MDX + .NET Framework 2.0 + VCS Express Edition + Win XP x64

This is an excellent question. As you have discovered most .Net compiler produce agnostic (MSIL) binaries. These binaries will load as 64bit processes when run on a Win64 machine.

All .Net compilers (except managed cpp) have a compile switch called platform that allows you to target your applicaiton to 1 architecture. In this case you would want to target your application to X86. To do that add "/platform:x86" to the C# compiler command line. Now your application will load on the WOW64 and everything should line up.

The reason V1.1 applications work is because V1.1 did not have the concept of 64bit. So, for appcompat reasons the OS locks all V1.x managed assemblies to run under the WOW64.

Hope that this helps.

Jeff

Well, maybe I'm doing some step wrong.

First attempt, I open my app properties in VCS Express, then go to the "Debug" tag and insert "/platform:x86" (w/o the quotes) in the "Command Line Arguments" textbox, but still the exception appears -as if the parameter were disrigarded: "is not a valid Win32 application. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800700C1)"

Second attempt, I use that condition as a conditional compilation symbol ("Build" Tag) with no success: "Warning 2 The parameter to the compiler is invalid, '/define:/platform:x86' will be ignored. C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50215\Microsoft.CSharp.targets 0 0 "

Final one, I use it as a pre-build command line macro ("Build Events" tag) but the following error output: "Error 2 The command "/platform:x86" exited with code 123. C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50215\Microsoft.Common.targets 751 9 "

I didn't try to compile it directly from the shell since I want to use VCS Express. ?What am I doing wrong?

1) The "debug tag" command line is to specify ms-dos arguments, like "netstat -b -v" ... So specifying /platform:x86 wont work...
2) Conditional defines are llike /define:WIN32 and /define:DEBUG ... This is used like if you do in your .cs code #define DEBUG ... So again, wont work.
3) Build-events conditional macros are for executing ms-dos commands like
#ifdef DEBUG
xcopy c:\debug\thing.cs d:\programs
#else
xcopy c:\thing.cs d:\programs
#endif
so wont work....
Question is...how the hell I add a /platform:x86 to the csc.exe command line INSIDE the IDE ( could do without problems using ms-dos command line, but that is not an option... I wanna use an IDE, not linux-style csc.exe /q /h /e myZillionsofPointCS files... )...
Again, I dont see any "add here your manual compiler settings...." in the Visual C# Express building options.....
Exists a file called "csc.rsp" you could use that has inside the c# compiler command line options by default... BUT the stupid vc# IDE puts the /noconfig tag by default... so even if you put the /platform:x86 in the csc.rsp wont work....
And again, i wonder why MSoft didnt put a simple combo box in the VC# express build options with the options:
Asembly PE format :
1 - MSIL anycpu
2 - x86
3 - x64
and also I wonder why the hell the Managed DirectX is not compiled for .NET x64 too if the C++ is....

Well, I've found it ... just tested it with a few projects but it works (By the way: is there a problem with "Mesh.FromFile" operation?).

The solution is within the IDE ... It's that obvious that it's not ... if you know what I mean ...

The procedure is the following:

1) Open your CS-MDX project with VCS Express.
2) Go to the solution platforms combobox (by default, it says "Any CPU").
3) Select "Configuration Manager..." (a new dialog box will open).
4) In the project's "Platform" cell, display the combobox list and select "<New...>" (the "NNP" dialog box will open).
5) Select "x86" from the "New platform:" combobox list (you will also see "Itanium" by default and "x64").
6) Select "<Empty>" in the "Copy Settings from" combobox.
7) Check the "Create new solution platforms" checkbox.
8) Press Ok.

Then open you project's "Properties" tab and in the "Build" section configure the usual settings like "Allow Unsafe Code" (since we're dealing with MDX) and so on.

Finally, in the same section, press the "Advance..." button and select "full" in the "Debug Info:" combo box (to avoid a warning message when debugging).

I hope you understand the above-mentioned steps.

Regards,
UH

This really pisses me... why the hell when I right-click over the SOLUTION the configuration manager DOESN'T APPEAR omg.... the bug in (ps1:) is killing me! Right-click over solution doesn't work and combos are BOTH grayed/disabled in the "Standard" toolbar Config Manager.... why!

Yes I reinstalled, deleted obj/bin directories in my project, deleted program files\visual studio 8\vsharp thing, reset toolbars... nothing.... Configuration Manager, Solution Platforms and Solution Configurations are all grayed, disabled or dont appear 8(
Searching in the Internet I found a guy with my same problem:
http://www.dotnetnewsgroup.com/message/236419.aspx
http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=22699#22699
The solution given is

1) Go to Tool->Options and CHECK in the bottom of the dialog the option "Show all settings".
2) CHECK the "Show advanced build configurations" in Tools->Options->Projects and Solutions

so now all works OK, thx all.

You are a legend. Thankyou.