c++ compilers

[Mercy]

Who likes which compilers and why? Specifically for Windows 7 environment.

[Gleeok]

For Windows I would definitely go with Visual Studio. However, you said compiler and not an IDE, so it's possible you just want to compile something and don't care much about debugging or a developing/coding environment, in which case gcc (with MinGW) is a whole lot less to install. If you can elaborate a little I can probably give you a better answer.

There's also Code::Blocks ant Qt Creator; neither of which are compilers, but are just development environments that require some other compiler.

[Mercy]

I was purposely a little obtuse in my question thinking it might spur a broad range of responses. Meh.

So anyway, scripting like j'script and Flash is just not doing it for me anymore so I have decided to make mastering c++ my new hobby. I suppose I should have started by keeping the lingo straight. Again, I was intentionally obtuse in my original question to see how many rec's I would get for straight compilers versus IDE's. I despise WYSIWYG's for scripting as I think they promote slop and the development of bad habits so I guess I am looking for an IDE that won't have me on training wheels. In my research so far, it looks like Visual Studio is my best option, although Dev-c++ was a consideration. Code::Blocks seems to be love or hate for a lot of people.

I will be reworking a game I have already started at some point so that is my current direction, I guess.

[Gleeok]

From my personal experience: I use Visual Studio about 99.9% of the time. I only switch over to something else temporarily for various reasons—usually compatibility, or in the past, zc-related—and if I could only pick one it would be that, hands down. That said, the QT IDE might definitely be a look-see if you're thinking about either Dev-c++ or C::B; I would put that one way ahead of either of those.

I'd actually love to get VS2012 for c++11 support, but I work mostly on this XP machine (still since my desktop died over a year ago), and it's not compatible, unfortunately. From what I understand 2012 fixed all the annoying remaining program database (intellisense) problems earlier versions had also, though you probably wouldn't run into those unless you were working on large projects anyway.

Hope this helps.

[Beldaran]

For learning C++, I recommend against Visual Studio just because it's got a trillion features that are very distracting and completely ancillary to learning C++.

You should use Vim and gcc. =)

For a more graphical environment, I have had success with Code::Blocks. It's pretty simple and easy to use, and I once programmed a game prototype in it.

Credentials: I use C++ professionally. I am not anti-microsoft and I use Visual Studio often.

[MasterSwordUltima]

I used to dip around in this when working in C.

No compiler with it though. Still a neat text editor platform.

[Gleeok]

You should use Vim and gcc. =)

I used to use Notepad++ or occasionally dev-c++ with gcc way back when I was learning syntax. Fun stuff.
This is all fun and games until you introduce a bug in your code that corrupts the heap, which causes crashes and generally bad things to happen in mostly unrelated places, and you need more serious debugging solutions. Then you will come running to Visual Studio anyway.

[Asuna Yuuki Nagato]

Visual Studio because it has the best debugger in the industry.