OK, here is a quick bio:

I've done some basic Java, and a lot of straight-forward c/c++.

I just completed my degree thesis and coded up a program in c that parsed bitmaps and did some cool stuff with the content and output a new bitmap.

What I would like is advice on what language would be best suited to writing pixels to the screen in as easy a manner as possible.

I've tried MFC and thats just a pain, and gave up. I dont want to create full blown applications, just some math intensive image processing while actually being able to see the output 'live' as it were.

If there are any books you'd recommend, that'd be super.


Thanks in advance.

SDL handles images pretty well