How to use openssl

[Michael Wojcik]

> From: Don Payette <payettedon at gmail.com> 
> Sent: Wednesday, 24 May, 2023 12:12

> The compiler is Visual C++. 

Microsoft Visual C++ (a misnomer) is both a C and C++ compiler. In recent versions it's even come close to providing a conforming implementation of a decently reasonable edition of the C standard.

> I'm trying to fix this C code to work in Windows since my app is a Windows service written in Visual C++. It
> would be be real nice if openSSL had a version of the sample program that works in Microsoft Visual C++.

It does. OpenSSL includes the various utilities that are bundled into the "openssl" executable ("openssl.exe" on Windows). They're part of the OpenSSL source tree, in the apps directory. If you configure OpenSSL to be built by Visual C++, then those programs will also build under Visual C++.

They are all C, not C++, but it's much simpler to go from C to C++ since most of the C standard is incorporated into C++.

(Officially the entire C standard is incorporated into the C++ standard, if memory serves and that hasn't changed since the last time I muddled through the C++ standard. In practice, of course, C++ invades the application namespace all over the place, and a significant number of C best practices don't work in C++ due to differences in things like type handling. But it's still less work to convert C to C++, or simply use C within C++. I don't recommend using C in a C++ application; if you're going to put up with the infelicities of C++, you might as well get the benefits. But many people do it nonetheless.)

-- 
Michael Wojcik