugging, whereas the other one is not - maybe a path issue or, as you say, something getting in the way. I'll have a closer look.

FWIW I'm running 'mk32 -f MakeResources', although it does pretty much the same thing whatever is in the box. If I just run the above from the command line it all works fine.

Just to confirm, I have tried this on VS 2008 Pro on Vista Ultimate, with UAC both on and off and things work as expected.

I've now repeated the problem on another machine running XP. Maybe it's related to the fact that I do not install into VS (or ftn95) into C:\Program Files but into C:\DevTools. When I use the FTN95 installer to install the VS plugins automatically (they go into a sub-folder of the ftn95 install folder) I get the incorrect build behaviour. If I uninstall the plugin then install it directly from the appropriate msi file (goes into C:\Program Files sub-folder) then it works.

Or it might be related to the way I install. I remove all previous FTN95 and plugin installations then install the upgrade and copy over my ftn95.ser file and fparam.exe into the FTN95 folder. This has always worked for me before but I note that the default location for the plugins has changed to within the FTN95 folder.

This behaviour is identical when installing in Vista or XP on different machines.

Unfortunately it doesn't stop the debugger crashing VS2005 or 2008 (in Vista) when trying to run my program 😦

This does indeed seem to reproduce the problem, how odd. I will have a look into the reason for this and hopefully get a fix in in time for the maintenance release.

Is your VS crashing with every debug session for every program? Are you trying to debug Win32 or .NET?

Thanks for the info on the installer (or whatever it is).

My crash is when performing Win32 integrated debugging. VS2005 and 2008.

I think I've tracked it down to the use of an external DLL. When I reference a DLL and call a function within it VS crashes when attempting to debug. It appears to occur with any DLL, it's the fact that it's a DLL I think.

I have a VS 2005 solution containing a C++ DLL with a single exported function and FTN95 main program that exhibits the problem. You can download it from:

http://www.wsanoise.com/download/FTNVistaDebugCrash.zip

Just unzip and open the solution file in the VistaDebugCrash sub-folder and attempt to debug - if we're getting the same problem VS will crash after the various debugger windows appear (call stack, watches etc.). Only happens on Vista (SP1), doing the same in XP works fine.

Any info on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Thanks for the cutdown. We will have a look into this.

I can confirm that the issue with build step command executing incorrectly can only happen in specific circumstances and most people should not run into this. Regardless of this, the issue is fixed and will be included with the next release.

Andrew,

Any joy with the debug crash ? Has anyone been able to download the cutdown and replicate the problem ? I appreciate there must be a million other things to do but it would be helpful to know whether it's a problem with my setup alone, or something that will have to wait for the next release of the compiler, in which case I'll need to dust down XP 😄

Thanks

It has been reproduced (unreliably unfortunately) on a Vista machine but I cannot give you an estimate as when this will be fixed. If you need to use this functionality straight away then yes, your best bet is to use XP for the time being.

This bug has been fixed and will be available in the next release (which is going to be out quite soon to address a few issues found with 5.20).