C++ on Windows?

[Ensign Steve]

Hi!

I'm going on travel this week and I'm taking a work laptop which runs Windows XP. I don't want to take my personal laptop as well, but I might feel like working on C++ schoolwork/homework during my trip. My personal laptop is a mac (BSD-type backend) with Xcode tools installed, so if I want to program, I just open up a terminal and code away, and then compile using g++.

What do I need to install on my XP machine to do this? I mean, less complicated than vmware with a linux image on it. Is there any kind of open source suite or developer's kit I can use?

[seebs]

Cygwin.

Cygwin will give you a shell and a compiler.

[Ensign Steve]

Awesome, thanks! :) I'll give it a try tonight.

Can I use a makefile and all that?

[seebs]

Yup. It gives you a plausible impression of a plain old Unix environment.

[viscousmemories]

I like Cygwin too.

[squian]

Every PC should have Cygwin anyway but you might enjoy using Eclipse CDT on top of GCC. Since Eclipse is Java based, it runs on Mac and PC.

[But]

Yes. Even though IDEs are the work of the devil, Eclipse probably resides somewhere in the first circle of hell. Go for that.

[Ensign Steve]

Yes. Even though IDEs are the work of the devil, Eclipse probably resides somewhere in the first circle of hell. Go for that.

:lol: I always thought that was the case.

[Corona688]

dev-c++ will also compile c++ without full-out unix simulation. If you're going to have to use an IDE, you might as well use one built for the environment instead of a halfway house that's not really compatible with either. My personal favorite is Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 -- visual C++ 7 or newer introduces useless dependencies on things you never use for the sole purpose of breaking backwards compatability with windows 95/98/me/2000, so it's bad and evil and you shouldn't use it.

As for java-based c++ ide's in windows, is it their theory that by piling computing abomination upon computing abomination on computing abomination, the sheer negative winness will overflow and become positive?

[But]

On Visual C 6, you have to modify your compiler settings to even make it ISO/ANSI compliant, and things like that give me a rash.

[Corona688]

On Visual C 6, you have to modify your compiler settings to even make it ISO/ANSI compliant, and things like that give me a rash. Yes, not to mention the compiler has long-standing bugs that have no patch except "buy a newer version". but the environment is unbeatable -- and inevitable, if you want to create executables that will work on more than a couple dozen computers worldwide.

I am incredibly anal about compatibility, yes. I have friends and relatives that still use old computers, which makes writing software for them fun. "um, it gives a missing export error." "what windows are you using?" "Um. 95?" "95??"