Looking for: 1) GCC C/C++ newbie forum 2)Classic C/C++ compiler/native code. Is GCC it?

[David Brown]

On 04/03/12 19:59, Sam Varshavchik wrote:
> Mel_3 writes:
>
>> I have some programming experience... way back :) x86 ASM, Basic, VBA,
>> ASP,
>> PHP, & very little C.
>>
>> I've decided to start to work on learning C & C++.
>>
>> Question 1: Is this the forum for GCC newbie questions?
>
> It is.
>
>> Question 2: Does GCC C/C++ compilers compile to "native code" for
>> deployment
>> on Windows machines?
>
> Yes.
>
>> Question 3: Can you do full blown Windows GUI application development in
>> GCC? (and then cross compile to other platforms... Apple & Linux?)
>
> Microsoft Windows, Apple OS, and Linux, use completely different GUI
> libraries, that have very little in common with each other. The language
> is the same, of course, but the libraries and APIs are completely
> different.
>
> There are some non-native libraries, such as QT, that offer some level
> of cross-platform compatibility across multiple platforms. Still, the
> vast differences between the operating systems mean that even if your
> application builds against QT on, say, Linux, you have no guarantees
> whatsover that you can simply dump your source code into a Windows box,
> together with the Windows port of QT, feed everything to gcc, and get
> working results.
>
> You should focus your energies on learning C++, the language, first.
> That should take a while. And after you are comfortable with the
> language itself, then you can begin looking at platform-specific APIs,
> be it MS Windows, Apple OS, or Linux.
>

I agree on learning the language first, but thereafter try to avoid 
platform-specific APIs unless you actually need them.  Look at the big 
three cross-platform libraries - QT, GTK and wxWidgets (and possibly at 
one of the smaller ones), pick one that looks nice and you like the 
tools, and use that rather than platform specific code.  Only use 
Windows-specific or Linux-specific features or APIs if you really need them.