I use MSVC. It's my favorite environment to develop in because it allows me to be very lazy while still writing code at a fast pace. The way that it automatically shows what variables and functions are a part of a class whenever you put in a . or -> is very, very nice. Also the ease of debugging, finding of every reference to anything with two clicks, and other such features are nice. I've also used it for so long that I know the ins and outs of configuring it pretty well. Having said that, emacs is a damn nice development environment, but it lacks the user friendliness that MSVC has.
Anyway, I've used both pdcurses and libtcod with MSVC. It's the same as using any other library. Just include the library in the project settings, and set up the include directories for the library and the headers in the project settings, and you're pretty much good to go. Remember to copy the DLLs to the debug and release directory. Of course, you might need to alter how you're declaring main, or what type of thing you're compiling (multithreaded dll, console project vs. windows, etc.), but that's pretty minor. Look at the library documentation if you run into trouble.
I would recommend libtcod over pdcurses. Pdcurses works, but it's slow and antiquated. Libtcod is one of the best libraries I've ever used. It is really, really nice.
