looking for a VERY simple c++ graphics library

first of all, my coding is extremely primitive, only took a semester of computer science so far. I got a pretty firm grasp of the basics such as loops/functions/vectors/arrays/classes and am looking to try more stuff out of the console programming realm, one of them being graphics apps.
we used this one graphics library that came with our book in which you output circles/lines/points and with a few jimmy rigs could create simple animations and games in the output window

i was wondering if anyone knew of another library i could fool around with hopefully a few more options yet just as simple to grasp
thanks

DirectX? You can get the SDK off of the MSDN website.

i never looked into directx/opengl because i assumed theyd be a bit complex

however i can look into it if thats the way to go. Would i be able to do something as simple as display a circle in less than 3 lines of code with directX?

I would suggest you take the time to learn Windows programming (windows API), and then you can use the GDI. It's not really "simple," but once you get the hang of it it's decent enough. A good (the best) tutorial for learning Windows programming is here: http://www.winprog.org/tutorial/

Other than that, maybe google for a GDI wrapper library. (GDI is what you use in windows to draw basic 2D things such as circles, rectangles, etc.) DirectX or OpenGL is more for 3D stuff, I think. And they'll probably be similar in complexity to the GDI.

I would look into the system.drawing namespace and go from there. If you want more functionality, you can use the system.drawing.drawing2d. Once you go 3d, you can use microsoft.directx.direct3d and microsoft.dirextx.directdraw. This is all part of the .Net Framework and DirectX SDK. The nice thing about directX is that it includes everything from 3d, audio, input, to networking.

BTW, if you're looking for 3D graphics that are easier to use than the DirectX and OpenGL APIs, try VTK (www.vtk.org).

This won't do vector graphics, but if you want something besides Windows GUI, try wxWindows ( www.wxWindows.org )

WxWindows runs on Windows, Macs, Linux, and *BSD without changes. Good for GUIs, not so much for 3D games.

Long ago, before DirectX and before OpenGL ran on PCs, Rex Bradford wrote a book on do-it-yourself 3D, "Real-Time Animation Toolkit in C++". Try that Amazon link, or search for the book by author if the link doesn't work. The source code that he gives is not the best organized, but you get the full source, it runs and it is complete.

Also, check out the Game Programming Gems serries (vols one through five) for more graphics algorithyms.