DevC++ For Windows

What is DevC++

DevC++ is a full-featured integrated development environment (IDE) that uses the MinGW version of C++. An IDE is a program that allows you to edit, compile, and debug your C++ programs without using the command-line. For those of you who prefer to use your own editor, download the command-line version of MinGW instead.

DevC++ comes with everything you need to compile and link both console-mode and GUI programs that will run on Windows 95/98/NT/2K/XP; your programs will not run on Windows 3.1 or on plain DOS machines however. You don't need to download and install anything else.

The rest of this page will walk you through the steps necessary to download, install, and run your C++ programs using DevC++ and the included version of the MinGW C++ compiler.

What is MinGW?

MinGW ("Minimalistic GNU for Windows") is a command-line C/C++ compiler and utilities, based on the GNU GCC project. It compiles and links code to be run on Win32 platforms (Win95 through XP). Unlike some other versions of GCC, MinGW uses the Microsoft runtime libraries, distributed with the Windows operating system. Since these runtime libraries are not distributed using GNU's General Public License (GPL), you do not have to distribute your source code with your programs unless, of course, you use a GPL library in your programs.

Step 1: Download DevC++

AClick the link below to download DevC++ 5 from SourceForge:

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/dev-cpp/devcpp4980.exe

BThe actual files you download are hosted on mirror sites around the country. You'll be given a chance to select a mirror. I usually select the University of North Carolina, (Chapel Hill), but any of them should be all right.

CWhen the download dialog (below) appears, click Save,rather than Open:

DSave the file in a download or temporary directory on your local machine. (Be sure to remember where you put it!).

The downloaded file is about 12.5 MB; on a DSL connection it takes under 5 minutes to download. On a dial-up connection, though, downloading may take a while. In that case, you may want to copy the installation files from the Q: drive in the Computing Center, on to a CD or to a USB thumb-drive.

Step 2: Install DevC++

AUsing Windows Explorer, locate the file you downloaded, check it's size to make sure that the download didn't stop prematurely, and then double-click it:

BClick OK when the Welcome dialog appears, as shown here:

CRead through the license and then click I Agree to install:

DevC++ is released under the GNU Public License, (GPL), which allows you to obtain and modify the source code to the compiler and IDE. If you do so, then the changes you make must also be released under the GPL. However, the programs you create with MinGW don't normally link with GPL libraries, so you are free to distribute the programs you write using DevC++ and MinGW in any way you wish.

DSelect a folder where you would like to install DevC++. It's best if you don't use a folder that contains spaces, (such as "Documents and Settings"). As you can see here, I've created a folder named bin, where I install all of the programs that I use. Click Install once you've selected a folder:

EHere's the dialog that is displayed while the files are decompressed and installed :

FOnce the files are copied, click Close to finalize the installation:

Step 3: Configure the IDE

The first time you use DevC++ you'll want to configure it to your use. (You'll need to do this the first time you use DevC++ in the Computing Center as well.)

ASelect the language and theme that you want to to use. Don't worry if you make a mistake, since you can modify your selection later:

BConfigure the Environmental Options:

Change to the Files & Dir tab, and then click the little button to the right of User's Default Directory text field. (You can't type directly in the field.)

Locate the folder where you want to store your files. In the example shown here, I've selected the C:\docs\CS250 folder on my local machine. If you are working in the lab, create a CS250 folder on the U: drive. This is the folder where you'll store your files:

CConfigure the Editor Options :

Feel free to change whatever items you like. The only one that I really want is to have line numbers displayed. To do this, select the Display tab, and click the Line NUmbers checkbox, as shown here:

DConfigure the Compiler Options :

On the Compiler tab, add the following switches when calling the compiler:

Note that the W in Wall is capitalized, but everything else is lowercase. Here's what this tab should look like:

On the Settings tab, choose Code Generation, and change Enable exception handling to Yes, as shown here:

While still on the Settings tab, choose Linker and change Generate debugging information to Yes as shown here:

Step 4 : Compile, Link, and Run

Here are the instructions to edit, compile, link, and run, a simple 3-file C++ project, based on a simple stock program from pages 416-419 in the C++ Primer Plus, 4th Edition.

ACreate a new project. You'll want to create a new project for every program, simply because it helps you to keep your files straight, and makes your life less confusing:

Choose Empty Project from the New Project dialog. Provide a name, (HW01 in the shot shown here), and click OK:

DevC++ will drop you in the folder you specified when you configured the Environmental Options in Step 3. Unlike Microsoft's Visual Studio, DevC++ doesn't automatically create a new folder for every project. Since you don't want all of your files in the same folder--especially in this class, where you'll create several different versions of the same files--you should Create a New Folder to store your project, as shown here:

Navigate to the new folder, and save the project file (HW01.dev in the screenshot shown here:

BCreate your source code files. Start by right-clicking the project in the Project tab, and then choosing New File as shown here:

This creates an Untitled file. Click Save, (or press Control+S), and provide a name, as shown here:

Repeat the project with each file in your project. Once you've created all of the files, you can type in the source code using the editor. The screenshot here shows the three source files in the project, after all of the code has been entered:

CBuild the Project. DevC++ doesn't have separate Compile and Build settings, like some development environments. When you click the Compile button, (or press Control+F9), all of the C++ files in the project are compiled (if necessary), and the linker creates the executable program:

As your program is being compiled, you'll see a progress dialog showing the individual steps:

At the bottom of the screen, you'll also see a set of tabs that allow you to see the actual commands sent to the MinGW compiler, just as if you typed them from the command line:

DRun the Program. To run the program, you can select the Run toolbar button, as shown here, or press Control+F10.

Unfortunately, when you do that, the program opens a Command Prompt window, runs your program, and then immediately closes the window before you can examine the output.

To get the window to "stick around", you can add a command:

at the end of your main() function. If you do this, remember to remove the line before you submit your code, otherwise it won't run correctly.

A better solution, though, is to set a breakpoint at the end of your main() function, and then Debug the program instead of Running it. Simply click in the margin as shown here:

Start the program by clicking the Debug toolbar button (shown here), or by pressing F10:

A Command Prompt window will display the output of your program, and then stop on the breakpoint, leaving the command window open like this:

To close the output window, choose the Debug tab at the bottom of the DevC++ IDE, and click on Continue. This will close the console window.