Beginner Questions

Oct 10, 2013 at 4:58pm
A few simple, naive questions:

If I wanted to write a program with graphics, say like a solitaire game, would I need something like Visual Studio?

And, aren't all programs console programs? How else can you communicate if not by text?

Oct 10, 2013 at 5:04pm
You can make GUI programs instead of console programs. GUI - Graphical User Interface. Otherwise your desktop and internet would be console applications. You will want to use SFML or SDL which are graphical libraries. There are other options out there but those are probably the best or even Qt.
Oct 10, 2013 at 5:05pm
Visual Studio is an IDE. MSVC is a compiler, used by Visual Studio. You *could* use Visual Studio and/or MSVC for your project, but you can just as easily use any other IDE along with any other compiler. There are a multitude of IDEs and a few main popular compilers.

As giblit points out, I'm not sure why you think text is the only form of communication - have you never played games? Have you ever browsed the internet? Have you ever logged in to a mainstream computer?
Last edited on Oct 10, 2013 at 5:07pm
Oct 10, 2013 at 7:42pm
Ok, I see. Thanks. It's output that defines console or not.

I'll have to investigate other IDEs/compilers. VS 2012 is rather expensive.
Oct 10, 2013 at 7:47pm
2010 is free I believe. You can also get code::blocks for free. There are a ton of free IDE's out there.
Oct 10, 2013 at 8:06pm
> VS 2012 is rather expensive.

The express editions are free.

The one you want is 'Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows Desktop'
http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/products/visual-studio-express-for-windows-desktop
Oct 10, 2013 at 8:14pm
Something like Visual 2010 or 2008 would run on Windows 7 presumably?
Oct 10, 2013 at 9:01pm
VC++ 2008, 2010, and 2012 all run on Windows 7, though obviously 2012's interface is optimized for Windows 8.
Oct 10, 2013 at 9:09pm
Download Visual 2012 express edition, it's modern it's free and it's a great compiler to work with.
Oct 10, 2013 at 9:15pm
Adding to what others have suggested, if you get VS2012 and are interested in GUI programming, learn C#.
Oct 10, 2013 at 11:28pm
Thank you all so much. I've been away from programming for a while. Want a laugh? My first programming course was in 1975, before GUI was even part of the lexicon, and my last game was written for Flash 5 with Action Script 1.0.
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