Most programs in the first half of this book use the SDL and SSDL graphics-and-games libraries,1 on the theory that watching colorful shapes move across the screen and shoot each other is more interesting than printing text. Don’t worry. When you’re done, you’ll be able to write programs both with and without this library – and if I have anything to say about it, you’ll have had fun doing it.
If you’ve already chosen your platform, great. If not, here’s my recommendation:
If you just want to learn C++ on an easy and easily managed platform, Microsoft Visual Studio is great.
If you are a Unix system ...
