Usage of dlib library in Visual Studio 2010 - c

I would like to ask for help in using dlib for my little thesis project. Specifically, I need to use the BOBYQA optimisation routine.
I am writing the project in MS Visual Studio 2010 Express in C language. I have zero experience in using libraries such as dlib and I don't have any idea what a makefile is and how to write one.
I have found a little hint here but due to my lack of experience in the matter, I just can't figure out how to compile and make use of dlib in my code.
I would like to ask for a step by step instruction how to incorporate dlib into my code, i.e.:
where exactly should I extract the dlib folder from the zip file?
should I add some files to the Visual Studio project?
are there any other problems I am not yet aware of?
I would also be very grateful for a simple example code of usage (my function to be optimised has 6 parameters).


If you are using visual studio then you don't have to use makefiles. You can create your project just like you normally would. Then to use dlib all you have to do is add dlib/all/source.cpp to your project and add the folder containing the dlib folder into your include search path. If you only use BOBYQA then you don't even have to add dlib/all/source.cpp.
If this is your first time using visual studio and you are getting hung up on how to create the project then I would suggest using CMake. It's very easy to use and it will setup an appropriate visual studio project for you automatically. Moreover, there is an example application which comes with dlib examples/optimization_ex.cpp which shows how to call BOBYQA and this example can be built using cmake with the following commands:
cd examples
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
Then you should find a visual studio project inside the build folder all setup and ready to go. It will be setup to build all the dlib examples. If you edit the CMakeLists.txt file in the examples folders you can remove examples you aren't interested in.


I tried two methods (1) and (2) under but it wasn't the intention of Dlib. The method (3) looks like working at this moment.
There is an example in Visual Studio 2013 at How to setup Dlib with Visual Studio 2013 without CMake?.
The difference in 2010 version, you have to use Property -> Configuration Properties -> (1) VC++ Directories or (2) C/C++ -> General
Regarding the source.cpp file, I just added on Source Files.
The method that I successfully applied is (so far)
(3) #include "dlib/image_processing/frontal_face_detector.h"
The dlib folder should be located in current source directory (Where does Visual Studio look for C++ header files? and https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/36k2cdd4(v=VS.100).aspx for details)

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I don't have experience using Visual Studio. The university is conducting a C coding competition and forcing students to use Visual Studio. To practice I created 2 files: "to print helloworld", "finding smallest in the array". Visual studio builds ALL files and I want to create multiple files to save time and keep it ready to code but if I am working on one question and build it, all files get built. How to build one file? Please help.

You need to organize your code into Projects and Solutions. You use one Project per program you write and then group them in a Solution.
Se the docs here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/ide/solutions-and-projects-in-visual-studio?view=vs-2019

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I started with learning C a few days ago and i would like to include KISS_FFT Library in visual studio and Eclips. Please help me how i can do that.
You will find the library in this link:

Just add the kiss_fft.c file to your build project.
If you are using real and/or multi-dimensional FFTs, you will also need to build the appropriate .c files from tools/
I do not use Visual Studio nor Eclipse, but a quick googling found this and this

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I wrote a basic program for my mom, and now I want her to be able to use it. Obviously, it works on my computer. Getting the .exe file from the project folder, and putting it on her computer doesn't work: it says MSVCR120d.dll is missing whenever the .exe is run. Makes sense--as her computer doesn't have Visual Studio on it. However, I tried installing the Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013, and that didn't work either.
To be honest, I'm not looking to spending hours of time to piece this all together. This is something I will more than likely never do again--I've already done some searching and can only find subjects speaking of C++ distributions. I want a way to get the console app on her computer to work.

The more easy way is link statically. That mean embed all the needed code to the app to run, in the final binary (.exe), eliminating dependency of other libraries.
Go to Project Properties
Go to Configuration Properties
Go to C/C++
Go to Code Generation
Change Runtime Library (in Debug to Multi-Threaded Debug /MTd and in Release to Multi-Threaded /MT)

C programming in Visual Studio

Can I use Visual Studio to learn C programming? In the new project menu I can choose between Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual C++, Visual F# and others but I don't see "C" or "Visual C".

Short answer: Yes, you need to rename .cpp files to c, so you can write C:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb384838.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396
From the link above:
By default, the Visual C++ compiler treats all files that end in .c as C source code, and all files that end in .cpp as C++ source code. To force the compiler to treat all files as C regardless of file name extension, use the /Tc compiler option.
That being said, I do not recommend learning C language in Visual Studio, why VS? It does have lots of features you are not going to use while learning C

Yes, you very well can learn C using Visual Studio.
Visual Studio comes with its own C compiler, which is actually the C++ compiler. Just use the .c file extension to save your source code.
You don't have to be using the IDE to compile C. You can write the source in Notepad, and compile it in command line using Developer Command Prompt which comes with Visual Studio.
Open the Developer Command Prompt, enter the directory you are working in, use the cl command to compile your C code.
For example, cl helloworld.c compiles a file named helloworld.c.
Refer this for more information: Walkthrough: Compiling a C Program on the Command Line
Hope this helps

Yes it is, none of the Visual Stdio editions have C mentioned, but it is included with the C++ compiler (you therefore need to look under C++). The main difference between using C and C++ is the naming system (i.e. using .c and not .cpp).
You do have to be careful not to create a C++ project and rename it to C though, that does not work.
Coding C from the command line:
Much like you can use gcc on Linux (or if you have MinGW installed) Visual Studio has a command to be used from command prompt (it must be the Visual Studio Developer Command Prompt though). As mentioned in the other answer you can use cl to compile your c file (make sure it is named .c)
Example:
cl myfile.c
Or to check all the accepted commands:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community>cl
Microsoft (R) C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 19.16.27030.1 for x86
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
usage: cl [ option... ] filename... [ /link linkoption... ]
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community>
Coding C from the IDE:
Without doubt one of the best features of Visual Studio is the convenient IDE.
Although it takes more configuring, you get bonuses such as basic debugging before compiling (for example if you forget a ;)
To create a C project do the following:
Start a new project, go under C++ and select Empty Project, enter the Name of your project and the Location you want it to install to, then click Ok. Now wait for the project to be created.
Next under Solutions Explorer right click Source Files, select Add then New Item. You should see something like this:
Rename Source.cpp to include a .c extension (Source.c for example). Select the location you want to keep it in, I would recommend always keeping it within the project folder itself (in this case C:\Users\Simon\Desktop\Learn\My First C Code)
It should open up the .c file, ready to be modified. Visual Studio can now be used as normal, happy coding!

Yes, you can:
You can create a C-language project by using C++ project templates. In the generated project, locate files that have a .cpp file name extension and change it to .c. Then, on the Project Properties page for the project (not for the solution), expand Configuration Properties, C/C++ and select Advanced. Change the Compile As setting to Compile as C Code (/TC).
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/ide/visual-cpp-project-types?view=vs-2017

You can use Visual Studio for C, but if you are serious about learning the newest C available, I recommend using something like Code::Blocks with MinGW-TDM version, which you can get a 32 bit version of. I use version 5.1 which supports the newest C and C++. Another benefit is that it is a better platform for creating software that can be easily ported to other platforms. If you were, for example, to code in C, using the SDL library, you could create software that could be recompiled with little to no changes to the code, on Linux, Apple and many mobile devices. The way Microsoft has been going these days, I think this is definitely the better route to take.

Download visual studio c++ express version 2006,2010 etc.
then goto create new project and create c++ project select cmd project check empty rename cc with c extension file name

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I have a platform independent source code that can run on Windows and UNIX platforms. To compile the source on Windows, there is support for cygwin. But I want to compile it with Visual Studio 2005. How will I do it? What are the project settings required to be done on Visual studio and what about linking options? Will I be able to get any idea from successfully compiled source on cygwin? BTW, source code is in C language. Please someone help me on this.
Thanks in advance!

IMHO you're out of luck. If this project depends on cygwin, you most probably can't compile it with reasonable effort in vs.

Basically (for simple libraries) you should be fine by dumping all the .c and .h files into a visual studio project.
Most of the time you can just drop it to your own sources. If you want to create a library choose create new project -> new library, put all the sourcefiles in there and the library will automatically be linked with your main program.

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