startin in VC++

[Boarder16]

ok i just installed micro's VC++ 6.0 and.. what should i do now? lol i am mainly concern about hwat type of document ishould create. i goto file new and there is a list of new files/projects.. so on i cna create. first of all i cant start any "projects", it wont allow me for sum reason, and then there are the 10 different types of files i can create. so whihc one do i want to create to jsut put some code in and compile ot see what it does. like stuff i took from the tutorials..

[Boarder16]

nm i can creat projects( i was so dumb, i never noticed u had to name it FIRST) but now this opens up 10 more options..

[wtd]

Your first start should be to immediately uninstall it. Visual C++ 6.0 is a horrible C++. Why? It does a terrible job of implementing the C++ standard.

Microsoft built VC++ 6 to be a supreme "Windows compiler," not a good C++ compiler. With VC++ 7 (included in Visual Studio .Net) they got a bit better at implementing the C++ standard.

The problem will surface when you try to compile perfectly valid C++ programs and VC++ 6 tells you your program is broken, especially in situations involving templates, which are one of C++'s most powerful features.

Alternatives you should consider include VC++ 7, included with Visual Studio .Net, or MinGW, the Miniminalist GNU for Windows version of GCC. The latter is free for download, and the former you may be able to get from your school for free, or for a small fee.

[apomb]

alrightty WTD, heres where we are at a critical hummdinger of a predicament ... we only have VC++ 6 at school, and our teacher is a brainless numbscull who praises all that is microsoft but hates computers ... yah its complicated .. anyway he only gives us programs to write in VC++6, this is the only program the code he is teaching us works, Dev c++ is f*cked up .... the libraries are messed up and other stuff, this is the only C++ compiler that we are learning, does it REALLY matter?

[wtd]

Yes. It does matter.

If you use a bad C++ compiler, like Visual C++ 6, then at some point it is going to tell you that good code is bad code. Isn't C++ confusing enough without using a compiler that won't even compile valid C++?

As I said, this isn't entirely an anti-MS thing. If your prof wants to use Microsoft tools, then so be it, but he damn well better use good Microsoft tools.

[betaflye]

Start with a text editor and GCC, and learn C++ before trying to learn an IDE. Learning an IDE is pretty useless if you don't understand how to write code in that language.

[apomb]

well,, for one thing, tell that to my teacher ... secondly betaflye, an ide is helpful ... expecially when trying to debug code ... i know, i know, ms's debugging is shit, but its better than trial and error

[wtd]

CompWiz333 wrote:

well,, for one thing, tell that to my teacher ... secondly betaflye, an ide is helpful ... expecially when trying to debug code ... i know, i know, ms's debugging is shit, but its better than trial and error

GCC produces decent enough error messages (linker errors are another matter, but then, linking is bizarre, and the fact that the compiler doesn't catch those errors is a general C++ problem). Learning to interpret those error messages is not hard.

You're right that it should never just be trial and error, but making educated revisions to a program doesn't require an IDE, nor is it particularly aided by one.

[apomb]

well, ya i guess, i m just still trying to justify my use of such a program, considering ive trid the alternatives, and sadly, VC++ has produced the best results for what i have tried ... so far im into structures and thier wonderful uses! lol ... ive covered pointers (right now, seeing them as quite pointless ... excuse the pun) functions (with reference parameters, call by value, and pointer parameters) . uum, and arrays ... but cant figure out how to use character arrays. im finding structures kind of interesting ... seing as it is the beginning of writing our own classes

[wtd]

Don't use character arrays. Use std::string!

[Martin]

Character arrays can be useful. They're faster than std::string in any case.

[wtd]

Martin wrote:

Character arrays can be useful. They're faster than std::string in any case.

Not fast enough to matter for the vast majority of programming, and much harder to work with.

[md]

Oh how i miss pascal stings... the may be limited to a length of 256 characters, but boy are they easy to work with! Maybe i'll implement them in C++...

[wtd]

C++ has the std::string class, which is quite easy to work with.

[rizzix]

Cornflake wrote:

Oh how i miss pascal stings... the may be limited to a length of 256 characters, but boy are they easy to work with! Maybe i'll implement them in C++...

Java Strings or Haskell Strings are probably easier to work with.