Quote: "Clonkex, what did you do to install it when you were writing the guide? Any pointers?"
Err... pretty sure I didn't have to install it myself (which, incidentally, would be something to check - make sure you don't already have the folder
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1A) because it was already there on my computer. The only thing I can really think of (and it's really obvious) is to make sure you're running the installer as Administrator.
Quote: "My registry would hardly be a mess at this point, and if it were surely there would be other signs?"
No, I would think not. It's actually pretty difficult to stuff up Windows so badly that a specific program won't install, so IMO there's a 99% chance it's not your fault. Despite what most people say, there's very rarely a good reason to actually go through all the horror of reinstalling Windows and all your programs and games.
Quote: "Why can't the AppGameKit IDE support BOTH and not require all this mucking about with VS/Xcode?"
Because even
if TGC could write their own C++ compiler, you'd still need to install the Windows SDK. And if TGC decided to support C++ using Microsoft's excellent compiler, you'd still have to install VS and the Windows SDK.
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Went to town today (like I said I would) and after going to many different stores (it's a country town - *slow Australian drawl* "Err... we
used 'ave one of those... I can order it in for you, if you like. Shouldn't take more'n a couple of weeks...") I finally found a 25W soldering iron for $24 at Mitre 10. I just finished a moderately bad attempt at soldering the header pins into the holes on my MPU-6050. If anything the soldering iron was a little too weak (maybe 30W would've been better), but as a beginner I actually appreciated being given longer to successfully create the solder joint.
My technique started out the way I do larger car electrics... smoosh some solder onto the tip and then smear it onto the wires. Wasn't so great with these tiny, precise wires. Then I tried something I'd seen people do in videos: I pushed the tip of the iron onto one side of the pins and the solder onto the other. When the pin was sufficiently hot, the solder melted and ran neatly around and into the hole.
I'm about to see if I can find suitably instructive instructions on the interweb on how to hook up the MPU-6050 and test it... hopefully my soldering job was sufficiently decent that it just works first go
