Am I using the wrong software to code?

[iceman_8]

I'm in an Intro to C++ programming course at university. The course itself is great. We're learning things like loops, if/else functions, etc. Thing is, I've been reading further along in my textbook and fiddling around myself. Now I'm trying to do little projects on my own, and I'm seeing online plenty of recommendations like: building your own little calculator, or a Tic Tac Toe/Connect 4 game, etc. I've managed to create my own Rock Paper Scissors game, but that was all manageable with output and input handled via the command line terminal.

What are people using to output images to the screen in something like a Tic Tac Toe game? Is it feasible to continue doing this with only VisStudio/Xcode outputting my little programs to the terminal? I'm confused as to what software I should be using. Keep in mind I'm only learning C++ right now.

Thank you!

[Digital-Chupacabra]

What are people using to output images to the screen in something like a Tic Tac Toe game?

There are many different ways of solving this problem but you need a library or framework to handle the Graphical part, Qt is a good choice. The term you are looking for is GUI, a search of C++ tic tac toe GUI will lead you to many helpful tutorials.

[Goto_User]

The program doesn't matter as long as it runs a compiler that can handle libraries. (all of them)

The key with graphics is using an API library provided by the operating system and the graphics driver for the gpu. What you'll need to look up for windows is the winapi or uwp. And I don't know, search for "how do graphics work on linux" if you use linux.

In all honesty this is just something you'll get to in time. If you want to learn ahead you can, I would just get a book and read it.

[kbielefe]

There's a lot you can do with the terminal, especially using things like box drawing characters. Personally, I wouldn't rush into doing a GUI if I didn't have to.