| OK, here's the deal, if anyone could help me with a link or two, I'd
| be delighted.
| I'm just learning C (I learned over the summer, so a few months), and
| I was wondering what (*free*) compilers are any good. I currently use
| a stable version of Bloodshed's Dev-C++, but I was wondering if
| anything *free* is better? Easier to use? Just C, and not C++?
The compiler that comes with Dev-C++ is among the best there is. It is
MinGW(Minimalist GNU GCC for windows), it is the primary *NIX/Linux
compiler.
This is MinGW:
http://www.mingw.org/
If you don't like MinGW, there are many other options to choose. You said
you want a free compiler, that is just C, but there are few compilers that
do not currently support C++.
Borland is one option:
http://www.borland.com/products/downloads/download_cbuilder.html# (click on
Compiler under downloads on right: requires registration(free))
My personal favorite is Digital Mars:
www.digitalmars.com (They have their own newsgroup which I am actively
involved in).
| Also, I was wondering how to make a GUI for my apps? They currently
| run in DOS. What do I need to do this? Is it possible? Helpful links?
Making a graphical user interface is very difficult for beginning
developers. Microsoft provides their platform sdk (which is a pain in the
ass to code with natively):
http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sdkupdate/
There is a wrapper called MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes [uses C++]) that
eases the pain of native win32 coding.
I would not suggest you looking GUI programming *AT ALL* until you are
extremely comfortable with programming in C.
There is a cross-platform GUI library (that will run on windows/Linux/etc)
called wxWindows. Though I have not used this, I hear that it is extremely
easy and an excellent abstraction layer to the base windowing system on the
OS's:
http://www.wxwindows.org/
One that I currently use for Linux and win32 GUI's is GTK+ (GIMP Toolkit).
It requires some runtimes files to be installed on windows to work (as it is
not a Windows-native library):
www.gtk.org
If you believe that your current skills are sufficient to ignore my warning
and start coding GUI apps then you should look to a book, no single (or
group of) tutorial will explain it clearly enough. I assume you want to do
Windows programming, which is way off-topic here (as this is the Standard C
newsgroup, you may want comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.win32), but since you
are new and do not know where to look, here are the "bibles" for programming
Win32 apps:
Programming Windows (Petzold). I know most of what is covered in this book,
but it even throws me off sometimes due to its high prose:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...1536833/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/002-4862621-6513633
Programming Windows with MFC (Prosise). Haven't read this as MFC is a rather
easy-to-begin-with library. If you have some steel balls (and a self-assured
attitude), you can just use the
MSDN(
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp):
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...f=sr_1_1/002-4862621-6513633?v=glance&s=books
I again strongly suggest you learn all the major functions, routines,
syntax, tricks, logic, etc of C before trying to program non-standard
(GUI's) code. It can be enough to drive a man mad with fury and hatred for
programming if they are not yet fit to handle it.
Good luck,
Greg P.
