New person seeking understanding

[whtemple1959]

Ok so let's get the chuckle first...I a ma certified bookkeeper who can understand the US tax code. I am not a programer and I am yet to grasp your magic...but I am trying so give me points.

I want to build a game for my 3 year old.

I use Window but I am learning Ubuntu My partner uses a Mac so I want to make this game playable on all three.
I do research and find that Qt and Code::Blocks appear to be the best options. Ah but, Code::Blocks has interface for much more than Qt so Code::Blocks is the choice.

I am currently working strictly in a Windows XP environment because that is what I am most familiar with.

To build my project I searched for how to make a planet and I found an open source project that will work. Upon researching it and discussing the code with the creator it appears I need GLUT and to build a GLUT project

But C::B complains about not having files so off to download GLUT.

Now this gets me thinking and looking and here are my questions.

1) C::B has a folder mingw so does that mean I do not need mingwinstalled to my system?
2) I do not see msys within the mingw folder like it is in c:\mingw\msys so does C::B need msys?
Another little snippet I am interested in using was written using Qt
3)Will I need to install QT or just get some files in order to create a Qt project in C::B?
4) as if programming is not confusing enough why isn't there an internal toolbox/3rparty folder for putting the other libraries in?
It really is confusing what is needed and where they need to be...
5) Wouldn't it be beneficial to have a folder where the Irrlicht(I think I need this), Ogre, Glut, QT and all the other types of projects could keep the needed bin,includes,lib et cetera?
6) Wouldn't it be nice since you have those files already to have an update script( like my Logitech mouse) which would periodically download updated libraries from your site?

I know, I know I probably should stay out of your sandbox but I have a yearning to make this game for my son and so I do need to learn your magic. And so, I must understand you and how you think.

In high school and college I worked for my father's construction company and so I do tend to equate  to the construction of buildings. I need to understand your foundations to understand how the wiring fits.

I look forward to entertaining you more as I stumble through the forest seeking the light.

BTW, I am getting this error during the build sequence...F:\gameprojects\PlanetGenerator\glut.h|50|error: redeclaration of C++ built-in type 'wchar_t' so if any body can give me a solution I would be most appreciative.

Bill

[dmoore]

Code::Blocks is just a development environment. You need a compiler and the libraries you want to use (and we don't provide any support for those, you will need to use other forums for questions about programming or particular libraries). On windows, Code::Blocks comes with the MinGW compiler suite (if you download the right version). You will need Qt if you want to make Qt apps, SDL for an SDL app etc. There is no automated process for getting those libs and keeping them up to date (on Ubuntu such things are a lot simpler because there's a central repository of packages with most libs and programs available)

Personally, I think you would have a lot more fun making your game with pygame. pygame is a python lib so you will need python too. Python is a scripting language so no compilation needed.

Install
http://www.pygame.org/install.html

Tutorials
http://www.pygame.org/wiki/tutorials
http://pygame.org/docs/tut/newbieguide.html


Code::Block can be configured into a pretty good python development environment but it takes some work and isn't really documented (but ask questions here if you want). There are plenty of good alternatives to Code::Blocks for working with python.

Have fun!