ISO Start Up Advice

#1 Hi Stu,
There is another compiler you can use under windows that is free if you don't feel like buying vc++6 (which is what I use for torque even though I have vs.net). I can't remember the name of the free compiler, minigw or something like that, look on the torque feature list page, I think it's listed there, or look in the documentation.

Since you say you have zero C experience I'd recommmend experimenting with the script files (the .cs files) before I'd try tackling the engine C++ files. Actually you'll discover that the scripting control structures for looping and conditional execution really aren't all that different from PL/SQL's control and conditional statements.

Hope this helps you some, good luck and have fun!

Corey

#2 Would you also recommend snooping around in the scripting files for someone who has assembly (8080, 80x86, 68k), qbasic, and VB programming experience but no C++ background?

#3 I probably would recommend that anyone experiment with the script files before the engine source files simply because you can see the results much quicker with a interpeted language, rather than going through the edit/compile/debug cycle you go through with the engine source.

To me the language doesn't matter as long as you have a good grasp of programming fundamentals.

#4 Hi Corey,

Thanks for the reply. Yes I did intend to just start mucking about with the script files first and the demo app I downloaded along with the SDK.

My thoughts were more though on when I got to the point of wanting to recompile etc. Maybe I'll worry about that when the time comes and just focus on the script files for now. Going to cut some time out this weekend and work with it a bit.

thanks again,

Stu.

#5 @Stuart,

Have a look at this resource, which explains compiling Torque with MinGW.

Rich

#6 MSVC6 is really good for Win32 development, and you can probably find copies of it around for pretty cheap, too, since Microsoft has moved on to Visual Studio.NET... Or MSVC7, as I like to call it :-P

I, on the other hand, use VS.Net because I can get it for $5 through my university. :)

There's nothing fundamentally harder about using VS.Net, but you have to convert the project files and change some settings. If you're brand new to C/C++, especially if you're not familiar with MSVC, then I'd recommend choosing MSVC6 over .Net, if you're going to do Torque development.

On the other hand, you can get MingW or other free compilers, for which there is also good support and project files, and just do that, saving yourself lots of money :).

Of course, MSVC is valuable more for the IDE than the compiler; it has lots of niceties which aren't as commonly found in free packages.

In the end, though, it's your call if you shell out the cash or try it free :)

#7 Thanks folks for your replies. I'm hoping to have a good dig in to it all on the weekend. Think I'll go for Visual C++ 6 eventually but for now will play with the scripts etc.