newbie Windows programmer

[sieg1974]

Hi,

I'm a newbie Windows programmer, and I need some information to start.
Do I need to use Visual C++ if I want to make a program that will use
the Windows C++ APIs, or could I use gcc? And how about the Windows
C++ API, does Windows XP already have them somewhere, or do I need
download or even buy from Microsoft?

Thanks a lot for all sugestions,

Andre

[Jussi Jumppanen]

sieg1974 wrote:

> I'm a newbie Windows programmer, and I need some information to
> start. Do I need to use Visual C++ if I want to make a program
> that will use the Windows C++ APIs,

No you do not.

> or could I use gcc?

Yes you can. Take a look at the Windows gcc port found here:

http://www.mingw.org/

This will produce a Win32 executable that can be debugged
using the windows version of the gdb debugger.

Another non commercial C compiler alternative is lcc-win32:

http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~lcc-win32/

Alernatively take a look at the Borland BCC Verison 5.5 c/c++
compiler which is now almost free (you need to supply some user
details). Just goto this link:

http://www.borland.com/bcppbuilder/freecompiler

I would also recommend downloading the Borland Win32 help
files in WinHelp format found here:

ftp://ftp.borland.com/pub/delphi/techpubs/delphi2/win32.zip

or here:

http://www.borland.com/devsupport/borlandcpp/patches/BC52HLP1.ZIP

This help file is an excellent sources of documentation that
covers the basic Win32 API's in great detail.

And if you use Zeus as your IDE (shameless plug) you get "quick as
a flash" context sensitive Win32 help thanks to the Zeus Quick Help
search feature :)

Jussi Jumppanen
Author of: Zeus for Windows, Win32 (Brief, WordStar, Emacs) Text Editor
"The C/C++, Java, HTML, FTP, Python, PHP, Perl programmer's editor"
http://www.zeusedit.com