Using Visual Studio with Flex C (AKA FlexSpin)

• Visual Studio is my favorite C++ editor and this page will show you how to use it with Flex C for programming the Propeller 2 (or Propeller 1) in C.
• The trick I'm using is to create a "makefile" project, even though we're not really using a makefile.
• Here's a screenshot of what it looks like:
  •     Click thumbnail image to enlarge...
•  You can get Visual Studio for free (Community Edition) here:  https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/community/
• Download and unzip the latest version of Flex C compiler here
  • Unzip to some place like C:\FlexSpin  
  •  You will also need loadp2.exe.  You can get that here or by downloading the FlexProp gui.  Install this file in same location as FlexSpin
•  The easiest way to get started might be to just download and open this example solution that includes several projects.
  • The project here are set with the path C:\FlexSpin for the FlexC compiler.  You will have to change project makefile properties and build.bat if you use a different folder.
• What Works
  •   Push the green triangle "Local Windows Debugger" button will compile and run the "startup project", you should then see a terminal window appear (or error messages in the output window if something went wrong)
    • Select the "startup project" by right-clicking on that project in solution window and pick "Set As StartUp Project".
  • You can build the project without running it with the menu via "Build->Build ..." or ctrl-B
  • Context highlighting and intellisense mostly work although some FlexSpin specific things might get flagged as wrong when they are not
  • Find in Files can be used on current file, open files, project, solution, etc. and you can jump to anything found by clicking on it
• What Doesn't Work
  •   There is no actual debugging in P2 yet.  For now, use serial output to the terminal (although there is a special debug version of serial output).
  •  When there is a build error, double-clicking in output window takes you to the file with error, but not line number with the error.
• To create a makefile project from scratch, you can try using an old guide here