I have 2 compilers

[K.I.L.E.R]

1. M$ VC++ 6 Enterprise Edition
2. Bloodshed Software Dev-C++

So far my code works on both. Unfortunately my course uses compiler 1 but I LOVE compiler 2.

My preference is compiler 2 as I find I am more comfortable with the GUI while I find there to be incredibly little difference between compilers.

So far the only difference:

Dev C++ requires that main function must return an integer value while VC++ doesn't require it.

Which would you guys recomend for professional development?

 

[[maven]]

From personal experience you're more likely to find MSVC used than the 2nd option (which I've never heard of --- but that obviously doesn't mean anything).

 

[antlers]

Bloodshed Software Dev-C++ uses the gcc compiler, which is freely available for many platforms. gcc tends to be a little stricter than MSVC 6 about things like compliance with ANSI, so if it compiles with gcc it will probably compile with MSVC 6.

 

[K.I.L.E.R]

So I should use the 2nd for professional development?

 

[RussSchultz]

Visual studio is the defacto development platform for windows.

 

[BRiT]

Likewise, GCC/G++ is the defacto C/C++ development platform for unix platforms.

 

[Nick]

If you can, keep compatibility with both. Just work on your favorite compiler and/or GUI, but at every release check for compatibility. People will love you for that.

But be aware that as soon as you start developing platform specific (i.e. Windows or UNIX) it's a lot easier to stick to their 'defacto' compiler. Most platform specific code that compiles on both needs ugly preprocessor stuff and such. In this case I find it better to make two separate source code versions, and 'port' from your main version to the other before every new release.

 

[pcchen]

So far the only difference:

Dev C++ requires that main function must return an integer value while VC++ doesn't require it.

Note that the C++ specification (INCITS/ISO/IEC-14882:1998) does not require main function to have a return statement (generally it returns an int, but other types are also allowed as an implementation-defined behaviour). When a main function ends without a return statement, it returns zero.