Komodo

Is it worth it to use Visual C++, or should I just go with standard C++?

OpenLoop

depends what you program for? see this thread it might help:

http://www.programmingforums.org/for...learn+language

Navid

I'm confused here, I thought Visual C++ is microsoft's compiler, not a language...
maybe i'm not clear on what Komodo ment by "standard c++".

grumpy

Visual C++ is Microsoft's C++ compiler. Older versions (up until at least version 6) were well known for lack of compliance with the C++ standard. With more recent versions (version 7 and .NET) Microsoft has made a concerted effort to improve standard compliance. In addition, Visual C++ [in all versions] also supports several extensions (both language extensions, including additional keywords and non-standard libraries such as MFC) that help with development for windows applications.

The basic rule is, if you want to program in "standard C++", you will use only language and library features that are in the C++ standard. All C++ compilers support that to some degree, but no compilers (or their libraries) are 100% perfect. The advantage of programming in "standard C++" is that your code would be portable to any compliant compiler. However, we live in the real world: compilers are imperfect, so we have to use a subset of the language to ensure portability. In addition, a lot of us want to do things that go beyond the C++ standard (eg graphical user interface, multi-threading, database access, etc etc) and which are often not portable.

In the end, as OpenLoop said, the choice of compiler (and libraries) depends on what you want to achieve. For some of those things, Visual C++ is a good choice. For others, it is not.

uman

Isn't comeau's compiler "perfect" in that it follows the standard to the letter?

I could be wrong.

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grumpy

Comeau's compiler is often used as a benchmark, as it is quite close, and improving all the time. However, not even Comeau claim it is perfect - they just state, to their credit, that they are working hard to get 100% compliance. IIRC, Comeau C++'s only known shortcomings (relative to the C++ standard) are that it doesn't support the export keyword (which isn't a big sin, very few compilers actually do, as that feature is one of the more poorly thought out aspects of the C++ standard - being a political compromise rather than a technical one, IMHO) and a couple of other advanced features associated with templates.

uman

http://www.comeaucomputing.com/4.0/d...an/export.html

They do support export...

__________________
Few people deserve to be compared to (Rush) Limbaugh, most of them were convicted at the Nuremburg trials.
--WilliamSChips on Slashdot