C++ and Lua from USB [closed]

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So about 2 weeks ago, I started learning C++ and Lua, and I would like to be able to:

1. compile C++ code (it would be a nice bonus if i could have a C compiler as well, as that's next on my list of languages to learn)
2. interpret (is that correct terminology?) Lua, and
3. do all of this from my usb drive WITHOUT downloading anything from the internet or changing the path variable. (I will mostly be working on school computers.)

As a side note, I have fallen in love with Sublime Text 2 (the portable version of which is already on my usb drive). If it's ABSOLUTELY necessary, I'll make do without it, but I would prefer being able to use it wherever I go.

Please be patient with me, as i have mentioned before, I just started learning how to program, and I have little to no knowledge on how things work. I have seen similar questions, but they never seem to help me much due to my limited knowledge, so PLEASE don't mercilessly close my question like others I have seen on this site.

Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

I recently added a page on Lua WIKI (great source of info) that may help you. It is a tutorial for complete newbies on how to build Lua from the sources using only free and "portable" (in the sense of "can be put on usb drives") tools. It is meant for Windows OS users. Do not forget to check the official getting started page and the main Lua site as well!

The fact that you cannot download anything is quite restrictive (how could you get a free compiler then?). Anyway as greatwolf mentioned TDM-GCC is a great C/C++ compiler for 32 bit x86 PCs. It is also patched to be perfectly "portable": I usually use it from a portable USB HD. The tutorial I mentioned shows you how to download it and "install it".

Note that although your sysadmin at school may have blocked your ability to change the path variable globally, you can set it for individual processes ("launched programs") using simple batch files (aka Windows command shell scripts).

Create a file named "myshell.cmd" with this content:

@set path=%path%;c:\the\path\to\my\app&cmd /K

the part c:\the\path\to\my\app must be the actual path of the directory (folder) where the application executable is placed. When you double-click on myshell.cmd a black box will open (assuming your sysadmin hasn't blocked this feature) where you can invoke the app executables.

For example, if you "installed" the TDM_GCC compiler in c:\myprogs\GCC inside that dir you will find a subdir named bin. That subdir must be put in the path, so your myshell.cmd file will be like this:

@set path=%path%;c:\myprogs\GCC\bin&cmd /K

Then in the "black box" I mentioned you can invoke the compiler typing:

gcc --help

As for your learning path, if you intend to learn both Lua and C or C++, I will advice you to try C instead of C++. C++ has more "high-level" features, but it is huge and although Lua can be used embedded in C++ code (of course this is an advanced topic anyway), it is designed to be directly embedded in a C application (it has an API which conforms to C conventions), so for a beginner probably the path Lua --> C --> C+Lua would be a bit easier. C in itself, although difficult to master, is a rather minimalistic language, so the information to digest about it is not that big.

Not to discourage you, but IMO both C and C++ are not the most suitable languages for absolute beginners (they are plenty of pitfalls and have almost no "safety nets" for beginners). But that's up to you, it heavily depends on your skills, dedication and motivation ;-)

Hope all this helps.

Answer 2

For windows,

Take a look at

http://nuwen.net/mingw.html

You should be able to extract the download to a usb directory. Then you can click on the .bat file open a command prompt with the correct path settings.

As a bonus, it already includes prebuilt boost, which will make your c++ use easier.

Answer 3

For the C/C++ piece would also recommend you start with C. Not for ideological reasons, just that it's a lot simpler if you're trying to work out the basics of compiling/linking etc.

As a first C compiler I would recommend the tiny C compiler

Tiny C Compiler

It's one of the simplest to get your head around that I've seen and you can still build lua libraries etc.

Once you're comfortable with that then progressing to one of the more powerful environments such as gcc under MingW or Visual C++ should be a bit less daunting.

Answer 4

Lua is trivial. Download the binaries, put them on your drive, and configure Sublime Text to invoke them on Lua files.

C/C++ is more complicated only because of the range of options is so vast. I use a 2003 version of Microsoft Visual C++, which covers my needs. I find a copy here.

Keep in mind that C++ is a vastly more complicated superset (non-strict) of C, so you're going to learn most of C in the process of learning C++. IMO, learning C first is better for a whole host of reasons. You'll hear some people argue the opposite, but in this case there's a clincher: Lua is written in C and its API is designed for C. Exposing idiomatic C++ (i.e. objects) to Lua is a big ball of complexity that you just don't need right now, while learning two languages.