The Best Development Environment

SDL Development
1

Hi,

I’m new to the Open Source and cross-plattform development.
So I now have the problem to choose the development environment in which
I development my first SDL application.
I have tried to use MS VC++ 2008 Express, Eclipse and MinGW and
Code::Block and MinGW but I could find any good howtos or tutorials to
setup these environments.
Also I couldn’t find any documents on how to develop good
cross-plattform programms (for example which directory structure is the
best and so on).

Could you tell me how to make a good game with SDL and which development
environment is good for this?

Greets
Christoph

P.S.:
Sorry for my bad english. I’m comming from germany.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed…
Name: seija.vcf
Type: text/x-vcard
Size: 139 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: http://lists.libsdl.org/pipermail/sdl-libsdl.org/attachments/20090104/4a685b4c/attachment.vcf

3

you dont really need a development environment. i just use a text editor,
makefile (gnu autoconf), and a console. i have helped jessie with a few
simlpe programs and compile those with one gcc command. dont need
anything fancy.

i keep all the platform dependent code separate from main project code.

i think the best way is to try to build on each system you want to
support, learn how that system works. i test on each system as i go.On Sun, 4 Jan 2009, Christoph Friedrich wrote:

Hi,

I’m new to the Open Source and cross-plattform development.
So I now have the problem to choose the development environment in which I
development my first SDL application.
I have tried to use MS VC++ 2008 Express, Eclipse and MinGW and Code::Block
and MinGW but I could find any good howtos or tutorials to setup these
environments.
Also I couldn’t find any documents on how to develop good cross-plattform
programms (for example which directory structure is the best and so on).

Could you tell me how to make a good game with SDL and which development
environment is good for this?

Greets
Christoph

P.S.:
Sorry for my bad english. I’m comming from germany.

4

Depends on your desired environment and language. Personally, I’m in love with C# right now (and I’ve found it possible to actually get results within the boundaries of C++ speed), so I use the Tao framework with C# and Visual Studio Express 2005. Tao works with Visual Studio and it isn’t very difficult to setup. All you have to do is reference the binaries for Tao.SDL.dll and so forth, and include any of the native SDL DLL’s if the program starts complaining about it. I think that’s really all I had to do to build anything. http://www.taoframework.com/ If you need help setting it up (in C++ or C#), I’ve played with it before and can help you out if you have any problems. I’m a huge fan of the Visual Studio 7 (2K5 = 8, 2K8 = 9) and greater IDE – I’ve written at least 100,000 lines of code in it now and I kind of swear by it…

Just note that if you ever use Visual Studio .NET (2K3) and later (v7+) you’ll want to run ngen on the build so that it’ll get full speed – I raised my framerate on a simple SDL app by 3x doing this. C# actually became faster than managed C++… Scary!

Taylor> Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 19:45:38 +0100

From: seija at dragons-server.de
To: sdl at lists.libsdl.org
Subject: [SDL] The Best Development Environment

Hi,

I’m new to the Open Source and cross-plattform development.
So I now have the problem to choose the development environment in which
I development my first SDL application.
I have tried to use MS VC++ 2008 Express, Eclipse and MinGW and
Code::Block and MinGW but I could find any good howtos or tutorials to
setup these environments.
Also I couldn’t find any documents on how to develop good
cross-plattform programms (for example which directory structure is the
best and so on).

Could you tell me how to make a good game with SDL and which development
environment is good for this?

Greets
Christoph

P.S.:
Sorry for my bad english. I’m comming from germany.

It?s the same Hotmail?. If by ?same? you mean up to 70% faster.
http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_broad1_122008

5

I’m new to the Open Source and cross-plattform development.

So I now have the problem to choose the development environment in which

I development my first SDL application.

I have tried to use MS VC++ 2008 Express, Eclipse and MinGW and

Code::Block and MinGW but I could find any good howtos or tutorials to

setup these environments.

Also I couldn’t find any documents on how to develop good

cross-plattform programms (for example which directory structure is the

best and so on).

Could you tell me how to make a good game with SDL and which development

environment is good for this?

Greets

Christoph

P.S.:

Sorry for my bad english. I’m comming from germany.

Hallo Christoph. Wie gehts?

I can help you with some info. From your comments above I am assuming you
are developing under Windows. Generally, if you prefer to use command line
type tools then you will want to use gcc or something like it. If you
prefer to use a nice IDE and don’t mind learning new shortcuts/commands (in
the editor) then I recommend VC 2008 Express.

SDL Development with Visual Studio

  1.   SDL 1.2.x comes with a .zip file inside the main distribution that

has the Visual Studio project files. It is named VisualC.zip and you unzip
it into your SDL folder. SDL 1.3 already has this as part of the
distribution.

  1.   Either way the next step is to run Visual Studio and open the

SDL.sln file. In older distributions of SDL 1.2.x you won’t find a SLN
file, just the DSW files. You can open that file and it will upgrade it to
the latest format.

  1.   With SDL 1.2.x releases you will probably have to set the relative

path to the src files. You can do this by right clicking on the Project
Solution name and selecting Properties. Then go to Configuration Properies
-> C/C++ -> General and set the “Additional Include Directories”.

  1.   Next build the SDL and SDL_main projects in the solution.

  2.   Once you have SDL build you can go to the "VisualC\tests" folder

and find the .SLN or .DSW file to build the test samples. Once again, in
versions of SDL prior to 1.3 you will need to set the relative path to find
the .h files and also to find the .lib file.

  1.   To run one of the samples you will need to either copy the SDL.dll

into your sample executable folder, or you will need to add a path to the
Window’s system settings to point to your SDL.DLL.

Once you have a sample running you are well on your way to developing your
own application/game with SDL. Best of luck and let me know if I can help
in any way!

  • Ken Rogoway

Homebrew Software

www.homebrewsoftware.com http://www.homebrewsoftware.com/

6

If you have the time, download my simple game engine and take a look at the
codeblocks project file. I’m able to build the engine using one codeblocks
project file in Linux and Windows without changing one line of code. Here is
the link.

I hope it helps.

2009/1/4 Christoph Friedrich > Hi,

I’m new to the Open Source and cross-plattform development.
So I now have the problem to choose the development environment in which I
development my first SDL application.
I have tried to use MS VC++ 2008 Express, Eclipse and MinGW and Code::Block
and MinGW but I could find any good howtos or tutorials to setup these
environments.
Also I couldn’t find any documents on how to develop good cross-plattform
programms (for example which directory structure is the best and so on).

Could you tell me how to make a good game with SDL and which development
environment is good for this?

Greets
Christoph

P.S.:
Sorry for my bad english. I’m comming from germany.

SDL mailing list
SDL at lists.libsdl.org
http://lists.libsdl.org/listinfo.cgi/sdl-libsdl.org

–
Rogelio Nodal

7

c# is less portable. like using java… :(On Sun, 4 Jan 2009, Taylor Jeude wrote:

Depends on your desired environment and language. Personally, I’m in love with C# right now (and I’ve found it possible to actually get results within the boundaries of C++ speed), so I use the Tao framework with C# and Visual Studio Express 2005. Tao works with Visual Studio and it isn’t very difficult to setup. All you have to do is reference the binaries for Tao.SDL.dll and so forth, and include any of the native SDL DLL’s if the program starts complaining about it. I think that’s really all I had to do to build anything. http://www.taoframework.com/ If you need help setting it up (in C++ or C#), I’ve played with it before and can help you out if you have any problems. I’m a huge fan of the Visual Studio 7 (2K5 = 8, 2K8 = 9) and greater IDE – I’ve written at least 100,000 lines of code in it now and I kind of swear by it…

Just note that if you ever use Visual Studio .NET (2K3) and later (v7+) you’ll want to run ngen on the build so that it’ll get full speed – I raised my framerate on a simple SDL app by 3x doing this. C# actually became faster than managed C++… Scary!

Taylor

Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 19:45:38 +0100
From: seija at dragons-server.de
To: sdl at lists.libsdl.org
Subject: [SDL] The Best Development Environment

Hi,

I’m new to the Open Source and cross-plattform development.
So I now have the problem to choose the development environment in which
I development my first SDL application.
I have tried to use MS VC++ 2008 Express, Eclipse and MinGW and
Code::Block and MinGW but I could find any good howtos or tutorials to
setup these environments.
Also I couldn’t find any documents on how to develop good
cross-plattform programms (for example which directory structure is the
best and so on).

Could you tell me how to make a good game with SDL and which development
environment is good for this?

Greets
Christoph

P.S.:
Sorry for my bad english. I’m comming from germany.

It?s the same Hotmail?. If by ?same? you mean up to 70% faster.
http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_broad1_122008

8

That could be argued, and for the sake of not dragging this on forever: http://www.mono-project.com/

I’ve played around and moved apps (with the Tao framework) around in Mono to 'nix, Mac, and Windows, and had no problems – the app imported fine to SharpDevelop, etc, built, boom. Very minimal effort. I’m not trying to move my game to a console (most games require a keyboard/mouse, so it’d be a little ugly to port to something else and require extra code anyway) – so hitting those 3 platforms is most likely more than I’ll ever need/want. Anyway…

If OP is trying to play around with Java, I know I’ve seen some guides on how to setup Eclipse and SDL.

Taylor> Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 20:09:58 -0600

From: mattmatteh at mac.com
To: sdl at lists.libsdl.org
Subject: Re: [SDL] The Best Development Environment

c# is less portable. like using java… :frowning:

On Sun, 4 Jan 2009, Taylor Jeude wrote:

Depends on your desired environment and language. Personally, I’m in love with C# right now (and I’ve found it possible to actually get results within the boundaries of C++ speed), so I use the Tao framework with C# and Visual Studio Express 2005. Tao works with Visual Studio and it isn’t very difficult to setup. All you have to do is reference the binaries for Tao.SDL.dll and so forth, and include any of the native SDL DLL’s if the program starts complaining about it. I think that’s really all I had to do to build anything. http://www.taoframework.com/ If you need help setting it up (in C++ or C#), I’ve played with it before and can help you out if you have any problems. I’m a huge fan of the Visual Studio 7 (2K5 = 8, 2K8 = 9) and greater IDE – I’ve written at least 100,000 lines of code in it now and I kind of swear by it…

Just note that if you ever use Visual Studio .NET (2K3) and later (v7+) you’ll want to run ngen on the build so that it’ll get full speed – I raised my framerate on a simple SDL app by 3x doing this. C# actually became faster than managed C++… Scary!

Taylor

Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 19:45:38 +0100
From: seija at dragons-server.de
To: sdl at lists.libsdl.org
Subject: [SDL] The Best Development Environment

Hi,

I’m new to the Open Source and cross-plattform development.
So I now have the problem to choose the development environment in which
I development my first SDL application.
I have tried to use MS VC++ 2008 Express, Eclipse and MinGW and
Code::Block and MinGW but I could find any good howtos or tutorials to
setup these environments.
Also I couldn’t find any documents on how to develop good
cross-plattform programms (for example which directory structure is the
best and so on).

Could you tell me how to make a good game with SDL and which development
environment is good for this?

Greets
Christoph

P.S.:
Sorry for my bad english. I’m comming from germany.

It?s the same Hotmail?. If by ?same? you mean up to 70% faster.
http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_broad1_122008

Send e-mail anywhere. No map, no compass.
http://windowslive.com/oneline/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_anywhere_122008

9

Thank you all for your help.

I have decided me for VC++ 2008 Express cause I know the IDE from my
developing in C#.

Greets
Christoph
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed…
Name: seija.vcf
Type: text/x-vcard
Size: 139 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: http://lists.libsdl.org/pipermail/sdl-libsdl.org/attachments/20090105/c07734a1/attachment.vcf

10

i’m gonna write that wiki page on setting up netbeans for use with sdl
soon… honest… i’ll cover linux and doze… when i do it… when i get to
my computer with doze on it… tomorrow promise boss got something i ant to
build for windows, so i’ll log my falures of setting up netbeans and make it
into a tutorial of fail

personally i just use kate in KDE, which gives me searching functions, a
little terminal for executions and all the files i am working on in a side
window, thats all i do in an IDE anyway… so netbeans is a bit bloat for
what i do but does have some nice features all of which are so useful i cant
remember any right now