Which flavour of c++ for windas game dev ?
Author
G'day
I'm trying to decide which flavour of c++ is best for windows game development. I've heard the Visual Studio 2003 toolkit complier (same complier as MSVC 2003) spits out better binaries than the MSVC 6.0 complier. However, reading up on MSVC 2003 it seems to be a .net complier. From what I've heard the .net version of c++ is like using java; you lose memory control, get slowed down by garbidge collection and write to a VM, not to the hardware. I've also heard c++.net is like learning a new langauge - something I dont want to do since I know how to write c++ 6.0 code. I was hoping the MSVC 2003 complier would support good old normal c++, but couldnt find any mention of it, only .net. Is it like a hiddern feature, or something ?
Given that I want to develop a windows game in c++ (not .net), which complier is better ?
The .net compilers are completely backwards compatable with standar C/C++
I have VS2002 .NET, and still use it to just program unmanaged C/C++
I have VS2002 .NET, and still use it to just program unmanaged C/C++
Erm. You need to do a bit more reading/browsing/whatever. There are no such things as 'flavours' or 'versions' of C++. It's a language. What there are, are different compilers that will produce machine readable output from C++ source code. There is no such thing as a compiler that makes .NET code from C++. .Net is a platform for C#, and has little to nothing to do with C++, IIRC. All MSVC versions (well, I haven't tried < 6, but they should as well) compile C++ and have built-in support for it. The MSVC 2003 compiler makes better machine code because it is more standards compliant, has a better optimizer, etc. For a good compiler, just go with whatever the latest offer is from microsoft, you can't go wrong with them, MSVC 6 aside [grin]
Quote:Original post by SirLuthor
.Net is a platform for C#, and has little to nothing to do with C++
.Net is a platform for all languages Microsoft currently makes compilers for. Managed C++, C#, Visual Basic, J#...
To make .Net code with C++ you have to learn the managed extensions (which, compared to the entirety of C++, are relatively little to learn, yet still fills books...), and turn on the CLR compiling (If you use managed extensions and don't have CLR turned on, the compiler will tell you what you need to do). However, even if you have CLR turned on you can write native code where you get complete control of memory within that code, you can insert asm, etc. It will still write to the Virtual Machine, though.
However, if you leave CLR off you will get your native machine code binaries.
You can get the Visual C++ 2005 Express Beta for free, and I personally don't see a need to get 2003 since 2005 is coming out eventually (Sometime in 2005 please?)
Dev-C++ and Code::Blocks are also good (and free).
[Edited by - igni ferroque on November 6, 2005 3:50:33 PM]
[Edited by - igni ferroque on November 6, 2005 3:50:33 PM]
Quote:Original post by SirLuthor
Erm. You need to do a bit more reading/browsing/whatever. There are no such things as 'flavours' or 'versions' of C++.
Unless you count prestandard, standard, and managed.
Prestandard is to be avoided, managed... well, let's just say there's better GCed languages... and standard, well, standard has it's advantages and disadvantages just like anything else :-).
Microsoft's .NET compilers should be able to compile both managed and unmanaged code just fine, no need to pick between the two.
Author
I've tried codeblocks and dev-c++ and couldnt get them to work properly. dev-c++ was buggy. Code::blocks was nice, although when i used the M/S toolkit complier i got stupid warnnings, and sometimes it wouldnt even complie code that worked on MSVC 6.
Quote:Original post by zedzeekQuote:You can get the Visual C++ 2005 Express Beta for free
does it come with a debugger?
Yes. The complete IDE and build environment is included. I don't think you could really do anything of any complexity without a debugger. The only differance I've noticed between standard and express (comparing standard 2k3 and express 2k5) are that there are far fewer project wizards and no external tools. There are 2 wizards that I miss: DLLs and Native Windows. You can still do both easily enough; you just go into project settings. It's just an extra step.
Just keep in mind it's a beta.
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