Getting started

The first step can sometimes be the most frustrating, especially when it comes to programming. I think that every time I've taken a language out for a test spin, my first compile and execute has come up with an error. I find few things as frustrating as that first install of the compiler and linker, and yesterday wasn't much different. When it comes to running a C compiler on Windows, it seems that I was, to a certain extent, spoiled for choice. My first effort was to try and use Cygwin, which seems to be intended for Linux expatriots who are forced to work in the Republic of Microsoft. At first blush, this seemed to be exactly what I wanted, as it offered any number of development environments, more libraries and packages than I would ever need, a bash shell and all the trimmings. An hour after the install, I started looking elsewhere. Not because Cygwin didn't have what I wanted, though- because Cygwin had too much of what I didn't currently need. It was a full workshop where all I really wanted was a hammer. Ten minutes later, I was up and running with lcc-win32, which is a compiler-linker and an IDE.

Lesson learned: Don't invest in tools that you don't have a use for.Especially because investment in this case is time. There's a very real chance that I would simply have gotten frustrated with the richness of Cygwin and stalled. I may use it again someday, but right now the learning curve is too steep.