Hi I'm a complete newbie, so sorry if this is trivial. I've installed devc++ to figure out a bit about programming. I can't even get the basic hello world program to work. I type it all into a .cpp file, but when I compile and run, the command prompt terminal flashes up and then closes immediately - I don't even see what it is doing, never mind whether or not it's said "Hello World".......I've looked around but can't see anyone else with this problem. Am I missing something basic?

You need a delay like an input statement. The progran starts, executes. Since it is finished the OS closes the window.

Is there a way to stop the OS closing the window so I can see what it's doing? Or is there another way?

You can use: system("PAUSE");

You could also just insert a breakpoint at your return 0; statement. That way the program will stop when its done and wait untill you close it. but system("Pause") might be easier if you dont know much about the debugger yet (for breakpoints) War sucks but the sound is good and WE are the DJ's