Author: Dave Gomboc
Date: 15:56:08 02/01/00
Go up one level in this thread
On February 01, 2000 at 16:22:44, Jon Dart wrote: >The Professional version is (as the name indicates) what most >professional Windows programmers use. It's not cheap but you >can get it somewhat off list price if you shop around (e.g. >http://www.pparadise.com has it for $479). You can get started >with a less capable compiler but if you are a serious Windows >programmer you will likely want to get this eventually. > >I have had a significant amount of trouble with the VC++ >optimizer. Even with all the service packs installed, I have >still seen cases where it generates bad code. It's not that >you can't use it, but you may have to reduce the optimization >level for parts of your code (with consequent loss in >performance). You also get the fun of figuring out if your code >is wrong or if the compiler is screwing it up :-). But you may >or may not encounter this problem. > >An alternative is to use the Gnu C++ compiler, which is free, >and now has reasonably good performance and stability. It has >the additional advantage that you can pretty easily move >code written with it to non-Microsoft environments (e.g. Linux). > >However, I wouldn't recommend Gnu C++ for a novice or beginning >C++ programmer, as you will probably not find at easy to use as >the Microsoft environment. > >--Jon What I wouldn't do is recommend shelling out $500 to a novice or beginning C++ programmer. :-) People hacking computer chess software worry way too much about 5%. People who sell the stuff, or want the absolute strongest program, need to do this. People who are getting into computer chess programming don't need to worry about this. I bought Visual Studio 6.0 Enterprise Edition (which includes Visual C++ Enterprise) for cheap, because I worked for a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider at the time. I use almost none of it, though. I could get by with g++ just fine. Actually, I do, because MSVC has needed a service pack for a long time to deal with some standard library issues. My opinion is that unless you already have a reasonably strong program, don't worry about optimizations, just pick up a compiler that works and meets your budget. Dave >On February 01, 2000 at 12:22:02, Mike Carter wrote: > >>I started writing a Visual Basic chess program but have decided to migrate to >>C++. Checking out Microsoft compilers, the Enterprise version of 6.0 seems to >>be overkill (and at $1300 out of price range!). Microsoft's Standard version of >>C++ 6.0 is about $100 and the Professional version is $550. Assuming I'm using >>this to write chess code exclusively, is the extra $450 justified to move up to >>Professional? Or is another company (e.g. Borland) a better choice/value? (If >>it matters, I have a Pentium II 400 MHz with 128Mb RAM and would eventually like >>to port the program to WinBoard). Many thanks in advance for your opinion! >> >>Mike Carter (MrMike on ICC) >>mcarter@tdi.net
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