title: How to get started learning MinGW C++?
body: <p>I'm learning C++ with codeblocks and I'd like to ask if you can post me some good pointers how I can learn the difference between MinGW and Visual studio C++, for example <code>\n</code> and <code>&lt;&lt;</code> don't always behave as I'm expecting. I'm complete newbie, only reached day 2 of an old book "Teach yourself C++ in 21 days" by Jesse Liberty and the program looks like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>#include &lt;iostream&gt;
  
  using namespace std;
  
      int main()
      {
          cout &lt;&lt; "Hello there."; endln;
          cout &lt;&lt; "Here is 5: " &lt;&lt; 5 &lt;&lt; endl;
          cout &lt;&lt; "The manipulator endln writes a new line to the screen";
          cout &lt;&lt; "Here is a very big number:\t" &lt;&lt; 70000;
          cout &lt;&lt; "Here is the sum of 8 and 5:\t" &lt;&lt; 8+5;
          cout &lt;&lt; "Here is a fraction:\t\t" &lt;&lt; (float) 5/8;
          cout &lt;&lt; "And here is a very big number:\t" &lt;&lt; (double) 7000*7000;
          cout &lt;&lt; "Remember to replace Niklas with you name";
          cout &lt;&lt; "Hampus is a C++ programmer!";
          return 0;
      }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Is MinGW C++ the same as GNU C++? Is there an official standard? any advice for newbie learning / teaching will be appriciated. The book I'm following is "Teach yourself C++ in 21 days" and it is and old edition of the book but I could modify the programs from the first exercise to run and I believe I can use the book since perhaps not many changes were made to the basic C++ since it was published (the edition of the book I own is maybe 10 years old).</p>
  
  <p>Thank you!</p>
  
  <p><strong>Update</strong>
  After getting the recommendations here, I've bought the book <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/C-Primer-Stanley-B-Lippman/dp/0201721481/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1322955138&amp;sr=8-1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">C++ Primer</a>.</p>