Hello, curious question. I want to practice some C++ before college just to get the feel of the language again and I would like to ask for advice. What program do you all feel is the best to use for C++?
I think I am confused when you mean "program" do you mean IDE (Integrated Development Environment)?
If you mean IDE, I would say Visual Studio is the best. It has the best debugging tools in the world, and it is heavily documented and there are literally thousands of experienced programmers whom all help on forums such as MSDN, plus there are regular Microsoft Employees whom all take great pride and care into helping users with Visual Studio.
On the other hand, it is very expensive however there is a free express edition, and anyway apart from VS I would recommend Dev C++ - though it does not have the best debugging tools in the world, nor does it have huge amount of user-base who take time to help people - most of the programmers here and elsewhere will have used Dev C++ during their early programming age. We all love it, seriously....
You could also get Code::Blocks which is again a beauty it is elegant and I am sure again most of us have used this sometime during our life.
If you want dev c++ download it from here: http://orwelldevcpp.blogspot.com
It's pretty goof for beginners, really easy to work with.
Visual Studio is great in my opinion, it's got a ton of options, but it can be hard to work with. First time I installed it I had to spend an hour figuring out how to make Hello World. I didn't know you have to create solution, you cannot just compile and run one *.cpp file. It uses visual c++, microsoft's implementation of c++, though you can disable language extensions. For later purposes, when you'll be more experienced I think it'd be great. (It's only for windows)
CodeLite can be hard to set up, if I remember correctly. The same as with Visual Studio you have to make project every time you want to run sth.
Code::blocks is also great for beginners, but not only. It's only con is ui, I think (so ugly compared to CodeLite, f.e. ).
EDIT:
I've just downloaded CodeLite 8 and it's brilliant! At the start there is set up wizard, and it's great! It's not hard any more.
From what I can see from the CodeLite website it looks exactly like an inverted colour scheme version of Code::blocks' minimal theme (double click on a file tab). Good things about code::blocks include the volume of plugins that you can use if you want to, the syntax highlighting is completely customisable for basically all languages ever. AStyle is a godsend. That and that fact that once you set it up right it is easy to upgrade to any version of MinGW (I've got 5.0.1 running at the moment).