Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!news From: "Rikki Prince" Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.freetalk.english Subject: Re: Visual Studio/C++ Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 19:54:54 +0100 Organization: PlayStation Net Yaroze (SCEE) Lines: 53 Message-ID: <7sb8mb$1cg1@chuka.playstation.co.uk> References: <37e7cfcd.18742521@www.netyaroze-europe.com> <37E8B830.2602CE30@reading.ac.uk> <37e90399.1184380@www.netyaroze-europe.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: th-gt142-198.pool.dircon.co.uk X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2014.211 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2014.211 > It's really about getting experience in a popular (in one sense, > anyway) development tool that a lot of developers use "for real". I > doubt many companies are writing in DJGPP/Allegro and it might be a > pain to learn to use it but then it does look good on the old CV. And, > given the outstanding value of the student pack, I think I'd be a twat > not to capitalise on it while I have the chance. It would also come in > handy for MathEngine and DirectX. After 18 months with DOS commands > and MS Edit I think it's time to move on to some more sophisticated / > bloated tools... :) If you just want a Windows IDE, you could use LCC-Win32, and muck about with the program it uses to do the compile, and point it to make in your PSX\BIN folder (or where ever), just like you'd have to in VC++. Also, you could get PFE, and customise it to link to make (I think you should be able to, as it's pretty easy to change everything). As for the experience, if it's as easy to use as some people suggest, then surely you would not need to buy it just to learn how to use it. As most all Windows programs, especially with MS products, they're all set out as similarly as possible, especially in terms of menus, toolbars etc. For this reason, it should be pretty easy to move from one to another. Your only problem would be if there's a bunch of things VC++ can do that you'd need to learn, which there shouldn't be, as it's an IDE and a compiler. All that could be important about VC++ is possible optimisation in the compiler, and for practising your coding, it's not really necessary, maybe even a bad thing as without super optimisation, you'd be more determined to make your code as quick as possible without optimising. Is there anything else that people find particularly helpful in VC++ that I can pick apart? ;) Oh and if writing your own makefiles is particularly annoying (not that VC++ helps AFAIK), I've been working on a makefile generator, where you select your files through an open file dialog, and then set depenacies. I basically finished it in my 'Working Model' of VB 4, but that doesn't output .exes, so I'm working on rewriting it in C in the Win API in LCC-Win32 (enough 'in's there? :) > Does it *really* take up >1.5 GB on the hard drive, BTW? I only have a > 2.1 GB hard drive!!! Surely you can install with various options, etc > (my Office 97 install of Word and Excel only takes up 30MB) or else I > might be stuffed. Alternately, it would provide the perfect excuse for > getting that new >10Gb hard drive... Mmmm. Well a friend who's got Visual Studio, says that's only on 3 CDs, so obviously VC++ doesn't take up all room on the 3 CDs. I think the reason for 3 CDs is all the addons etc you get with VS, so basically VS is on one CD, then you get a MSDN CD, and a load of other stuff, but I can't be certain, due to little exposure to this software... > Cheers > > Nick Ferguson Rikki