What's the best, free, compiler/IDE that I can use to create applications with a GUI for Windows?
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What's the best, free, compiler/IDE that I can use to create applications with a GUI for Windows?
I would suggest taking out the red bit; last time someone asked that, it was weeks cleaning up the blood.
But: both Visual Studio and the MinGW port of GCC (available in Dev-C++ and Code::Blocks) can create GUI applications for Windows. There are certainly others, but those are the ones I have/used.
Everyone will have different opinions on what's best, so the best thing is to try out for yourself.
Here's a few free IDEs: http://cpwiki.sf.net/IDE
The most complete is now, by far, VS 2008
VS Professional Edition is used in all big companies
The Express edition is free and if you happen to be a student, the Professional version is also free.
I found the Visual C++ Express Edition for free, do I need that plus Visual Basic 2008? I am also a student. How would I go about getting the Professional edition for free?
https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/
Visual Studio has Visual Basic, C/C++ and other things in one package.
So if I download Visual Studio 2008 Pro edition I will have all the tools in one package to make Windows programs?
Indeed. You'll have the ability to install any of the programming languages contained within Visual Studio.
Visual Basic, C/C++, C#, etc.
Of course, you may wish to use libraries not provided along with Visual Studio, and these you would obviously need to obtain separately.
With VS I can make programs that have a GUI, correct? Thank you very much for all your help. I do apologize for so many questions. Thanks again. :)
Yes, of course. VS contains the programming languages.
How to do GUI depends on what language you use.
For C/C++, you may want to use a GUI library. With the Pro version, you get MFC, as well. There are also other, free, alternatives out there.
IExpress I believe doesn't come with mfc, but windows forms which is Win32 trickled up to .net, while mfc is just a C++ wrapper for win32. It has a nice designer with a lot of functionality as well.
I use codeblocks which is a free open source IDE.
I signed in to download VS 2008 Pro, but my school (its a community college) is not listed. So that means I cannot get it free?
I'll also check out codeblocks ;)