I'm looking for a low-cost software where I can test my skills as I learn C++
I haven't played with it, but
Dev-C++ comes highly recommended.
edit: since the rest of your post kind of makes it seem like you'd like to understand how this works a bit better, here's a rundown of what's needed to go from zero to program:
- Text editor: anything that can save plain text without using stupid nonstandard BS (*cough*smartquotes*cough*) will get the job done. This just lets you get the program out of your head and into source code.
- Compiler: Turns the source code of a "high-level" language like C or Java into assembly language.
- Assembler: Turns the assembly language output by the compiler into chunks of machine code.
- Linker: Stitches the assembled chunks together so that they're all in the right place for the program to run and produces the final executable file.
(Usually the above three are distributed and used together as a package called a "toolchain", though it's usually possible to mix and match different ones with a bit of work)
- Build system: a program or set of programs that automatically manages the build process to produce the needed files for a program. This could be as simple as batch files, but most developers directly or indirectly (e.g. through a GUI) use some variation of a "make" program, such as
GNU Make. The make program reads a script called a makefile that contains a list of files to produce. For each file there is a list of the files needed to build it and the list of commands to build it. Make automatically checks the list and makes sure everything is built in the correct order.
Hope this helps.
