Windows + MS Visual C or Linux + eclipse - college project

The_Bullman

I've my final year project to do and I've been given the choice to develop the code in C++ with ms visual c or to use eclipse on linux

My supervisor doesn't have any particular preference, but if I were to develop on visual c I'd have to develop the functionality into a .dll and build the app to access this.

He would require the same type of functionality on linux - but he don't have any linux experience so can't guide me in that regard.

He thinks that the industry standard is to use MS Visual C so he's probably guiding me down that route. Is that the case? Which would you develop in? Does it really matter?

stevenmu

You could always try C#, it'd be a more modern standard than C++ (it's the new .net version of it), it's also sort of cross platform, it can be run on linux through mono, altough I'm not sure how it'll work with version 2 coming out soon, if mono will support it or not. Also iirc mono doesn't support absolutely everything, altough it does handle almost everything, they'd have the details at their homepage.

If you really want to run on windows and linux though java is easily your best choice.

Kernel32

There are other options for cross platform other than Java. Borland Kylix and RealBasic come to mind. Why not do something a little different than the same old same old.

ressem

What industry is MS Visual C++ meant to be standard in?

Or to phrase more usefully, what's the project?
Choosing what you'll be putting in this project, what OS you're comfortable with and what languages you're familiar with should determine the language.


Eclipse is an IDE, you can plug various language plugins into it, and it runs under win, linux, osx etc.
It is primarily associated with Java. Though you can use c++ with it.

On linux, a closer match to MS Visual C++ (ms compiler + mfc + ide) would be g++ & qt & qt designer.

Just creating a c++ library and calling it from an executable in either windows or linux is simple.
In linux
http://www.cs.duke.edu/~ola/courses/programming/libraries.html
tells you the flags you need to build and use a library.

In visual studio its clicky, clicky, clicky, clicky, clicky and you'll have created an empty library. (though with a useless name, need that keyboard for that bit )

The_Bullman

Sorry for the confusion.

Unfortunatly I don't have a choice in the language I develop the app in. I have to use C++ which I'll be learning from scratch. When I mentioned using eclipse I meant to say that I'd be using a c++ plugin of some sort.

I'm not 100% sure but I don't think I have to leave the application so that it can work cross platform - but it was recomended to me to write the code using conventions that would leave it easier to port it to different platforms, regardless if I decided to code in linux or microsoft

"What industry is MS Visual C++ meant to be standard in?"
I'm not sure but I'm assuming that it's the software industry. He is open to correction, so if it's not then would I be better off going the eclipse + linux route? I'm aiming to learn as much as possible from this project as possible. I've very little linux experience, but when it comes to C++ - I've no experience, so I don't think it would matter either way.

For reference, the project is to develop a compression app. Hopefully my result will be up to scratch


Thanks for the help so far.

damnyanks

Unless you are going to use OS specific libraries it really wont matter if you do it on Linux or Windows.

If you aim to use OS specific libraries then go for Linux. You will learn a lot and I'd imagine most of your dev experience so far has been on wintel.

rsynnott

stevenmu wrote:

You could always try C#, it'd be a more modern standard than C++ (it's the new .net version of it),

Not quite; it's a completely different language; it just looks rather similar. There IS a managed .net C++ thingy, though Microsoft don't seem to like it very much; it ranks below even J#.

ressem

Ok, this is probably going to start an argument.

If you're learning c++, I don't think that Visual Studio is the best tool to use.
You'll tend to get MS specific macros and code hidden by the IDE, especially graphical interface stuff.

I'd suggest downloading dev-c++ +minGw, on windows.
Compiling & linking a "hello world" beginner program or two using the console commands. (This method is very similar to the linux method)

Write the compression algorithm as a class within a console application. When comfortable with it, copy this code into a library project.

If you want a graphical user inferface to your compression library, try wxWindows libraries. (You can use Dev-C++ Tools/Check for Updates to download this.)
The MFC way isn't fun for the beginner, wasn't for me anyways.

But leave it till the console version is about ready.

The result will be fairly portable, if it does matter later on.

And get a modern book on c++ that introduces the stl libraries early.
I'd suggest Accelerated C++ by Andrew Koenig & Barbara E. Moo (Publisher: Addison Wesley) Short & to the point.

nadir

linux, gcc, vim, sdl. Dont know about eclipse though, sry.

Civilian_Target

ressem wrote:

I'd suggest downloading dev-c++ +minGw, on windows.
Compiling & linking a "hello world" beginner program or two using the console commands. (This method is very similar to the linux method)

Write the compression algorithm as a class within a console application. When comfortable with it, copy this code into a library project.

If you want a graphical user inferface to your compression library, try wxWindows libraries. (You can use Dev-C++ Tools/Check for Updates to download this.)
The MFC way isn't fun for the beginner, wasn't for me anyways.

But leave it till the console version is about ready.

The result will be fairly portable, if it does matter later on.

And get a modern book on c++ that introduces the stl libraries early.
I'd suggest Accelerated C++ by Andrew Koenig & Barbara E. Moo (Publisher: Addison Wesley) Short & to the point.

Stepping back a bit, basicly what you're suggesting is cross-platform C++, right?

I'm interested in learning a bit about this myself, but my knowledge of C only extends to very basic commandline C++ and commandline LoadRunner C. Is that book a good place to start off? Or can you link some stuff online where I can read up a bit before deciding whether to buy the books?

Thanks.

rsynnott

There's a funny discussion here (you may need to use bugmenot to view it)

stevenmu

ressem wrote:

Ok, this is probably going to start an argument.

If you're learning c++, I don't think that Visual Studio is the best tool to use.
You'll tend to get MS specific macros and code hidden by the IDE, especially graphical interface stuff.
....

I'd disagree slightly with this, once you put all your functionality (i.e. the compression algorithm(s) itself) into a seperate class/package that's done in a portable way, then you should be ok to use visual studio to create your GUI which uses it, and you could also use eclipse to create a linux gui for it too. Presumably the GUI, whether it's on windows on linux, will only be a tiny part of the marks, so instead of trying to learn about new packages just for that, VS/eclipse should let you throw a decent functional gui together pretty quickly.

UberNewb

Go with MS Visual C++

You be able to create apps in no time. With the class wizard and the MFC classes its very easy to use. I had to make a smilar choice to you when I was in college and have never looked back!

NutJob

At the moment im using Dev-Cpp for some openGl stuff

Portability doesnt seem to be a problem (minor tweeks) plus i had the budget issue.

Dont rule it out suggest u give them all a shot and see whta u think