Expert: Eddie - 5/2/2005

Question
Hi,

My question is not technical.

I am wondering what is exactly visual C++ and visual studio?

what is the difference between visual C++ and "ordinary" C++?

Is visual Studio just a IDE or a compiler?

Can I compile a program written in visual C++ using GNU G++ or CodeWarriors compiler?

Thank you for your help


Adrien  

Answer
Hello Adrien, thank you for the question.

For all intensive purposes, visual studio and visual C++ are the same thing. Visual C++ is like a child of Visual Studio. There is also Visual Basic, which is another visual studio project. Visual Studio is merely the "term" that encompasses all of them. I always say Visual Studio when I mean Visual C++. They are used interchangebaly.

All the visual means is basically that it was made by Microsoft. The only differences between Visual C++ and "ordinary" C++ are little things that Microsoft added to the language. Most teachers don't even teach those. As long as you type your C++ by the ANSI code standard, your Visual Studio(see, I did it again) code will work with any C++ compiler, even ones used on different operating systems.

Visual Studio is both an IDE and a compiler, though it uses the standard C++ compiler built into Windows called cl, I believe.

If you have any other questions, please do not hesistate to ask.

I hope this information was helpful.

- Eddie