Free Programming Tools for Windows

First, Assess Your Needs

What languages do you need to write your programs in? Most engineering faculty you'll work with here probably know FORTRAN much better than they know C or C++. FORTRAN is good for raw number-crunching, but is not a good idea for writing programs that require a graphical user interface, networking, or other non-numerical features. C is a tough language to get work done in, since it makes you keep track of array pointers, memory management, and other low-level details. And there are always other languages such as MATLAB, Perl, and Python.

Assuming you require C, C++, or FORTRAN, look through the following table and determine which set of software packages best meet your needs. In all likelihood, you will not need all five of these programs, but different users will require different programs. Whichever column contains the most "Yes" answers for your questions is probably the best fit for your programming needs. You'll find more detailed information about each package in the sections below.

⁽¹⁾ ConTEXT can edit FORTRAN programs and highlight FORTRAN syntax in different colors, but doesn't handle automatic indentation and some other features common to many development environments.

Potential Tools

You'll need at least some type of text editor and a compiler that supports your chosen language. The Notepad program that comes with Windows is a basic text editor, but isn't particularly well-suited for writing programs. No compilers are included with Windows at all.

• Dev-C++ is an integrated development environment (IDE) for C and C++ code. It's probably the easiest program to get running out of the box, but has no support for FORTRAN at all. Dev-C++ includes its own copies of the MinGW compilers, so there is no need to install any of the other tools in this list.
  
• ConTEXT is a fairly powerful text editor that can highlight the syntax of various programming languages. It's easy to use and customize. ConTEXT is just a text editor, though, and you'll need to download and install MinGW and possibly make to get a complete programming environment.
  
• XEmacs is one of a family of programs that are sometimes described as the thermonuclear flyswatters of text editors. Among other features, Emacs editors generally are able to highlight syntax, automatically indent and line-wrap program code. Emacs editors are very common on Unix systems, so you may want to use it so you can learn one editor that you can use on all the systems you'll work on. You'll still need to download and install MinGW and possibly make to get a complete programming environment.
  
• MinGW is a collection of freely available and freely distributable Windows specific header files and import libraries combined with toolsets that allow one to produce native Windows programs that do not rely on any 3rd-party C runtime DLLs. These are Windows-native ports of the Free Software Foundations gcc, g++, and g77 compilers that are common on Unix systems. You'll still need a program to edit the source code, however, so look at ConTEXT, XEmacs, or some other text editor for that task.
  
• make is a standard tool that controls the generation of executables and other non-source files of a program from the program's source code. It relies on a set of rules defined in a file named Makefile to determine which object files make an executable, and which source files make those object files. However, make is not a compiler itself, it just runs a compiler on source files in a particular order to make your final executable. You'll still need a text editor like ConTEXT or XEmacs for editing programs, and MinGW for the actual compiling. If you always write your programs in one source code file, you won't need make.
  

Downloading and Installing Tools

Dev-C++

Go to the Dev-C++ download page and click on the download link for one of their versions, either the latest release, or an older one. Save the Dev-C++ installer to your hard drive, and double-click the installer. When prompted, select a Full Installation. The remaining questions in the installation process are much less important, and the default answers should work fine. When first running Dev-C++, it will ask if you want it to scan all your C and C++ headers for prototype information, which you can do immediately, or opt to do later.

ConTEXT

Start at the ConTEXT homepage, and click on the download link there. Download the latest version of the ConTEXT installer to your hard drive. Double-click the installer, and select a Full Installation when prompted. The remaining questions in the installation process are much less important, and the default answers should work fine.

XEmacs

If you need XEmacs, start by saving a copy of the XEmacs installer. For TTU users, we have a copy available on the CAE network's FTP server. For other users, go the official XEmacs download page. Save the installer to your hard drive, and double-click the installer after it's downloaded. When prompted, select Install from the Internet, the default package directory, Native Installation for All Users, the default installation directory, and direct connection installation method. On the Select Download Site menu, off-campus users can pick any download site they want, while TTU users are encouraged to select Other URL, and enter http://ftp.cae.tntech.edu/pub/xemacs/windows/

Let the XEmacs installer install the default set of packages by just clicking the Next button. Once the installer starts downloading XEmacs components, it will be several minutes before it's done.

MinGW

The MinGW download page has a ton of files linked on it, and it's not easy to figure out which ones you need. The only one you need from that page is named MinGW-X.Y.Z.exe, where X.Y.Z is a version number. As of September 2005, the preferred version is MinGW-4.1.0.exe, but that version will change in the future. Save the installer and double-click it. When prompted, select a Full Installation, and the installer will download and install all the other components required.

make

Don't install make until after you've already installed MinGW. Download the make installer (as of September 2005, mingw32-make-3.80.0-3.exe), save it to your hard drive, and double-click it. The make installer should automatically detect where you've installed MinGW and install itself accordingly.

Post-Installation Configuration

Dev-C++

Dev-C++ doesn't really require any extra configuration for you to get started writing programs. Just launch it, and it should be pretty straightforward if you've used any other IDE in the past.

ConTEXT

For simple programs with one source file, go through the following steps to make it easier to compile and run programs from inside ConTEXT. For more complex programs with multiple source files, you also need to go through the MinGW configuration steps.

ConTEXT will let you define keybindings to particular actions so that, for example, you can assign the F9 key to compile and link your current program, and the F10 key to run the current program. If you want to do this, click the Options menu in ConTEXT, and then click the Environment Options command. Select the Execute Keys tab, and click the Add button. Enter the extensions you want to define these keys for: for example, you might enter f,for for FORTRAN code, c for C code, or cpp for C++ code. Do not add the period character that normally separates the filename from the extension in a program file. Do not mix extensions from two different languages! You can always define a different set of commands for C code, C++ code, etc.

The F9, F10, F11, and F12 keys automatically show up as ready for reconfiguring. Click on the F9 entry. In the Execute box to the right, type in c:\mingw\bin\g77.exe for FORTRAN code, c:\mingw\bin\gcc.exe for C code, or c:\mingw\bin\g++.exe for C++ code. In the Parameters box, type in %n -o %F.exe

Similarly, click on the F10 entry. In the Execute box, enter c:\program files\context\conexec.exe (this is the same for any language code you compile). In the Parameters box, enter -p "%p%F.exe"

Click the Apply and OK buttons at the bottom of the dialog, and your keybindings will be saved. Repeat the process for any other languages you want to use in ConTEXT.

XEmacs

XEmacs won't require much extra configuration, either. But go through the MinGW configuration steps to make it easier to compile programs from inside XEmacs.

MinGW

You'll need to add the MinGW to the default path to make it easier for XEmacs to use its make or compiler commands, or if you want to run the compilers from the command line. Right-click the My Computer icon on your desktop, and select the Properties menu. Click the Advanced tab, then the Environment Variables button at the bottom of the dialog. From the System variables list, select Path and click the Edit button. Add c:\mingw\bin to the end of the path variable and click the OK buttons to get back out. If you installed MinGW somwehere other than the default directory, change c:\mingw\bin in these instructions accordingly.

make

First, go through the MinGW configuration steps if you haven't already. Then, make a copy of the file c:\mingw\bin\mingw32-make.exe and name it c:\mingw\bin\make.exe -- this way, you can more easily run 'make' from a command window or from inside XEmacs.

Finally, We're Done Installing Software

Now, we can get to actually writing, compiling, and running our own code. More instructions to follow.