C on a windows box

Oompa

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 23, 2006
Messages
376
I know Java and I'd like to learn C and then move to C++, but what should I use for a compiler/IDE if a good IDE exists?
 
I like Visual Studio a lot, but that is because "that's what I used" when I started learning. You can get a free "express" edition or cheap academic editions as a student.

DevC++ is another IDE I have seen people mention on here. You could always run Cygwin with emacs or some Linux IDE if you so desire.
 
if you're windows only, then your best (free) bet will be either dev c++ or visual studio c++ express edition.
 
I got a suggestion to start with C to learn Pointer Math before moving to C++.
 
I forgot lots C specifics once I got used to C++, however, starting from c is good since you're learning the procedural programming which covers the syntaxs and logics thats going to be used later in c++. The OOP of c++ is probably too much for a beginner to grasp, but since he already took java he should have concepts of OOP. As for IDE theres codeblocks/devc++ which are free for windows
 
Oompa said:
I got a suggestion to start with C to learn Pointer Math before moving to C++.
Somebody gave you a bad suggestion. C++ has diverged from C for 20+ years now. C++ includes a substantial subset of C, but good C++ programs typically use different idioms than even good C programs. Transliterating a C program into C++ does not produce good results, no more than transliterating Assembly into C or Fortran into Pascal.

If you want to learn C, then learn C.
If you want to learn C++, then learn C++.
 
I started out with C++, and I use Visual Studio. I tried Dev C++, but I didn't like the way it wouldn't compile some of my command lines. I was working with the C++ book my college course required (don't remember what it was), but Dev wouldn't compile right, so I stuck with Visual Studio and it worked fine. I think with Dev I wasn't specifying libraries correctly or something to get it to work with my code. But, I would definetly go C++, because C is getting kinda old.. hell, even C++ is getting old. I think next year the CS department at college is moving onto some other programming language that is going to be more prominent than C++. But, if you learn C++, you should get the hang of all other programming languages pretty easily. You can go a longggg way in C++.
 
w1retap said:
I think next year the CS department at college is moving onto some other programming language that is going to be more prominent than C++.
I'm curious: what language is that?
 
Whats wrong with C? I wouldnt consider a programming language's age to be a problem, well untill something else seriously replaces its dominance. And I wouldnt consider C++ different enough from C to fill that role.
 
mikeblas said:
I'm curious: what language is that?
I'm not sure, the computer engineering professor wouldn't say. He said they were moving onto something else besides C++ though. I guess there is going to be more popular throughout the industry in the next few years. (Tsui at University of Michigan)
 
Hmm. And this university is a member of the Psychic Friends Network, then?
 
I'm still curious, then. If they're not a member of The Psychic Friends Network, how will they know what langauge will become more popular than C++ in the future?
 
mikeblas said:
I'm still curious, then. If they're not a member of The Psychic Friends Network, how will they know what langauge will become more popular than C++ in the future?

They are sitting on money equal to the US national dept, and will do hostile takeovers of MS, oracle, SAP, Sun, EA, and all the linux resellers during 2007.
 
dunno, feel free to email the guy though, I'm sure he might talk to you about it. Dr Tsui at Univ of Michigan. I had him for C++ last year.
 
I would bet they're switching to java, as for why they think they should teach java over c++ who knows. Sadly some universities are teaching java and *no* c/c++.
 
We already have Java courses.. I think they are going to switch more on .NET stuff, which is based off C# I believe.
 
If you're reading it that .NET is based on C#, then yes -- you're reading it wrong.

That press release (which is about six years old, by the way), is about C#. It's not about .NET. C# is not the only .NET language available. There's also VB.NET, and ASP.NET, and J#, and JSscript.NET, and a few others.

There's even a managed Eiffel implementation, I think.
 
Well then my original statement was correct if thats what they started off of. I know there are many different aspects and applications of .NET today, I was just referring what it was based off in the past. The title alone says it.

Microsoft Introduces Highly Productive .NET Programming Language: C#

Microsoft Corp. today announced Microsoft® C # ( "C sharp" ), a modern, object-oriented programming language built from the ground up to exploit the power of XML-based Web services on the .NET platform, which was announced last week at Forum 2000. With its Visual C++® development system heritage, C # will enable millions of C and C++ developers to use existing skills to rapidly build sophisticated XML-based .NET applications.

Also..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework
(states initially the standardization was for CLI and C#.)
Standardization and Licensing

In August, 2000, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and Intel worked to standardize CLI and the C# programming language. By December, 2001, both were ratified ECMA standards (ECMA 335 and ECMA 334). ISO followed in April, 2003 (ISO/IEC 23271 and ISO/IEC 23270).
 
w1retap said:
Well then my original statement was correct if thats what they started off of.
"based off of" isn't a very precise statement, but I don't think it has much to do with which language might have shipped first. C# is a language -- it can be implemented without the .NET Framework.

The .NET framework 1.0 wasn't released until early 2002, along with Visual Studio .NET. That version of Visual Studio included Visual Basic.NET, C#, J#, and ASP.NET (if I remember correcty), all of which run against the .NET Framework.

w1retap said:
Also..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework
(states initially the standardization was for CLI and C#.)
Wikipedia is not an authorotative reference, and therefore useless to support a point.

The CLI is a single component of the .NET framework, and is exactly what lets the rest of the framework work with different langauges. The press release you linked to explains that C# is "built from the ground up to exploit the power of XML-based Web services on the .NET platform". This is quite the opposite of saying that .NET is "based off of" C#, isn't it?
 
zzz oh well, no need to argue over something that is written directly on microsoft's website and everywhere else.
 
w1retap said:
zzz oh well, no need to argue over something that is written directly on microsoft's website and everywhere else.

Indeed not. .NET is not built on C#.

(You might however get away with saying that the success of .NET is built on C#. I don't know if it's true, but it could be.)
 
Back
Top