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Env Setup for Working with this C++ Repo

I planned this project to be used exclusively on a pair of windows computers. Originally I considered using libusb which would have been cross-platform. What I found was that libusb just didn't do very well on windows machines. It might have worked if I replaced my keyboard driver with a special driver, but that overly complicates the installation for the app so I switched to simply calling out the the Windows API.

As that the project is my only repo demonstrating sourcing dependencies in a C++ project via vcpkg and CMake and that this is a new area of study for me, you'll find detailed steps on setting up windows-based C++ package management below.

Building on Terminal ("Developer Command Prompt")

Note: There's an integration test that can be enabled by setting the env variable "KEYBOARD_ATTACHED" to 1.

At the root of the repo, run:

# Skip these, they were for gitbash but there are pathing issues that ruined it
#export VCPKG_ROOT="$(pwd)/vcpkg"
#export PATH=${VCPKG_ROOT}:${PATH}

set "VCPKG_ROOT=%cd%\vcpkg"
set PATH=%VCPKG_ROOT%;%PATH%

vcpkg install

# As a shortcut, run setup.bat
cmake --preset release-config
cmake --build --preset release-build --target clean
cmake --build --preset release-build
ctest --preset test-release

Check this guide for details.

Dependency Overview

Environment Setup
  • Visual Studio 2022: An IDE that installs a ton of C++ build tools
  • Cygwin (I think I needed some package from this to get past an error?)
  • CMake: A cross platform C++ build tool for scripting the compilation pipeline
  • vcpkg: msft's package manager for C++
    • See this tutorial
    • The tut seemed broken and but may just require MinGW or simply running in the "Developer Command Prompt"
  • MinGW: A package manager allowing you to install gcc, etc. on windows to C:\MinGW\bin
  • pkg-config: Another package manager required by libusb
C++ Module Dependencies
  • fmt: A dependency used in main.cpp to print to the screen.
    • List this package in vcpkg.json
    • Install with vcpkg install
    • Read outputs of install and copy/ paste codes into CMakeLists.txt to setup linking
  • libusb: A more complicated dependency we use in main.cpp for interfacing with USB
    • List this package in vcpkg.json
    • Install with vcpkg install
    • You will note the outputs indicate using find_package(pkgconfig REQUIRED)
    • Copy/ paste codes into CMakeLists.txt
    • Make sure pkg-config is installed
  • If anything ever goes wrong with the build system, and re-run:
    • delete the build/ folder manually
    • cmake --preset=default
    • cmake --build build
  • Getting the error "The following configuration files were considered but not accepted:"
    • Don't forget to use the "Developer Command Prompt"
    • Randomly the IDE might prompt you on the top with CMake... delete and regenerate the cache, click that, also try saving the CMakeLists.txt file to force a rebuild
    • Ensure your path to the vcpkg directory is correct in your CMakePresets.json file, and also that vcpkg is properly bootstrapped with bootstrap-vcpkg.bat