# Best C++ IDE for minimal windows XP?



## BillWoodard (Nov 24, 2005)

I need advice on choosing a C++ IDE that will run on a minimal Windows XP system.

I'm retired, on a tight budget, and can't afford commercial software. I've years of experience with programming computers of all sizes: mostly statistical programs in Basic, APL, a little C, and primarily FORTRAN. Now I want to learn C++. I no longer have access to big fast machines and have only an old desktop machine: Windows XP, 133 MHz AMD Athlon, 640 MB RAM, 2.5 GB free disk space.

I've been away from computers and programming for about 5 years while ill. I've been hoping to get back up to speed by scouring the internet and trying out software, but have succeeded only in getting confused and frustrated. 

I'm hoping somebody will be kind enough to suggest some software that would satisfy my needs. I'll also need good free documentation and tutorials (I've been coming across much poor documentation and essentially useless video tutorials).

Any serious suggestions will be greatly appreciated.


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## jamiemac2005 (Jul 5, 2007)

Hey, there's a couple I'd suggest... First and possibly the simplest(and my favourite) is Bloodshed Dev-C++. If that's not to your liking I would also suggest CodeBlocks.

It depends on what sort of programs you intend to write, if you're just looking to write basic stuff to get off the ground Dev-C++ should do you well.

But both should run on a minimal machine. As for tutorials, i've always liked CProgramming.com's "Getting Started with C++" tutorial... And they have some really good suggestions on where to go from there.

Anyway, if the IDEs or tutorials aren't to your liking post back and i'll do my best to find something more suitable.

Cheers,
Jamey :smile:


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## BillWoodard (Nov 24, 2005)

Thanks very much for your reply. 
1) Since you praised Cprogramming.com tutorials and they advise using CodeBlocks, I'm wondering why you don't like that alternative. I tried CodeBlocks briefly, found it had a very poor Help, then found that it would not uninstall and foobar'd my system.
2) I've read numerous objections to Dev-C++, e.g., it's outdated, not maintained, and doesn't conform to the latest C++ standards. While it might be ok for learning the C++ basics, I don't want to be forced to switch to new software once I become more proficient. Or don't you think that's a serious consideration?
3) Perhaps this is not realistic, considering my low-powered system, but I'd like to go beyond the console and develop Windows GUI programs. I'd like to return to the behavioral modeling problems I'd originally worked in using FORTRAN.


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## jamiemac2005 (Jul 5, 2007)

Hey, yeah Dev-C++ is limited, the reason i use it is because it's better than hand-coding with a simple text editor. You could try a few others but i'm not sure whether they'd work on a cut-down system... SharpDevelop's site says it supports Visual C++ projects, whether that means it can create full Visual C++ programs from scratch or not i don't know (I haven't gone down that route yet).

Edit: CProgramming.com used to suggest Dev-C++ so i went with that first, i've not used Code::Blocks in a big way but i may get into using it now.

Eclipse also supports C/C++ development, however the IDE might lag or take a while to load on your system... You may also be able to get a version of Microsoft's Visual C++/express on your system however they also may not run under the situation.

Other than that i'm not sure about IDE's, i know that there's a few for the Tiny C++ comiler and the GNU C compiler but they would probably mean hand-coding a lot.

You can write C++ Windows GUI programs without the visual IDE but it's not as easy. I'd like to know what other (more C++ proficient) members would do because i've only delved in at the basic level of C++.

I've been trying to look for some decent resources for windows programming in C++ but i'm having trouble finding any. There's an alright comparison on Wikipedia here which gives you an idea of the IDE's capabilities.

I'm probably going to delve further into C++ windows development and if i find anything substantial i'll post back here.

Cheers,
Jamey


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## jamiemac2005 (Jul 5, 2007)

Hey, i've done more reading and i have a much clearer view of the tutorials/etc. that you can use to learn to create Windows GUI applications.

Basically there's a few ways to go about it, you can either use integrated libraries (QT and WTL are mentionned[google C++ and the name you'll find info]). Which are an easy way to jump straight into Windows GUI programming (Once you've learned basic C++). QT also has a decent IDE for use with windows (and is cross-platform, so if you want to write GUI applications for linux/mobile/etc. you can do that easily). Visual C++ and Borland's C++ are also examples of this style of coding.

And the other way is to use the Windows API directly. If you wish to go down that route (it's a little closer to the system) then there's two brilliant resources. The so called "Bible" of windows API programming in C is Petzold's book. There's also a nice tutorial here.

As it is either route is good, you can use any old IDE/compiler to go down the second route because it's hand-coded. To be honest it depends on how you want to go about doing things.

Cheers,
Jamey


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## BillWoodard (Nov 24, 2005)

Thanks very much for all of your ideas. I've gone back through it all and have decided, at least for now, to go with wxDev-C++. It's a compromise, but then my hardware is really limited. I may well continue to scale back my aspirations as I run into more difficulties -- especially with sloooooooow edit/compile/debug iterations. So far, wxDev-C++ is quite tolerable for modest sized console projects. Some of its example Windows GUI Widgets (e.g., fractal mountains) compile and do graphics in good time.

Thanks again to all of you who've contributed ideas.


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