CODEWITHSUNDEEP
gccvisual-c++cygwinmingw
HelloWorld
HelloWorld

Reputation: 2455

C/C++ compilers (Windows)

I don't quite understand the difference between the following C/C++ compilers: GCC, MinGW, Cygwin and MSVC. Are the MinGW and Cygwin implementations of GCC or something entirely different? If I intend to compile for Windows, do I ever need anything other than the MSVC (Visual Studio) compiler?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 397

Answers (1)

Ben Voigt
Ben Voigt

Reputation: 283793

GCC for Windows is mostly useful for makefiles and code written with gcc-specific non-portable syntax.

cygwin is not a compiler, it's a set of libraries that create a Linux-like environment inside Windows, and common linux tools compiled with those libraries.. It is useful for code written with Unixisms (expect files to behave a certain way, or assume the directory separator is /, or assume Linux paths).

If you have pure Windows code, you'll be happiest with Visual C++ (MSVC). Or, if that doesn't optimize well enough, the Intel C++ compiler.

Visual C++ also works well for portable ISO-conformant code... but Microsoft is a little behind the curve on implmenting C++11 and C++14 features. So that's another reason you might want to use gcc (or clang).

Upvotes: 1

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