Question about C++, compilers

[ajhampson]

And in doing so requires you to use the 'make' command. Which I get an error for.
And reading on it seems make is not from qt but your compiler?

Mostly correct. The make utility is sometimes provided by a compiler install, sometimes as a stand-alone utility. More on this below.

So I tried to install minGW stand alone and see what this whole make thing is, but the make command still is not recognized.

All I would like to do is build applications with the qt framework!

So I am totally lost at this point?

Not at all. I haven't tried this in a while, but Nokia supports an IDE and compiler for every platform QT is supported on:

Qt Creator is a new cross-platform integrated development environment (IDE) tailored to the needs of Qt developers. Qt Creator is available bundled together with the latest Qt libraries and additional development tools as part of the Qt SDK, which provides everything you need to get started with cross-platform Qt development in a single install.

Go to the QT downloads page and download the Qt Creator 2.0.0 Binary for Windows. It should give you everything you need to create and build QT projects. I believe there is even a set of tutorials built in.

Apart from what they are, is there no 'native' make command for windows? So are you not mean/encouraged to compile C++ files with windows?

Windows is distributed as a general purpose operating system. You are supposed to install whatever applications you need to make it what you want (at least, that's the theory). As such, it doesn't have native tools for a lot of things.

If you want to do code development, you have to find/buy all the tools you need and install them. Make is not provided as part of the "out of the box" Windows install. I'm not familiar with what is provided by MinGW, although it appears from their web site that make is in there in some fashion (either as part of MinGW or from the msys add on, or both). At one time, Borland C++ also provided a make utility (in the bin folder), not sure if it still does or not. Cygwin can also install make for you. As others have said, Visual Studio provides nmake, which is not fully compatible with make.

A quick check brings up Installing Qt on Windows, which provides examples to the contrary (though it also states that "Open Source Versions of Qt is not officially supported for use with any version of Visual Studio").

Note that this appears to be using the Daily Dev Snapshot of QT which is not something I'd recommend for someone just starting out.

Hope this helps you out. Again, the first thing I would try is using the QT provided IDE as that's where you'll get the best QT support. Good Luck!