Get all three of these compilers:
1) MS vc++
2) Dev - c++
3) Borland 5.5
and the newest DirectX you can get.
This covers basically all types of ISO standards; you should be able to compile anything in one of these compilers. When I started with dev - c++ most graphic programs I wrote did not compile; then, when I got Ms vc++ + DirectX lots of other things compiled but it didn't recognise REGS. Then when I got Borland--well, since then, everything I've written has compiled.
