From: "AndrewJ" <luminous-is AT home DOT com>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
References: <EJOKOBNMKHOLEAAA AT shared1-mail DOT whowhere DOT com>
Subject: Re: Newbie question...
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Date: Wed, 10 May 2000 08:14:15 GMT
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To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
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Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com

> Do you have the latest Allegro WIP? No? Download it
> now! http://www.talula.demon.co.uk/allegro and go
> to the Work in progress page. Tis pretty stable even
> at WIP stage. Make and install the library and the
> docs. Oh, and be sure to remove any previous
> installation of Allegro before installing the new one.
> Now read the info docs that came with it. The docs
> also come in .rtf, .txt, and .html format. Join the
> Allegro Mailing List and post any more Allegro related
> problems there. Or better yet, go to Allegro.cc
> http://www.allegro.cc.

Is it just me or does this paragraph read like one of those late night paid
advertisements?

> To learn more about DJGPP, read the DJGPP FAQ (if you
> don't have it, download it from simtel or where ever
> you got your copy of DJGPP). C programming is a
> different topic altogether and you need a book for that
> or you can find so many tutorials on the net. Using
> the Gnu Utilities (The entire DJGPP toolset) requires
> knowledge from the info files so read them as well.
>
> The first time I used DJGPP, it was about _a_month_
> before I actually programmed something with it. It's
> been six months since that, and I'm still knee deep in
> reading the docs. Don't be intimidated by the amount,
> a tremendous amount, of reading. You need it. And
> besides, discovering and doing things on your own *is*
> the fun part in programming.

Hmm, my first program with DJGPP took about two minutes.

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
  {
  printf("Hello, world\n");
  return(0);
  }

> Also, download RHIDE. If you've worked with
> Borland/Turbo C before, you'll be right at home with
> RHIDE. Again, it's available from simtel. I was a
> newbie (and still am to extent) and all you have to do
> is read, read, read. It pays off in the end.

Or read up on makefiles (the Allegro makefile is an excellent place to pick up
tips on how to write them well).  Makefiles offer more flexibility than an IDE,
but are a touch harder to work with.  The benefits of using them, however,
outweighs the drawbacks.  (ie porting to a different OS).

AndrewJ