I've been trying to use Dev C++ version 4.9.8.9 and am having a big problem. When I compile source files everything works fine. If I try to compile anything that is part of a project my entire system crashes and I have to use the reset button or the power button, the task manager doesn't even respond.

I've done a lot of searching on the web and have found no answers yet. I have done complete uninstalls as detailed on the Dev C++ forums and re-installed and I have downloaded and installed all of the updated files that they recommend for Wins98 users including the newest version of DirectX and still have the problem.

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

Also does anyone know where/how to find the command line options for the minGw compiler? Or a good tutorial on using makefiles? I've never used them before and I don't understand most of what is in the makefiles that Dev C++ is spitting out.

The answers to any of these questions might possibly put me one step closer to actually being able to USE Dev C++! Thanks.

.... Ok.

Well I'm back to using Borland C++ builder and I've learned a lot since my earlier post. I still don't know why Dev C++ crashes my system.

This may sound dumb but I didn't know how to include libraries when compiling which was my main reason for wanting to get away from using the Borland command line tools. In a Dev C++ project all the details of building the project would be handled for me after I set the needed options. I'm self taught and while I have seen explanations of how to compile source files oddly enough I have never seen an example of a .lib file being included. Borland's help files make plenty of sense to me NOW, after I figured out the answers to many of my questions by trial and error, but the help file is not that usefull if you are starting from scratch.

After I found out how to include a library I tried to compile the simple DirectX source from a book that I have. Of course it didn't work:

ERROR: '...d3d9.lib' contains invalid OMF record, type 0x21
(possibly COFF)

Fantastic. :(

Fortunately I was able to get info on this error by googling it and after reading quite a bit about implib.exe and coff2omf.exe. I was very fortunate to stumble accross a post on a different forum where someone posted:

<paraphrase>Don't bother, the lib's won't import correctly with newer DirectX sdk. Goto
http://clootie.narod.ru/cbuilder/index.html#D3D_SDKs
and download these modified DX libraries and they will work with Borland.</paraphrase>

So I downloaded the zip file... and it worked!

I also learned some about using make (Again after much trial and error and attempts at deciphering the plethora of complicated examples with multitudes of options in the help file.) After much experimentation I now have a usable make file that builds my "project" and can be easily updated when I need to add more source files or libraries.

I'm still using the Dev C++ IDE because it is really nice, better than the VIDE that I was using. Dev still crashes sometimes but mainly when I use the class browser. Hope they improve it soon. It's a cool feature.

By the way, I figured out that you can get a list of command line options for most of the mingw executables with the command line switch "--help". I was unable to find that info by searching the web.