The best site for MSVC specific questions is Microsoft's MSDN online
database.
It is located at: http://msdn.microsoft.com
and it requires a free registration. It contains
a lot of very useful articles too.
I've tried a LOT of C++ compilers/environments in past years and here's my (subjective)
opinion on some of them.
| MSVC++ 6.0 (or 5.0 for that matter) | It
has the best user interface, best debugger and fastest compiler.
Development environment can't get any better than this.
Score: 10/10 |
| Borland/Inprise C++ 6.0 and C++ Builder 2.0 | Borland
or Inprise (they changed a lot of names recently) is showing that it
is lagging pretty badly. It has lost a LOT of market share in recent
years and it is not as user friendly as some of the today's compilers.
It is, however, a favorite among a lot of people. Borland C++ Builder
is a step in the right direction. Code produced is much slower than
MSVC output.
Score: 8/10 |
| Metrowerks CodeWarrior 4.0 | Best
development environment on Macintosh (there is also a PC Windows and
Linux version). I really like CodeWarrior. It has a clean and really
streamlined interface. It excels in project management features.
Compiled code is slower than that of MSVC.
Score: 9/10 |
| egcs g++ 2.7.2 | Free
compiler for various Unices including Linux. This is one of the
best compilers out there and I use it regularly. It has a lot of
advanced features and it's only weak point is visual development
environment (if that can even be considered a weak point...)
Interestingly, Metrowerks makes a CodeWarrior for Linux and if you
combine the two (CodeWarrior and egcs) you have a winning platform.
Score: 9.5/10 Free! |
| cygwin | This
is a port of gcc to Windows. I have not tried it myself but many
people praise this compiler. If you don't have money to buy a
commercial compiler for your home Windows based computer, get
this compiler.
Score: 9/10 Free! |
| djgpp | Port
of gcc to DOS. Works very good however it is hampered by all of the
limitations of platform (DOS is now extinct operating system (OS)).
Generates really solid code (since it is totally based on gcc). Due to
GPL license of gcc, it is totally free.
Score: 8/10 (due to platform limitation) Free! |
| lcc and lcc-win32 | lcc
is one of the best designed compilers today. It was created at
Princeton University as a project. It is totally free and it has been
ported to numerous platforms. lcc-win32 is the port of lcc
compiler to MS Windows.
Score: 9/10 Free! |
First of all... what are bad books on C++? We should ask ourselves that
question instead
since there are 10x more bad books on the market than good ones.
I highly recommend you stay away from books that have "Teach
yourself...", "...21 days...",
" ... unleashed...", "... visual c++...", "...
Borland...". The reason is simple: These are NOT
books meant for university level education and they are marketed toward novice
programmers
who never saw a loop or a conditional in their life. They are
also compiler dependant which is what we are trying to avoid by using ANSI
standard.
Only book on C++ that you will really need is Strostrup's book. I also
recommend:
Meyer's book "Effective C++" and "More Effective C++". Both
of these books discuss
advanced techniques of C++. Really neat stuff.