   Is there anything easier/better to use then SDL?
  This is so damn frustrating. I know C++, I know pretty good basic C++. I hear about this wonderful thing called SDL. I head over to Cone3D and start reading the tutorials. Wow, I cant do this. Theres no cin or cout, its all printf, scanf,... I spent a year learning C++, I dont want to spend another one on C. My problem is I want to move onto graphics, specifically 2d. I was thinking at one point about moving straight to OpenGL or DirectX but DirectX requires a 200mb download to use and they are both for 3d. Im getting lost here, what can I do? Im starting to think I will never run graphics.   Learning C++ was hard. Trying to relearn C++ sucks. Hopefully I remember everything and learn it right this time. 
  Whassamatter? Can''t translate from scanf to cin, or std::getline? From printf to cout? Sheer laziness.In C you might have a printf( blah ); In the absence of format specifiers (symbols within the output string beginning with ''%''), you can replace this with cout << blah;. If there are format specifiers, you need to insert the individual values in order:printf("Error: %s. Exiting...", SDL_Error());becomescout << "Error: " << SDL_Error() << ". Exiting...";Don''t forget to flush or insert endl.On the flip side, scanf("%s", &buf; becomes cin >> buf;. ;  Oh wow, thanks. Thanks so much.  ;  SDL is good for learnign basic 2D graphics, but then again I found it very similar to DirectDraw which is also good for 2D learning  Then agian if your internet connection is slow then the smaller SLD downlaod is probably preferable than the DirectX SDK so go with SLD. Also dont expect to take anywhere near that length of time to learn C if you already know C++, they are basically the same if you ignore the OOP portion of C++. ;  What types of functions should I know before starting SDL because even though I can change the cin and cout its still very complicated when I look at the Cone3D tutorials. Is there a better site or tutorial that completly describes what each thing is for? In the Cone3D tutorials they basicially say you dont need to know what this does, just do it. Thats like saying you dont need to know how to fly a rocket, just go to the moon. ;  Read the SDL documentation itself. Cone3d tries to simplify, but in the process creates ignorance (apologies to Cone but that''s how I feel). It''s in the download bundle. ;  I think that this article can be usefull for You http://www.gamedev.net/reference/programming/features/2d3dquads/ "The Gods Made Heavy Metal And They Saw That It Was Good They Said To Play It Louder Than Hell We Promised That We WouldWhen Losers Say Its Over With You Know That It’s A Lie The Gods Made Heavy Metal And It’s Never Gonna Die"THE GODS MADE HEAVY METAL/by  ManOwaR    [edited by - Estor on February 12, 2004 9:21:01 AM]