All I want is a simple combined text editor for writing the code, debugger for checking errors, and compiler for making exes and dlls. Such a beast is called an IDE (Integrated Development Environment), and there's several good free ones around.
I tried Dev-C++, from the intriguingly named Bloodshed Software. It comes recommended from a lot of users, but I couldn't get it to compile for some reason.
Another is Quincy, on which I've written my very first successful C++ program. I bet you can't guess what it does...
#include
using namespace std;
int main()
{
cout<<"Hello World.\n";
cin.get();
return 0;
}
Hmm...
ReplyDeleteHello World!
though shouldn't it be count not cout?
I learnt CECIL and a bit of BASIC and a tad of COBOL. Now I know nothing ;)
What is a dll as opposed to an exe? (I know an exe is an executable)
Is C++ better thab C? and what is Delphi?
Yours sincerely
confused and somewhat dazed.
>Hmm...
ReplyDelete>Hello World!
Yes, the traditional first program!
>though shouldn't it be count not cout?
Ah, "cout" means "console output", which usually means "print to the
screen".
>I learnt CECIL and a bit of BASIC and a tad of COBOL. Now I know nothing ;)
>What is a dll as opposed to an exe? (I know an exe is an executable)
BASIC was my first computer language, back in 1981 with a Sinclair machine,
so it's still the language I think in when making algorithms. I learned a
bit of COBOL in college (now forgotten), and I've never even heard of CECIL.
Dll stands for Dynamic Link Library, as for what they do...
When you tell your wordprocessor to print, it sends the print information to
the printer driver, which translates the wordprocessor's instructions into
commands your printer can understand. There's lots of makes and types of
printer, so instead of having the wordprocessor know the languages of all of
them, it makes sense for each printer to come with a driver program,
installed from disc, which acts as a 'translating bridge'.
There's a driver (or several) which came with your soundcard, enabling it to
communicate with (hopefully) all the different music programs around.
There's other drivers for display, keyboard, mouse, capture card, network
card, modem etc. All drivers are dlls.
However, not all dlls are device drivers. Dlls can also be little 'bolt on'
programs, attatched to larger ones. Each effect which you can apply to
pictures in Photoshop is coded in a dll - and if you get a raft of new
effects, they're a collection of dlls. My guitar synthesiser is a dll,
accepting a midi signal from the sequencer, creating a sound based on the
signal, and passing the result back.
>Is C++ better thab C? and what is Delphi?
C++ is an extension of C. Most of the syntax is similar, though some of the
command words are different - "printf" became "cout". The major difference
is that C++ can handle Objects and Classes. An Object is essentially an
array whose elements can be of different data types - string, integer,
floating point number. Including specialised data types like the date -
where Day has a maximum possible value depending on Month and whether Year
is of type 'Leap', and none of which can be zero.
The idea is that an Object can model something in the real world, whose
qualities are measured in many different ways. Your age is an integer, and
your height is a meld of two integers - one for feet and one for inches.
Your name isn't a number at all - it's string of characters. Your eye colour
is one of a list of colours that includes blue, brown and hazel, but
excludes black and orange. Your shoe size is measured in quarter inches, but
whether you wear spectacles or not is a boolean variable - either you do or
you don't. And so on.
As for Classes....I'm not really sure yet ;-).
Um...Delphi. It's a programming environment - a program to help the user to
write software code, debug it, compile and test it. There's versions for C,
C++, Pascal and (I think) Basic. It's made by the Borland company, now
inexplicably calling itself Inprize.