What to download to start learning c++? (Noob)

[jewishdolphins]

I'm a coding noob and want to get started with C++. I will be learning how to code through Lynda.com's tutorial/videos. Their tutorials are on something called "xcode" and they are showing everything on a Mac. Personally, I use windows 10 as my OS and want to know what I should download to start writing code for c++? Like the compiler thing that runs the code and the program where I write it?

[Mr_KoKa]

For some litle console applications that are one file large you don't really need to download anything, you can fiddle with c++ online on https://repl.it/

 

You could do even larger projects online with https://c9.io/ where you get linux virtual machine with editor and command line.

 

If you want IDE, I use orwell's dev c++ (you can check it out here http://orwelldevcpp.blogspot.com/, since "orwell's" is quite important, there was old dev c++ that is now way outdated) for things that doesn't involve to much of libraries compilation and stuff, so some small projects, it is quite lightweight and good looking (with dark color syntax profiles) ide, another option is Code::Blocks I used it when I wanted to code something light and not depended on c++ redistributable libraries.

 

I generally don't need to run VS and I just run Dev C++

[jewishdolphins]

1 hour ago, Mr_KoKa said:

For some litle console applications that are one file large you don't really need to download anything, you can fiddle with c++ online on https://repl.it/

 

You could do even larger projects online with https://c9.io/ where you get linux virtual machine with editor and command line.

 

If you want IDE, I use orwell's dev c++ (you can check it out here http://orwelldevcpp.blogspot.com/, since "orwell's" is quite important, there was old dev c++ that is now way outdated) for things that doesn't involve to much of libraries compilation and stuff, so some small projects, it is quite lightweight and good looking (with dark color syntax profiles) ide, another option is Code::Blocks I used it when I wanted to code something light and not depended on c++ redistributable libraries.

 

I generally don't need to run VS and I just run Dev C++

what about a compiler? which one do u recommend for that? i dont really know the difference between an IDE and a compiler. I just want to practice code and run it and see what it does on another tab. What would i need for that?

[jewishdolphins]

like i wanna use notepad ++ to write my code and then run it on something else. Is that bad? do people normally do it a different way?

[dannytech357]

Most IDE's come with a compiler. In general, people use the IDEs because they can spot code errors and tell you about them and have features such as auto completion. You can use Notepad, but it would require you to use an external compiler. I personally prefer https://c9.io, which has built-in support for C++ workspaces (see this post on the Cloud9 community for more info). In addition, it's a fully-featured online IDE that runs in it's own Ubuntu container, so you have the effective power of an entire computer and root access over it.

[jewishdolphins]

7 minutes ago, dannytech357 said:

Most IDE's come with a compiler. In general, people use the IDEs because they can spot code errors and tell you about them and have features such as auto completion. You can use Notepad, but it would require you to use an external compiler. I personally prefer https://c9.io, which has built-in support for C++ workspaces (see this post on the Cloud9 community for more info). In addition, it's a fully-featured online IDE that runs in it's own Ubuntu container, so you have the effective power of an entire computer and root access over it.

That helped clarify some stuff. Looks like IDE's are less annoying. Do you recommend any to download? I dont really want to use online ones and Visual Studio or whatever is acting really buggy and making my download a lot of stuff. 

[dannytech357]

1 minute ago, jewishdolphins said:

That helped clarify some stuff. Looks like IDE's are less annoying. Do you recommend any to download? I dont really want to use online ones and Visual Studio or whatever is acting really buggy and making my download a lot of stuff. 

I haven't personally tried that many, but it sounds like Code::Blocks and and Eclipse (which I have tried), and Netbeans (I've also tried) are the recommended ones. If these are too much, see this StackOverflow post: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6369591/what-is-the-easiest-c-ide-for-students-non-programmers, which contains some of what you seem to be looking for.

[Mr_KoKa]

36 minutes ago, jewishdolphins said:

like i wanna use notepad ++ to write my code and then run it on something else. Is that bad? do people normally do it a different way?

I don't know bad, just tedious. As you need to create your own makefiles (compilation order matters as one object may be dependent on another), and as other said, compiler will tell you line where errors occurred, but won't highlight them for you like integrated development environment will.