Ivor Horton's Beginning Visual C++ 2012

WHAT IS THE INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT?

The integrated development environment (IDE) that comes with Visual C++ is a completely self-contained environment for creating, compiling, linking, and testing your C++ programs. It also happens to be a great environment in which to learn C++ (particularly when combined with a great book).

Visual C++ incorporates a range of fully integrated tools designed to make the whole process of writing C++ programs easy. You will see something of these in this chapter, but rather than grind through a boring litany of features and options in the abstract, you can first take a look at the basics to get a view of how the IDE works and then pick up the rest in context as you go along.

The fundamental parts of Visual C++, provided as part of the IDE, are the editor, the compiler, the linker, and the libraries. These are the basic tools that are essential to writing and executing a C++ program.

The Editor

The editor provides an interactive environment in which to create and edit C++ source code. As well as the usual facilities, such as cut and paste, which you are certainly already familiar with, the editor also provides color cues to differentiate between various language elements. The editor automatically recognizes fundamental words in the C++ language and assigns a color to them according to what they are. This not only helps to make your code more readable, but also provides a clear indicator of when you make errors in keying such words. Another ...