Hi people.

[Code Freak]

Hello everyone, just a small post to introduce myself.

I am Reece and I am 16 Years old and new to programming.

I'm just wondering if Visual Studio 2005 Express Edition is a good program to code C in?

I know most of the basic C language, and i have programmed a couple of things like calculators and stuff like that.

What is the best kind of programs to try to code to get started in this Language? Just a couple of small programs.

Thanks alot. Cya all around.

Reece.M.M

[Silfer]

I would recommend a code-like text editor (Vim, Emacs) and mayhaps a book - I personally love my K&R (The C programming language, by Kernighan and Ritchie). It has exercises in it.

[Code Freak]

Thanks for the reply but i don't need a book.

I am just asking, is Microsoft visual Studio 2005 Express Edition a good Program to use for my coding.

And also, what should i try to program for a couple of small starter programs?

Thanks alot.

Reece.M.M

[nvoigt]

VS 2005 Express has some good and some bad sides. It has many, many very useful features. However, to use this features you will need to configure it properly and you will end up one day asking for help here when all you did was chosing the wrong feature. Other compilers don't even have those features and you will not get frustrated by chosing the wrong one.

From my personal experience with the full versions of Visual Studio, I'd say that it's the best IDE for C/C++ programming around. The free version will likely be the best free IDE around, though I have not used the other free IDE's extensivly.

Short version: yes, VC Express is a great tool. As any great tool, it's not easy to use, you will need to learn both, coding C and using VC. But it's worth using and worth learning.

I do support the book suggestion. Get a good book. It helps a lot.

Starting out with C you will code a lot of unimpressive commandline ( aka DOS Window ) programs. Though VC Express will let you drag and drop a windows interface, you will never learn to properly make it work behind the fancy graphics if you don't do the boring commandline excercises. Don't expect to have anything to show off to your friends in the first year. C is powerful, but not easy. And a good book helps a lot in deciding what to learn next, because the glitter stuff that makes your friends go "aaaaah" is not what you need to master C. Though I'm sounding like a broken record here, you will need to do the boring excercises. All of them. By the book ( or online tutorial ).

[Salem]

> is Microsoft visual Studio 2005 Express Edition a good Program to use for my coding
No.

[cboard_member]

While we're on the subject, why is MSVS 2005 Express called express? What's the difference between that and the "normal" version?

[Maragato]

Starting out with C you will code a lot of unimpressive commandline ( aka DOS Window ) programs.

He can make pretty things with http://www.gtk.org/ the tutorials are good and it is C

[Code Freak]

Ok, thanks people for the replys.

Salem, why is it not good to use?

Yeh i just opened it up for the first time, and realized how different it is to Dev C++. Should i stay with VS Express or shall i use Dev C++ to do my programs in?

I didn't know Visual Studio Was Visual Basics, i thought it was just a normal C/C++ Compiler.

Also, any ideas on programs i could start with?

Reece.M.M

[dwks]

Also, any ideas on programs i could start with?

HelloWorld, and then a calculator.

[Code Freak]

Lol, Thanks but I've made a calculator already and it worked ok. Also the HelloWorldProgram i dont months ago. Any other ideas?

[mabuhay]

first, learning how to use structures, then a little database, where you can store for example last name, first name and age and where you can save them in a file an load them...