Program?

[alexrules01]

Hey all
I am interested in learning c++, but I don't know what program to actually use? What do you guys use, thats free

[hallsofvallhalla]

visual studio express

http://www.microsoft.com/express/Downloads/

[Jackolantern]

visual studio express

http://www.microsoft.com/express/Downloads/

You have to be a little careful with learning on Visual Studio, though. C++/CLI (the version of C++ that VS runs) is a managed form of C++ that is quite different from ANSI/ISO C++ (the "regular" and standardized version of C++). I believe you can write unmanaged, ANSI/ISO C++ in VS, but if a new user just picked up Visual C++ 2010 Express and started learning, they would most likely be learning C++/CLI, which is not nearly as portable as standard-compliant C++. You also lose many of the benefits of VS by not utilizing C++/CLI, such as about three-quarters of Intellisense, because these features take advantage of the rich metadata that managed .NET assemblies contain.

[Noctrine]

I use Eclipse for all of my development needs. http://www.eclipse.org/

[Jackolantern]

I have personally never liked Eclipse IDE, even though it is a good choice and there is nothing wrong with it. For ANSI/ISO C++, I prefer Code::Blocks, another great free IDE. I have mostly stayed away from C++/CLI, since for me, C# is a much more elegant, clean way to utilize the .NET runtime. C++/CLI mostly exists just for veteran C++ developers migrating to the .NET platform who want to leverage their existing knowledge.

[alexrules01]

Alright thanks, i might give eclipse a go. i wanted to give another language ago where I could make games that lets a player control there character, and thought c++ would be good to learn
And Jack, you kind of lost me with some of the things you said

[Jackolantern]

Sorry, that was mostly aimed at first Halls and then Noctrine! It likely would have lost a beginning programmer!

I have to admit that C++ is a difficult first language to learn. If you want to make games, I would suggest possibly learning C# first so you could use XNA to make games. C++ is hard for a novice because you have to do all of your own memory management (C#'s .NET runtime handles this for you), you have to manually manipulate pointers (which you will have to take my word for that they are difficult, but .NET again handles this for you), and code you read from other authors may use multiple inheritance, which is messy and extremely confusing (.NET makes use of a concept called "interfaces" instead, which makes code much cleaner and easier for novices to understand).

Python would also be a good choice since it has the game development framework, "pygame", but I know a lot less about Python. Also if you do have plans to move to a more traditional game development language such as C++, C# would make them transition much easier since they are related, whereas Python is rather alien compared to C++.

[alexrules01]

Ahh ok i might have a look at some python/c# games
I'll leave c++ for now thanks!

[hallsofvallhalla]

thanks for the clarification Jack. I do not dabble in C++ though due to some career situations I may be picking up some tutorials on VS and start learning .net more. Figured if I spent the next 2 years learning I could use it in the work place. Maybe..

[Jackolantern]

.NET is beautiful and it is my favorite programming platform. It has the largest class library for a language ever assembled, the code is clean and easy to understand, it enforces OO methodologies, and it can be used in many different circumstances (web, desktop, web services, mobile phones, XBox 360, Zune, Flash-like web content, etc.). You can also use whatever language you are most comfortable with to create equivalent programs (I think there are over 200+ .NET-compatible languages out there), although of course C# and VB.NET are the most popular.

I am also starting to feel much more comfortable with ASP.NET. I also found out if you do want to drop down into a lower level and build a page programmatically, you can use the "literal control" to build strings of HTML or Javascript with C# or VB.NET. That would make PBBG building much easier than what I thought it was going to be like before. It turns out it was what I had been looking for, and I even asked about a way to do that on several forums and everyone kept telling me I was going to have to manually create Page objects and build them up from scratch with code, which was going to be a nightmare considering that Server Controls would not have rendered correctly. But the Literal Control allows you to build code up in a pre-existing web form.