Manual Visual Studio

User Manual:

Open the PDF directly: View PDF .
Page Count: 74

Preface
Visual Studio
Fortran Projects
Python Projects
Arduino Projects
Configuring Git and GitHub
References

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 1 — #1

Programming with

Visual Studio:

Fortran & Python & C++

Miguel ´

Angel Rapado Tamarit

Bel´

en Moreno Santamar´ıa

Imanol Sard ´

on Delgado

Juan Antonio Hern´

andez Ramos

Department of Applied Mathematics

School of Aeronautical and Space Engineering

Technical University of Madrid (UPM)

October 28, 2018

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 2 — #2

Portada: -Descripci´on foto de portada-

This manual has been written with the idea of increasing all the informa-

tion presented and improving the contents. We would kindly appreciate

ideas for something to be added, deleted or changed. We also thank cor-

rections and feedback about what things could be better explained. All

contributions can be made in:

Miguel ´

Angel Rapado Tamarit

marapadotamarit@gmail.com

Queda prohibida la reproducci´on de cualquier parte del texto por cualquier medio,

incluido fotocopia, sin permiso escrito del autor.

Miguel ´

Angel Rapado Tamarit, Bel´en Moreno Santamar´ıa, Imanol Sard´on

Delgado, Juan Antonio Hern´andez Ramos

ISBN 978-1727581539

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page i — #3

Contents

Preface 1

1 Visual Studio 3

1.1 Installing Visual Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.2 Nomenclature: Projects and Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.3 VisualStudioFAQ........................... 6

2 Fortran Projects 17

2.1 Installing Fortran Compiler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

2.2 Create a Fortran project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

2.3 Compile, link and execute the “Hello world” example . . . . . . . . 19

2.4 Include new projects and new ﬁles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

2.5 Conﬁguring IDE environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

2.6 Conﬁguring Fortran Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

2.7 Conﬁguring a graphic library: DISLIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

2.8 FortranFAQ .............................. 39

3 Python Projects 47

3.1 Installing Python Interpreter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

3.2 Create a Python project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

3.3 Execute the “Hello World” example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

3.4 Installing and removing Python Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

3.5 PythonFAQ .............................. 53

4 Arduino Projects 55

4.1 Install Visual Micro plug in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

4.2 Create an Arduino Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

4.3 Execute the ”Hello world” example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

4.4 Conﬁguring complex projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

5 Conﬁguring Git and GitHub 59

5.1 Installing GitHub Extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

5.2 VCS, Git and GitHub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

5.3 Create a Git repository of a solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page ii — #4

ii CONTENTS

5.4 Save changes on a Git repository . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

5.5 ConﬁgureGitHub ........................... 62

5.6 Import projects from GitHub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

5.7 Download repository updates from GitHub . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

5.8 Upload local changes to GitHub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

5.9 GitandGitHubFAQ.......................... 66

References 70

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 1 — #5

PREFACE

The aim of this manual is to guide the user in the ﬁrst steps of Fortran pro-

gramming with Visual Studio. We must not to confuse the Compiler with

the Integrated Development Environment (IDE); Compiler is in charge

of transforming the code written in a programming language (Fortran) into an-

other programming language (the target language). It generally translates the

source code from a high-level language into a lower-level (e.g. assembly language,

object code or machine code) in order to create an executable program. There

are many diﬀerent types of compilers. IDE (Visual Studio), however, is a software

application that oﬀers some facilities for software development.

Some of the functionalities that the IDE provides are a source code editor (text

editor), build automation tools, project manager, version management tools, a

debugger, intelligent code completion and a long etcetera. It’s possible to write

programs without IDE but it would be more diﬃcult.This guide explains how to

install Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 (which accepts 36 diﬀerent programming

languages) and Intel Fortran Compiler through Intel Parallel Studio XE 2018

in order to make possible compiling Fortran code with Visual. The installation

order is the mentioned, ﬁrst the IDE and then compiler.

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 2 — #6

It is necessary to understand the concepts of Source and Object Codes

and the diﬀerences between them:

“...source code is any collection of computer instructions, pos-

sibly with comments, written using a human-readable pro-

gramming language, usually as plain text. The source code

of a program is specially designed to facilitate the work of

computer programmers...”

(https:

//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_code)

While Object Code:

“...is what a compiler produces. In a general sense object code

is a sequence of statements or instructions in a computer lan-

guage, usually a machine code language (i.e., binary) or an in-

termediate language such as register transfer language (RTL).”

(https:

//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_code)

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 3 — #7

CHAPTER

ONE

VISUAL STUDIO

1.1 Installing Visual Studio

First thing we have to do is installing Visual Studio. We are going to use En-

terprise Version of VS 2017 with an academic license in Windows. Steps

are:

a) Downloading Visual Studio with academic license:

1. We click directly on this url; http://e5.onthehub.com/WebStore/

ProductsByMajorVersionList.aspx?ws=f1b11fc4-826f-e011-

971f-0030487d8897&vsro=8&JSEnabled=1.

2. Log in (top right part), we have to write our institutional email (ﬁn-

ished with @alumnos.upm.es) and enter with same password as our

personal account (ﬁgure 1.1).

3. In the search line we write “Visual Studio Enterprise 2017”. First

result is our IDE, we choose Add to cart and go to the Shopping Cart.

4. Follow the instructions shown. We will be asked for the name, surname

and an email for conﬁrming the process (Figure 1.2 and 1.3).

5. Once we complete the information we see the details of the purchase

with the Order Number and the License Key (an email with the pur-

chase details is also sent to our account). Figure 1.4 shows the down-

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 4 — #8

4CHAPTER 1. VISUAL STUDIO

load button. License Key and Order Number should be saved for future

requests.

6. Click Download. The ﬁle vs enterprise xxxxx.exe should be down-

loaded in the download folder.

b) Installing:

1. Execute the installer vs enterprise xxxxx.exe, accept the conditions

and wait for the program to download and start installing.

2. Options will appear during the process. There are four diﬀerent tabs:

Workloads, Individual Components, Language Packages and Installa-

tion folder. In Workloads we choose Desarrollo para el escritorio con

C++. In Language packages we choose: English or both Spanish and

English (See ﬁgure 1.5).

3. We click Install and wait (it might be slow).

4. Once ﬁnished we restart the computer.

5. Execute Visual Studio.

6. Start session with our Microsoft account, same as we have associated

to Windows, Skype and other Microsoft tools.

7. Initiate Visual Studio.

8. Activate the product by clicking on the arrow besides our name (top

right part of the Visual Window) and on Account Settings....

9. In the right part of the new window we click on the activation with

Product Key and paste there the Key we obtained, we accept and IDE

will be ready.

1.2 Nomenclature: Projects and Solutions

First, it is important to deﬁne the nomenclature used by Visual Studio. To

simplify, we would say that a project is a speciﬁc program written in Fortran

language or in other programming language and a solution is a set of diﬀerent

programs.

As can be read in Microsoft Visual Studio documentation:

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 5 — #9

1.2. NOMENCLATURE: PROJECTS AND SOLUTIONS 5

Figure 1.1: Home page of the software repository of Microsoft, we log in and search for

Visual Studio 2017.

“...In a logical sense, a project contains of all the source code

ﬁles, icons, images, data ﬁles and anything else that will be

compiled into an executable program or web site, or else is

needed in order to perform the compilation. A project also

contains all the compiler settings and other conﬁguration ﬁles

that might be needed by various services or components that

your program will communicate with.”

(https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-

us/library/b142f8e7.aspx)

The conﬁguration parameters of a speciﬁc project are stored in an XML ﬁle.

If the project is an Intel Fortran Project, the extension ﬁle is *.vfproj.

In the same Microsoft Visual Studio documentation, a solution is deﬁned in

the following way:

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 6 — #10

6CHAPTER 1. VISUAL STUDIO

Figure 1.2: Version of Visual Studio chosen, Enterprise 2017. We have to write name,

surname and email.

“A project is contained, in a logical sense and in the ﬁle system,

within a solution, which may contain one or more projects,

along with build information, Visual Studio window settings,

and any miscellaneous ﬁles that aren’t associated with any

project. In a literal sense, the solution is a text ﬁle with its

own unique format; it is generally not intended to be edited

by hand.

A solution has an associated *.suo ﬁle that stores settings,

preferences and conﬁguration information for each user that

has worked on the project.”

(https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-

us/library/b142f8e7.aspx)

1.3 Visual Studio FAQ

Here some general concepts and ideas are going to be explained, from good prac-

tices to programming advice or quick explanations.

•How can I change the language of Visual Studio?

All this manual has been written taking into account that the IDE is conﬁg-

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 7 — #11

1.3. VISUAL STUDIO FAQ 7

Figure 1.3: Shopping Cart with Visual Studio Enterprise 2017 chosen.

ured in English, if you have used Spanish for the default language is possible

to change it in Tools/Options/International Settings. There are options and

commands with no intuitive translation to Spanish so we recommend be-

come familiarized with the English version of the IDE.

•What do I have to know about line Numbers?

Why showing line numbers is useful can be clear, but there is a good practice

that appears when our code is going to be shown in a text document (L

X);

it is useful to write before some subroutines, functions, etc. the line number

in a comment inside the code in order to “ﬁx” a position of the whole code

and not move it when expanding the program. So when LaTeX looks for a

code and extracts some lines, the result will always be the same. With the

same purpose it is useful to leave some blank space between subroutine in

order to expand them without moving the rest of the code.

•What are Release and Debug?

They are two possible conﬁgurations, each one with its settings, that allows

to run the code in a diﬀerent way. We can actually create more release

modes (Debug modes, or the name we prefer) with a diﬀerent solution and

project conﬁgurations. We access the Conﬁguration Manager by clicking

on Build/Conﬁguration Manager or deploying the selector of Conﬁguration

(where it says Release and Debug), there we can create new options or edit

those we have. For example, we could create one where default real KIND

is 4 and other where is 8, by changing between Release modes we would

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 8 — #12

8CHAPTER 1. VISUAL STUDIO

Figure 1.4: Details of our License Key and Order Number, we should save this informa-

tion.

run the code with the two behaviours (if we open the project options we

directly can change between Modes and change options mode by mode).

Debug mode will allow to run the code without optimiser turned on and

lot of information will be included in the build ﬁles so we can check our

program step by step, it can be useful for ﬁxing bugs. However, if we are

developing Numerical Simulations and related programs, we will use another

kind of debugging; graphic assisted. Checking errors in the code starts with

the printing of those results and the validation of the program module by

module. That is why we include Dislin libraries in our program, to check

quickly results and decide if we have executed correctly our program, later

we will save the numerical results in order to plot them with another tool.

•Do I have to Start without Debugging my projects?

We have seen what Debug and release are so we now understand why one

of the IDE conﬁguration (2.5) has been changing the command that starts

the program, from the Start with Debugging to this one, that goes directly

to the execution of the code in the Release mode (or the mode selected).

•Which commands do I show in my IDE?

Figure 1.6 shows some commands that are going to be highly used when

programming. First two decrease and increase the indentation and next two

comment and uncomment the code selected. Fifth one is the Start without

Debugging button already explained and the last buttons that are active

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 9 — #13

1.3. VISUAL STUDIO FAQ 9

Figure 1.5: Workload to be chosen in the installation process, desarrollo para el escritorio

con C++ will be selected. In language package we choose at least English.

compile and build our program. While the ﬁrst compiles the current ﬁle,

the second builds the project or library selected and last builds the whole

solution (which we know can contain more than one project).

Figure 1.6: Very useful commands when programming, it is advisable to have them

shown.

•What should I know about navigation across ﬁles and codes?

There are some basic functionalities that are very useful when managing

big codes; ﬁrst one is the Navigate Backward and Navigate Forward but-

tons (Figure 1.7) which has the same function as Back and Forward in

Windows OS but, instead of navigate across folders, we navigate across our

opened and recently viewed codes. Even more powerful tools are Go To

Deﬁnition and Find All Diﬀerences options. First we have to know how to

activate them; we click on Tools/Options.../Text Editor/Fortran/Advanced

and we select True in options Enable Find All References and Enable Go

To Deﬁnition as seen in ﬁgure 1.8.

They are really useful tools; Go to Deﬁnition allow us to ﬁnd the declaration

of any variable in our code, if we for example have a big program and we

don’t know what a variable is, we click with the right button of our mouse

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 10 — #14

10 CHAPTER 1. VISUAL STUDIO

Figure 1.7: Navigation buttons.

Figure 1.8: Really interesting navigation options that will make the programming task

easier.

in the variable and click on that option, the window will automatically move

to the line where is deﬁned (or open a diﬀerent module ﬁle and points the

speciﬁc line). It can also open a new window with an speciﬁc ﬁle when we

ask for the deﬁnition of a subroutine or a function and it’s done in the same

way. It doesn’t work if the subroutine is in a module already compiled,

library, etc. but if we have included the source in our project we will be

able to navigate really quickly between those ﬁles.

Find All References, as the name says, will ﬁnd in the whole project what

we are asking for. If it’s a variable we can know how many times (and

where) it is used, changed, printed, etc. and if it is a subroutine we can ﬁnd

where it is called, and where it is deﬁned for example. Once again we have

to click on the right button in the name of the thing we want to look for

and click in the option.

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 11 — #15

1.3. VISUAL STUDIO FAQ 11

Figure 1.9: Extra options: Enable Intrinsic Parameter Info and Enable Intrinsic Quick

Info, both really useful when our codes become long and they are spread in multiple

source ﬁles.

Related to this we can also remark that Visual Studio has a search engine

that can be very useful to have shown in our toolbars, we’ve already seen

how to do it before, the command is Find in ﬁles or just Find and also

it can be minimized and put everywhere in the screen, ready to be used

whenever.

Finally, two extra options are Enable Intrinsic Parameter Info and Enable

Intrinsic Quick Info, both can be found in Tools/Options.../Text Editor/-

Fortran/Advanced also and should be activated (see ﬁgure 1.9). First “dis-

plays the signature of an intrinsic in a tooltip when a user types the param-

eter list start character”, this means that information about the procedures

and arguments will appear when typing a parenthesis after an intrinsic func-

tion or subroutine. Figure 1.10 shows an example with the cosine function.

Second option displays intrinsic information and descriptions when we place

the pointer over an intrinsic name. Figure 1.11 shows a list of arguments

associated to the subroutine.

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 12 — #16

12 CHAPTER 1. VISUAL STUDIO

Figure 1.10: Example of Intrinsic Parameter Info.

Figure 1.11: Example of Intrinsic Quick Info.

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 13 — #17

1.3. VISUAL STUDIO FAQ 13

•What should I know about ﬁles and formats?

We have read in the introduction about source codes and object codes, the

program we write needs of both codes, ﬁrst one will be what we write with

Fortran language and second will be the translation that the compiler makes

in order to make them understandable for computers. The source code we

write when using a programming language is stored in text ﬁles, in Fortran

case those ﬁles has extension .f90,.f or .for for example.

In order to execute that program we can choose between using an interpreter

(it adapts the instructions while they are found in the code) or a compiler

(translates the code to machine language), we are interested in compilers. It

works developing two sub processes, ﬁrst veriﬁes that the source code is well

written, fulﬁlling with syntactic and semantic Fortran rules, once ﬁnished,

it creates an intermediate code called object code (with extension .obj

in Windows OS). Second sub process consists in linking the object code

with other codes stored in libraries, the extensions used here are .dll for

shareable library ﬁles and .mod for module ﬁles (created if a source ﬁle

being compiled deﬁnes a Fortran module, which means, it uses MODULE

statement). Finally the compiler optimize the code and converts it in an

executable program (.exe in Windows).

The .mod ﬁles has the interfaces of the modules that we have compiled,

example.mod contains the necessary information regarding the modules that

have been deﬁned in the program example.f90 and they are created with

the .obj ﬁle also, when compiling that project. Actually, a .mod ﬁle is

created for each module deﬁned in our source (.f90 ) ﬁle and a .obj one will

appear for the whole source. The module interfaces share the name with

the modules and the object ﬁle has the same name as the source, typically,

we can deﬁne one module in each ﬁle and assign the same name to the

module and the source ﬁle (it’s not a requirement but it helps to organize

everything). More of this can be broaden in [10], Lionel [4] and [5]

The history behind the ﬁle extensions of the source codes in Fortran can be

broaden in Conic-Jacob [1] or Lionel [3].

Regarding Visual Studio ﬁles we can see .sln which is the format where

Visual stores our solution, there we open our projects associated. With the

solution appears a conﬁguration ﬁle with extension .suo, as it is said in the

on line manual of Visual Studio:

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 14 — #18

14 CHAPTER 1. VISUAL STUDIO

“The solution user options (.suo) ﬁle contains per-user

solution options. This ﬁle should not be checked in to

source code control.

The solution user options (.suo) ﬁle is a structured stor-

age, or compound, ﬁle stored in a binary format. You save

user information into streams with the name of the stream

being the key that will be used to identify the information

in the .suo ﬁle. The solution user options ﬁle is used to

store user preference settings, and is created automatically

when Visual Studio saves a solution.”

(https://msdn.microsoft.com/es-

es/library/bb165909.aspx)

Inside our solution folder we ﬁnd folders with the diﬀerent projects and the

ﬁle with extension .vfproj stores everything needed to open those projects.

That speciﬁc extension makes reference to an Intel Fortran project ﬁle while,

for example, .icproj would be the ﬁle created for C++ compiler.

More information about formats can be found in oﬃcial documentation of

Intel Fortran Compiler ([9]), also in the manual [2] or in [6]. Figure 2.17

summarise some of the extensions used.

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 15 — #19

1.3. VISUAL STUDIO FAQ 15

Figure 1.12: List with common ﬁle extensions used in Intel Fortran projects.

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 16 — #20

16 CHAPTER 1. VISUAL STUDIO

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 17 — #21

CHAPTER

TWO

FORTRAN PROJECTS

2.1 Installing Fortran Compiler

The Intel Fortran Compiler must be installed in the computer and it should be

recognized by the Visual Studio environment.

a) Downloading Intel Fortran Compiler with academic license:

1. We ﬁrst click on the url: https://software.intel.com/en-us/

qualify-for-free-software/student.

2. Click on Windows* option of Intel Parallel Studio XE (Figure 2.1).

3. We will have to accept four options related to the use we are going to

make of the software, we mark all of them and click on Accept (Figure

2.2).

4. Now we have to complete some personal information (Figure 2.3). It is

important to write the institutional email in the box in order to receive

our serial number for the installation and conﬁrmation email for the

account we are going to create.

5. Click on Submit.

6. Fill in the form for the Intel Fortran register an account (Figure 2.4).

7. Click on Register an Account. We should receive a conﬁrmation email.

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 18 — #22

18 CHAPTER 2. FORTRAN PROJECTS

8. The email has a download button and a Serial Number.

9. Click on download and select Intel Parallel Studio Cluster Edition for

Windows* (all tools) and version 2018 Update 3.

10. In order to avoid future problems during compilations we click on Full

Package in the Download Options. The ﬁle: parallel studio xe 2018.....

.exe should be downloaded (Figure 2.5).

b) Installing:

1. Execute the ﬁle: parallel studio xe 2018..... .exe.

2. Click on Next (Figure 2.6).

3. Then we have to consent or not the collection of private information.

4. Click next.

5. Now installer shows warnings related to the needed modules (it should

not block the installation so we continue), click on Next.

6. Provide the Serial Number.

7. Final step is clicking on Install and wait (once again it can be slow).

After installation has ﬁnished we can start conﬁguring the IDE, creating our

Fortran project and running programs.

2.2 Create a Fortran project

To create a Fortran project, proceed with the following steps:

1. Open Visual Studio 2017.

2. Click on File/New/Project... (Figure 2.7).

3. In the Intel(R) Visual Fortran menu select Console Application and then

click on Main Program Code.

4. Change Name (project name) to “P1” (Figure 2.8).

5. Change the Location of the solution to /Desktop/Informatics.

6. Change the Solution name to “Semester1”.

7. Select option Create directory for solution.

8. Click OK.

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 19 — #23

2.3. COMPILE, LINK AND EXECUTE THE “HELLO WORLD” EXAMPLE 19

Figure 2.1: Diﬀerent available option for installation, we choose Windows version.

2.3 Compile, link and execute the “Hello world” ex-

ample

In order to check that everything is correctly installed, we will run the easiest

example. This is usually called: the “Hello world” example. This example is

written automatically when we select Main Program Code. This program opens

the window console, writes the message “Hello world” and after pressing the enter

key, it closes the window console.

If we want to execute this Fortran program, a translation to machine code

must be done. This compiling and linking process is done automatically by Visual

Studio by clicking the right button. This automatic process is accomplished by

the two steps. The source ﬁle p1.f90 is translated to an object code p1.o and

then it is linked to other components to create an executable ﬁle: p1.exe.

To compile, link and execute the program follow the next steps:

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 20 — #24

20 CHAPTER 2. FORTRAN PROJECTS

Figure 2.2: We select all the conditions and click on Accept.

1. BUILD/Build solution or click on the corresponding icon. The program is

compiled and linked.

2. DEBUG/Start Without Debugging or click the corresponding icon. The

program is executed.

2.4 Include new projects and new ﬁles

We can check in the location chosen that a .sln ﬁle, a folder with the name of

the project and a .vfproj ﬁle inside have appeared. If the Solution is already

created and we just want to open it we double click on the .sln ﬁle or click on

File/Open/Project/Solution... and look for our .sln ﬁle. Later, if we want to

include another project in that solution we:

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 21 — #25

2.4. INCLUDE NEW PROJECTS AND NEW FILES 21

Figure 2.3: Personal Information to complete in order to get the license.

1. Click on File/New/Project....

2. In the Intel(R) Visual Fortran menu select Console Application and then

click on Empty Project.

3. Write the name of the new project.

4. In Solution we select the option Add to solution.

5. Click on OK.

6. Before closing Visual Studio we click on Save All.

Including ﬁles in our project is easy;

1. Right click on the name of our project (in the solution explorer).

2. Click on Add.

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 22 — #26

22 CHAPTER 2. FORTRAN PROJECTS

3. Click on New Item... if we are going to start from scratch (or click in

Existing Item... if we add it from an existing one).

4. Click on Fortran Free-form File (.f90).

5. Write the name of the ﬁle.

6. Click on Add.

The ﬁle appears in the source folder but we could grab and drop it in the

root location of the project so it appears in the same level as Source, Resource

and Header folders. For those ﬁles that we include in our project from a diﬀerent

location (not the folder where we store all the project) we have to remember that

Visual Studio will look for it in the original location next time, so we cannot

change location. We can better save a copy in our project folder and include it

in the project from there.

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 23 — #27

2.4. INCLUDE NEW PROJECTS AND NEW FILES 23

Figure 2.4: Register an Account in Intel Developer Zone, after ﬁlling in all the information

we click on Register an Account.

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 24 — #28

24 CHAPTER 2. FORTRAN PROJECTS

Figure 2.5: Downloading page for Intel Parallel Studio where we choose Intel Parallel

Studio Cluster Edition for Windows* (all tools) and version 2018 Update 3.

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 25 — #29

2.4. INCLUDE NEW PROJECTS AND NEW FILES 25

Figure 2.6: Options before installation. We select the options shown here and click on

next.

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 26 — #30

26 CHAPTER 2. FORTRAN PROJECTS

Figure 2.7: Creating a Solution + Project, step 1.

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 27 — #31

2.4. INCLUDE NEW PROJECTS AND NEW FILES 27

Figure 2.8: Creating a Solution + Project, step 2.

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 28 — #32

28 CHAPTER 2. FORTRAN PROJECTS

2.5 Conﬁguring IDE environment

Although this can be learnt while using the IDE, it is useful to have some quick

ideas about how to change basic options related to aspect and menus.

Assuming we have installed the English version we click on Tools/Options...

and start deciding our preferred conﬁguration in the Environment menu like for

example the colour theme in General section (Dark, Light, Blue, etc.) or the time

we want to save the AutoRecover information. We can also change here the fonts

and colours of the programming language or the default options for the Startup

(ﬁrst window that appears). In the Text Editor menu in Fortran section it is

mandatory to activate the line numbers and check that we have Insert Spaces

marked in the tab options. That is because Fortran does not recognise tab as

a character so we could ﬁnd warnings each time we compile a code with tabs

instead of spaces (specially with other compilers like GFortran). We can mark

those same options in the menu All Languages too.

Related to the windows, the way of working is the same as Windows OS: so

we can change position, make them ﬁxed or ﬂoating, conﬁgure diﬀerent options,

etc. We can decide for each window in a little arrow located in the right upper

part, also close those we don’t need or open new ones in View tab. Solution

Explorer,Properties Window,Bookmark Window or Output are some windows

we could need. It is essential to have Solution Explorer and Output windows

visible and in the position we prefer (Figure 2.9 shows an example of the distri-

bution). If we want to move the windows we grab it and Visual Studio will show

us some default positions we could choose, we just have to drop it in the little

boxes it shows (or drop it in a ﬂoating point).

Apart from the windows we can personalise toolbars and commands, it can

be done in two ways; clicking on the right part of each toolbar we see option Add

or Remove Buttons which deploys a list of default options for that bar (Figure

2.10). We can also click on Tools/Customize and we access two tabs, Toolbars

(Figure 2.11) which can show and hide a big list of toolbars and Commands where

we can select any of them, add and delete commands from there and also add

new buttons that are not in the bar by default (ﬁgures 2.13, 2.12 and 2.14).

In ﬁgures below we can see that Text Editor,Standard,Build and Micro

toolbars are shown. Figure 2.12 shows that Standard bar includes new commands

like Find in Files,Solution Explorer and Properties Window while Build bar

(ﬁgure 2.13) includes Compile command and the most important; Start without

debugging. It is necessary to have quick access to this command because most

of the times (we could say always) we won’t use this debugger and we just want

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 29 — #33

2.5. CONFIGURING IDE ENVIRONMENT 29

Figure 2.9: Example of windows distribution with a Fortran project already opened.

to run the code directly without debugging. Rest of the buttons will be explained

later. The toolbar Text Editor (ﬁgure 2.14) is really useful while writing code

because of the Comment and Uncomment commands or the new ones added,

Line Indent and Line Unindent. We should organize buttons and include those

we use more.

Once we have ﬁnished the conﬁguration of the environment it is interesting

to make a backup copy in order to restore it if we reinstall Visual Studio, if

we work in two diﬀerent computers or change our personal computer. We go to

Tools/Import and Export Settings/Export selected environment settings, click on

Next twice and choose where to save it. We can import the conﬁguration in the

same place choosing Import selected environment settings and looking for our ﬁle

previously created. Actually, this manual is accompanied by a settings ﬁle called

“Exported-2018-05-23.vssettings” which has all the changes explained (only IDE

conﬁguration!).

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 30 — #34

30 CHAPTER 2. FORTRAN PROJECTS

Figure 2.10: Add and Delete option for the buttons that appears in the toolbars.

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 31 — #35

2.5. CONFIGURING IDE ENVIRONMENT 31

Figure 2.11: Tab Customize, it allows to show and hide toolbars for the IDE.

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 32 — #36

32 CHAPTER 2. FORTRAN PROJECTS

Figure 2.12: Commands tab, for adding commands to selected toolbar or menu (Standard

Toolbar).

Figure 2.13: Commands tab, for adding commands to selected toolbar or menu (Build

Toolbar).

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 33 — #37

2.5. CONFIGURING IDE ENVIRONMENT 33

Figure 2.14: Commands tab, for adding commands to selected toolbar or menu (Text

Editor Toolbar).

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 34 — #38

34 CHAPTER 2. FORTRAN PROJECTS

2.6 Conﬁguring Fortran Project

In previous section we’ve seen how to conﬁgure general VS settings, which are

not related to the Fortran project conﬁguration. For each project inside our

solution, or any project we create from now on, we should deﬁne some compilation

(and related) properties. It’s actually possible to deﬁne some properties for indi-

vidual source code ﬁles (Click right button on the name and click on properties)

but we are going to treat here some of those that involve the whole project.

With the project opened and selected in the solution explorer (specially if

our solution has more than one) we click on Project/Properties, those changes we

make will only aﬀect the project selected. If we have selected a ﬁle inside the

project, the properties shown will be the individual ﬁle properties so we should

take care of this. Here we have to understand that a change in the properties of the

project will change all internal ﬁles except those we have change individually, for

example; if we change default Real KIND for Fortran/Data in a “example.f90”

ﬁle, we will see that changing the same option in the project conﬁguration we

change all ﬁles not modiﬁed but “example.f90” does not change. What’s more, a

red spot will appear in the symbol of the ﬁle (in the solution explorer) and, if the

option does not have the compiler’s default value, the value will appear in bold.

Having said that, let’s take a look at important options in Project/Properties:

•In Fortran/Data/Default Real KIND; we have to change the default value

to “8 (/real size:64)”. Thus, when we write in our code “real :: x” the

default kind of the x will be 8 bytes (double precision) and we do not have

to specify “real(kind=8) :: x”. When we use this trick, we get used to write

only “real :: x” and not mix diﬀerent precisions in the same code, and when

we want to run our program with simple precision we just have to change

this property and the whole program will run with simple precision.

•Stack Overﬂow can occur in our software for many reasons, it happens when

the call stack pointer exceeds the stack bound ([7], concepts like call stack

can be found in [8]). One of the main reasons of stack overﬂow appears

when allocating more memory on the stack than will ﬁt (local array vari-

ables too large for example). So, in order to extend the size of the stack in

these cases we change conﬁguration clicking on Linker/Command Line/Ad-

ditional Options: and writing “/STACK:100000000”.

•In Fortran/Command Line/Additional Options: write “/assume:realloc lhs”

in order to enable automatic reallocation, it decides if using current For-

tran Standard rules o old Fortran 2003 rules related to this option, which

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 35 — #39

2.6. CONFIGURING FORTRAN PROJECT 35

is described as:

“Tells the compiler that when the left-hand side of an as-

signment is an allocatable object, it should be reallocated

to the shape of the right-hand side of the assignment be-

fore the assignment occurs. This is the current Fortran

Standard deﬁnition. This feature may cause extra over-

head at run time. The option standard-realloc-lhs has the

same eﬀect as assume realloc lhs.”

(https://software.intel.com/en-

us/node/678222)

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 36 — #40

36 CHAPTER 2. FORTRAN PROJECTS

2.7 Conﬁguring a graphic library: DISLIN

DISLIN is a plotting library for Fortran and C languages that allows a quick plot

of results when we are making a lot of tests with the code or debugging (graphic

debugging) our program. It can be called from our main program or subroutines

and “contains routines and functions for displaying data as curves, bar graphs, pie

charts, 3D-colour plots, surfaces, contours and maps”. In order to add DISLIN

libraries to our project, we have to add the ﬁles to it by following steps:

1. Download the DISLIN distribution package required for our machine. From

the web http://www.mps.mpg.de/dislin/win-32-bit, we choose Intel Fortran

compiler package.

2. Unzip the downloaded ﬁle and look for:

disdll d.dll,disdll d.lib,disifc d.lib dislin d.f90

It is assumed that our calculations are done in double precision and that’s

why double precision ﬁles (* d.lib, dislin d.f90 ) are selected.

3. Create a folder named DISLIN and locate those ﬁles on it.

4. Include this folder in our visual Studio project.

5. Locate de ﬁle disdll d.dll and copy it into the release folder or into the folder

where the executable ﬁle is located. If this ﬁle is not properly copied, an

error will jump when trying to execute the program saying that cannot ﬁnd

the .dll ﬁle.

6. Conﬁgure the project to avoid errors (Figure 2.15). Open the project prop-

erty pages and check that in Fortran/Libraries/Runtime Library it is writ-

ten “Multithread DLL (/libs:dll /threads)”.

7. Conﬁgure the project to avoid duplications. Open the project property

pages in Linker/Input/Ignore Speciﬁc Library and write “LIBCMT;libifcoremd”

A detailed image of the conﬁguration process is shown in Figure 2.15.

Once the conﬁguration process has been done and the diﬀerent projects have

been created, the solution explorer look like in Figure 2.16.

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 37 — #41

2.7. CONFIGURING A GRAPHIC LIBRARY: DISLIN 37

Figure 2.15: Necessary conﬁguration for the Project Properties in order to male the

program work with DISLIN, the ﬁelds to change are Runtime Library and Ignore Speciﬁc

Library.

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 38 — #42

38 CHAPTER 2. FORTRAN PROJECTS

Figure 2.16: Solution explorer for the project Graph showing the inclusion of dislin

libraries and dislin d.f90 interfaces.

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 39 — #43

2.8. FORTRAN FAQ 39

Now our dislin example should work, take note of the subroutines used in

that example for plotting a curve in order to use it in future codes. In addition,

a complete dislin manual can be found in the dislin web page.

The following code allows to plot a sine graph in a very simple way.

program Graph

use dislin

impli c i t none

c a l l sine graph

contains

subroutine sine graph

integer ,parameter : : N = 100

rea l : : x ( 0:N) , y ( 0:N)

integer : : i ;

rea l : : PI = 4∗atan (1. ) ;

rea l : : a , b ;

a = 0

b = 2∗PI

x = [ ( a + (b−a ) ∗i / N, i=0, N) ]

y = sin ( x )

c a l l scrmod ( ”reverse”)

c a l l metafl( ’XWIN ’ )

c a l l q p l o t ( x , y , N+1)

end subroutine

end program

To “use” this dislin module and call the subroutine in the main .f90, it is

advisable to write a “read(*,*)” line at the end of the program to avoid that

command line gets closed after ﬁnishing!

2.8 Fortran FAQ

Here some general concepts and ideas are going to be explained, from good prac-

tices to programming advice or quick explanations.

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 40 — #44

40 CHAPTER 2. FORTRAN PROJECTS

•What are Static and Dynamic libraries? How can I create a .lib

ﬁle?

Let’s say we have some modules we feel comfortable about and we want to

create a library with them, we have to choose kind. In a Static Library that

code enters inside of the executable ﬁle once it is created, we could go to

another computer and run that program without problem, we have also a

quicker program as soon as it has all necessary code inside and doesn’t have

to look for outside. Disadvantages are; programs become heavier and if we

ﬁnd a bug in the library code, we will have to recompile all programs that

use that lines.

Dynamic libraries are not in our executable ﬁle, so it is lighter and ﬁxing

bugs is easier as soon as it is repaired for all programs once we change just

one ﬁle. However, we have to drag all libraries when moving the executable

to another computer and the execution will be slower because of the search

that program has to do when it needs those codes. We can see both have

advantages and disadvantages and one or another will be used depending

on the situation. Each of them is created, compiled and linked in a diﬀerent

way.

We are going to see how to create a static library through an example:

1. We ﬁrst create a project as seen before.

2. Then we add the main ﬁle, and paste there this example code:

program main

use floating point parameters

impli c i t none

c a l l real parameters

c a l l test divisions

end program

3. Now we close our project (saving) and open a new one, but with kind

Static Library (File/New/Project.../Installed/Intel(R) Visual Fortran/Li-

brary/Static Library). We take care of choosing name for the new

solution (name of the library) and project and choosing location.

4. We add to this Library project a .f90 ﬁle where we paste next example,

this will be the module we save in our library:

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 41 — #45

2.8. FORTRAN FAQ 41

subroutine real parameters

rea l (4) : : x

rea l : : y

write(∗,∗)’Maximum v alue ’ ,huge ( x )

write(∗,∗)’Minimum valu e ’ ,tiny ( x )

write(∗,∗)’ Ro und off ’ ,epsilon( x )

write(∗,∗)’Significant digits ’ ,precision ( x )

write(∗,∗)’Maximum v alue ’ ,huge ( y )

write(∗,∗)’Minimum valu e ’ ,tiny ( y )

write(∗,∗)’ Ro und off ’ ,epsilon( y )

write(∗,∗)’Significant digits ’ ,precision ( y )

end subroutine

5. Then we save all, compile the ﬁle and build the project. We can see

that a .lib ﬁle (with the name of the project) and a .mod ﬁle (with

the name of the module) have appeared in the Release folder of the

project.

subroutine test divisions

write(∗,’ ( a20 , f 17 .15 ) ’ )’1.1/2. ’ ,1.1/2.

write(∗,’ ( a20 , f 17 .15 ) ’ )’1.1/2’,1.1/2

write(∗,’ ( a20 , f 17 .15 ) ’ )’1.1/2d0’,1.1/2d0

write(∗,’ ( a20 , f 17 .15 ) ’ )’1.1d0/2d0’,1.1d0/2d0

write(∗,’ ( a20 , f 17 .15 ) ’ )’1.1e0/2e0’,1.1e0/2e0

write(∗,’ ( a20 , f 17 .15 ) ’ )’1/3d0’,1/3d0

write(∗,’ ( a20 , f 17 .15 ) ’ )’1. / 3d0’,1. / 3d0

write(∗,’ ( a20 , f 17 .15 ) ’ )’1d0/3d0’,1d0/3d0

write(∗,’ ( a20 , f 17 .15 ) ’ )’1d0/3. ’ ,1d0/3.

write(∗,’ ( a20 , f 17 .15 ) ’ )’1. / 3. ’ ,1. / 3.

write(∗,’ ( a20 , f 17 .15 ) ’ )’1. / 3’,1. / 3

write(∗,’ ( a20 , f 17 .15 ) ’ )’1/3’,1/3

end subroutine

6. We can now close the solution of the library and open our project.

7. Add to the project both ﬁles in the Source folder, using right click-

/Add/Existing Item/etc for example. We can copy them ﬁrst in our

project folder and then include it from the IDE or link them to the

original folder, this option let us rebuild the library whenever we want

and our main project will be accessing always the latest version of the

library but then Library Solution should not be opened in the IDE.

“”Manual Visual Studio”” — 2018/10/28 — 21:25 — page 42 — #46

42 CHAPTER 2. FORTRAN PROJECTS

8. We build the project and run it without debugging.

There is an interesting result here, we obtain something like:

Maximum value 3.4028235E+38

Minimum value 1.1754944E-38

Round_off 1.1920929E-07

Significant digits 6

Maximum value 3.4028235E+38

Minimum value 1.1754944E-38

Round_off 1.1920929E-07

Significant digits 15

1.1/2. 0.550000011920929

1.1/2 0.550000011920929

1.1/2d0 0.550000011920929

1.1d0/2d0 0.550000000000000

1.1e0/2e0 0.550000011920929

1/3d0 0.333333333333333

1./3d0 0.333333333333333

1d0/3d0 0.333333333333333

1d0/3. 0.333333333333333

This means that both “real(4):: x” and “real :: y” are being considered

as simple precision, in order to make reals double precision by default we

follow 2.6 when building library and repeat the process.