References to DFOR.LIB from Compaq Visual Fortran

Question

I have a old Visual C++ project that uses a FORTRAN static library for object creation. The current issue I have is that the project was originally made with the Compaq Visual Fortran compiler which uses the DFOR library. However, I get the error:

Error 105 error LNK1104: cannot open file 'dfor.lib'

The issue is that there are remaining references to the lib that are need to be replaced. However, I have rebuilt the project a few times, recreating all the objects that I have source files for, and the error has not resolved. I searched all the files in my project for the string dfor.lib, and these were the only resulting files.

Image of files containing string 'dfor.lib'

In the Project Linker Properties, if I remove the line /defaultlib:"dfor.lib" in the command line, I get the errors below:

Error   6   error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "public: class ATL::CStringT<char,class StrTraitMFC<char,class ATL::ChTraitsCRT<char> > > __thiscall petMove::toString(void)" (?toString@petMove@@QAE?AV?$CStringT@DV?$StrTraitMFC@DV?$ChTraitsCRT@D@ATL@@@@@ATL@@XZ) C:\Users\Gavin\Desktop\College stuff\1st year (Fresher)\Pet_Gavin\pet_neda\Power Network CaptureView.obj    Power Network Capture
Error   23  error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "protected: __thiscall CZoomView::CZoomView(void)" (??0CZoomView@@IAE@XZ) referenced in function "protected: __thiscall CPowerNetworkCaptureView::CPowerNetworkCaptureView(void)" (??0CPowerNetworkCaptureView@@IAE@XZ)   C:\Users\Gavin\Desktop\College stuff\1st year (Fresher)\Pet_Gavin\pet_neda\Power Network CaptureView.obj    Power Network Capture
Error   24  error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "protected: virtual __thiscall CZoomView::~CZoomView(void)" (??1CZoomView@@MAE@XZ) referenced in function "public: virtual __thiscall CPowerNetworkCaptureView::~CPowerNetworkCaptureView(void)" (??1CPowerNetworkCaptureView@@UAE@XZ)    C:\Users\Gavin\Desktop\College stuff\1st year (Fresher)\Pet_Gavin\pet_neda\Power Network CaptureView.obj    Power Network Capture
Error   7   error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "public: __thiscall CDialogCurrentPhasor::CDialogCurrentPhasor(class CWnd *)" (??0CDialogCurrentPhasor@@QAE@PAVCWnd@@@Z) referenced in function "public: void __thiscall CCurrentPhasor::SEDialogHandler(void)" (?SEDialogHandler@CCurrentPhasor@@QAEXXZ) C:\Users\Gavin\Desktop\College stuff\1st year (Fresher)\Pet_Gavin\pet_neda\Power Network CaptureDoc.obj Power Network Capture
Error   5   error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "public: class ATL::CStringT<char,class StrTraitMFC<char,class ATL::ChTraitsCRT<char> > > __thiscall petMove::toString(void)" (?toString@petMove@@QAE?AV?$CStringT@DV?$StrTraitMFC@DV?$ChTraitsCRT@D@ATL@@@@@ATL@@XZ) referenced in function "public: int __thiscall CPowerNetworkCaptureDoc::PushMove(class petMove *)" (?PushMove@CPowerNetworkCaptureDoc@@QAEHPAVpetMove@@@Z)  C:\Users\Gavin\Desktop\College stuff\1st year (Fresher)\Pet_Gavin\pet_neda\Power Network CaptureDoc.obj Power Network Capture
Error   22  error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "public: unsigned int __thiscall petMove::getPartType(void)" (?getPartType@petMove@@QAEIXZ) referenced in function "protected: void __thiscall CPowerNetworkCaptureView::OnChar(unsigned int,unsigned int,unsigned int)" (?OnChar@CPowerNetworkCaptureView@@IAEXIII@Z)    C:\Users\Gavin\Desktop\College stuff\1st year (Fresher)\Pet_Gavin\pet_neda\Power Network CaptureView.obj    Power Network Capture
Error   14  error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "public: virtual __thiscall CDialogRunAnalysisFromFilePF::~CDialogRunAnalysisFromFilePF(void)" (??1CDialogRunAnalysisFromFilePF@@UAE@XZ) referenced in function "protected: void __thiscall CPowerNetworkCaptureDoc::OnAnalysisRunFromFilePF(void)" (?OnAnalysisRunFromFilePF@CPowerNetworkCaptureDoc@@IAEXXZ)    C:\Users\Gavin\Desktop\College stuff\1st year (Fresher)\Pet_Gavin\pet_neda\Power Network CaptureDoc.obj Power Network Capture
Error   3   error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol _HtmlHelpW@16 referenced in function "protected: void __thiscall CMainFrame::OnHtmlHelp(void)" (?OnHtmlHelp@CMainFrame@@IAEXXZ)   C:\Users\Gavin\Desktop\College stuff\1st year (Fresher)\Pet_Gavin\pet_neda\MainFrm.obj  Power Network Capture

There are a few more but they are very similar to these ones.

Are these errors ones that would be easier to resolve or do they indicate that the command of /defaultlib:"dfor.lib" is needed?

Answer 1

The mention of CMainFrame in your last error suggests you have an MFC based project here. However the CMainFrame class is normally part of the MFC project, defined in the files MainFrm.h and MainFrm.cpp. If your project was originally generated by Visual Studio then your project's ReadMe.txt file should confirm that.

It seems somewhat suspicious that CMainFrame::OnHtmlHelp would have an unresolved reference - but I'm definitely not an MFC expert!

It appears support for HTML Help in MFC applications ended with Visual Studio 2010. The Advanced features page of the MFC Application Wizard includes a checkbox for Context-sensitive help (HTML). The documentation for that checkbox points to more information.

In Visual Studio 2010 Documentation the Advanced features page points to this page. However in the Visual Studio 2012 documentation the Advanced features page point to this page which says …

Important
HTML Help is not supported in this version of MFC.

The Visual Studio 2013 documentation points to a similar page

The What's New for Visual C++ in Visual Studio 2012 and Breaking Changes in Visual C++ 2012 pages don't mention HtmlHelp being de-implemented nor do they mention a replacement or workaround.

There's this unanswered SO question: htmlhelp.lib for Visual Studio 2012 MFC app?.

---

I don't recognise CZoomView, CDialogCurrentPhasor or CDialogRunAnalysisFromFilePF (which doesn't necessarily mean very much). They don't appear in Visual Studio 2013's MFC documentation which suggests either they are defined in your project or are part of some third-party package.

Are you sure your build is compiling all of the .cpp files it should compile? Have you tried rebuilding the entire solution?

If those are classes defined by your project, it is possible they're impacted by the Htmlhelp issue.

---

You should probably start by trying to resolve the LNK2001 CStringT error since it is first. The other errors might be downstream effects of that error (if you are lucky).

… long misleading (and wrong) section deleted …

Taking a second look at that error I realise I was sending you off in completely the wrong direction by focusing on CStringT. The pertinent part of the error text is...

error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol 
  "public: class ATL::CStringT<char,class StrTraitMFC<char,class ATL::ChTraitsCRT<char> > >
  __thiscall petMove::toString(void)" 

The unresolved symbol is the function petMove::toString(void) the ATL::CStringT< … > part is the return type of the function. The sixth error down is for the related function petMove::getPartType(void) which returns an unsigned int.

Assuming petMove is a class (or struct) defined in your project, perhaps examining the implementation of that class will tell you something about the link errors.

For example the implementations of petMove::ToString and petMove::getPartType might be missing; or commented out; or elded by an incorrect #ifdef.

The other four missing symbols are all constructors or destructors

CZoomView::CZoomView(void)
CZoomView::~CZoomView(void) 

CDialogCurrentPhasor::CDialogCurrentPhasor(class CWnd *)

CDialogRunAnalysisFromFilePF::~CDialogRunAnalysisFromFilePF(void) 

Is it possible your project is missing some implementation files for CZoomView, CDialogCurrentPhasor and CDialogRunAnalysisFromFilePF? Alternatively you may have a header file that defines constructors and/or destructors that your implementation .cpp file doesn't declare.

For example this header defines two constructors ...

// CZoomView.h 
class CZoomView
{
public:
   CZoomView();
   CZoomView(int);
   // ...
}; 

… but this implementation file only declares one of them …

// CZoomView.cpp

// Simulate missing ctor
//CZoomView::CZoomView()
//{
//}

CZoomView::CZoomView(int)
{
   // ...
}

That combination will compile successfully but will give a linker error LNK2019