Googled it, looks like there are problems on Vista.

If you have a Vista machine then I would recommend dual booting Linux. I think all computer scientists should at least have a little bit of knowledge of Linux. I'm assuming that you are using Eclipse, which is cross platform. SDL seems cross platform as well. This way you can build the project in Linux and send it to your professor.

Your professor will more than likely be running XP or OSX. A good cross platform program will compile and run perfectly on both. I know OpenGL moves seamlessly between platforms. If you build under Linux and your Prof tests it on a Mac then you're golden because it never has to touch DirectX.