Application page of Visual Studio project properties (Synergy .NET)

Use the Application page of project properties in Visual Studio to configure application settings for a project.

To access this page, select a project node in Solution Explorer, select Project > Properties from the Visual Studio menu, and then select the Application tab.

The settings that appear on this page are determined by the project type.

General Application Settings

Assembly name

Specifies the name of the assembly to be created. The default name is the project name, and the default extension is determined by the output type. If the build results in an executable assembly, the default extension is .exe. If it results in a class library, the default is .dll.

Default namespace

Specifies the namespace that will be used by default when you add new items to the project.

Target framework

Specifies the target .NET version for the assembly. The .NET versions installed on your system determine which versions are available for this setting. By default, this is set to the version selected when the project was created.

There are two types of .NET targets you can set with this option: Windows-specific versions and cross-platform versions.

Windows-specific versions have the word “Windows” in their names—e.g., “.NET 6.0 Windows”. These versions support a subset of Windows-specific features (e.g., WPF and Windows Forms), but can run only on Windows (x86 and x64).
Cross-platform versions (e.g., “.NET 6.0”) do not have “Windows” in their names. These versions support only non-Windows features (i.e., features associated with terminal-style programs) and can run on Windows and Linux.

Output type

Specifies application type: Windows Application, Console Application, or Class Library. The default depends on the project type.

Startup object

Specifies the entry point for the application. This can be a main routine specified with the Synergy MAIN statement, or it can be a class. If it is a class, the class must contain a method called “main” with the following signature (otherwise, a MISMAIN error will be reported):

public static method main, void 
    arg, [#]string 
proc ....

A MULTMAIN error will be reported if both a main method and a main routine (specified by a Synergy MAIN statement) exist.

For Multiple Mainline projects, this setting determines which mainline is used as the starting point when you select a Visual Studio debug or run option—e.g., “Start Debugging” or “Start Without Debugging”. The program set as the startup object is displayed in bold text in Solution Explorer.

A change made to this setting will be saved to a .synproj.user file, which is specific to the machine. (The default setting is stored in the .synproj project file.)

You can also set this by right-clicking a source file in Solution Explorer and selecting “Set as Startup Object” from the context menu.

Working directory

Specifies the working directory for compiler commands. By default, this is the object folder (obj) folder for the project. You can use an environment variable in this field (e.g., SRC:) if the environment variable is defined on the Common Properties page or the Environment Variables page of project properties.

Note that if your code files have .INCLUDE statements that don’t specify a path, you’ll need to set the “Working directory” option to the directory with the included files. For example, if you have the statement “.INCLUDE fred.def”, you’ll need to set the “Working directory” option to the directory with fred.def.

Assembly Information

Displays the Assembly Information dialog box, which enables you to set global assembly attributes, which are stored in the AssemblyInfo file for the project.

Resources

Icon and manifest

This option enables you to specify an icon and manifest for the project. Use this option unless the project will have a resource file.

Icon

Specifies the icon (.ico) file that will be used for the application.

Manifest

Selects the manifest generation setting used when the application runs under User Account Control (UAC):

Embed manifest with default settings	Embeds security information in the application’s executable file, and sets requestedExecutionLevel to AsInvoker.
Create application without a manifest	Select this option, known as virtualization, if you use ClickOnce to deploy (and “Icon and manifest” is selected).
Properties \ app.manifest	To specify your own manifest file, enter the path and filename in the Manifest field.

Resource file

To provide a Win32 resource file for the project, select this option and then specify the resource file (which can include an icon).