Configuring your C++ Environment
As a beginner to C++ Game Programming I did the usual trawling though the Internet for tutorials and advice and found people recommending a good book. Being eager to start learning I quickly went out and purchased the book. Unlike most C++ tutorials and books I have read, instead of jumping into the classic "Hello World!!!" this book talked about creating a good programming environment - after all you would only start building a house when you have good foundations.

As this book is a little dated now and computing moves on at lighting speed I have had the following experiences configuring the proposed environment and have come up with an up-to-date solution...

The original configuration was the following, but had issues being hosted on Windows Vista x64 and using Visual Studio Express editions.

  •  CVSNT (Source Code Respository)
    • Older free CVSNT versions failed to start the 'CVSNT Lock Service' on Windows Vista x64.
    • CVSNT is no longer free, but can be downloaded for a 30 day trial.
  • TortoiseSVN (Source Code Repository Browser)
  • Doxygen (Sorce Code Documenter)
  • InnoSetup (Executable Compliler)
  • Visual Studio 6 or .Net 2003
    • Visual Studio 6 and .Net 2003 were not free products.
To create an up-to-date environment that works on the newer operating systems and is so far free to use, I have configured the following and used the latest versions, this allows me to continue learning from the book and not falling after the first hurdle.
  • CollabNet SubVersion (Source Code Repository)
  • TortoiseSVN (Source Code Repository Browser)
  • Doxygen (Source Code Documenter)
  • InnoSetup (Executable Compliler)
  • Visual Studio Express C++ 2010

NOTE : This blog was written after I had installed the environment, in the future I hope to give you better step-by-step instructions for a carefree installation.