starting out in C or C++ or ANYTHING

sfullman

Hi There,

I would like to START writing windows-based applications (currently I've used PHP and ASP talking to a SQL/MySQL databases).

My main issue is that I have no money to do anything with; with PHP/mySQL for example, all you need is a text editor and the free programs on your server.

Is there any way to write application (desktop) prgrams for Windows for free or at a minimum cost? And would this particular programming language be worth the "free" price to invest learning it in your opinion?

Any links or book references would be helpful
Sam

amrigo

Search google for wxwindows wich is a free toolkit for writing GUI in any platform not just windows

mtimdog

Here's a free c++ ide
http://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html

I agree with amrigo...if you google for free ide and any programming language you can come up with some good finds.

sfullman

Thanks, I already took a look at wxWindows and it looks interesting.

The problem is I understand about 1/15th of all the terms I see :-). I don't have a CS degree; I see many of these terms recurrently, and wish I spoke the language.

mtimdog, if you'd be interested in a per-email consulting at a reasonable rate, PM me -- I help people on this forum on specific questions, but I could teach an overall lesson on PHP when a user has a specific project which would make them expert much faster. I could use the same thing in C++.

Best,
Sam

mtimdog

I'm flattered, but my C++ expertise needs some work itself. Just like we have some great php coders here, i'm sure there are plenty of c++ coders out there (experts-exchange.com for a start I supposed) that would provide a better service for free/cheap.

Sorry🙁

sfullman

Thanks for the experts-exchange.com link. Honesty is what makes this business work and makes the U.S. the greatest (you are from the U.S. right :-).

Sam

AstroTeg

If you're looking to go authentic Windows app development, but on a budget, you might check out C# (part of the .NET experience). The .NET SDK is a free download (although something like 140mb the last I checked). Here's an IDE I fiddled with:

http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/

And more C# tools which appear to be freely available:

http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/csharp/tools/default.aspx

I've been told if you're comfy with C/C++ and Java, C# will be easy to learn. I haven't done any coding in it (yet).

mikeatrpi

Before you jump into Windows development with C or C++, you should learn "regular" command line C or C++. Install Linux with gcc and you're golden. Or as noted above, you can use dev-cpp.

But why do you want to use C or C++? Visual Basic makes your life easy for basic windows applications. You can look into Tcl/Tk- or just Tk and C- for Unix and Windows applications. And then there's PHP-GTK. It's all about choosing the right tool for the job.

What kind of application did you have in mind?

sfullman

Hi Mike at PRI,

I'll get back to you PM-style in about a week. I'll have a browser based simulation of the application at that point, so you can give me your feedback. I really appreciate it.

FYI, this is a database interface application, sort of "Relateional DB's for dummies" -- flexible but powerful. I don't think I'd have the time to learn all these skills, but I want to head in that direction if I don't get investment capital sooner.

Sincerly,
Sam Fullman
Compass Point Media

planetsim

Originally posted by mikeatrpi
Before you jump into Windows development with C or C++, you should learn "regular" command line C or C++. Install Linux with gcc and you're golden. Or as noted above, you can use dev-cpp.

But why do you want to use C or C++? Visual Basic makes your life easy for basic windows applications. You can look into Tcl/Tk- or just Tk and C- for Unix and Windows applications. And then there's PHP-GTK. It's all about choosing the right tool for the job.

What kind of application did you have in mind?

Visual Basic maybe easy but it teaches bad programming habits. As long as you have learnt a language like PHP or C, C being preferred i dont see much wrong just as long as you dont rely on VB for everything.

PHP-GTK i havent seen one good program from this yet, maybe not the best tool right now.

Why not learn Java im about to be bold and take the plunge in it, it looks an interesting language

superwormy

You might want to check out www.Eclipse.org for the FREE Eclipse IDE. It defaults to a Java editor, but you can grab the free CDT C/C++ Development Environment and a free compiler ( MinGW32 is a nice one ) and develop Java, C/C++ all in the same free IDE.

It has Perl, PHP, and SQL plugins too!