Thread: C++ @ School

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  1. 05-25-2005 #1
    joshdick
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    Drexel University has Visual Studio available for download by way of their FTP server. You should check with your college before spending your own money on it.

    Dev C++ is a very nice, free alternative to Visual Studio. If you're looking to learn even more, you could download Cygwin and use vi/emacs to do your editing and compile with g++.

    Whether you ultimately end up programming in a Windows or *nix environment, it's in your best interests to have experience developing using command-line tools. I'm currently doing embedded programming using a proprietary compiler that only runs on Windows through the command line, but it has no IDE. If it weren't for the CS class I took this year on programming techniques in Unix, I'd be lost when it comes to invoking programs through the command line or writing batch files.

    It did, however, take me a moment or two to figure out why ls wasn't working ...
    FAQ

    "The computer programmer is a creator of universes for which he alone is responsible. Universes of virtually unlimited complexity can be created in the form of computer programs." -- Joseph Weizenbaum.

    "If you cannot grok the overall structure of a program while taking a shower, you are not ready to code it." -- Richard Pattis.
  2. 05-25-2005 #2
    DougDbug
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    I wouldn't buy the full Visual Studio package right now. I assume that you already have a compiler to learn with 'till you start college. It's very expensive if you can't get the acedemic discount ($800 ?) If you have that much extra money... spend it on a ship-load of programing books!!!

    When you take a class, especially a begining class, the instructor will standardize on a particular set of tools. You don't want to spend lots of money on the "wrong" compiler, or the wrong version. If you think your school uses Visual Studio, you could get Visual C++ only ($100) or download the free beta version of Visual C++. You will be ahead of the game in the beginning when some other students are struggling to get the compiler installed, configured, and trying to get "hello world" compiled!

    If your school doesn't offer it free, once you are an enrolled college student, you can get Visual Studio at a deep discount... I think you can get it for $100. The acedemic version may have some limitations. The programs compiled on it may not run on another computer that doesn't have Visual Studio installed.
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