Seeking Windows Compiler Recommendation

[jshriver]

What is a good free windows XP C compiler?

I'm wrapping up my cliboard application and wanted to create a windows version for distribution. I've tinkered with cygwin years ago, but didnt know what you all recommend.

Something foss friendly would be nice as I plan to release my code under an oss license.

-Josh

[Fguy64]

I haven't used such a compiler myself, so I can't offer a recommendation., but you might find the following list helpfull to make a decision. It's a list of open source c compilers. Are you familiar with sourceforge?

https://sourceforge.net/search/?type_of ... c+compiler

[Bo Persson]

I haven't used such a compiler myself, so I can't offer a recommendation., but you might find the following list helpfull to make a decision. It's a list of open source c compilers. Are you familiar with sourceforge?

https://sourceforge.net/search/?type_of ... c+compiler

And if you want it free, like in free beer, the Windows native compiler is also available at no cost (and with no source :

http://www.microsoft.com/express/vc/

[Ron Murawski]

What is a good free windows XP C compiler?

I'm wrapping up my cliboard application and wanted to create a windows version for distribution. I've tinkered with cygwin years ago, but didnt know what you all recommend.

Something foss friendly would be nice as I plan to release my code under an oss license.

-Josh

The problem with cygwin is that you need the correct version of the cygwin.dll flie. Some users become confused trying to decide which dll is the right one. It's easy for a user to copy the latest version into your program's directory. If your program expects an earlier version it will stop working.

It's better for users if you use MinGW because it will compile native Windows code. But it might be more difficult for you because you won't have access to all those handy Linux utilities that Cygwin provides.

You can always develop in Cygwin and do your final build using MinGW. Alternately, there's a couple of excellent C/C++ IDEs available for Windows/MinGW development or you can use Microsoft's free IDE and compiler.

Ron

[Jorge Garcia de Andres]

MinGw is a good option, I use it and I pretty satisfied. It produces a very fast code
Regards

[Kempelen]

What is a good free windows XP C compiler?

I'm wrapping up my cliboard application and wanted to create a windows version for distribution. I've tinkered with cygwin years ago, but didnt know what you all recommend.

Something foss friendly would be nice as I plan to release my code under an oss license.

-Josh

Try Codeblock. It is a very nice IDE with cames with MINGW. I like it and it produce very acceptable fast code.

[Ron Murawski]

What is a good free windows XP C compiler?

I'm wrapping up my cliboard application and wanted to create a windows version for distribution. I've tinkered with cygwin years ago, but didnt know what you all recommend.

Something foss friendly would be nice as I plan to release my code under an oss license.

-Josh

Try Codeblock. It is a very nice IDE with cames with MINGW. I like it and it produce very acceptable fast code.

http://www.codeblocks.org/
Like the Bloodshed IDE before it, Code::Blocks was the best IDE in its day. It hasn't been updated in a while. If you use the wx plugin it may still be the best choice.

http://codelite.org/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/codelite
CodeLite is a more modern IDE that can act as a front end to MinGW or the Microsoft compiler (or Digital Mars or Open Watcom). Despite the name there's nothing 'lite' about it. It's cross-platform, so use it for Linux/Windows/Mac/FreeBSD. My favorite features are the color-coding difference between locals and globals. I also like the refactoring capabilities, built-in CScope, built-in Subversion versioning, and the fact that it supports some scripting languages that I work with (Perl, Python, PHP). The debugging using gdb is as good as any. I voted for CodeLite as Sourceforge 'Community Choice' project of the year.

http://www.netbeans.org/features/cpp/
A lessser-known IDE that no one talks about is NetBeans. It supports all the various operating systems too. It seems very capable but I've never worked with it.

http://www.geany.org/
Geany is another viable choice It's great for little quickee programs/scripts where you don't want to be bothered by creating a project. Geany simply compiles the current file that you are editing. It has a nice var/function/class browser as well. This IDE supports many operating systems and many programming languages.

For pure editing in Windows there's Crimson and Notepad++. Crimson is a very pleasing editor (I use it often) and Notepad++ verges on the features of a complete IDE.
Crimson links:
http://www.emeraldeditor.com/downloads/ (latest version)
http://www.crimsoneditor.com/ (plugins, etc)
Notepad++
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm

You can look through the Wikipedia links for other C/C++ IDEs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison ... .2FC.2B.2B

Ron

[Carey]

What is a good free windows XP C compiler?

I'm wrapping up my cliboard application and wanted to create a windows version for distribution. I've tinkered with cygwin years ago, but didnt know what you all recommend.

Something foss friendly would be nice as I plan to release my code under an oss license.

-Josh

Try Codeblock. It is a very nice IDE with cames with MINGW. I like it and it produce very acceptable fast code.

http://www.codeblocks.org/
Like the Bloodshed IDE before it, Code::Blocks was the best IDE in its day. It hasn't been updated in a while. If you use the wx plugin it may still be the best choice.

CodeBlocks is still being updated nearly daily.

The problem is they prefer to do new features and nightly builds rather than actually produce a stable product.

It took years of nagging by new & loyal users alike before they finally released the current version. I wouldn't be surprised if its another couple years before they release a second stable build.

As for the compiler... You can install a more recent version of Mingw (such as TDM's v4.4 builds) and have codeblocks use it instead. (For anything beyond basic compiler switches, you'll have to set them yourself.)

I don't know how well CodeBlicks works with the 64 bit version of Mingw since I've never tried it. My guess would be "not too well", though.


Of course, as always, a choice of editor or IDE is very much a matter of personal taste and the size of the project you are doing.

Personally, I like Dev-C++ for the quickie small projects. Less IDE to get in the way. It's anoying to set up with a newer compiler though.

[Carey]

I haven't used such a compiler myself, so I can't offer a recommendation., but you might find the following list helpfull to make a decision. It's a list of open source c compilers. Are you familiar with sourceforge?

https://sourceforge.net/search/?type_of ... c+compiler

And if you want it free, like in free beer, the Windows native compiler is also available at no cost (and with no source :

http://www.microsoft.com/express/vc/

This is going to be a stupid question because I've used VCExpress 2008....

Does it produce native executables? The previous version sure didn't. You had to install SDK's before it'd generate real code.

I knew the answer to this, but I've had a year+ brain freeze and haven't done any hobby programming at all, so I've forgotten.

[CThinker]

I haven't used such a compiler myself, so I can't offer a recommendation., but you might find the following list helpfull to make a decision. It's a list of open source c compilers. Are you familiar with sourceforge?

https://sourceforge.net/search/?type_of ... c+compiler

And if you want it free, like in free beer, the Windows native compiler is also available at no cost (and with no source :

http://www.microsoft.com/express/vc/

This is going to be a stupid question because I've used VCExpress 2008....

Does it produce native executables? The previous version sure didn't. You had to install SDK's before it'd generate real code.

I knew the answer to this, but I've had a year+ brain freeze and haven't done any hobby programming at all, so I've forgotten.

Yes, VC Express produces native windows binaries.

I'm not sure what you mean by "The previous version sure didn't". All windows binaries are native. Perhaps you are referring to C# (assemblies) or VB (script).