Disclaimer:  These notes describe now I setup Dev-C++ 4.9.9.0 in my classroom at Heritage High School.  We have 25 computers in an isolated LAN, each is a 2.8 GHz Pentium-III, running  Windows XP Pro SP1.  The LAN is isolated for security reasons, meaning it is presently not connected to the Internet or even to the rest of the school network.  I do not guarantee that these procedures will work on your computer or network setup.

Now that C++ is no longer the language of Advanced Placement Computer Science, we no longer use AP Classes.  We use standard C++ language features instead.

Contents:

• Initial installation
• Borland BGI Graphics simulation using winbgim.h

Initial installation
 

• I first installed Dev-C++ 4.9.9.0 onto each computer in my lab by downloading the free installation program, copying it to a folder on one of the computers on my isolated Lan, and sharing that folder, setting permissions simply to allow all uses to read the contents of the folder.  I then installed Dev-C++ onto each omputer.
• Students installing Dev-C++ at home, just download the installation program and follow the steps below to setting up one computer.
• Teachers installing Dev-C++ on a lab of computers that are networked might like to try my method in order to save time and energy.  Otherwise, the full installation procedure will need to be performed for each computer.
• Installing Dev-C++ 4.9.9.0 on one computer
• Run the setup program.
• BE SURE to use the default directory for installation (C:\dev-cpp).  If you insist on using a different directory, BE SURE to use a directory path that DOES NOT CONTAIN SPACES in the pathname (this means you can't use a subdirectory of C:\Program Files).  Otherwise, your good C++ programs will not compile or run and you will wonder why.  Spaces in pathnames to your project and source code files don't seem to matter.
• Run Dev-C++.  The first time you run it, it will ask you for your language.  I chose English.
• Set the default user directory.
• Under Tools | Environment Options, click the Files & Directories tab.
• In the "User's Default Directory" field, either type the path you wish (you or your students) to use by default, or use the browser (ellipsis) button to find it.
• My students all use "K:\cpp" so that's what I typed.
• Leave all other defaults "as is".
• Click the Ok button.
• Lastly, set up the application startup documents the way you want them.  Otherwise, every time you start a new project, you'll get default file that contains Dev-C++'s choice--which may be fine, but may not be the best suited for high school students learning C++.  In our class, we only use C++ Console Applications, so that's the only startup document I have re-designed.
• To change a startup document, find the appropriate text file located in the Templates directory under C:\Dev-Cpp. For C++ Console Applications, we would choose "ConsoleApp_cpp.txt".  This file can be edited with Notepad for any other text editor (NOT a word processor, so DO NOT use Word or Works, etc.)
• This is the contents ConsoleApp_cpp.txt that I came up with.
• There is one more optional step.  You may wish, at this time, to go ahead and set things up for BGI graphics with console applications.  To do this, also include the steps below under How to add a new C++ Console Application with Graphics template to Dev-C++.
• The next step is to setup Dev-C++ on the remaining computers on your network.
• Perform an initial install on each computer.
• Copy the following files from your first computer (with all the new setup information) to each of the additional computers.  You can use a floppy, or do it across the network.  I used a batch file to automate the process and had the files copied in no time.
• C:\Dev-Cpp\devcpp.ini
• C:\Dev-Cpp\Templates\*.*

(and if you installed the BGI graphics files:)
• C:\Dev-Cpp\include\conio.h
• C:\Dev-Cpp\include\winbgim.h
• C:\Dev-Cpp\lib\libbgi.a
• C:\Dev-Cpp\lib\libconio.a

Borland BGI Graphics

Thanks to the work of the Russian mathematician and computer scientist Konstantin Knizhnik, and Mark Richardson and Michael Main of the University of Colorado, and recent modifications by Adrian Sandor we now have four wonderful files that enable us to use the graphics commands originally implemented by Borland in their classic IDE/compiler Turbo C++.  Please note that the winbgim.cpp file used by Sandor (and therefore quite possibly Knizhnik, Richardson, and Main) seemed to contain an error in the ellipse and sector drawing routines that caused elliptical arcs with angles that started or ended in the second or fourth quadrants to be misdrawn.  I have fixed that error and recompiled winbgim.h and winbgim.cpp into libbgi.a so that the new library draws elliptical arcs correctly.  I used the same compiler settings as Sandor.  All source code, old and new, is here.

These 4 files, provided here in winbgim_devcpp4990_20041220.zip, are

1. winbgim.h    (place in C:\Dev-Cpp\include)
2. conio.h      (place in C:\Dev-Cpp\include)
3. libbgi.a     (place in C:\Dev-Cpp\lib)
4. libconio.a   (place in C:\Dev-Cpp\lib)

Once these four files are installed, there are two more steps to use the BGI graphics routines.

• #include "winbgim.h"
• Add these linker options to the project:   -lbgi -lgdi32 -luser32
• To do this, click the Project Options icon (or, Project | Project Options from the menu).
• Then click the Parameters tab.
• 
1. Type the linker options in the Linker text field:

-lbgi -lgdi32 -luser32
note: those are lower case letters L, not the number 1
 
2. Click the Ok button.

How to add a new C++ Console Application with Graphics template to Dev-C++

• In the C:\Dev-Cpp\Templates directory, make a copy of the file named "2-ConsoleApp.template" and rename it to "6-ConsoleAppGraphics.template"
• Using a text editor (such as notepad) make the following changes to the new file:
1. In the [Template] section, change

Name=Console Application
to
Name=Console Graphics Application
2. In the same [Template] section, change

Description=A console application (MSDOS window)
to
Description=A console application (MSDOS window) with graphics
3. In the [Unit0] section, change

Cpp=consoleapp_cpp.txt
to
Cpp=consoleapp_cpp_gr.txt
4. In the [Project] section, add the following line

Linker=-lbgi -lgdi32 -luser32
note: those are lower case letters L, not the number 1
• In the same directory, create a file named "consoleapp_cpp_gr.txt" and place in it a sample, introductory BGI graphics program, which will be the startup file for every C++ Console Application with Graphics.  Here is a sample.

After completing the above,
• You can copy your two new files to the corresponding directory of every other computer with Dev-C++ in your lab.
• You can then easily start a new C++ Console Application with Graphics whenever you start a new project by simply choosing the new, sixth application template which you have created:
•