An alternative for C/C++ work is the Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003 available for free download at http://msdn.microsoft.com/visualc/vctoolkit2003/
Coupled with an IDE such as Code::Blocks and you have a C++ development system comparable with Microsoft's commercial Visal Studio product.
Advantages are, you get Microsoft's fully featured compiler and an editor which receives regular updates and is already extremely stable and useful. I think it is a much better approach than the other way of getting a free C++ compiler (Eclipse and GCC).
I actually purchased Visual C++ 6.0 several years ago, but I find that Code::Blocks with the C++ Toolkit 2003 a much better (more productive) environment.
Coupled with an IDE such as Code::Blocks and you have a C++ development system comparable with Microsoft's commercial Visal Studio product.
Advantages are, you get Microsoft's fully featured compiler and an editor which receives regular updates and is already extremely stable and useful. I think it is a much better approach than the other way of getting a free C++ compiler (Eclipse and GCC).
I actually purchased Visual C++ 6.0 several years ago, but I find that Code::Blocks with the C++ Toolkit 2003 a much better (more productive) environment.