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I'm looking for just a compiler for C++ (such as g++) for Windows, that I could run in my cmd.
I'm using notepad++ as my text editor and I want to set up a macro in there that can compile my programs for me.
I do not wish to install Cygwin though.
Any suggestions?
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You can always build programs without the help of an IDE. You can even use Microsofts Visual Studio from the command line, and you won't see the GUI at all. Similar for XCode on Mac OS X. If you want to build a program without using any IDE, you basically write the source code the same way you do with IDE.
You will not have a compiler that can point out syntax errors. You can't run the code, tweak it, and revise it until it works. You cannot run test cases against your code. You can't step through your code in a debugger.
Unfortunately, there is no in-built compiler.
MinGW. It's GCC/G++ for Windows. It's much lighter than Cygwin. The main difference from Cygwin GCC is that it doesn't try to emulate UNIX APIs, you have to use the Windows APIs (and of course the standard C/C++ libraries). It also doesn't provide a shell and utilities like Cygwin, just the compiler.
There is also a related system called MSYS, which provides a shell, etc. like Cygwin, but this is not required. MinGW itself will run in CMD (but I highly suggest using something better like Bash, for your own sanity).
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Visual C++ has a command line compiler, cl:
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If you don't have Visual Studio, you can download the Windows SDK (newer version) or the Windows Driver Kit for free, and then use the CL.EXE command-line compiler as suggested by @Greg Hewgill.
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