> > My experience is that Delphi is slightly faster than VC++ (but comparable to Borland C++, which uses the same compiler anyway), despite VC++ using the Intel compiler. Both are much faster than GCC.
> > Delphi is easier than C++ to learn and use.
> > Java can be fast enough, for example, use StringBuffer instead of String is usually a good idea if you are manipulating the strings alot.
> ok i think i'm gonna stick with VC++. i worked some more on it and finally got the hello program to run.... sometimes. if i just start with the source file it works but if i make a workspace and project it doesn't work. anyway i worked some more and i seem to have got the timer and keyboard to work. i used the functions QueryPerformanceCounter and QueryPerformanceFrequency for the timer and GetKeyState or GetKeyboardState for the keyboard but i got only one key to work coz i don't know what all their numbers are, maybe they are the same as in DOS. the help system for MSVC++ 6.0 is awful. it took me 2 and a half hours to figure out all this stuff so far. it seems the help thing doesn't always tell you the includes you need, and you can't just right click on a word and have it immediately give you help about it. ok now i have to figure out the mouse and graphic output which i will try tomorrow and once that is done i will then figure out what version of MSVC++.NET i'm supposed to buy and at what price plan.
ok i spent 3 hours this time to try and figure out the graphics and mouse code. i didn't make any progress on them at all but i got the name of a function i might be able to use for the joystick but i was not able to test it without a joystick in the school and besides i have absolutely no idea how to use this function. i tried to work more on keyboard but of those 2 functions i mentioned yesterday i managed to get only one to work and i can't figure out why the other one, GetKeyboardState, isn't doing anything. obviously that is the one i need coz the other one will just slow things down unnecessarily. i found a totally bizarre freakish thing. the other function, GetKeyState, works with the mouse buttons as well as the keyboard buttons but not the left mouse button coz if you press that the window does something else. today i managed to use cout instead of printf to say hello but i can't understand the syntax for cout. it only worked after i added all this crap to it that i saw in some example code which i didn't understand. i'm not going to spend hours anymore to do such mundane things. i think Microsoft knows very well what i have to say to them.