Hello, I'm trying to learn C or C++. It would be my first language.

(Please refrain from telling me that it's too hard for a starting language ... I believe that whether something is easy or difficult is only a matter of perception. I hear that simpler languages teach bad habits. In addition, I strongly believe I am capable of grasping the concepts.)

Anyway, I'm trying to learn by tutorials. I'll probably get a book some time down the road. The tutorials compile fine... probably because they rarely do anything terribly demanding. Sometimes I've tried compiling open source code, to try and learn by example (Sourceforge comes in handy for things like that). However, almost nothing will compile. I frequently encounter innumerable errors and/or warnings. I believe that some of the problem is that I don't have some header files, but I also get errors when I know I have the required header files. Still, I'm extremely green in the field and I admit that at this point I don't really know what I'm doing, so I could be way off.

I am using the Dev-C++ 5 beta IDE. I can post examples of errors I get or post links to source that I'd like to try compiling.

Oh... 2 minor things. What exactly is a makefile? Also, in IDEs you can save "project" files. How important is it to use a "project" file? I would imagine it's possible to get by without them, but that the "projects" simplify things.

Hi,
Many use different libraries and header files for their programs.
So the better thing is stick to your book.
Learn all the basics and then go to sourceforge.

Look at the project documentation for more information about the project.

A description file that defines the relationships or dependencies between applications and functions; it simplifies the development process by automatically performing tasks necessary to rebuild an application when you modify code.
You can google it for more information.

A project file is a file maintained by the dev c++ or an IDE to keep track of the various files and libraries included in the project.
For example, if you have 10 C++ files, 5 lib files and 4 header files, you can store it as a project. If you compile, all the files will be compiled.

Yes.It is possible to go without project files but that would be difficult in an IDE.
Most of the IDEs compile only if we create a project.

Regards,:)
Paramesh.

http://www.mindview.net/Books/TICPP/...ngInCPP2e.html