New to C++: should I use Visual Studio? [closed]

Question

I'm about to start work on my first C++ project. I've done lots of C# and VB (VB6 and VB.NET), plus Java and a few other things over the past 10 years or so, just never had a requirement for C++ until now.

I plan to use Visual Studio 2008, but I'm interested to find out from experienced C++ programmers whether Visual Studio is a good IDE for a C++ newbie.

Will VS in any way make it harder for me to learn to program C++ correctly?

Will VS encourage any bad habits?

Are there any pitfalls I should look out for?

Answer 1

First off, VS 2008 is quite powerful and probably one of the best IDEs for C++ programming (at least with a supporting plugin such as Visual Assist X).

Beware, however, that C++ is a hard language to get right for the compilers and that the default warning level is quite lenient to boot. So it will tolerate bad/wrong code quite often. It is always advisable to check the code on other compilers as well – at the very least in g++ with high warning level in strict mode.

Also setting the warning level higher in Visual Studio is encouraged.

Answer 2

Visual Studio is an excellent IDE for C++. If you know it from C#, it will be comfortably familiar.