Off topic development environment question...

[Sean Murphy <murphy erim-int com>]

I realize this isn't a Gnome issue, but having read the list for a while, it
seems like there are enough programmers here that someone might be able to
answer my question, not to mention I feel like I can trust the opinions of most
of the people on this list.

I'm going to be taking a C++ class this fall.  The class will most likely be
featuring the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 development environment for the majority
of the course (since a Visual C++ CD-ROM is included with the textbook!).
Naturally, I'd prefer not to have to reboot my machine into Windows everytime I
need to do homework, so I'm looking for something similar for Linux.

I'm not much of a programmer (not yet!) so I'm not sure what issues I need to
look out for, but I would imagine that I'd need something that understands the
concept of a C++ project (bunches of individual files that are related to each
other for the given program objective).  Is the Visual C++ project a MS-unique
thing, or is it a C++ standard?

Also, I would assume that most of the programming we do will be using standard
C++ functions (and not using Microsoft Foundation Classes), but is there
anything else I need to watch out for to make sure that my source code will
compile correctly under either environment?  I'd hope that the source code
would be completely OS transparent so that I can do all my development on
Linux, then just turn it in on a Windows-formatted floppy and no one would be
the wiser.

Any hints or ideas would be great!  It doesn't have to be Gnome (although that
would definitely be preferred), it could be generic Linux, or even (gasp!)
KDE!!

TIA