General Question Choosing a Compiler

[Kyle_E]

I would like to learn coding for Orbiter and I would like don't know what compiler to use. I am using my mom's computer, so it would have to be able to install to a flash drive. Is there any compiler (that works with Orbiter) that would do that. I would like it to be completely self-contained (no folder in Documents... that sort of thing)
Thanks!!
And since this is my first post...
Hi everybody!! :hello:

 

[ADSWNJ]

Hi Kyle E,

Learn C++, and use Microsoft Visual Studio Community, whichever version you want. I started with VS 2008, then VS 2010, and now I am on VS 2015. I see VS 2017 is out as well now.

Why this config? Because it's the best way to write addons and vessels for Orbiter. You can debug directly in the Interactive Developer Environment (i.e. set watchpoints, freeze Orbiter in your code, look at variables, and look at the call stackm etc, to figure out what is going on.)

True story: for at least my first year of Orbiter development, I did not know you could interactively debug a DLL inside an Orbiter simulation. The older style (still useful) is to write a debug trace file and figure it out from there. So: learn from my fail!

 

[dbeachy1]

to Orbiter-Forum!

 

[Ripley]

Welcome to OF, Kyle E

 

[Kyle_E]

Thanks deachy1!
(And everybody else for the warm greetings!)

 

[vchamp]

Has anyone used an IDE other than Visual Studio for addons creation? Do you know IDEs suitable for this?

The problem with VS is that it is too big even in minimal config. I wanted to do some orbiter coding but VS ate all my free space on drive C, although I choose drive D for installation folder. It's simply stupid, 10 gigabytes for c++ compiler. I could use the old VS that I used in 2009 but want to try other newer alternatives.

 

[Urwumpe]

Has anyone used an IDE other than Visual Studio for addons creation? Do you know IDEs suitable for this?

No. I tried Watcom once, but since you need a MS VC++ toolchain, you still have a pretty large installation.

But 10 GB is too large, did you select some additional packages too much? I have 10 GB, but I also installed a lot of extra modules for university tasks. And of course, C#.

But much less than 4 GB will become hard for a Windows C++ compiler. Alone the Windows SDK is huge. If you install DirectX SDK, you also get some GB more.

 

[vchamp]

But 10 GB is too large, did you select some additional packages too much?

No, I wanted to minimize my installation only for Orbiter needs and selected just c++ with tools. I don't remember the exact space it needed, but I think it was 9-10 gb. I have only 4 gb on drive C and it's not easy to free more. VS used all space on C.

 

[Urwumpe]

No, I wanted to minimize my installation only for Orbiter needs and selected just c++ with tools. I don't remember the exact space it needed, but I think it was 9-10 gb. I have only 4 gb on drive C and it's not easy to free more. VS used all space on C.

Yes, you have no full control over the installation there. It puts many shared components on C:. More than a few GB less to D: is not possible.

But again: Much smaller than that is hard. Which Visual Studio do you want to install?

You could also try the following:
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/vcblog/2016/11/16/introducing-the-visual-studio-build-tools/

This is just the tools without IDE. You can then install for example Netbeans or Eclipse as IDE, both can be installed where you like. (For smallest Orbiter projects, a better text editor like Notepad++ should already be enough)

But that means: You need much more knowledge to make it run and will get into some problems integrating it all.

---------- Post added 03-07-17 at 10:55 AM ---------- Previous post was 03-06-17 at 11:45 AM ----------

BTW: Today is the official launch of Visual Studio 2017.

 

[vchamp]

I'm currently trying VS Code with C++ extension - https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/vcblog/2016/03/31/cc-extension-for-visual-studio-code/, finding a way to configure it for compilation. Looks promising...