Re: Free C++compilers for a classroom

From:

=?UTF-8?B?RXJpayBXaWtzdHLDtm0=?= <Erik-wikstrom@telia.com>

Newsgroups:

comp.lang.c++

Date:

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 23:05:00 GMT

Message-ID:

<woXJi.9625$ZA.5005@newsb.telia.net>

On 2007-09-24 23:19, john wrote:

Jensen Somers wrote:

I think Dev-CPP is too outdated. It's a nice tool and I have used it
throughout college myself, but it seems it has not been updated for some
time now. As an IDE it's missing some features I like and most starting
programmers would also like making programming easier and more fun.

Now, the best C++ compiler is still g++ in my opinion, so Cygwin would be
an option. The downside is the "difficult" build process.

Depending on the strictness and difficulty of the courses I would advise
you to use Visual C++ Express Edition 2005 (free Visual Studio version).
It has almost all the benefits of the wonderful Visual Studio IDE and has
a pretty good and up-to-date C++ compiler. Excellent for a beginner.
I myself use Visual Studio at work every day, mainly developing C++
applications without using MS Windows specific calls and functionality
and it works very well.
Given most students most likely run MS Windows at home this free version
does not require much knowledge and experience to install and to start
programming with.

I checked Visual C++ 2005 Express, but I think it requires much steps
for learning ISO C++ programming. You have got to create a Win32 Console
project and erase the tmain() and #include "stdafx.h", and create your
ISO C++ program. I think it isn't convenient for learning ISO C++. I
think VC++/VS is mainly suited for real already programmers to create
real world system-specific .NET/Win32 applications, as opposed to
students learning ISO C++ programming.

You should create an empty project, add a source-file and then write the
code in that, it might also be a good idea, but not necessary, to
disable the VC++ specific extensions (all that is needed is to change
one option).

--
Erik Wikstr??m