Linking Allegro 4.9 with Code::Blocks on Windows

[jess314]

Hi all,

So, I'm a real newbie at this, and I don't even know where to start really. I'd appreciate some help.

I've downloaded Allegro 4.9 onto my computer (running Windows Vista), and I want to use it with Code::Blocks IDE. I've tried many a google search, but none of the tutorials seem to work properly.

I've heard that you need to compile the library before you can link it, but I don't know how to do this either. (I've never before needed to download a library past the standard ones...) If someone could point me in the right direction, or post a download for a precompiled version of Allegro, that would be awesome.

Thanks in advance!

[Ancient Dragon]

This is not for someone who doesn't know a thing about C and/or C++. If you are that new then start somewere else, not with Allegro.

The zip file contains a build directory in which the project files for different compilers are stored. The Microsoft VC++ 6.0, 2005 and 2008 are the only compilers directly supported. If you want to use another compiler such as Code::Blocks you will have to create the project yourself.

It would seem to me that the easiest way to do that is to first load the project with one of the supported compilers, look to see how the files are arranged then create a similar project with CB. There are a lot of files, so it may be somewhat time consuming to duplicate the project with CB.

You will also have to read the file "msvc.txt" located in C:\Allegro\docs\build folder (or whereever you extracted the zip file).

[jess314]

I'm not new to C++, but I haven't needed to use any external libraries before. The standard classes have been more than enough until now, but I want to add some graphical elements to a program I've been running in the terminal window for a while.

Hmm... ok, so you think the only way to get it to work is to create a Code::Blocks project file, and include ALL the .c, .cpp and .h files from the directory? Ouch. I think I'll try getting VC++ then, see how that goes. Thanks for the reply =]