Learn C++ the Hard Way

The Basics

01: Gearing Up

Setting up development on Windows has traditionally been extremely painful.
To combat this, there are a number of Powershell scripts that install the necessary packages/software

This first script installs the following :-

git
winget
chocolatey
Windows Terminal
WizFile
CMake
Geany and Geany Plugins
winlibs
conan
Meson

irm https://learncodethehardway.com/setup/base.ps1 -outfile base.ps1
powershell -executionpolicy bypass .\base.ps1
irm https://learncodethehardway.com/setup/cpp.ps1 -outfile cpp.ps1
powershell -executionpolicy bypass .\cpp.ps1

To test this, run the following :-

git clone https://git.learnjsthehardway.com/learn-code-the-hard-way/game-dev-starter-pack.git
cd game-dev-starter-pack
powershell -executionpolicy bypass .\scripts\setup.ps1
meson compile -C builddir
.\builddir\sfmldemo

03: Building with Meson

A basic meson.build file looks like this :-

project('learn-cpp-the-hard-way', 'cpp',
    default_options: ['cpp_std=c++20'])

executable('ex02', 'ex02.cpp')

To configure a build directory, use this command:

meson setup --reconfigure builddir

To build everything using Meson, use this command:

meson compile -C builddir

To clean your build first, run this before the above:

meson compile --clean -C builddir

or -

rm -recurse -force builddir
meson setup --reconfigure builddir

05: Printing to the Screen

use cout to output to standard output
use cerr to output to error output

08: Strings

Convert a number to a string using the std::to_string() function

There are a number of functions to convert strings back to their number types as follows :-

std::stoi - String to int
std::stol - String to long
std::stoll - String to long long
std::stoul - String to unsigned long
std::stoull - String to unsigned long long
std::stof - String to float
std::stod - String to double
std::stold - String to long double

09: Using the `fmt` library

To add a dependency, in this case fmt, to Meson, add this line below the project() part.

fmt = dependency('fmt')

Then add this as the third parameter of the executable call, as such.

executable('ex09', 'ex09.cpp', dependencies: fmt)

The next thing you need to do is get Meson to download fmt

mkdir subprojects
meson wrap install fmt

Currently, our builds are set up to use dynamic linking, but we need static linking. Dynamic linking is where your program doesn't actually contain the code for the fmt library, instead it references a .so, .dylib, or .dll file on your computer. The problem with this is it requires your program knows where all these libraries are located.

To enable static linking, you need to rebuild your builddir with a new configuration

rm -recurse -force builddir
meson setup --prefer-static --default-library=static builddir
meson compile -C builddir

IronWill79/learn-cpp-the-hard-way