[RESOLVED] Is there a GOOD Compile tool for vb6?

[eranfox]

Hello Everybody,
Is there a Compile tool that can check References and Objects Between Projects?
I have in My Project about 200 BO Dll's and about 20 UI Dll's and 10 more Ocx's and offcourse one main EXE.
i have a problem with the OCX's and The UI's projects,
I wrote a small program to get all the ref's and obj's from all the VBP's and then i sorted the list so i can see which project is the first project to compile and etc...
The compilation is taking me a lot of time , so i want to know if there is a tool that can make all this automatically?

Best Regards'
ERAN

(Sorry for the Bad English ...)

[si_the_geek]

You could write a batch file to do it, as the VB compiler is actually a command line program (C2.Exe), which appears to just take a file name as a parameter.

[sigid]

...and if you want to spend some money:
http://www.kinook.com/VisBuildPro/

[eranfox]

Hello si_the_geek,
Thank you for your reply,
But can you be more specific?

If a Competability has changed then i need to compile the project the lost competability two times:
the first time will be Project Competability
the second one will be Binary Competability

the batch file cant really tell which project lost Binary Competability, because the batch file is written by me and i cant tell which project will lose competability.

ERAN

[eranfox]

Hello sigid ,
Thnk you for your reply,
i'll take a look at it...

I will have to ask my boss.

Thanks again'
eran

[randem]

I am not sure where you are having problems... Getting the references and components or compiling. Could you better explain what you are attempting to accomplish?

[si_the_geek]

randem - he's trying to compile lots of projects in a particular order (as they refer to each other), in a simple way.


I'm afraid that as C2.exe doesn't have any help attached (or via command line) I cant be sure, but I think that if you give it the path to a project file then it will compile it as "normal" (as the details of where to compile etc are in the project file).

If my assumptions are correct, then a file like this (saved as *.bat) would work:

C2.exe "c:\my folder\project1.vbp"
C2.exe "c:\my folder\project2.vbp"
C2.exe "c:\my folder\project3.vbp"

..as it is a batch file, it will wait for each compilation before doing the next. I dont know if this will update the references to earlier projects tho (eg: if project2 uses project1 it may not have updated to the newly compiled version).

Note that without a path specified to C2.exe, the .bat file needs to be in the folder along with the executable itself (default is "C:\program files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VB98").

[randem]

In that case it will not update the references in the other projects. What you have to do it to basically write an add-in or program and have it go through each vbp file and update the references of each project then recompile.

[eranfox]

Hello randem,

In that case it will not update the references in the other projects. What you have to do it to basically write an add-in or program and have it go through each vbp file and update the references of each project then recompile.

this is my problem,
i can write something to do that but i will have to know the right order of the projects to be compile.

Best Regards,
Eran

[randem]

You have to already know that for one project may create a dll/ocx that is needed by another.

[eranfox]

Hello again,
I'm having a problem because this is not my own project.
its part of a team project and someone made a cyclic ref between projects...

I cant compile the first project because it depends on the third project.
and i cant compile the third project because it depends on the second project which depends on the first project.

[si_the_geek]

That sounds rather dubious to say the least.. in that case about the only thing you can do (without code re-organisation) is to only do 'minor' upgrades to each project, and compile with binary compatability - which means that you cannot do much (you can't change or remove function parameters etc).

Obviously that will cause problems over time, as 'serious' changes will almost certainly need to be made at some point (if there are new requirements, etc), so the only real solution is to remove the cyclic ref.

Exactly how you do this depends on the code, but presumably it will be a matter of splitting the part of one of the Projects used by another into its own separate project - which can then be referenced from both.

[Al42]

Hello again,
I'm having a problem because this is not my own project.
its part of a team project and someone made a cyclic ref between projects...

I cant compile the first project because it depends on the third project.
and i cant compile the third project because it depends on the second project which depends on the first project.

That's called a circular reference, and it just won't work. Someone has to take the whole project and rethink things.

[eranfox]

Hello Al42,
After 10 years of project someone breaked the binary compatability...
Now as si_the_geek said, i will have to split one of the projects to two diffrent projects.

Thank you all,
ERAN

P.S.:I forgot to mention that i'm only 6 monthes in this project...