The Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003

The Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003 is free and can be downloaded from here. It consists of a subset of Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional. Most importantly, it does not include its superb IDE with its debugger, ATL and MFC.

However, it comes with these components:

• C/C++ Compiler and Linker (the same as Visual Studio 2003 Professional's)
• C runtime library
• C++ standard library including standard template library (STL)
• .NET Framework Common Language Runtime

Visual C++ can also build applications that run on the CLR, that's why it is included as well.

The installation creates the %VCToolkitInstallDir% environment variable that points to the chosen installation directory.

A Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003=>Visual C++ Toolkit 2003 Command Prompt is created. It basically goes to the %VCToolkitInstallDir% directory and starts vcvars32.bat which is located in this directory.

vcvars32.bat in turn alters the following three environment variables:

• PATH
  now pointing to %VCToolkitInstallDir%\bin as well
• INCLUDE
  now pointing to %VCToolkitInstallDir%\include
• LIB
  now pointing to %VCToolkitInstallDir%\lib

These environment variables enable compilation and linking of C++ programs with the toolkit's tools.

A sample directory is created that contains four samples:

• Conformance
  Microsoft claims to be 98% conformant
  See also here
• Framework
  Demonstrates the /CLR compiler flag used to use the .NET common language runtime.
• Optimization
  Demonstrates the /GL (Whole Program Optimization), /G7 (Pentium 4 and Athlon specific Optimization), /arch:SSE2 (SSE2 registers) and the _ReturnAddress() intrinsic.
• SecurityChecks
  Demonstrates the /GS (Buffer Security Check) and /RTCx (Runtime checks)

See also MS Debugging Tools