i need a good free c++ compiler

[saivert]

lol… this thread quickly went into “my code editor is the best” mode.

If you are just starting out and learning programming it doesn’t really matter what you use as long as it produces working executable. You don’t need THE BEST at all. just something that lets you code and compile. Dev-C++ seems to be doing just that. There are also the Express editions of Visual Studio which work well too.

In the case you want to produce software that others are going to use then you may have to seriously look into what compilers you use but most software today is either compiled with Microsoft’s compilers or GCC (in the case of Cygwin or MinGW32 based software). Some software even use Intel compilers for special optimizations but it doesn’t really matter that much. For games and especially games using DirectX you are better off sticking to Microsoft’s compiler and libraries.

[Solokiller]

Valve’s mathlib has SSE optimizations in their code, you can check the source code for that.

[Sethis]

Devcpp is just a pile of junk, debugger needs debugging, autocompletion works like s***, it wasnt updated since 2004 and comes with old, heavily bugged version of mingw (yup, standard hasnt changed yet, but compilers need patching just like any software)
Now on to C::B… Not such a pile of junk, but for some reason wouldnt let me debug anything once id deleted line with break on it, also used it mainly for java, so i guess its worth a shot. Still, I prefer VS 2k8, but its not like Im using 1/10th of capabilities, moar like 9/10th. It might look… crowded with options and stuff if youre new to programming, but most of big gamedev companies use it just for that reason. Oh, and it natively supports DX libs ;]

Sorry for any spelling/grammar errors, english is not my first language.

[geekofalltrades]

All the cool kids write their own compilers.