Computing Trivia

Code::Blocks is a useful IDE that can include compilers for C and C++. In order to use Code::Blocks for C/C++, there are two things to install and one to configure: 1. Download and install the gcc compiler by installing MinGW as described in this article  2. Download and install Code::Blocks from this site . A link to nightly builds is provided in case you want to try a very recent build but read the documentation first. Some versions come with the MinGW compiler and some do not. In this article, we assume you downloaded the version without MinGW. 3. Configure the compiler and build tools in Code::Block How to Configure Code::Blocks When you install Code::Blocks, it tries to detect the compiler. There is a long list of compilers it can use but our interest is MinGW and Cygwin because they are the most reliable, updated open source C/C++ compilers for Windows. For Linux, gcc is a core part of the OS and is installed by default. To configure Code::Blocks for MinGW proceed as fo

The most popular open source C/C++ compilers for Windows are MinGW and Cygwin. MinGW is much less tedious to install hence I will start with this. Cygwin? Let's do that another day... Process of Installing MinGW 1. Locate the MinGW installer (let's assume 64bit) 2. Download 3. Run installer (assume on C:/MinGW folder 4. Configure PATH 5. Test How to Compiler and Build  a C/C++ Program 1. Write the source and save in desired folder (e.g. Hello.c) 2. Change directory to the one containing the source file 3. Run the Command Prompt, Power Shell or other shell such as Git BASH in this folder. [Shift+Right-Click will bring up a popup to allow the first two shells. Right-Click will allow you to run the Git BASH. See details below). 4. Issue the compiler command: gcc -o hello.exe hello.c  which means: Compile source file called Hello.c and name the output file Hello.exe 5. Run the output file as follows: ./Hello  Locate MinGW Installer  Google "mingw64"

This page offers a way to avoid the long and error-prone online installation of Visual Studio which is a massive package. Our interest is limited to Visual Basic and ASP.Net. One can, later, add other tools such as C# and C++. In this page, "VS" refers to Visual Studio. Installing Visual Basic 2017 Offline is not a simple process because Visual Basic 2017 is a part of Visual Studio 2017 that comes as one huge package (up to 35GB) in three versions: Community Edition (Free) Professional Edition (intended for a few people) Enterprise (intended for larger software teams)  Visual Studio by default uses a web-based install process that starts by downloading one of three the bootstrapper package from the VS download page . When you run the bootstraper, it will initiate download of the Visual Studio components that may be up to 35GB in size and takes a very long time to complete. The purpose of this page is to explain how to avoid the headache of this long and tedious

It seems that ICT is not satisfactorily defined out there hence, I offer a definition: Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a confluence of  information technologies such as software and electronics devices as well as communication technologies that include all manner of computer and telecommunication networks that enable the acquisition,  access, retrieval, storage, analysis, transmittal, and manipulation of information in analogue or digital form. - J M Githeko, 23-8-2017