C++11 – New Enumeration Class

With original implementation of C/C++ enumerations (enum), I preferred to add a suffix to each of the enumerators to associate them to the enumeration so that when one appears in the code, it is easy to identify it to the enumeration:

enum EnumName {
    First_EnumName,
    Second_EnumName,
    Third_EnumName
};

Without this suffix, it is difficult to see which enumeration the value is associated to.  (Though using an IDE like Qt Creator, there is a command to go right to the definition.)  In addition, obviously the same name can't be used for two different enumerations.  A suffix (a prefix could have been used instead) solves this issue.

C++11 introduces a new enum class where the enumerators are scoped inside the enumeration.  The enumerators for these are also more strongly typed then the normal enumerations (which represent integers and can be used as such).  As an enumeration class, the above enumeration becomes:

enum class EnumName {
    First,
    Second,
    Third
};

In order to use these enumerations, they must be scoped, so to refer to the second enumerator, the name EnumName::Second would be used.  This is similar to my solution of using suffix (in this case it is a prefix).  An example of an enumeration class was added to the try compile test program.  The intention is to change the enumerations used in the project to enumeration classes.

[branch cpp11 commit 2a8e3899ee]

Project – Enable C++11 Compiling

By default, GCC C++ compiles for the corrected C++98 standard (C++03) with GNU extensions (there is no option for compiling for the uncorrected original C++98 standard).  There are two options for compiling C++11, one for the standard and one with GNU extensions.  The option for the standard C++11 will be used and was added to the CMake build file.

Though not necessary, I decided that it was a reasonable idea to validate that C++11 compiling was enabled and that C++11 was supported while generating the make file.  This meant adding a try_compile command to the CMake build file for a simple C++11 program.  If compiling of the simple program fails, an error is reported and CMake aborts.

The initial simple C++11 program tests two C++11 features.  As more C++11 features are used in the project, this simple program will be expanded to test those features also.  The two initial features tested are the new universal initializer syntax and the new null pointer.  Click Continue... for details of these two features.

I discovered something about CMake syntax, namely else and endif statements no longer require repeating the expression in the if statement (as of CMake 2.6.0).  The expression may now be left empty.  Repeating the expression can sometimes be misleading, for example:

if (NOT ${SOMETHING})
    ... <not something processing here> ...
else  (NOT ${SOMETHING})
    ... <something procession here> ...
endif (NOT ${SOMETHING})

Which makes it seem like the else part is for handling the "not something" condition.  Leaving the expression blank, as in else() and endif(), is much less confusing.  The rest of the if-else-endif statements in the CMake file will be updated to this style at some point.  (This syntax was already used for handling issues with Windows.)

There was also a statement in the CMake build file that obtained the GCC version for checking, but statements that were checking the version have been since removed, so this statement was also removed.  Work is now taking place on a new cpp11 branch.

[branch cpp11 commit 18ed38e9af]

Project – Compiler Warnings

In [Stroustrup, 2013], he frequently mentions that for questionably formed C++ statements that the compiler should issue a warning.  This made me realize that only the default warnings in the compiler were being used.  To possibly catch more problems, all of the warnings were enabled using the following GCC compiler options:

-Wall       enable all (well actually most) warnings
-Wextra     enable warnings not enabled by -Wall
-pedantic   enable warnings demanded by strict ISO C++ standard
-Werrors    cause compiler to treat warnings as errors

The last option causes the compiler to abort after issuing a warning instead of proceeding, which will require the warning to be corrected; however, this does not affect warnings from pedantic option, therefore the -pendantic-errors was used instead, which has the same affect.  After adding these options, several warnings were reported, which were of six different types.  Click Continue... for details of these warning types that were corrected.  Since this commit is development related and not specific to any topic, the commit was just made to the develop branch.

[commit bb0124444f]

Transitioning to the New Branching Model

The current topic in development was integrating the program model with recreator into the edit box, which has been going well, but there is at least one issue remaining.  When the text for a line entered in the edit box is recreated line replaced back into the edit box, extra undo commands are added to the undo stack.  So upon undoing the line, it firsts undoes the recreation and then undoes the change.  This issue will probably not be trivial to correct.

I want to start working on improving the C++ usage including using features that are part of the C++11 standard.  This implies a new topic branch for this work.  A topic branch is also needed for the recreator to edit box integration, somewhere on the current branch0.6 branch.  Finally for the new branching model, the develop branch is needed somewhere.

Since v0.6.1 was the last tag, the develop branch should go at this tag.  For the new C++11 branch, it should branch off of the develop branch (at this tag).  However, a lot of improvements are on the current branch0.6 branch, so I've decided to split branches further on from the last tag.

Therefore, the new develop branch was created at branch0.6.  The current branch0.6 was dead ended with an appropriate abandoned commit.  There will be no more of these branches.  Normally, git does not allow an empty commit with just a message, but this can be circumvented by using the --allow-empty option on the commit command.

A new recreator-editbox topic branch was placed at where the failing encoder test expected results were corrected before the latest two commits where the various Windows build issues were corrected since these commits have nothing to with this topic.  When work commences on this topic, changes can be merged from the develop branch.

[commit d3bb314f24] [commit 727f7d223f]

Project – New Git Branching Model

I found a better Git branching model.  Currently, a branch is created for the development release series.  For example, branch0.5 was created for all the 0.5.x versions (0.5.0 through 0.5.3).  Once this development series was completed, the branch was merged back to the master branch.  Since there were no other changes on the master branch, the pointer to master was simply moved from 0.4.6 (the last of the 0.4 development series) to 0.5.3 - what is known as a fast-forward merge.  In the end though, the repository is just a long row of linear commits.

The new Git branch model is detailed in this blog post.  I'm going to adopt this branching model.  The main development branch will be named develop, which will replace the branchX.X branches that has been used for development.  When development is ready for a release, a releaseX.X branch will be created from the develop branch.  There will be at least one commit used for updating the version number, and possibly another to do minor clean up (like fixing comments), plus any for possible platform related bug fixes discovered during testing.  This will replace the "updated files for release X.X.X" commits just before a release.  If testing goes well (on all platforms), then this branch will be merged to master and tagged for the release (as vX.X.X).

When a new feature, function or change is being added (what is called a "topic"), a topic branch will be created off of the develop branch and will be named for the topic.  This will more clearly state what is being developed (branchX.X states nothing except the release series).  When the topic is complete, it will be merged back to the develop branch.  If for some reason the topic doesn't work out, then the branch will abandoned and an empty commit will be made with the reason for the abandonment.  These topic branches will allow more when one topic to be worked on at a given time.

This model also allows for hit fixes to the master branch, where a hotfix-X.X.X branch will be created for the fix (which includes the proposed hot fix version number).  Once complete, the hot fix branch will be merged backed to the master branch, and it can be merged to the develop branch as needed.

As the blog post explains, all merges will use the no-fast-forward option (--no-ff), meaning that Git will make a merge commit showing the branch being merged instead of just moving the branch pointer.  Using this option will allow it to be cleary seen where the branch started and where it was merged.  With the current model, there is no way to see where the branch originally started, only where it ended up (assuming it isn't deleted, which is why the older development branches were not deleted).

Building and Running on Windows 8.1 – Command Line

The application can also be built using the command line, either from the Windows Command Prompt or from the BASH shell that comes with Git for Windows named Git Bash in the menu or start screen.  However, the procedure is slightly different between the two.  The procedures below include cloning the IBCP Git repository.  Here are the steps for using Git Bash:

1. cd Documents
2. git clone https://github.com/thunder422/ibcp
3. cd ibcp                               (shows master is the current branch)
4. git checkout branch0.6                (now shows branch0.6 is the current branch)
5. cd ..
6. mkdir ibcp-build
7. cd ibcp-build
8. cmake -G "MSYS Makefiles" -DCMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM=mingw32-make ../ibcp
9. mingw32-make
10. regtest                               (runs the Linux regression test script)

In step 8, the MSYS generator looks for the make command, which it will not find because it is named ming32-make with the MinGW-w64 installation.  Therefore the make program needs to be identified on the command line.

Here are the steps for using the Command Prompt:

1. cd Documents
2. git clone https://github.com/thunder422/ibcp
3. cd ibcp
4. git checkout branch0.6
5. cd ..
6. md ibcp-build
7. cd ibcp-build
8. cmake -G "MinGW Makefiles" ../ibcp    (produces errors - see below)
9. cmake -G "MinGW Makefiles" ../ibcp
10. mingw32-make
11. regtest                               (runs Windows regression test batch file)

In steps 8 and 9, unlike the MSYS generator, the MinGW generator does look for the mingw32-make command, so the make program does not need to be specified.  In step 8 like Qt Creator, there are a bunch of errors, one screaming about sh.exe being in the path and that MinGW make won't work correctly.  This does not appear to actually affect the build however.  In step 9 again like with Qt Creator, the second time no errors are reported.

In step 11, the batch file will run all the tests and then it will compare the first set of results (parser tests).  If the tests are successful it will say OK for each file.  Answer N for comparing more files.  The next set of results will be compared.  Answer N after each comparison (otherwise it will prompt for more files to compare).

In step 8 for Git Bash and steps 8 and 9 for the Command Prompt, add -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug before the source directory to do a debug build.

Building and Running on Windows 8.1 – Qt Creator

To obtain the project Git repository, start the Git GUI, either from the Start Menu (Programs, Git, Git GUI), from the Start Screen Git GUI icon or by typing "Git GUI" on the Start Screen (and there are probably other ways).  For Windows 8, it probably dumped the Git GUI icon right on the Start Screen.  For Windows 8.1, click the Down Arrow at the bottom-left and find the Git GUI under Git (pin to the Start screen if desired).

In the opening dialog of Git GUI, click on Clone Existing Repository.  Enter https://github.com/thunder422/ibcp in the Source Location and set to Target Directory by clicking the Browse button.  Find the Documents folder (or another folder), and click the OK button.  To the Target Directory, add /ibcp (it must be a non-existing folder or and error will occur) and click the Clone button.  After a few moments, the repository will be cloned.  The next time the Git GUI is started, the same dialog appears, however, the Git GUI remembers the repositories that have been opened previously.  Select the Repository menu and the recent repositories are listed.

The main Git GUI will be started indicating it is on the master branch.  Check out the latest branch by Branch, Create..., click the Matching Tracking Branch Name option, click the Tracking Branch option, select origin/branch0.6 (or another branch) and click the Create button.  This will create a local branch.  Now the project can be opened in Qt Creator so start Qt Creator and select File and Open File or Project...  and navigate to the Documents and then ibcp folder.  Select the CMakeLists file (the .txt is not displayed unless file extensions are enabled) and click the Open button.  

The CMake Wizard dialog appears with the build directory set to ...\Documents\ibcp-build,  click the Next button.  For a debug build (optional) add -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug into the Arguments field and then click the Run CMake button.  For some reason, there are a bunch of errors the first time.  Just click the Run CMake button again and it should complete successfully.  Click the Finish button and the application is ready to be built.

To start the build, click the Hammer icon (lower left, or type Ctrl+B or use the Build menu).  The run the program, click the Run/Play icon (lower left, or type Ctrl+R or use the Build menu).  For a debug build use the Debug/Play icon (lower left, or type F5 or use the Debug menu).  The application should start in GUI mode.

[commit ec787762b9] [commit 3285823de0]

CMake Problems Windows 8.1 – Part 3

The final build problem found with the awk script used to auto-generate the automatic enumerations header file and the codes reference text file.  The problem was that when building with Qt Creator (procedure will be provided in the next post), the build aborted with a strange error message after running this script.  It correctly built the output files, and telling it to build again allowed it to successfully complete the build.

The problem was in the part of the script that generates the codes.txt reference file that lists all the codes by code index and by code name.  This information is helpful to aid debugging, but otherwise it is not used.  To sort by code names, it pipes the code name output through the sort command.  It was desired that names like Asc_Code and Asc2_Code be sorted like this, but it was reversing these because the underscore sorts after the 2 character.

An attempt to correct this issue was made be adding the "-d" option (dictionary order) to the sort command which tells it to only recognize letters and digits ignoring underscore characters.  When building under Windows, it was calling the Windows sort command.  This sort command did not recognize this option and reported an error, which caused the build to fail.

Unfortunately, adding this option did not work as desired anyway.  The problem was that with the underscores removed, the above names become AscCode and Asc2Code and the 2 character still sorted before the C character.  This was not noticed when this option was added.  Anyway, once this option was removed, the build no longer failed on Windows.  (Curiously, the Windows sort command does sort the names as desired.)

CMake Problems Windows 8.1 – Part 2

The second problem was with the paths to the test files generated in the make file.  When CMake generates a custom command for making the test directory and copying a test file, it uses the Unix style path forward slash separator regardless of the generator being used.  While cmd.exe on Windows does support these style paths, the md and copy commands do not (in fact the forward slash indicates an option like the minus does for Linux and MSYS commands).  This obviously causes problems with the custom commands.

In CMake, the file command supports a TO_NATIVE_PATH option, but when used, this command didn't work as expected (didn't do anything).  Apparently this is a known issue and according to what I read, this is not the purpose of this command anyway.  So instead, a ConvertPath function was added to the CMake build file, which if the MinGW generator is being used, changes forward slashes to back slashes and surrounds that path with double quotes to deal with paths that may have spaces in them (which doesn't occur with the MinGW generator like with the MSYS generator).  For any other generator, the path is not changed.

Another build problem was found with the awk program required for building.  When using MSYS with MinGW, MSYS included many of the Unix utilities including the awk program.  Fortunately, Git for Windows includes many of the MSYS utilities.  However, the gawk program is included instead (stands for GNU awk).  Also included is an awk script, but this shell script is meant to be run by the sh.exe command that is part of MSYS, which just calls gawk.  When run from cmd.exe the script doesn't work.

When looking for the awk program, CMake found this awk script and so an error occurred from the make command running under cmd.exe.  To make CMake find gawk.exe instead of this script, the CMake build file was modified to look for gawk first, and if this is not found, then looks for awk.  In fact, on Linux, awk is also called gawk, but there is an awk file that soft links to it, so that either can be used.

While testing a minor mismatch was found with encoder test #2 with recreator testing.  The issue was that lines with error now store the text of the line, which is recreated.  This change was made in the last commit but the expect results were not updated.

[commit 727f7d223f]

Build Problems on Windows 8.1 – Part 1

Several problems were discovered when attempting to build and run on Windows 8.1 using Qt Creator.  The first problem that occurred was with the copying of the test files from the source directory to the build (binary) directory.  This is accomplished by creating custom commands for each test file.  These custom commands generate a mkdir -p command to make the test directory if not already there and the cp command to copy the file.  Both of these commands are available on Linux and with MSYS on Windows.

When building on the command line on Windows using MSYS to create the make file or using the CMake GUI to generator the make file, the "MSYS Makefiles" generator is used.  This creates the make file assuming that the make command will be run using a Unix shell (specifically bash or the Bourne Again SHell).

On Windows when running CMake from Qt Creator, it uses the "MinGW Makefiles" generator to generator the make file.  This generator assumes that the make command is going to be run using cmd.exe, the Windows command prompt program, which Qt Creator uses cmd.exe to run the make command.  The make command uses the program under which it is run to execute commands in the make file like for custom commands.

The CMake build file needed to be modified to detect when the MinGW generator was being used and use the appropriate make directory and copy commands for cmd.exe.  Fortunately, the CMake CMAKE_GENERATOR variable is set to the generator is being used.  So, if the generator is MinGW Makefiles, the md and copy commands are used, otherwise the mkdir -p and cp and used.

Another problem with the md command is that if the directory already exists, the command returns an error and the make command aborts.  With Linux/MSYS, the -p option solves this problem.  With cmd.exe, the md command has no similar option.  The only solution that worked was using an if not exist command (so the md command is only performed when the test directory doesn't exist):

if not exist test-directory md test-directory

When the generator is not MinGW, CMake adds double quotes about each component of an individual command in the custom command if the component has a space in it, because otherwise the shell parse a path with a space incorrectly as two arguments and not one.  For this reason, the command variable could not be set to mkdir -p because it would create the command "mkdir -p" and this is not a valid command.  Therefore, the mkdir and -p had to be put into two separate variables.  This does not occur with the MinGW generator.

Installing QtCreator on Windows 8.1

Downloading Qt Creator was described a few posts ago.  The latest version of Qt Creator at the time is 3.1.2.  Open the qt‑creator‑opensource‑windows‑x86‑3.1.2.exe download file and click through, accepting the recommended Installation Folder, the license, and Start Menu shortcuts.  Accept the User Access Control if asked.  At the end go ahead and Launch Qt Creator as some post install configuration is needed.

Qt Creator should be able to find the various utilities and Qt 4.8.6 since these are on the path, but it does not appear to actually look for some of these, so these need to be configured manually.  In Qt Creator selected Tools and Options...  Click the Build & Run page.

On the Qt Versions tab, if Qt 4.8.6 was not auto-detected, it needs to be set manually.  Click the Add button and browse to the C:\Qt\4.8.6\bin directory and select the qmake.exe (just qmake if extensions are not displayed).  Click the Apply button.

On the Compilers tab, if MinGW was not auto-detected, it needs to be set manually.   as MinGW (x86 32bit in C:\mingw32\bin).  Click the Add button and select MinGW (from the drop down menu).  On the Compiler path field, click the Browse button and navigate to the C:\mingw32\bin directory and select g++.  Click the Apply button.

On the Debuggers tab, it GDB was not auto-detected, it needs to be set manually.  Click the Add and replace the default New Debugger name with something like GDB 7.7 (which is the version installed with MinGW).  Click the Browse... button and browse to This PC, Local Disk (C:) (or whatever it may be called), mingw32, bin, gdb and click the Open button.  Click the Apply button.

On the CMake tab, click the Browse... button and navigate to This PC, Local Disk (C:), Program Files (x86), Cmake 2.8, bin, cmake and click the Open button.  Click the Apply button.

Finally on the Kits tab, select the Desktop (default) under manual, which is italicized with a yellow triangle warning indicating it is not configured properly.  Under the Debugger field, select GDB 7.7 on the drop down (only debugger listed).  The warning should go away since the Compiler and Qt Version fields are already set.  Click the OK button.

The configuration can be testing by compiling one of the Examples.  On the Welcome page (icon on upper-left), select Examples.  I selected the first example: 2D Painting Example.  On the Configure Project page that appears next, click the Configure Project button.  Test building by clicking the Hammer icon (lower-left or type Ctrl+B).  After a few moments it should finish.  Click the Run/Play icon (or type Ctrl+R) to run the program.  It should present two rotating patterns.  Qt and Qt Creator have been successfully installed.

Installing Git on Windows 8.1

Finally, to obtain this project from this project's Git repository on GitHub, the Git utility is required.  The latest Git for Windows can be obtained from their home page (which has changed since I previously described how to install Git).  Click the Download button to download the latest version.

Open the download file (Git‑1.9.4‑preview20140611) and accept the User Control Access if asked.  Click through and accept the license.  On the Select Components dialog, select additional icons if desired and click through accepting the defaults.  It's not necessary to view the release notes, so disable and click Finish.

The paths to these programs along with Qt needs to be added to Windows.  From Windows Explorer, select This PC, right-click and select Properties, Advanced system settings, and on the Advanced tab, click Environment Variables...  Under System variables, scroll down to Path and add:

;C:\mingw32\bin;C:\Qt\4.8.6\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\bin

Select Path, click Edit..., add the string above to the end of Variable value, and click OK (the whole way out).  This will allow the utilities git, g++ (compiler), gdb (debugger) and qmake (how it is determined where Qt is installed) to be found on the command line or by a program that is started under Windows.  The path to the CMake directory should already have been added during CMake installation.

Installing CMake on Windows 8.1

Building project requires the CMake utility.  CMake can be obtained from the CMake download page.  For now I suggest installing the latest 2.8 version, which is 2.8.12.2.  There is a newer version (3.0.1 at this time), but Linux only has 2.8.7 (Linux Mint 13/Ubuntu 12.04) or 2.8.12.2 (with kubuntu backports or Linux Mint 17/Ubuntu 14.04).  This project only requires 2.8, so 2.8.12.2 for Windows is sufficient.

Open the cmake‑2.8.12.2‑win32‑x86.exe download file and accept the User Control Access if asked.  Click through and accept the license.  On the Install Options dialog, select the Add CMake to the system PATH for all users or current user as desired, and the Create CMake Desktop Icon if desired.   Continue clicking through and finally click Finish.

Installing Qt For MinGW on Windows 8.1

Download the latest Qt4 for Windows with MinGW at the Qt Project's download page.  Upon first opening this page, only the latest Qt5 version is shown (which at this time is 5.3.1).  To see more versions, click the Show Downloads button and scroll down to Qt 4.8 (4.8.6 at this moment).  Download the one for MinGW with GCC 4.8.2 (note that this download does not actually include MinGW).  While here, the latest version of Qt Creator can also be downloaded (3.1.2 at this moment).

For now, I plan to continue using Qt4 even though Qt5 has been out for a while.  I will describe installing the current latest Qt4.  The version present on Linux Mint 13 (Ubuntu 12.04) is 4.8.1 unless the kubuntu backports are being used to get the latest version of KDE, in which case 4.8.2 is present.  Linux Mint 17 (Ubuntu 14.04) has version 4.8.5.  These versions are sufficient so there is no need to install 4.8.6 for Linux.  (I don't know enough about Qt5, which is something that may be revisited some time in the future.)

Now Qt4 can be installed.  Open the qt-opensource-windows-x86-mingw482-4.8.6-1.exe download file and accept the User Account Control if asked.  Click though, accept license, continue clicking through, accept the default C:\Qt\4.8.6 installation location, and continue clicking through.  It will ask where the MinGW installation is located.  If MinGW was installed as previously described, the default C:\mingw32 can be accepted, so click Install.

At the end of the install process, the setup program will ask to Run Examples and Demos and Show Documentation.  This is not necessary, so disable these before clicking Finish.  These can be accessed by the Start Menu (Classic Shell) by Programs, Qt by Digia v4.8.6 (MinGW 4.8.2 OpenSource), Examples and Demos and Assistant.  From the Start Screen on Windows 8 I'm guessing the install throws all the programs on the Start Screen itself.  However, on Windows 8.1, click the Down Arrow (lower left where it says new apps installed), and scroll right to where the Qt by Digia v4.8.6 (MinGW 4.8.2 OpenS... programs are listed where Assistant and Examples and Demos will be.  These can be pinned to the Start Screen if desired (Pin to Start on right-click menu).

Installing MinGW on Windows 8.1

The procedure for installing MinGW (that came with GCC 4.6.2 at the time) was previously described.  Later once Qt was being utilized, the procedure for installing the QtSDK with MinGW (that came with the older GCC 4.4) was given, and then it was detailed how to connect the MinGW with GCC 4.6.2 to QtCreator since 4.4 was too old.

The Qt Project team no longer provides the QtSDK (that included the Qt library development files, MinGW and QtCreator).  Therefore, the Qt4 libraries and QtCreator now need to be installed separately.  The latest Qt4 (4.8.6) for MinGW does not actually come with MinGW, which needs to be install separately beforehand.  They suggest installing MinGW-w64 first (which includes GCC 4.8.2) and give a specific version to install.

MinGW-w64 can be downloaded from here.  This is revision 3 and there is now a revision 4 (they don't detail very well what was changed in revision 4), but I installed the recommended revision 3.  The download file is in 7-Zip format, which Windows 8.1 does not have native support for.   To install 7-Zip, go to the 7-Zip website and click the Download .msi (for 64-bit Windows 8 or Download .exe if using 32-bit Windows 8).  Once downloaded open the program.  (Don't install the 7z922.exe program, the default program on their SourceForge page, as it doesn't connect into Windows Explorer.)

MinGW can now be installed by extracting the i686-4.8.2-release-posix-dwarf-rt_v3-rev3.7z download file.  Right-click on this file, select 7-Zip, and Extract files...  Set the Extract to directory to C:\ and click OK.  This will install MinGW at C:\mingw32, which is the location Qt expects to find it.  Next post will describe installing Qt.

Upgrading MinGW on Windows

Upgrading GCC in MinGW to the latest version is easily accomplished.  Simply start the MSYS Shell and run the following commands (this worked on the MinGW installs on both Windows XP and 7):

mingw-get update
mingw-get upgrade

Use the command g++ --version to verify that GCC 4.8.1 has been installed.  Installing MinGW with the Qt libraries has been previously covered (see the Windows tagged posts).  However, it is probably be a good idea to update the procedure and repeat for Window 8 since only Windows XP and 7 were covered previously.  Plus, there are newer versions of Qt and MinGW.  Specifically I will provide the installation procedure for Windows 8.1 update 1, which I have running in a virtual machine.  All the tools necessary will be covered, including MinGW, Qt for MinGW, CMake and git in the following posts.

I obtained Windows 8 Pro via their $40 upgrade offer, otherwise I would not have bothered.  On my Windows 8.1 installation, I have Classic Shell installed.  This is not necessarily because I don't like the Modern (AKA Metro) UI, but it's just contrary works to the way I like to work.  In Classic Shell, I use the Classic start menu style as I don't like the Window 7 start menu style (I use the Classic Shell on Windows 7 for the same purpose).  Procedures for the classic start menu style and the start screen will be provided when appropriate.