CS: ZERO TO HERO PT.4

(In which I attempt to generate content by writing stuff that you could probably figure out on your own).

Let’s get our feet wet, shall we?

photo of man getting feet wet (possibly just one foot)

So you sit down at your computer and start coding. After an hours work you look over your code and are certain that it is flawless. However, the program is not running!
What could possibly be wrong?

(ES) Introducing the IDE (integrated development environment)

What we where missing was an IDE. An IDE is a program that helps you to write other programs. Technically it is possible to code without one but unless you are some kind of masochist there is no reason for that.

I obviously didn’t get the memo about memes no longer being cool

Visual Studio

For C++, VS(Visual Studio) is a good choice of IDE. Microsoft has a great program that allows students to download literally thousands of dollars worth of software for free(hint hint, Adobe). If you are one of the lucky ones with a student email address you will be able to download the latest most feature rich version of VS. This is the current link but they seem to be restructuring so if it no longer works just Google “Microsoft Students”.

If you Don’t have a student email address don’t worry. You can still download a lighter version here. The truth is that at this stage you won’t notice any disadvantage to the other version. If anything it will take less space on your hard drive and load faster.

How to install and setup VS (Great tutorial! Ignore her instruction to choose a .ASP project and select console application instead).

Join me in the next post as we get our feet even wetter with C++ development!

This has been YitziG, signing out.

How to use this guide

This guide is divided into posts. Each post represents 1 college semester or, as in this case, 1 very important topic. There will be a description of each topic you should master before moving on to the next “semester” or topic. Each topic will be labelled as

1. AC — Academic. Only necessary if you want a college education equivalent. 95% of programming jobs will not require this skill set.
2. BC — Boot-camp. This topic is a must if you want to work in software development.
3. ES — Essential. The bare minimum required so that that you can participate in tech meetings and seem knowledgeable.

Click here for part 5.

Click here for part 1.