Is it worth buying a copy of visual c++ 6? Is it much better than using a free compiler? Also, some editions are advertised as .net - what’s the difference? Ben
VC6 is fairly old now, VC NET is the newer and generally better version (ie, VC7). The outputted code is likely to be much the same on both VC and a free compiler.
VC6 is pretty bad at supporting the latest C and C++ specifications, VC NET will be better for that.
The question is whether you need the additional stuff that VC will offer you such as MFC, WIN32 programming and the debugging features.
That depends on what you intend to do with it so that is up to you to answer.
In my opinion, if you are going to buy an IDE, buy VC Net. This tends to be a bit pricy, though Microsoft do have an eductaional scheme that you could look into, failing that, codewarrior has an educational version available for 59 USD, I guess about £40 UK give or take a few squid…
ps. Weather is lovely outside, get down the beach, it’s only down the road… 
Does vc have good texture map facilities, like easy texture loading?
Originally posted by ben1441:
Does vc have good texture map facilities, like easy texture loading?
No compiler does, you have to write the code to do it, or use someone elses… alternatively you could get WinGimp and use that to save your textures to source code…
That sounds like a lot of money for vc6.
For that kinda coin, I’d suggest vc7 (.net) as it handles unmanaged c++ just fine, supports more of the latest language extensions and the IDE environment is a bit more intuitive, IMO.
Having said that, if you can find a cheap copy of vc6, download Service Pack 6 and run with that until the wheels fall off.
For OpenGL especially, it’s perfectly serviceable. Billions of lines of c++ code will be supported by vc6 for years to come.
Cheers
Whatever you buy, make sure you get the version with the optimizing compiler. I believe VC++'s intro level edition (Standard?) has a non-optimizing compiler.
Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional can be bought for under 100USD, provided that you are a college student and do not intend to sell your software commercially.
the question has to be in this case:
which version is it, of VC6 ?
i have to oppose the oppinion of my preceding posters:
- it’s true that VC6 is not the last version, but VC7 is it.
- but 1: VC6 is widely used, until today
- but 2: you can’t compile all your projects without problems on VC7
- but 3: VC7 may be very overloaded if you don’t need all the stuff (i’m not talking of .net!)
- but 4: VC6 in general is a very good IDE, and the debugger is one of the best i have ever seen
- but 5: VC6 is more stable and approved; i have met several people who complaint about the stability of VC7/.net
- but 6: you have to install the ****ty .net framework on your machine, even if you are not interested in programming for/with .net technology
if you ask me, i would tell you that buying the professional version or enterprise version for 70UKP is a good deal; take a look at amazon.com, what it costs there, and this is the professional version: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/det…ance&s=software
[This message has been edited by DJSnow (edited 08-11-2003).]
If you are just interested in the compiler can you download it from Microsoft. http://winprog.org/tutorial/msvc.html
The other free compilers is also very good but many people like the MSVC IDE.