Thread: IDE

Im guessing you are using basic programming concepts.

You would need:

"Create New Project" -> "Win32 Project" ( then name it ) -> Hit OK -> "Next"-> Click on "Console application then click "Empty project" as this gets rid of the annoying pre-defined headers. Then click "Finish"and VC++ will create your project for you, allowing you to add files to it. I highly advise the first thing you add is a .cpp source file and name it "main"

Note that while swgh says PCH is annoying, I'd say the contrary.
You don't need to create an empty project, either. VC will automatically generate code for you so you can start writing code directly.

The PCH issue is a matter of discussion around here, and all I can say is that you should decide what you prefer. PCH speeds up compilation by "precompiling" headers.
All you do is put all common includes inside the stdafx.h file.
The downside is that you must put #include "stdafx.h" in every source file.

While PCH may not be required for small projects, I say there's no harm in trying and is good experience if you want to do larger projects.

Originally Posted by Daved

Until then leave them off.

And that is exactly why I disagree. PCH is not a hassle and you are explicitly denying people from using them while they do not cause harm. Therefore I always recommend experimenting and seeing what they do feel best.
Who are we to judge for them?

Who are we to judge for them?

We are the people who have been on this board for years and have seen problems caused for newbies by PCHs quite regularly.

Originally Posted by Daved

If you prefer to call them extra unnecessary work rather than a hassle, that's fine. That doesn't make it ok to recommend people use them when they are first starting.

On the other hand, it does not give us the right to tell them they are evil, should be avoided or are a pain, etc. Recommend not using PCH instead because they may be problematic.
Besides that, creating an empty project is not the only way not to generate PCH either and a non-empty project is not a bad thing either.
(And I will still disagree on that they are bad. One simple include in every source is not much of a hassle and a quick lesson, not a big headache reason to avoid PCH.)

While PCH may not be required for small projects, I say there's no harm in trying and is good experience if you want to do larger projects.

I agree, but only after the beginner becomes a novice who is able to recognise common standard headers and is not confused by the lack of precompiled headers.

There are many.
For C++, cin.get() is a typical way.
Another is to rely on a GUI that can keep the console window open after the program finishes (Code::Blocks and Visual Studio are two).
And yet another way is to put a breakpoint at the end of the function and use a debugger (very easy with Visual Studio).
Then there's the C way, which is typically getchar().