HELP- DEV C++ 5.0 beta

[TheBuffoon]

I am just starting to learn C++ and have this problem compiling any program i try. Here is the compiler log message:

Building Makefile: "C:\Documents and Settings\Pete\My Documents\Makefile.win"
Executing make...
make.exe -f "C:\Documents and Settings\Pete\My Documents\Makefile.win" all
Execution terminated

I have a feeling it has to do with the project workspace. Is there a certain folder the project needs to be saved in?
and what is a makefile?

thanks

 

[oog]

It probably deserves a much more in-depth explanation, but a makefile is a file that describes the instructions for how to build your application. In the case of the log you quoted, the -f option says that the instructions for building (or making) your application are in Makefile.win. The last parameter "all" means that what you are trying to build is described by a rule identified by the word "all".

In your makefile, each rule follows this format:

target: dependencies
command

Some example rules could look like this:

all: test.exe


test.exe: test.c test.h
compiler.exe -o test.exe test.c

In this case, if you run "make all", then it says in order to build the target "all", it needs to satisfy all the dependencies (in this case, the only dependency is test.exe). Therefore it automatically runs the rule for "test.exe", which in turn checks to see if test.c or test.h have changed, and if they have, it runs the command which calls the compiler.

Sorry for the potentially confusing explanation.

Edit: sorry -- I don't know how to preserve spaces in my post. The second line of a rule is supposed to be indented.

 

[TheBuffoon]

That makes some sense. But how do i fix this error?