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Browser Toolkit Introduction - README.TXT
Microsoft Visual C++ Browser Toolkit for Windows NT
(C) Copyright Microsoft Corporation, 1993


Contents


     1    Introduction
     2    Overview of Toolkit Files

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1    Introduction

     Welcome to the Microsoft Visual C++ Browser Toolkit for
     Windows NT.  This toolkit contains a set of powerful
     tools that allow the Visual C++ programmer to
     manipulate the contents of browser database (.BSC)
     files.  These are the very tools used by the Visual
     Workbench browser to accomplish its tasks. With the
     Visual C++ Browser Toolkit, you can create your own
     development tools that take advantage of the vast
     amount of information contained in a program's .BSC
     file. A .BSC file is a comprehensive database that
     contains information about a program's symbols, such as
     symbol references, function calltrees, and definition
     tables. The size of a Visual C++ program's .BSC file,
     which can be many times larger than the actual source
     file itself, demonstrates the wealth of information
     .BSC files contain. For more information about browser
     database files, refer to the Visual Workbench User's
     Guide manual provided with the Visual C++
     documentation.
     
     The Toolkit's browser library (named BSC.LIB) contains
     numerous functions that, for example, search for symbol
     matches (given a prefix), generate classtrees,
     translate decorated names, and obtain index ranges for
     a given object. The Browser Toolkit includes BSCDUMP, a
     sample utility that demonstrates the type of
     applications you can create using the Toolkit's APIs.
     BSCDUMP displays in various formats some of the
     information in a browser database file. You can learn
     more about this useful utility by viewing the
     BSCTUT.TXT file.
     
     The following section outlines this and other files
     included in the Browser Toolkit.

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2    Overview of Toolkit Files

     The Browser Toolkit consists of two sets of files. The
     first set includes files required to build an
     application that uses the browser library:
     
     Browser Library   Headers
     BSC.LIB           BSC.H
                       BSCSUP.H
                       HUNGARY.H
     
     
     The second set serves as a reference guide that
     includes three documentation files and the sample
     application BSCDUMP:
     Documentation Files
     
     The following documentation files are provided in
     both text (*.TXT) and Microsoft Word (*.DOC) format.
     
     README.TXT    Browser Toolkit introduction.
     BSCTUT.TXT    Tutorial file that discusses the sample
                   application.
     BSCREF.TXT    Reference file for the Browser Toolkit API.
     
     Sample Application Files

     BSCDUMP.C     The application source code.
     BSCDUMP.EXE   The application executable.
     MAKE.BAT      A one-line batch file that uses the
                   Visual C++ compiler and linker to create
                   a small-model version of BSCDUMP.
     
     To learn more about the Visual C++ Browser Toolkit for
     Windows NT and how to use its browser library, refer to
     the BSCREF.TXT and BSCTUT.TXT files.
