What is mingw?

It's a port of the GCC compiler to the Windows platform. Unlike the GCC you would find on Linux, MinGW comes with Windows specific headers and produces executables with the PE format instead of ELF. It's free and open source and can be seen as an alternative to Microsoft's Visual C compiler or Intel's ICC. MinGW-w64 is an alternative version that supports 64-bit executable.

Here are some links to easy to install distributions of MinGW/MinGW-w64 if you want to give it a try.

http://tdm-gcc.tdragon.net/

http://nuwen.net/mingw.html

It's a port of the GCC compiler to the Windows platform. Unlike the GCC you would find on Linux, MinGW comes with Windows specific headers and produces executables with the PE format instead of ELF. It's free and open source and can be seen as an alternative to Microsoft's Visual C compiler or Intel's ICC. MinGW-w64 is an alternative version that supports 64-bit executable.

Here are some links to easy to install distributions of MinGW/MinGW-w64 if you want to give it a try.

http://tdm-gcc.tdragon.net/

http://nuwen.net/mingw.html

@4mad3u5: all of those are GCC ports for Windows. While there is an "official" MinGW project, there are some spin-offs. I personally like and use TDM-GCC.

I recommend also getting an IDE; If you only download the compiler, you'll need to compile by hand using the command line.

I suggest getting the Code::Blocks + TDM-GCC bundle. If you want to do a bit of game development right away, you can:

- Download and install SDL2;

- Download and install my SDL2 project wizard for Code::Blocks;

- Work on Lazy Foo's SDL2 tutorials.

A final note: if you only intend to target Windows, try Visual Studio. The IDE/compiler combo is very good.

GCC (MinGW), on the other hand, will teach you a thing or two about:

- Cross-platform development;

- Portability (Visual C++, unsurprisingly, has some "Microsoft-isms");

- Build systems (e.g. Makefiles and CMake).

@georger.araujo I am currently using TMD-GCC, I know how execute from the command line. I do not like TMD because it has not ide and I normally use notepad but I also like an ide to be able to look at code that isn't formatted. Because of this I am changing to codeblocks with mingw. My real goal is to be able to compile opengl code from the command line and I heard that you might need mingw and I didn't know what that was.

I have visual studio and that I used to learn visual basic.net, first IDE and language I learned.

what is SDL2? I am just starting to learn graphics programming and game development.

@georger.araujo I am currently using TMD-GCC, I know how execute from the command line. I do not like TMD because it has not ide and I normally use notepad but I also like an ide to be able to look at code that isn't formatted. Because of this I am changing to codeblocks with mingw. My real goal is to be able to compile opengl code from the command line and I heard that you might need mingw and I didn't know what that was.

TDM-GCC does not have and IDE because, well, it's a compiler.

You don't really compile "OpenGL code" because, well, it's an API. You can use OpenGL with C, C++, Java, C#, Python, and a number of other languages.

what is SDL2? I am just starting to learn graphics programming and game development.

Straight from the site:

"Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform development library designed to provide low level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick, and graphics hardware via OpenGL and Direct3D."

If you're just beginning, then Lazy Foo's tutorials will be a good starting point.

I should also mention that you probably don't need OpenGL at this point in time. It's not for beginners, and you can do 2D games just fine without it.

You don't really compile "OpenGL code" because, well, it's an API. You can use OpenGL with C, C++, Java, C#, Python, and a number of other languages.

well what would you call it then, compiling a c++ program with opengl libraries? I don't want to say that I just want to say i'm compiling opengl code, its just easier to say, I know whats going on. Or how would you say it?

well what would you call it then, compiling a c++ program with opengl libraries? I don't want to say that I just want to say i'm compiling opengl code, its just easier to say, I know whats going on. Or how would you say it?

I'd call it "a C++ application which uses OpenGL for graphics". OpenGL does not implement other subsystems you'll need (e.g. input, audio, and networking).