Setting up Visual (Studio) C++

[MrPicklez]

I'm about to delve into learning C++ as someone who is brand new to programming, starting with Bjarne Stroustrup's Programming: Principles and Practices. I've purchased Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 and was just wondering if there are any tweaks I should make to the settings - or anything else I should be aware of - before I begin. For example: I'd like to keep the programming from hiding things an experienced programmer might not otherwise need (error messages, etc.). Just basic options such as that and anything else someone experienced with Visual Studio might think would help a newcomer.

Thanks in advance

[Disch]

All programmers need error messages... even experienced ones. ;)


Anyway the only advice I have is to always pick the "Empty Project" option when creating a new project. Don't use any of the options that pre-gen code for you, as they do stupid things like have non-standard main() and add a completely unnecessary precompiled header.

[MrPicklez]

Thanks a bunch for the advice, I'll make sure to do that when I start a fresh project. I figured perhaps there were some errors it hid due to the option "Always show error list when build finishes with errors." I'm completely new so that's the only explanation I could come up with :|

[mutexe]

Double-clicking the error in the Output window will also take you to the offending line in your code. In fact I tend to use the Output window more than the errors window.