good C++ compilers 2

[magoo2]

The last C++ compiler I used was a Borland product and the operating system was Windows XP. This was about 10 years ago and that computer finally died.

I just got a Windows 8 pc and wondered what might be a good choice for a low cost compiler. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[IRstuff]

MS has a free C++ compiler, if that's the route you're looking for.

Looks like Borland C++ is still around, but it appears to be the last version that Borland created

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[LiteYear]

The gcc chain is available in various compatible guises (eg. Cygwin and MinGW), depending on the environment you want to develop in. Otherwise the free version of Microsoft Visual C++ comes with a compiler that does the trick. There's also Dev C++ but I don't know anything about it.

As far as I know, the step up from that price point (free) to low cost doesn't exist. The next level would be IDE packages for particular purposes, like IAR Embedded Workbench and TI Code Composer Studio for embedded work. For some definitions of "good", you'd need a Green Hills compiler, but then that doesn't fit with your "low cost" criteria.

Anyway, unless you have some criteria specific to Computer Engineers, this is probably a question that has been better answered on the various programming forums. These two ought to cover pretty much everything:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1154517/c-compiler-for-windows

http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/windows/112357/

 

[xwb]

As IRStuff said, Microsoft do a range of free compilers

http://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/products/visual-studio-express-vs.aspx

. It is more or less C++11 compliant if you get upgrade3.

As LiteYear said, you could go for the gcc family. 4.8.x is OK, 4.9.0 is a bit suspect. Not sure about 4.9.1. Have a look at

http://www.bloodshed.net/

or

http://www.codeblocks.org/

if you want an IDE.

It really depends on what you want to do with the compiler. There are lots of graphics libraries and comms libraries about. If you like Borland, owl is still available. Personally, I prefer MFC to OWL.

What you need to watch out for on W8 is the 64-bit/32-bit problem. Some compilers will build both, some will only build 32 bit. Some libraries (like odbc) only work in 32 bit but if you pop up a cmd prompt, they won't work because system32/cmd is a 64 bit cmd prompt. You need to pop up the 32 bit cmd prompt from syswow64/cmd to use it. It sounds totally wrong that 32 gives you a 64 bit app and 64 gives you a 32 bit app but once you know that, life is a lot simpler.