Quote:Original post by monkey_32606 The IDE is the super text editor.(with syntax highlighting, code folding and other neat stuff) The Compiler is the monkey in a box that reads your text(code) and turns it into a program(.exe or whatever).
Most ALL IDEs can tell that monkey to make a program from the text(code).
So, basicly you're saying that you are a compiler? [grin]
I recommend getting Visual C++ .NET 2005 Express Beta from MSDN because the VC++.NET compiler is better than MingW, GCC or any other free compiler, it's free and has the awesome Visual Studio 2005 IDE. You can't go wrong.
Beeing the odd one, I reccomend you to go with Lcc Win32 If you don't intend to sell things you've done using it, you're ok. If you plan to sell it, you have to pay a small fee for it. Nice integrated IDE with resource editor/compiler and other useful tools. If you want to code in C++, you better get another one. It's C only (and boosted C with some compiler specific extensions)
I would recommand Borland's free C++ compiler. You can download it free from Borland.com
Here, click on this link to download: ftp://ftpd.borland.com/download/bcppbuilder/freecommandLinetools.exe (or http://altd.borland.com/download/bcppbuilder/freecommandLinetools.exe is the other doesn't work).
Than install it. After you installed it (read the readme, installing is more than just extract, you need to make some config files, thats done in 3 minutes btw, everything will be explained in the readme).
When you have fully installed it you can write a source file in any texteditor you want (like notepad), however I would recommand one with syntax highliting, just a text editor that is made for it like the free Crymson one ( http://robotics.snu.ac.kr/~igkang/download/cedt360r.exe or http://my.netian.com/~igkang/cedt360r.exe if the first doesn't work) Install Crymson and you're done.
than you can begin programming, first write you're code in the crimson editor, when it's finished save it as a *.cpp file. Borland's free compiler is a command line compiler, so you'll need to use the command to compiler things. Typ the following in Start>Run: C:\Borland\Bcc55\Bin>bcc32 YourProject.cpp<enter> (bcc32.exe is the compiler)
Than a file called "YourProject.exe" will be created and it will be placed in C:\Borland\Bcc55\Bin (if you have installed Borland in C:\Borland )
I hope this explained everything to you. Ofcourse you can also use other compiler, or other texteditors (I would recommend to NOT use notepad).
