Other programs used to make C/C++ desktop applications besides Visual studio? - c++

I'm unable to buy Visual studio. I'm just wondering if there's any other program besides Visual studio that can be used for developing C++ desktop applications.

Visual Studio has an Express edition which is free :)

For a non-Microsoft option, there is MinGW.

Microsoft offers free Windows SDK 7.1 with all compilers, headers and tools (nmake, all compilers, really good debugger etc.) for all supported Windows platforms. It, basically, full version of VS2010 tools without IDE (you have to use command-line one way or another). By the way, it has x64 compilers that are not shipped with VS2010 Express.
As an IDE I find Eclipse to be terrific. The amount of features and level of their customization are simply amazing and very useful. You can, most likely, configure Eclipse to run MS SDK command-line tools from it, but I haven't checked it myself.

You can download Visual Studio Express 2010 from Microsoft, it is free.

Can't go wrong with Visual Studio Express. It's free.

Ofcourse Visual studio express should be easy and free.
And if you need something to use in linux - http://qt.nokia.com/products/platform/qt-for-linux-x11/

another non-msft option is Eclipse:
http://eclipse.org/cdt/

Cygwin plus Cygwin Ports gives you a good approximation of the Linux development environment, for free, including the MinGW option (i.e., using GCC to create native Windows executables), Mono, KDevelop etc. etc..

Sharp Develop, DEVcpp, Mono D
but Visual Studio Express works just fine

QT is fine and cross-plateform. There is a QTCreator IDE with MinGW but you can use a plugin for eclipse to draw your application via eclipse CDT.

Qt. You can download latest versions here: http://www.qt.io/download/

Related

Visual Studio 2017 wont show c++ template/extansion

I am trying to use Microsoft visual studio IDE to run my c++ code, however, when I go to create a project, I do not see the option for a c++ project. I tried reinstalling the program to see if I could somehow install the package/extension however it just won't seem to come up.
The only templates that appear are in c# or f#.
If someone could please lead me into the right direction so that I can fix this, it would be great. Thank you.
I don't see any mention of C++ in the release notes.
According to this post on MSDN, there is no C++ support in the Mac version of Visual Studio. It contains links to instructions for using Visual Studio Code, as well as the option to install a VM running Windows.
Apparently Visual Studio Code supports C++ projects, since it can execute external tools. The Microsoft Visual C++ build tools are free for Windows, but I don't think there is a version for the Mac, so some other external compiler is necessary.

Compile Visual Studio projects without having Visual Studio installed?

Is there a way to compile a Visual Studio 2012 project without having the VS installed? I need to compile C++ stuff for windows quite rarely and buying the product is not justified as there's no profit (community projects). In most of the cases the project and solution files will be available. If there's a way to compile the code with SDK, could you please share an example?
Thanks!
You can download visual studio express for free. Whenever you build a solution, the bin folder in your project folder will contain the compiled code.
http://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/downloads/download-visual-studio-vs.aspx
EDITED: (per MS website)
Visual Studio Express 2013 for Windows Desktop enables the creation of desktop apps in C#, Visual Basic, and C++, and supports Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Forms, and Win32.
Sign in to Visual Studio within 30 days with your Microsoft account to synchronize your settings across multiple machines and register your product.
Your best bet is likely going to be using msbuild which will allow you to build a solution or project without having Visual Studio installed.
If you have the free version VC++ Express installed (and thus the compiler toolchain), you might find it more interesting to use Eclipse CDT as IDE on top. At least the newer versions (I think since Helios) support using the native MS toolchain. You can import from native
VS projects also.
Eclipse is the more powerful IDE IMHO, and will additionally support other toolchains (either cross compiling, or Windows alternatives as MinGw GCC).

Visual C++ 2010 Express for mac

Is it possible to get Visual C++ 2010 Express for Mac OS X?
If not is there another application, other than Xcode, that will do the same thing?
Visual Studio C++ is not supported on OS X.
You can use either Eclipse or KDevelop. A complete listing IDEs for C++ is available at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_integrated_development_environments#C.2FC.2B.2B
There is no Visual Studio for Mac that I'm aware of. I think QtCreator, Eclipse and NetBeans all work on Mac.
Microsoft has a version of Visual Studio which is cross platform. It will run on Windows, Mac OSX and Linux. It is called Visual Studio Code. You can download it at: https://code.visualstudio.com/download
You will have to download the C++ extensions. It will take you to the market place where you can get the extension for free.
Personally I prefer Xcode when coding on a Mac.
It's not hard to learn, but because it is fairly new there aren't many useful videos or articles on how to navigate Visual Studio Code. If you are familiar with Visual Studio IDE for Microsoft Windows, Visual Studio Code is a totally different program.
You can try Eclipse:
http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/packages/eclipse-ide-cc-developers-includes-incubating-components/indigor
If you really want visual c++ bootcamp you MacOS. Install windows along side with Mountain Lion and you are good to go.

Is there a work around way to compile MFC files in Microsoft Visual C++

Is there a work around way to compile MFC files in Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition
I'm not 100% sure, but I think that Windows Driver Developer Kit contains MFC 4.2 headers and libraries. I newer tested if this is enough to compile even simple MFC application using Express Edition of VS, but I guess this is your only chance.
Perhaps you can find an old copy of the visual studio environment?

How do I configure Qt to work with Visual Studio 2010?

I downloaded open-source version of Qt from the site and have compiled it with nmake, but I'm having trouble using it in my projects. It seems that Visual Studio can't find the Qt headers, even though I added the paths to my PATH, INCLUDE, and LIB variables. I tried installing the Qt Visual Studio add-in but it only supports Visual Studio 2008.
Has anyone gotten Qt to work with Visual Studio 2010? Or do I have to wait until Qt 4.7 is officially released for Visual Studio 2010 support?
Either download the pre-built vs2008 package or build it using cmake's vs2008 profile and then open the resulting .sln file in vs2010 and let it do the conversion.
edit - annoying feature so far is that the vs plugin doesn't support vs2010 which makes it essentially impossible to use for desktop app development.
Traditionally VS support was part of the paid licences, with the OS package you only get mingw support. Things are changing, but might have some rough edges for a while.
OTOH, mingw has a HUGE advantage: deployment. You don't have to chase around the vcredist_x86 files and all the associated voodoo. Just be sure to include all the .DLLs you use and that's it.
Also, there's QtCreator. It's not as featureful or omniscient as VS; but it does feel a lot nicer and easier to use. It takes off all the tedious work of nmake, and embeds the UI editors. And it's cross platform!
honestly, for me VS can drop dead this minute and i won't miss it.
Qt V4.8.0 contains prebuilt binaries for Visual Studio 2010 so you don't need to build manually anymore:
http://qt.nokia.com/downloads/windows-cpp-vs2010