Programming in Windows 8

I am a semi-experienced Linux user and I write my software explicitly from command line. If I need a compiler, I simply sudo-apt-get it, if I need to run a code I just execute it from command line and if I need to edit my sourcefiles, I simply use Vim and program from the terminal.

What is the best way to start programming in Windows 8 for free? I am installing a VM which will run linux, but some things like CUDA programming will not work correctly on it.

drjrm3

Posted 2013-07-22T17:03:11.670

Reputation: 1 164

2There are tons of free C++ compilers for Windows, any one of them would work, the exact configuration required depends on what your trying to do. Visual Express C++ is 100% – Ramhound – 2013-07-22T17:14:29.647

Thanks, I'm looking for more than just C++ however. I need any and all C variants, Fortran, etc. I am wondering if there is a single suite that will allow me to use any compiler for any language and customize my compilation at the same level a Makfile would allow me to do. – drjrm3 – 2013-07-22T17:16:00.973

1MinGW + any text editor. Vim and gvim are available for Windows. Sublime Text 2 is very good if you're OK with GUI, it integrates with MinGW. – gronostaj – 2013-07-22T17:23:39.300

@Laurbert515 - There are paid solutions to compile Fortan I know of no free solution. There are hundreds of tutorals to configure a build server that uses a Makfile. – Ramhound – 2013-07-22T17:31:30.167

Are you implying that you're looking for a command line solution to program for Windows 8? – MDMoore313 – 2013-07-22T17:53:55.547

Answers

Reading back over this I figured I should say what I did which gives an almost identical feel to Linux. I used Cygwin (this can be configured with a Makefile, bash, etc. so it is almost identical to a bash console in Linux). Windows does, however, work a bit differently than Linux, so for times that I need to actual compile/run my code on a Linux machine, I created a virtual machine.

Now, I don't like having to work with a bunch of different screens, so I enabled SSH from my native (Windows) OS to the virtual (Linux) OS through the cygwin terminal. This allows me to minimize the VM, but still use the Linux Kernel to run my code on from the standard Windows OS.

drjrm3

Posted 2013-07-22T17:03:11.670

Reputation: 1 164

You could try to download the Express edition of the Microsoft Visual Studio. It is a very nice IDE and features compilers for c++, c#, vb.net and some other languages.

http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/products/visual-studio-express-products

donothingloop

Posted 2013-07-22T17:03:11.670

Reputation: 363

Code::Blocks is a great Windows (and Linux!) IDE and if you download the version without a built in compiler you can use MinGW-Builds which has the latest GCC (multiple languages supported) for Windows. MinGW-Builds also has both 32-bit and 64-bit compiler versions available. It includes many header files, like DirectX and others, that are useful on Windows.

headkase

Posted 2013-07-22T17:03:11.670

Reputation: 1 690

This seems like the only valid option for the author at least for C++. Other languages will require their own editor and compiler. One could do everything in Notepad++ and simply do everything through a command prompt. – Ramhound – 2013-07-24T00:14:54.593

If you use MinGW-Builds with Code::Blocks then you have to manually point Code::Blocks at the compiler executables. They are named slightly different than what Code::Blocks expects but once you do that one time setup everything works as expected. – headkase – 2013-07-24T00:44:10.030

If you are a true Linux user then you will love mono. That is what I use to program in Ubuntu. They have a version for Windows, here is the link

nate

Posted 2013-07-22T17:03:11.670

Reputation: 1 082