I have been stuck on pdcurses for days

[jim hurley]

This may be challenging.

I really, really need help on how to use pdcurses. I don't mean help with the code, but help with how to set it up on an IDE. I can use Code::Blocks, Visual C++, or NetBeans. I use MinGW.

To be more specific, I am trying to design a roguelike. Although I am a beginner to C++ I feel I am ready, so please do not critique my decision making. I just need help with external libraries, or whatever it is called when you have a header file and a lib file and need to link them to a project.

PDCurses is the library I have decided on. The three files, pdcurses.h, pdcurses.lib and pdcurses.dll are all here available here. http://pdcurses.sourceforge.net/

What I am asking for, exactly, is a step by step instruction (from the beginning) on what to do after I download the files. Although I mostly know what to do, it doesn't seem to work at all, so I am going to just start fresh. If it's not too much to ask for, please be specific.

Also, I have done a very large amount of searching (A VERY LARGE AMOUNT) and this is my final resort. I would like somebody to help me specifically, not a general guideline. But if you feel compelled to give me a tutorial, I will gladly look it over.

Please, please help me. I will be eternally grateful if you can. This is extremely important to me.

[L B]

I'm going to assume that by "Visual Basic" you mean "Visual Studio", specifically "Visual C++". This is the first result I got when I Googled for "VC++ link lib":
http://www.kirupa.com/forum/showthread.php?273849-Studio-Visual-C-Adding-(-lib)-refrence!&p=2335924&viewfull=1#post2335924
Post #3 has a very detailed explanation of how to link to the library. After that, just #include the header and start coding ;)

At runtime, you only need your built EXE file and the DLL file to be in the same folder, the lib and header are no longer needed.

[jim hurley]

I already tried all of the things mentioned, including everything in the tutorial, but I did it again anyway and I still got the "identifier not found" error and the "'#include <curses.h>' skipped when looking for precompiled header use" warning.

what do you think is my problem, based on the error report?

[L B]

Make sure you are starting a new Blank Project otherwise VC++ assumes you are using precompiled headers (which are causing your probems) along with some other unhelpful things.

[jim hurley]

That's probably what I've been doing wrong, I always select Win32 Console Application. Should I choose Win32 Project or Empty Project instead? I'm unfamiliar with working with an empty project.

[L B]

Empty Project.

On the left you can right click on Source files folder in the tree and Add a new item, for instance "Main.cpp", and then start writing your program as usual in that file.

[jim hurley]

Thank you so much. SO MUCH. It's sad how long this took me, and how silly the mistake was. I have literally tried so hard for so long to figure this out, and that was my only problem. Sir, you are a gentleman and a scholar.

[L B]

A lot of people have the same problem - they assume the default settings will work. I'm glad I could help :)