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[timmeh]

My computer recently crashed, giving me an excuse to consider switching IDEs, since I have some more (possibly better) options, than I did previously.  As it stands, I've mostly used Dev C++ (and don't care to use it again) and Code::Blocks (no complaints, just a bit tricky to find tutorials for the slightly more advanced usage... oh, and it doesn't seem to like paths with a space, which is mildly aggravating at times).

I could go back to Code::Blocks easily enough, but two options opened up, that I'm considering, and was wondering if anyone had used either enough to give me some input.

1.  Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2010 is out now, and looks very nice.  That being said, Vista looked nice too... anyone used it yet?
2.  A friend of my dad's just graduated as a computer science major, and gave me his copy of Visual Studio .NET Academic (2003).  It's a full, registered copy of the entire suite.  Any idea what the trade-offs would be, comparing this with the 2010 Express version?  (Besides the support for other languages, I can download multiple versions of Express for that, should I decide I want to)

And of course, I have to compare these to Code::Blocks....

Any input is much appreciated.

[Alexhans]

At the level we are working.  You won't need the proffesional version. 

The express will work just fine and there's a lot of information about it.

Once you see the debugging options and information in VS you won't want to go back.

I've yet to use and even investigate 2010.  What I know about it relates to C# and not c++. I've used 6.0, 2005 and 2008 professional and express versions and had no complaints with them.  The jump from 6.0 to 2003 was a huge one.  But after that, the interface remained pretty much the same.  Very confortable.

Make sure you download the proper MSDN (it's like a huge help) and you'll find it is a blessing. 

You can pretty much work with any VS (2003 onwards) and won't suffer the change from one to another. 

My suggestion, use VS2010 Express.  You're better off using the latest and, in the event that you needed a feature that doesn't come in this free version (unlikely unless you use MFC or some advanced testing) you can just switch to whatever earlier professional version you had. 

After all.  Linking in all of them is pretty much the same.

If you have any questions about it.  Just tell me.

There's a tutorial on how to set it up in the page on my sig (look it for yourself cause internet is sucking):

www.learncpp.com

[qwertyuiopas]

The only issue that may come up is that, I think, both code::blocks and dev-c++ use MinGW(GCC for windows) while microsoft's uses it's own compiler. In the unlikely case of incompatibilities in the compiler, you will need to learn about them.

Also, since GCC is available on almost any platform, it should be a bit easier to write programs that can be compatible with non-windows OSs.

[timmeh]

@qwertyuiopas - That is correct.  Actually, Code::Blocks uses whatever compiler you tell it to, but the windows binary release usually comes with MinGW/GCC.  At this point though, I don't really write any code that's advanced enough that it might use features that are present in one compiler and not another... haven't even used templates or static members yet... (although the static thing is about to change, if I can manage to get all my stuff set back up )  Thanks for the input!

@Alexhans - I guess I'll go with 2010 then.  The debugging stuff in Code::Blocks was fairly useful, and I'd only just touched on the very edges of that, so I think I may have to spend some time getting to know my IDE's debugging options soon....  Thanks for the tutorial as well, good information!

[timmeh]

Um... is it unusual to not be allowed to use the word-versions of the and/or operators?  I got 2010 working jut fine, Allegro is set up, and cirCA-Sim compiled fine, once I replaced every instance of "and" with "&&" and every instance of "or" with "||".  Easy enough, but I think the other way is more readable.  Guess this is what you meant by compiler differences   Anyways, if anyone knows how to fix this, let me know...

[Alexhans]

AND and OR do not belong to c++.  The operators are '||' and '&&' and '|', '&' for bitwise operations.  You should stick to the standards.

I'm surprised codeblocks allowed that.  It sounds like it were from an interpreted language like lua or perl. 

[qwertyuiopas]

More likely a different header file added them through a #define, but the microsoft version didn't.

Edit:
Google (indirectly) brought me to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operators_in_C_and_C%2B%2B#C.2B.2B_operator_synonyms

[timmeh]

Awesome, thanks for your help guys!