How do I get strarted with using GCC?

[Kai Ruottu]

Shad wrote:

>   I need some basic pointers (no pun intended).  I have been 
> writing/compiling code using Borland and Micro$oft development packages 
> under Windows and DOS for a long time but haven't done much for the past 
> four years or so.

On DOS and Windows the "compiler" for instance in the Borland's
C++Builder4 looks like :

G:\Ohjelmat\Borland\CBuilder4\Bin>bcc32
Borland C++ 5.4 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 1999 Inprise Corporation
Syntax is: BCC32 [ options ] file[s]     * = default; -x- = turn switch 
x off
   -3    * 80386 Instructions        -4      80486 Instructions
   -5      Pentium Instructions      -6      Pentium Pro Instructions
   -Ax     Disable extensions        -B      Compile via assembly
   -C      Allow nested comments     -Dxxx   Define macro
   -Exxx   Alternate Assembler name  -Hxxx   Use pre-compiled headers
   -Ixxx   Include files directory   -K      Default char is unsigned
   -Lxxx   Libraries directory       -M      Generate link map
   -N      Check stack overflow      -Ox     Optimizations
   -P      Force C++ compile         -R      Produce browser info
   -RT   * Generate RTTI             -S      Produce assembly output
   -Txxx   Set assembler option      -Uxxx   Undefine macro
   -Vx     Virtual table control     -X      Suppress autodep. output
   -aN     Align on N bytes          -b    * Treat enums as integers
   -c      Compile only              -d      Merge duplicate strings
   -exxx   Executable file name      -fxx    Floating point options
   -gN     Stop after N warnings     -iN     Max. identifier length
   -jN     Stop after N errors       -k    * Standard stack frame
   -lx     Set linker option         -nxxx   Output file directory
   -oxxx   Object file name          -p      Pascal calls
                                     -tWxxx  Create Windows app
   -u    * Underscores on externs    -v      Source level debugging
   -wxxx   Warning control           -xxxx   Exception handling
   -y      Produce line number info  -zxxx   Set segment names

The user interface in GCC is quite the same...

 > I am trying to get a handle (sts) on GCC and am overwhelmed by the 
manual.
 > Is there a simple "howto" for just starting with GCC?

The key words for Google would be : "The GNU C Programming Tutorial" and
using these would lead to things like :

http://www.crasseux.com/books/ctut.pdf

> Is there any kind of GUI package available for programming in it?

Your question could be interpreted as "Is there any GUI for C/C++
compilers on Windows, Linux, FreeBSD etc.?"  As the BCC32 example
shows, all the C/C++ compilers are quite alike and one has a free
choice for the GUI or to forget them totally...

Things like Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org/) have been used with
GCC and companies like CodeSourcery (http://www.codesourcery.com)
uses it as their chosen IDE/GUI for GCC...