A note on the codeblocks IDE for C++ that we are using:

When you go to download codeblocks for Windows at http://www.codeblocks.org/downloads/binaries#windows, make sure you download codeblocks-12.11mingw-setup.exe, which includes a c++ compiler (MinGW) as well as the codeblocks IDE.

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWNO19ZthEg for an introduction to Codeblocks for C++ (skip to 1:40 in the video).