|if u could please help me regarding how to go about downloading the gcc ide, I would be highlygrateful|
I use KDevelop on the Fedora Linux OS, but for you to do that, you will need a spare partition on your hard disk, or better a spare hard drive. The big thing is it is entirely free, and Linux has 20,000 free apps as well. It is great for IT, because you have free access to all kinds of programming languages, scripting and environments. Popular Linux distributions include Fedora, Ubuntu, Suse plus lots of others.
If using windows, I have heard that codeblocks is good, and is free. I haven't used it though, but lots of people on this forum have. There is also MINGW and the clang compiler is good (it has easy to read compiler messages).
IDE stands for Integrated Development Environment, and is a program that has an editor, compiler, linker, debugger plus all kinds of other handy tools to make writing applications easier. A compiler is only part of that - it turns your C++ code into an executable program. IDE's usually come with compiler as well (they are useless without one), some of them you can change which compiler it uses.
If you have trouble using an IDE - just ask, there are lots of people who can help.