Intro | MinGW with Code::Blocks setup | Your First Program | Adding PDCurses | Adding Allegro | Adding SDL

External libraries are the reason why C/C++ remains, after all of its years, current. There is a base level of functions and libraries that come standard with any C/C++ installation, but those do little more than handle basic Input/output and a few cool routines. If you want to really do the cool, state of the art, things that you see in modern games, you’ll need to extend C/C++. However, it’s not always easy, especially the first time. That’s why I’ve chosen PDCurses. Curses programs are not much bigger than standard C/C++ program, but have the potential to be much cooler. However, PDCurses doesn’t always install easy, so it’s an excellent example of what you may have to go through. This tutorial assumes you are using Code::Blocks and that you installed it in C:\CodeBlocks as shown in the last tutorial.

Installing PDCurses

First a short video:

From the video the steps are:

1. Go to http://pdcurses.sourceforge.net
2. On the left click Downloads, click on the Download button next to the latest PDCurses release, then download the .zip file.
3. Extract the .zip file to c:\codeblocks\pdcurses and open up the folder.
4. Copy and paste the contents of the address bar for later.
5. Under the start menu choose Programs->Accessories->Command Prompt
6. Type the following being sure to press the right-mouse button and select Paste when it says to:

cd\


cls

set PDCURSES_SRCDIR= (right-mouse click->Paste)

path=c:\codeblocks\mingw\bin

cd (right-mouse click->Paste)

cd win32

mingw32-make -f mingwin32.mak

exit

7. Open Code::Blocks.
8. Start a new project. Make it a console application.
9. Choose C for your language.
10. Name your project. I recommend "CursesHello"
11. Go to the Management pane, under the Projects tab expand your sources and open main.c.
12. Clear out what's there and paste the following code:

#include <curses.h>

int main() {
initscr(); /* Start curses mode */
printw("Hello World!"); /* Print Hello World */
refresh(); /* Print it on to the real screen */
getch(); /* Wait for user input */
endwin(); /* End curses mode */
return 0;
}

13. Before this will compile we need to point the compiler to the library we created earlier.
14. In the menu choose Project->Build Options.
15. Click on the Linker Settings tab.
16. Click the Add button. Point it to c:\codeblocks\pdcurses\win32\pdcurses.a
17. In the windows that pops up choose "No" to keeping this a relative path.
18. Click on Search Directories tab.
19. Add c:\codeblocks\pdcurses and c:\codeblocks\pdcurses\win32 to all three tabs under the Search Directories tab; Compiler, Linker and Resource Compiler.
20. Click the OK button.
21. Build and run the program.