Spend your time reading manuals, sorting through layers of code--or do things the easy way with Visual C++, the real choice. Most true programming languages have a steep learning curve if you have never done it before. Start with the best tools available; Microsoft has definitely given you that with Visual C++. Think about it; you wouldn’t want to go hunting with a shortage of bullets, so why dive into programming with only half of the tools needed to do the job? Visual C++ will lets almost any user develop quality programs today!
Visual C++ comes in several flavors: Enterprise, Professional or Standard. It is also bundled with Visual Studio 6.0. Requires a Pentium-class processor with 32 MB of RAM, Win9x/2000 and from 305 – 405 MB of disk space.