As mentioned in the previous section,
an Integrated
Development Environment (IDE) contains all of the things
you need to develop, compile, link, and debug your programs. So let’s install
one.
The obvious question is, “which one?”. Keep
in mind that you can install multiple IDEs, so there is no “wrong decision”
here. During the course of these tutorials, we will be showing you some of the
nice features of your IDE, such as how to do integrated debugging. All of our
examples will be done using both Microsoft’s
Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition, and Code::Blocks. Thus
we highly recommend you pick one of these.
However, if you would like to try your hand
at another compiler, you are free to do so. The concepts we show you will work
for any IDE — however, different IDE’s use different keymappings and different
setups, and you may have to do a bit of searching to find the equivalent of
what we show you.
Windows
If you are developing on a Windows machine
(as most of you are), then we highly recommend Microsoft’s free Visual C++ 2010
Express Edition. The installer that you download off of
Microsoft’s web page is actually a downloader. When you run it, it will
download the actual IDE from Microsoft.
Note: This tutorial was originally written
when Microsoft was distributing the 2005 version of Visual C++. Consequently,
all references and screenshots are targeted to that version. Running the 2008
or 2010 versions are fine, however, your screens may look slightly different.
MSDN express will give you documentation
about C/C++ functions that you will refer to often. If you do not install MSDN
Express on your hard drive, then Visual C++ will use the online version at msdn.microsoft.com/.
The installer will likely ask you to reboot
your computer after it has finished downloading the components. When it does,
your computer may appear to “hang” temporarily. Don’t panic, it’s just
installing stuff. Once you are back into Windows, you may need to run the
installer again. Choose the same options, and it will seem like it’s going to
download everything again, but it won’t. It will install the program.
Linux or Windows
If you are developing on Linux (or you are
developing on Windows but want to write programs that you can easily port to
Linux), we recommend Code::Blocks.
Code::Blocks is a free, open source, cross-platform IDE that will run on both
Linux and Windows.
Windows users, make sure to get the version
with MinGW bundled.
Alternately, some people prefer to use Bloodshed’s Dev-C++, which also runs on
both Windows and Linux.
Mac OSX
Mac users can use Xcode if it is available to you, or Eclipse. Eclipse is not set up to use C++
by default, and you will need to install the optional C++ components.
Moving on
Once your IDE is installed (which is one of
the hardest things this tutorial will ask you to do), you are ready to write
your first program!
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