Hey all,

I'm a C++ coder, and I used to always code with Xcode on Mac. Recently I boot-camped my iMac to run Windows XP, and then acquired Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate and proceeded to use that for C++ projects.

I fell in love with VS2010, and it seems that VS is the industry standard IDE for the type of software development I am interested in, so it would be fantastic to continue using it.

My problem is that VS2010 does not support C++11 features, and I hate writing out a new loop counter variable which is used once to then create a 'currentItem' pointer, it would be fantastic to be able to take advantage of C++11's features. I also try and keep up with the latest technologies and update my coding style to suit, so templates and the rest would be helpful.

If I could purchase Visual Studio 2012 Ultimate is there any way that could run on XP?

Could I configure VS2010 to run using GCC (or the MinGW equivalent), as GCC has C++11 features?

Is there any extensions/hacks/add-ins for VS2010 which can give me C++11 features?

Should I just switch to Xcode, or stay and labour with normal C++?

Thanks

mikenovemberoscar

No clue about the rest but for can you install 2012 on XP the answer is a big no, not even on vista afaik, win7+ only.

I think a better question is why you're even running XP...

While it's possible to switch the back-end of Visual Studio, it's also a non-trivial process that may end up ruining your choice of developing in Visual Studio in the first place.

I would suggest you upgrade your OS. Failing that, I would suggest never using XP, which would mean you would just use Xcode on OS X. Failing that, I would suggest installing Code::Blocks or Qt Creator and using GCC with an IDE that was meant to use it.

Also note that if you want lots of new C++11 features, even VS2012 doesn't support a lot of the features. This little chart tells you what is and isn't missing in VS2012 and VS2010.

Thanks for all the replies. Argh I would love Windows 7 but I just can't justify the money for what I'd use it for...

I'll look into Qt Creator for my Windows stuff (there was another IDE, a Linux one but I can't remember it's name).

there was another IDE, a Linux one but I can't remember it's name

Code::Blocks maybe? Or vim though it's not really an "IDE" in the strictest sense.