What is GCC and minGW, and how are they related to C++ ?

Question

In the IDE InteliJ, also by Jetbrains, you download and define a path to the JDK and write your code in the code editor. I am learning C++ right now and am confused as to why I need to download MinGW and G++. What is there purpose and what is their function? I am sorry if this is an overly stupid question but I am still quite new to how IDEs and libraries work and would greatly appreciate any help regarding this question or any resources that might answer them for me.

Answer 1

C++ is a compiled language. A compiler creates executable snippets from source code that can be assembled into a program. You need to download that stuff because Jetbrains is not a compiler.

You have plenty of resources online as what a compiler does. The link is quite dated though.

MinGW is "Minimalist GNU for Windows", The GNU toolchain is a set of apps that helps with building applications (and more). In that toolchain there is the GNU compiler collection GCC. The c++ compiler within that collection is g++.