Software Engineering and Computer Games

20.9. Building blocks of a complete program

Now that we’ve talked about the mechanics of building a program, let’s say a little more about the kinds of component files that go into making a Windows program.

First come the files which are involved in building the code of the main Windows executable.

• Project file: *.sln and *.vcproj [*.dsw and *.dsp in Version 6]

• Source-code files: *.cpp and *.c

• Header files: *.h

• Object code files: *.obj

• Static library files: *.lib

• Executable file: *.exe, and dynamic link library files: *.dll

Next come the files which are used for specifying the graphic user interface of the program.

• Resource files: *.rc, and compiled resource files: *.res

Finally we want to mention the files that are involved in creating the standard ...