Thread: C/c++ ide

IMO, if you have not tried NOT using an IDE for a while, you should. I have no doubt that a lot of people start using one when they start programming and so are convinced it is a necessity, which by that point it probably has become so for you, which is sad.

However, I will admit to using TkCodex which is not an IDE (no editing or compiling!), but it does index subroutines and can do directory tree searches (/usr/include anyone?), etc, etc. With that and vim*, I never seem to find myself going, "Gee, I wish I was using an integrated development environment".

But my tastes on the desktop are unorthodox. For example, the word "integrated" is wretched; I would far, far rather use a number of different, simple, "dedicated" tools than one which is supposed to do it all for me. I am sure this "all in one integration" concept is actually derived from operating systems which only allow you one workspace.

* which the documentation is absolutely atrocious, I am sure turning many people off because there are no clues about what you could use it for (avoid the GUI version too). But vim is the greatest piece of software of all time, bar none.

Pursuant to all this, I just built the new "ddd", which is a GUI frontend to gdb (and some other standard debuggers for other languages) that was left unmaintained for a long time until late last year, and in February the new developers released 3.3.12 (it seems a lot like 3.3.11, which is fine). It allows you to do stuff like point and click to add breakpoints and examine the current state of a variable with a mouseover.

The GUI uses motif; most distros come with lesstif, which does the job. However, all available versions of lesstif contain a flaw that will break the build. I just spent an hour chasing down a patch, so if anyone runs into the same problem, here it is: remove the following lines from include/Xm/VendorSP.h:

Code:

at the beginning:
#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C" {
#endif 

at the end:
#ifdef __cplusplus
}
#endif

ddd + TkCodex + vim + autotools = all the functionality of an IDE without the mess (do you really need to create a directory of makefiles every time you want to use your debugger, etc?)

For me:
-Geany
-KDevelop
- Anjuta
-codeblocks

I use KDevelop for larger projects, and often kate when I can't be bothered with it. I also use vim from time to time, but I'm sure I'd use it more if I knew more commands. (I just discovered "dd" :P -- a.k.a CTRL-K in kate/KDevelop. That is, delete the current line.)

I use IDEs for the features of their editors, though (KDevelop, for example, allows you to look up functions by name -- CTRL-ALT-M -- and classes -- CTRL-ALT-C -- indent many lines of code with tab, etc). I rarely use the IDE to debug or even to compile code -- the terminal's so much easier to use for that.

Netbeans rules :-). Kdevelop is kinda "ugly" if you're in gnome, but has about the same functionality. For small tests or practice programs I use Geany. When I am using Qt I use QDevelop.

Visual C++ is horrible, I can't live with that monstrosity on my computer.

When I'm developing on Windows (occasionally), I use Dev-C++. I must admit I like vim (developed by a dutch guy), but not for programming.