Newbie

[Scott]

Hi, I am about to take C++ in college. My friend who is a web designer at
a huge company was about to get Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Professional edition.
Is this an often used GUI to do C++ programming? Is it easy to learn to use?
Thank you in advance.

[Rich]

"Scott" <swd1974@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>Hi, I am about to take C++ in college. My friend who is a web designer at
>a huge company was about to get Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Professional edition.
>Is this an often used GUI to do C++ programming? Is it easy to learn to
use?
>Thank you in advance.


VC++ 6.0 is a most common C++ platform, but is superceeded by VC7.0 .net.
These are microsoft platforms. Borland has their own. So, I feel one has
to decide going with MS or Borland. I went with MS because of plenty of
freebies. So you may be looking at VC++ 6.0 compared to VC++7.0 net.

VC++ 6.0 supports the MFC libraries, now heading toward legacy code status.
VC++ 7.0 supports the new .net libraries.

As a newbie, I feel it would be best to forget about MFC and libraries and
learn basic C++ programming, console applications. VC++ 6.0 should be
perfect for that and may be cheaper to buy then VC++ 7.0

[Danny Kalev]

Scott wrote:
>
> Hi, I am about to take C++ in college. My friend who is a web designer at
> a huge company was about to get Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Professional edition.
> Is this an often used GUI to do C++ programming? Is it easy to learn to use?
> Thank you in advance.

I think the answer to your first question is a definite "yes". AFAIK,
VC++ is the most widely used C++ development tool on Windows. As for
easy to learn, easy compared to what? If you're already familiar with
C++, it shouldn't be difficult. If you're new to programming, you'll
have to learn C++ first.

Danny

If you are just starting with C++ and are worried about dropping a large chunk
of change on VC, you may want to try out a free alternative like the one
offered at http://www.mingw.org/ . It does make GUI work a pain. And it don't
have a slick IDE. On the other hand it is free (So why not try it?). I wish
I had it when I first started. I'm still learning this whole "programing
thing" myself so take my advice with a grain of salt.

-Bill

P.S. You should find out if you can get VC through your collage. You ^MIGHT^
be able to get a student discount that ^COULD^ save you some cash. I really
don't know though.

[ralph]

"Scott" <swd1974@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>Hi, I am about to take C++ in college. My friend who is a web designer at
>a huge company was about to get Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Professional edition.
>Is this an often used GUI to do C++ programming? Is it easy to learn to
use?
>Thank you in advance.

You can also get the VC++ 7.0 compiler free (no IDE) as part of the .NET
Framework SDK at...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/...mpositedoc.xml

You might be better off of just waiting until you get to school and see what
the popular culture is using - if you get a couple of instructors that are
anti-M$ and they are using Borland (well you are better off using Borland
stuff), if it is a pure Unix world - then gcc and Red Hat will do you just
fine. Many university offer online access and compilers, etc.

There are several factors that will affect your "early" days -

1) You will need mentors (language syntax from a book is a very small part
of the process) and if you are the only kid on the block with M$ or gcc or
<fill in blank> - then the learning will be tougher than it needs to be.

2) Contrary to how you feel now, there is no way to know where you or your
interest will be 2 or 3 years from now. Go cheap. Go Simple. (Save your money
for beer and time to drink it.)

[Rich]

"Scott" <swd1974@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>Hi, I am about to take C++ in college. My friend who is a web designer at
>a huge company was about to get Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Professional edition.
>Is this an often used GUI to do C++ programming? Is it easy to learn to
use?
>Thank you in advance.

looks like VC++ 7.0 will not run on win95-98-me
it needs NT4.0 etc.

[ralph]

"Rich" <gerdb21@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>"Scott" <swd1974@earthlink.net> wrote:
>>
>>Hi, I am about to take C++ in college. My friend who is a web designer
at
>>a huge company was about to get Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Professional edition.
>>Is this an often used GUI to do C++ programming? Is it easy to learn to
>use?
>>Thank you in advance.
>
>looks like VC++ 7.0 will not run on win95-98-me
>it needs NT4.0 etc.
>

The compiler (cl.exe ver:13) will run and create applications for those platforms
- I believe the issues are with .NET. AFAIK - the problems with WinMe is
related to the fact it doesn't support Personal Web services and Win95 is
no longer supported by M$.

I am not sure if .NET runs on Win9x or not. Never thought of trying it. The
compiler should work ok however.

[Ovidiu Platon]

AFAIK, the .NET platform works ok on Win98/Me. It doesn't work on 95.
This
does *not* mean that VS.NET works on these system. The VS.NET team never
intended VS.NET to work on Customer Windows because of a large list of
issues (Unicode, USER and GDI resources are just the tip of the iceberg).
I suppose the .NET SDK (the compilers, for example) should work just
fine on 98/Me.

HTH,
Ovidiu.

[ralph]

"Ovidiu Platon" <ovidiupl@microsoft-lab.pub.ro> wrote:
> AFAIK, the .NET platform works ok on Win98/Me. It doesn't work on 95.
>This
>does *not* mean that VS.NET works on these system. The VS.NET team never
>intended VS.NET to work on Customer Windows because of a large list of
>issues (Unicode, USER and GDI resources are just the tip of the iceberg).
> I suppose the .NET SDK (the compilers, for example) should work just
>fine on 98/Me.
>
> HTH,
> Ovidiu.
>

I had a miserable experience trying to get get .NET Framework SDK and VS.NET
running on a WinMe box. You apparently did not.

So I guess the real advice to "newbie" is - "your mileage may vary". <g>

[Ovidiu Platon]

> I had a miserable experience trying to get get .NET Framework SDK and
VS.NET
> running on a WinMe box. You apparently did not.

Well, to be honest, I have never tried the SDK on Win98/Me, because I do all
development on Win2k. Regarding VS.NET, you know the facts. However, I've
tested apps with the runtime on Win98 and they seem to be ok.

>
> So I guess the real advice to "newbie" is - "your mileage may vary". <g>
>

Well, yes :-)
Ovidiu.