Hi! I am still suffering with Visual C++ 6.0, and I decided today that it was enough. I have to upgrade. As a student, I don''t have a very big budget (~80$) for a new compiler. I would really love a compiler with proper template support (ie.: template > preferrably), as I just hit a situation where it would be quite useful. Finally, I''m going to use DirectX, so Linux solutions are out of question. Visual C++ 7 seems to fit the bill decently, but it doesn''t compile Loki, so I guess its template support must be lacking. Apparently, an intermediary release is on the way, but I don''t know when (anyone does?). I know it''s hard to ask for a good compiler at a low price, but I''d like to have a few suggestions. If there is nothing better than VC 7, I''m going to settle for it (I think I can get it for 50$ as a student), but I''d love to use Loki in my projects. Any ideas? Thanks for any answer, Cédric

GCC is free, and has good template support. There are Windows binaries available. GCC 3.0.x has even better template support, but I don''t know if there are Windows binaries easily available.

Ver 7 == .NET

quote:Original post by Landsknecht
What kind of trouble are you having with 6? I still use it and have never had a problem with it.

You''ve never done any advanced template programming have you ? I''ve heard that the new version fixes many of the template issues, but I can''t speak on that myself. I know that I''ve never had any real template issues in GCC, and it''s free, so it fits his budget really well.

go with gcc, since i am pretty sure you can use gcc from within the vc++ ide with some tweaking of configurations. if it dont work out, you dont lose any money at all, so you can still afford to go for vc++.net if you want.

quote:Original post by Landsknecht
What kind of trouble are you having with 6? I still use it and have never had a problem with it.

Template support is quite weak in VC6. Plus, there is no covariant return type, and you can''t write

for(int i=0; i<10; i++) cout << i;

for(int i=0;i<5; i+=2) cout << i;

in the same function, which really annoys me, because I do it all the time spontaneously.

Thanks for all the fast replies, guys. I''ll take a look at GCC. If I can really integrate it into the VC++ IDE, then the transition should be quick and painless.

Cédric