If you are a Linux user, you probably already have GCC/G++ installed. In this case, check whether your version is 4.8 or later. Otherwise, you can install GCC/G++ (version 4.8+) or Clang (version 3.4+) using your favorite packet manager. Under Debian based distribution (such as Ubuntu and Mint), use the command line:

sudo apt-get install gcc g++ clang -y

If you are a Mac user, you can use Clang (3.4+). This is the default compiler under Mac OS X.

Finally, if you are a Windows user, you can use Visual Studio (2013), Mingw-gcc (4.8+), or Clang (3.4+) by downloading them. I suggest you not use Visual Studio, because it's not 100 percent standard compliant, even for the C99, and instead use another IDE such as Code::Blocks (see the following paragraph).

I assume that in both cases, you have been able to install a compiler and configure your system to use it (by adding it to the system path). If you have not been able to do this, another solution is to install an IDE like Code::Blocks, which has the advantage of being installed with a default compiler, is compatible with C++11, and doesn't require any system configuration.

I will choose the IDE option with Code::Blocks for the rest of the book, because it does not depend on a specific operating system and everyone will be able to navigate. You can download it at http://www.codeblocks.org/downloads/26. The installation is really easy; you just have to follow the wizard.

If you use a Linux system, you can install CMake and its GUI using your packet manager. For example, under Debian, use this command line:

sudo apt-get install cmake cmake-gui -y

You can download the CMake binary for your system at http://www.cmake.org/download/. Follow the wizard, and that's it. CMake is now installed and ready to be used.

Compiling SFML is not as difficult as we might think, and is within the reach of everyone. First of all, we will need to install some dependencies.

sudo apt-get install libglu1-mesa-dev freeglut3-dev mesa-common-dev libxrandr-dev libfreetype6-dev libglew-dev libjpeg-dev libsndfile1-dev libopenal-dev -y

cd /your/path/to/SFML-2.2/build

sudo make install

Now that your system is configured to find the SFML binary files, it's time for us to configure Code::Blocks and finally test whether everything is fine with your fresh installation. To do so, follow these steps:

If everything works correctly, you will have a new window created that has a Hello world! message, as follows:

If you have this output, everything is fine. In any other case, make sure you have followed all the steps for the installations.

Now we will configure Code::Blocks to find the SFML library, and ask it to link with our program at the end of the compilation. To do this, perform the following steps:

Now we need to ask the linker which libraries our project needs. All our future SFML projects will need the System, Window, and Graphics modules, so we will add them:

Good news, all the configurations are now finished. We will eventually need to add a library to the linker in the future (audio, network), but that's it.

It's now time for us to test the SFML with a very basic example. This application will show us the window as in the following screenshot:

The following code snippet brings about this window:

int main(int argc,char* argv[])
{
    sf::RenderWindow window(sf::VideoMode(400, 
400),"01_Introduction");
    window.setFramerateLimit(60);

    //create a circle
    sf::CircleShape circle(150);
    circle.setFillColor(sf::Color::Blue);
    circle.setPosition(10, 20);

    //game loop
    while (window.isOpen())
    {
       //manage the events
        sf::Event event;
        while(window.pollEvent(event))
        {
            if ((event.type == sf::Event::Closed)
                or (event.type == sf::Event::KeyPressed and 
event.key.code == sf::Keyboard::Escape))
                window.close(); //close the window
        }
        window.clear(); //clear the windows to black
        window.draw(circle); //draw the circle
        window.display(); //display the result on screen
    }
    return 0;
}

All that this application does is to create a window with a width and height of 400 pixels and its title is 01_Introduction. Then a blue circle with a radius of 150 pixels is created, and is drawn while the window is open. Finally, the user events are checked on each loop. Here we verify if the close event has been asked (close the button or click Alt + F4), or if the user has pressed the Esc button on his keyboard. In both case, we close the window, that will result to the program exit.