Qt Installation (5 to 7)

5) You need to patch the vsvars32.batto setup the VC++ compiler correctly. The cript that is found in
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\Tools"
Make a copy of it also in case you mess up.


Add to the INCLUDE, LIB, and BIN lines according to following:

PATH Original:
@set PATH=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\BIN;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\Tools;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\bin;C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\VCPackages;%PATH%

PATH Changed to:
@set PATH=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\BIN;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\Tools;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\bin;C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\VCPackages;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2\Bin;%PATH%

INCLUDE Original:
@set INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\INCLUDE;%INCLUDE%

Include Changed to:
@set INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\INCLUDE;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2\Include;%INCLUDE%

LIB Original:
@set LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\lib;%LIB%

LIB Changed to:
@set LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2\Lib;%LIB%

Run thevsvars32.batscript which sets up the system environment for the VC++ compiler nmake.
I.e. you are standing in %QTDIR%then you are running WITH the " signs:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat"

6 ) You can choose to use the Qt patchfor your Qt version (make sure you are using the right one) - which should enable more compiler support for Qt.
However I recommend you to try it without the patch to start with and only use it if you run into trouble; the trolls update Qt quite frequently and the patch might not be needed (or might not work).

Without patch:make sure you are in %QTDIR%
run configure
(possibly with any alterations to the options, test it with configure –help)

With patch:make sure you are in %QTDIR%
then run installpatch42.bat

If no error occurs you proceed then to running the qconfigure.batscript as
qconfigure.bat msvc2005
Answer Yes to all questions.

7) Run nmakewhich will compile & install Qt.

Setup VC++ Environment (8a to 8c)

8a)Include files that you need when including Qt into your source code
Go to
Tools->Options->Projects and Solutions->VC++ Directories->Include files
Add the following either with the syntax of $(QTDIR)\... or with the full path:

I.e you should add
$(QTDIR)\include
$(QTDIR)\include\Qt
$(QTDIR)\include\QtCore
$(QTDIR)\include\QtGui
$(QTDIR)\include\QtNetwork
$(QTDIR)\include\QtSvg
$(QTDIR)\include\QtXml
$(QTDIR)\include\Qt3Support
$(QTDIR)\include\ActiveQt
... etc, for all the include directories that you might need


8b)Library files that you need when including/building Qt & source code
Go to
Tools->Options->Projects and Solutions->VC++ Directories->Library files
Add$(QTDIR)\lib

8c )Source files that you need to enable Intellisense to do Qt code completion
Go to Tools->Options->Projects and Solutions->VC++ Directories->Source files
Add $(QTDIR)\src

If you had an old project than maybe you also need close down VC++ and then delete the IntelliSense file (*.ncb). Don't worry when you start the project again the file will be re-created.

Create your first project – Qt Hello World)

OK, now you're ready to try your first project. Since Qt already comes with a very easy and nice way to manage the make system we're going to use that (For the lazy ones you get get my example project here).

Create an very simple .pro file (these can also be autogenerated)
This will be the basis for your Qt auto-updated Makefile later
It can look something like this (whatever_project_name_you_like.pro)

TEMPLATE += app
CONFIG += qt warn_on
SOURCES += main.cpp
TARGET = whatever_project_name_you_like
win32:debug:CONFIG += console

Creating a new Project as such:
File->New Project->Visual C++ ->General->Makefile Project
(set up Name, Location etc according to your liking)

Add a file also to the project:
(Right click project -> Add new item -> C++ file (call it main.cpp)
Make it look something like this:

#include< QString>
#include< iostream>

int main()
{
QString myString = "Hello World";

std::cout << myString.toLatin1().data()
          << std::endl;
}

Now set up your environment to autogenerate Makefiles and compile according to your .pro file
Configuration Properties -> NMake -> General
Build Command Line qmake && nmake debug
Rebuild Command Line qmake && nmake debug-clean
Clean Command Line nmake debug-clean
Output  debug/projectname.exe
(Just an example on the output)

Try compiling it, a Makefile should be generated from the .pro configuration and the whole project should compile. Test it with ctrl+F5

Anything else?

When I tried to compile my first project (completely unrelated, but it was QuickFix) I ran into some trouble due to that the wchar_twas defined in an incompatible way in the old libraries compared to Visual Studio 2005 Express. This could be rectified by setting up the QuickFix project so that the wchar_tshould use the code definition rather than the VC++ definition.
To do this: Right-click on project (or sub-project), choose
References->Configuration Properties->C/C++->Language->
                                                                               Treat wchar_t as a built-in type
Change from Yes to No

Good Luck :-)