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C/C++ Compiler/Linker

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Scott9027

Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Location
NC
I am looking for a Windows based C compiler/linker (not sure on the terminology) to use while I am taking an online course in C programming. Something user-friendly (if that exists) would probably be good, as I don't have any experience and will be learning with it. If anyone has any suggestions I would like to hear them. Freeware alternatives are also appreciated.
 
Ok, those are the two which my class mentioned as examples, so I assume they will both be pretty good choices. Any other options out there? Anything free for a poor student?
 
You might want to ask the professor. A lot of universities have a msdn account which will you allowed to download and use the visual studio stuff.
 
@macklin01: never suggest pure mingw to new users. plain and simple gcc will overwhelm them. Give them a nice, easy to use IDE like Dev-C++: successes will happen MUCH faster and their motivation won't go down.
 
That's a good point. (Although I found it to be the opposite. When I was just learning, I found the unnecessary clutter and overhead for VC++ projects confusing when compared to a simple hello.cpp with an easy compile command: g++ -o hello hello.cpp. I think VC++ may be less confusing for large projects, but for simple projects, it seems to have more clutter that may be confusing when only the C++ basics are necessary. At that early point in the game, it may be easy to confuse C++ learning with MS VC++ IDE learning. i.e., what's actually part of learning the language, and what's part of learning to use this complex program?) Thanks -- Paul
 
I'll take a look at mingw and compare the two. Thanks for your help!
 
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