C++ programming on windows?

Question

Qt Creator

Good afternoon.
Most recently, I decided to learn the C++ programming language. I downloaded a couple of weighty books and started reading. And in general it came to the editor. The book advised me to download visual microsoft C ++) although I don’t remember the exact name). then it came down to visual studio. And in general, I dug on the Internet and so the editor did not download. I got on YouTube to dig into video lessons and met one talented programmer and downloaded his lessons, on his advice I downloaded the Qt Creator editor. My OS is old, or rather windows xp professional and the latest version of QT Creator did not pull. I downloaded a slightly older version and it went. Thought it was all over.
I then asked the programmer "can I learn the language on an older version and then program on it." Then it turned out a bunch of "interesting" things. It turns out that QT Creator is not a compiler. And later it turned out that all the lessons from the guy under Linux. And what he showed on Linux on windows will not work ... and advised me to learn the C# language. and again I got confused.
But the guy said that QT has a compiler for windows too.
And in general, a couple of questions:
1) I have a version of QT Creator 3.5.1. the last one was like 4.3.1. Tell me if I can learn C ++ on the old version of QT Creator? And of course, so that we can program some kind of program on the old version and make it work?
2) The guy advised me to learn the C# language. Does C# have the same power as C++?
3) in addition, the guy said that for programming on windows OS, you need the MinGW compiler, which is in QT. Means on QT it is possible to work all the same on windows?
4) as it turned out later in the books, for some reason, in a strange way, everything turned out to be under Linux. Can I find books somewhere and, of course, preferably video tutorials in Russian and for my old Windows XP?
5) And in general, what is needed in order to take an editor to write a program in C ++ on my old OS and make it work?
Although the guy recommended the C# language to me, my heart and soul boils for C++. And most importantly, without changing the OS, because at the moment I can’t afford it. And of course I would like the most accurate lessons that will teach me programming.
Thank you all in advance.
Sincerely, Alexander.
PS sorry for my ignorance!!!

Answer 1

> 1) The version of QT Creator I have is 3.5.1. the last one was like 4.3.1. Tell me if I can learn C ++ on the old version of QT Creator? And of course, so that we can write some program on the old version and make it work?
In your case, any version of `Qt Creator` will do, the main thing is that it can compile and run

#include <iostream>
int main() { std::cout << "Test\n" }

> 2) The guy advised me to learn C#. Does C# have the same power as C++?
In this context (learning from scratch), `C#` will be better in terms of "threshold entry", i.e. learning from scratch to the level of `I can easily apply to interface development` is much faster than `C++`.
About strength. Languages ​​have no power, they are just tools, each with its own pluses and minuses. Any algorithm can be written on each of them.
You can even combine them within the same program.
Personally, I (as a C ++ programmer with 10 years of experience) would not start new projects on it, but take Rust instead.
> 3) in addition, the guy said that for programming on windows, you need the MinGW compiler, which is in QT. Means on QT it is possible to work all the same on windows?
Qt is a library, and yes it works on windows, just like the Qt Creator development environment. Yes, and Qt Creator includes (at least before) the mingw C ++ compiler.
> 4) as it turned out later in the books, for some reason, in a strange way, everything turned out to be under Linux. Can I find books somewhere and, of course, preferably video tutorials in Russian and for my old Windows XP?
Qt is mostly cross-platform, so most of the tutorials for Linux should work for you too.
> 5) And in general, what is needed in order to take an editor to write a program in C ++ on my old OS and make it work?
1. Install mingw as part of Qt Creator or separately
2. Find a file with the phrase `g++` in the name in mingw exe
3. Open notepad and save the code above
4. run cmd.exe and run exe in it (from 2) path \to\file from 3 -o test.exe
5. Run the resulting test.exe or solve problems