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We trying to choose an IDE for C++ development on Linux.
The proposed options are KDevelop and Eclipse.
Eclipse is highly customizable, but Java centric and heavy.
KDevelop is bounded to particular KDE (I believe because KDE API) and can not be replaced if required.
What you use and why?
Thanks
Dima
KDevelop, because:
It supports CMake.
It fully integrates with the GCC utilities.
It has a good syntax highligher and code editor
It has a relatively quick startup time and is relatively light weight.
Since you are comparing KDevelop with Eclipse, let me also point out that:
KDevelop uses a file for its projects, so you can open the project file in your file manager. By contrast, Eclipse stores metadata in folders, so you need to open your Eclipse project by running Eclipse.
Because KDevelop stores its information in a single project file, whereas Eclipse uses lots of hidden metadata, KDevelop leaves your code folders much cleaner than does Eclipse.
KDevelop will never attempt to delete files on your filesystem, unless you specifically ask it to do so. By contrast, it is very easy to accidentally harm files on your filesystem using Eclipse.
Also, when I've used KDevelop, I've been using it on Ubuntu which uses the Gnome desktop. On Gnome, KDevelop still beats Eclipse in terms of startup time, and is definitely worth using.
Also, one last note, if you use CMake with KDevelop, then you can distribute your source code to users on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and they will be able to compile your source code, even if they don't have KDevelop; CMake can generate a native Makefile, a Visual Studio project, an Xcode project, or a KDevelop project. So, the concern that you can't replace KDevelop really doesn't apply if you use the CMake backend.
I use Qt Creator, which is excellent if you're considering using Qt. I've found the C++ tools for Eclipse work well though - editor seemed solid, debugging "just worked", so I was happy!
I use Eclipse and like it quite a lot. The CDT plugin makes the interface much more c++/C friendly and the extensibility of Eclipse with other plugins makes it a "one-stop-shop" IDE for many needs. I use it for PHP, Perl, C++, Database work, and ColdFusion.
One of the best things for Eclipse IMO, is the Mylyn Plugin. Task based filtering has been a wonderful addition to my work flow.
Emacs :)
Customizable beyond your wildest dreams. (And you can play tetris while code compiles)
Have tried, codeblocks, netbeans and eclipse with c++ support and qt creator.
Netbeans and eclipse work just fine, but their default window layout and editor settings make me "sick" each time when I install them as one needs to remove/minimize change fonts, size etc in order to make it somewhat readable as the default settings are just covering too much of the screen. It's java based and somewhat laggy on my laptop running ubuntu (different versions over the years) on a cd2 2.2ghz with 2gb ram. I have no idea as to why since I completely reinstalled the distro's several times. That slow and sluggish feeling when one opens the debugger and it slowly crawls through the code is the worst. Same when you are manually going through the function calls (clicking like mad and controlling values), and if you do that a lot (big project) the IDE will totally slow down making you wait 3-5 sec after each press of the button.
Netbeans especially seems to have something against ubuntu as sometimes it will not scale the windows accordingly and some settings will overlap each other. Very irritating.
Code Blocks with the nightly build works best right now in my opinion of those 4 as you can just install and start working without need to fix the font/size, windows etc. It is also the fastest IDE of those I have tried in building / cleaning projects and responds fast when opening/closing prjects, starting program.
Qt creator is like an "mac app". It looks visually very nice, it's simple to use but then again I just dislike when I need to debugg in it. It just doesn't have some of the options that other IDE's have. If you are however developing UI then I highly recommend it because of it integrated gui layout designer.
The Eclipse version that I was using was 5 months old, netbeans 2 months, Qt creator 5 months old and Code Blocks only 20days as I regularity update the nightly builds every month.
If you have not guessed it by now, its Code Blocks that I'm using on my ubuntu distro.
Then again the biggest disadvantage with these IDE's when comparing to the VS2008 that I also use is the debug part. VS just has everything done nicely and you can see the values in vectors, strings etc just by hovering the mouse on the code. When looking inside structures you also skip all the "unnecessary" information so that you dont need to press on like 5 "pluses" and expand the lines in order to see what is saved in a vector.
These were my "daily experiences" with those IDE's on linux as I believe they are important than just listing different features that each IDE has. Everything else seemed to work fine (and I haven't really tested every single feature in great detail). Hope that this will at least help somewhat in deciding what you will pick.
Having said that, Kdevelop you are next on my test list as I haven't tried it yet.
Not a classic IDE but emacs or Xemacs works well as an IDE on linux given that it can be set up with integrated build and debugging.
Code Blocks is an option
I think the correct answer is to try both (and maybe others) for yourself. Personally, I've used Eclipse for the past ~3 years. I'm satisfied with it but there are parts that I think could be better.
But, I think your best bet is to install both and try them each for a week or 2 (maybe longer). A lot of this comes to do personal preference and taste. This is the 2009 version of the vi or emacs question :)
I use CDT on eclipse I find it very responsive.
Plus plugins like Subclipse, Mylyn etc really make development a lot easier.
I use Java and C++ together is some projects so the fact I can code Java/JNI/CPP in the one IDE makes life a lot easier in my opinion.
If you are looking for light IDE you can try vim. With appropriate plug-ins and skills it might be very powerful.
QtCreator
Eclipse
Netbeans
KDevelop
Each has strengths and weaknesses, and it'll depend a lot on on what else you're doing.
You can also try Anjuta (good for GTK environments) or Geany.
I have been using QtCreator.
Nice and clean interface (seems snappier than Eclipse - though I have not used it in a while) and supports debugging.
Geany \M/
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It needs to have good code completion support, debugger, and a nice way to browse code (click to go to documentation).
Since I got spoiled by Java IDEs (Eclipse), it would be cool if it supported refactoring, reference search and some form of on the fly compilation, but maybe I'm asking too much.
So far I tried Eclipse C++ plugin, Qt Creator and Code Blocks. Eclipse plugin feels sluggish, Code Blocks has much worse completion then Qt Creator and Qt Creator is great for Qt stuff, but kinda hard to use for free form projects.
What are other options and first hand experience with them, since trying something for few hours and using something on a daily basis are two different things?
I have been using Code Lite for some time now. It provides support for auto completion. It has a code explorer and outline, though I find myself using "find resource" to open files. It has a plugin for UnitTest++ and some primitive refactoring capabilities.
link text
I'm very happy with Eclipse. It's not fast, but if you get a good enough workstation, it runs just fine, and considering how much your time is worth, a good workstation is actually pretty cheap. It also has a feature list a mile long (good features, not just bullet points), which I tried to summarize in this answer. It's also being actively developed; CDT 5.0 is a huge improvement over 4.0, and the next version (due out this month) adds even more nifty features (like syntax highlighting that can distinguish between overloaded and non-overloaded operators).
With some tweaking, you can turn VIM into a very good IDE. You can enable tabs for multiple source files in a single buffer, code navigation, and even auto-completion. The example below is for python, but the ideas apply to C++ as well.
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/guides/2009/05/vim-made-easy-how-to-get-your-favorite-ide-features-in-vim.ars
Use EMACS. M + / gives you all possible completion from the opened buffers. It has got nice integration with GDB as well.
I use plan9port's Acme. It only does a few things itself, but provides a very good interface to let any command-line program process any text from any of the tiled windows. So, instead of building all functionality into the editor (eg Emacs), it outsources just about all of it to command-line programs---actually more numerous and written in languages better suited to the tasks at hand than the editor's language (even Lisp).
http://www.faqs.org/docs/artu/ch13s02.html is "A Tale of Five Editors" (read Wily as Acme), from The Art of Unix Programming by Eric S. Raymond.
QTCreator rawks and has a great set of libs that are also cross platform.
recently I did some research for a good C++ Crossplatform IDE:
* Eclipse Galileo with CDT Plugin
* NetBeans 6.7 (which is also the base for the SunStudio IDE)
* CodeBlocks 8.02
* CodeLite 2.x
After all I have decided to use CodeLite 2.x.
Please see this permalink for a Summary: ide discussion
I'm a fan of 'Code::Blocks'
Code::Blocks is a free C++ IDE built to meet the most demanding needs of
its users. It is designed to be very
extensible and fully configurable.
Finally, an IDE with all the features
you need, having a consistent look,
feel and operation across platforms. - (the site)
Their latest release has been amazing... For a while it was difficult to get it since they only had the RC on their main site. Now that it's been released proper (not just dev snapshots), its much easier to get.
built in Astyle, code completion, and multi-compiler support, all cross platform w/ wxwidgets.
Anjuta might have Windows port:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anjuta
You can use the Ultimate++ framework It is a C++ cross platform framework with a great IDE you can develop visual UI applications
please visit http://www.ultimatepp.org
SlickEdit is quite good and available for most platforms.
I've recently discovered NetBeans for C++. In the past C++ support in NetBeans has been lacking, but the 6.5 version has improved greatly. If you setup your project following guidelines on the NetBeans site, then code completion and debugging work well in Linux with g++ & gdb. I've not tried using NetBeans for C++ on Windows, but I don't think there would be an issue using DevC++, Ming or cygwin with g++ for compilation.
NEdit along with this package:
http://code.google.com/p/nedit-macro-kit/
It's cross platform, cross language and customization-friendly.
I'm currently giving Geany a try on gnu/linux, and so far I'm loving it! :]
I would otherwise be using Netbeans for C++, but there seems to be a few nasty bugs with their most recent release. Geany gets the job done, at least for now.
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I want to do some coding in my spare time, but the thing is, I don't want to spend the money on this.
Would the following set of development tools be The Right Thing, or is there something I'm forgetting?
Eclipse for C++
SVN for source control
Qt for UI development (since it's C++, and I believe it's now opened by Nokia)
hudson for continuous integration
I'd like to write a little image processing application that can run on any platform, but the main platform at the moment will be Windows with a possible movement to the Mac-- hence all the cross-platform tools.
Is there anything really obvious I'm forgetting? Like something like fxcop for style checking in C++?
If I use any libraries, I'd like to avoid GPL libraries; if things go south with my current employer, I'll want to monetize this.
Microsoft Visual C++ Express is free and easily the best IDE for Windows. Furthermore, you can use it to work on cross-platform code - it more depends on writing standards-adhering code and using portable libraries.
If you want to write cross-platform code, I recommend a cross-platform build tool. I use CMake, which generates Visual Studio solutions on Windows, but there are others too, such as SCons.
As for libraries, it depends on what exactly you need to do. Qt is an excellent GUI library. libpng/libjpeg and others are good for loading/saving images at a low level, but there are probably other higher-level image libraries as well.
[edit] A response to the comment about MSVC and Qt:
A quick search brings up Trolltech's Qt Visual Studio Integration page:
Qt Visual Studio .NET Integration
A comment points out that this is actually not free (a free addon is available at this link, but this runs Qt designer outside of Visual Studio. Also, the Express version of Visual Studio does not support plugins.
For coding specifically in Qt there is another new IDE created by Qt: Qt Creator. I've heard good things about it, and it is also portable across Windows, Linux, and Mac.
I detect procrastination (something I'm often guilty of) - just write some code - you can always add tools as you go along.
The problem with questions with phrases like "what's better" is that it's really hard to determine what's right in a specific situation and maybe impossible what's "better".
Said that, I use Eclipse CDT sucessfully as an IDE on Linux. I use frameworks like ACE/TAO to create code that is highly portable.
I know that QT is a very good UI framework. KDE is built on top of KDE and if you use KDE/Linux then you may also want to look at KDevelop, a C++ IDE that has many users.
In the end I believe that you and only you can figure out whats best for you to use. Make sure you check the alternatives and then make an educated decision.
for c++ there are a few more freewares available such as codeblocks and devcpp. I find eclipse very heavy on the machine.
There are many tools that make the difference:
A C++ compiler ... (it wasn't in your list)
doxygen
STLfilt (which is a must have when programming in C++)
A UT framework (CxxTests, boost.test, Fructose, google.test, ...)
something to manage the compilation chain (scons, aap, (b)jam, cmake, ...) -- I've no idea what eclipse is using.
Source control: git. It's not as diffucult as people make it seem. I'm an svn newbie and I still managed to learn the basics of git for use in everyday life! There are about 4 or 5 basic commands that will get you going in no time. Read the official git tutorial
Regarding IDE's, there are a few choices
Microsoft Visual C++ Express Edition (free lite version)
Eclipse with CDT
QtCreator. (Since you're using Qt for the GUI)
Personally I have used Eclipse+CDT for a number of projects. Paired with wxWidgets it has provided me with enough to keep myself pretty much crossplatform (which I think is a big plus).
Also QT has some interesting releases with an IDE now, make sure you check it out: http://www.qtsoftware.com/products/developer-tools
Like earlier suggestion, just start coding, you will eventually find out what is the appropriate mix for you. It varies greatly between individuals what is the "best" IDE or mix of command line tools, etc.
Eclipse CDT is making huge strides, and even organizations that were unx tools only are now finally joining the IDE bandwagon. Considering downloading a current milestone, not the official release.
If you're using windows, don't use Eclipse directly, find a third-party distribution that already has all the GNU tools in it (I forgot the name, I can look it up).
Once you switch to mac it's easier, but make sure to install xcode to get your GNU tools.
If you are using svn - VisualSVNServer is an excellent free GUI based way to setup and administer your SVN repository, definitely worth checking out as it means you have little/no messing about with config files etc. to change your repository.
Regarding version control - Subversion is pretty much standard and is very well supported. From what I've heard, Git is more powerful but harder to use; it's worth a look for a new one-man project, since you wouldn't have the support and retraining concerns that other projects would have.
Regarding IDE, since Visual C++ Express is currently the highest-voted answer - I've used both Eclipse and Visual C++ Express. I don't have a whole lot of experience with Visual C++ Express, so it might have features that I've overlooked, but from what I've been able to compare, Eclipse offers a lot more features. I tried to list its more impressive features in this answer; from what I've been able to see, Visual C++ Express doesn't have any of the features listed there. Eclipse is slower and more resource-intensive, but with a fast enough desktop, its extra features are more than worth it.
In terms of version control, use git and throw your project on GitHub or Gitorious. There's really no reason to use Subversion anymore, due to its painful branching and merging, and lack of a distributed model.
See this link here for why Git is better than X:
http://whygitisbetterthanx.com/
There's also no point in using Sourceforge or GNU Savannah, as the Git front-end sites have much more valuable features and are easier to use.
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I'm aspiring to work in real-time 3D graphics. I work almost exclusively in C++, with a healthy smattering of win32. Realistically, do I have any sane alternatives?
You can use the MSVC compiler without the IDE. That's probably your best bet. It's a good compiler, and it is the de facto standard for Windows development.
There is definitely nothing wrong with ditching the IDE and simply using the compiler.
I believe the MSVC compiler can be used from the Code::Blocks IDE with no problems.
Alternatively, invoking the compiler from the command-line is a tried and true approach too.
Eclipse: http://www.eclipse.org/
Code::Blocks is pretty cool: http://www.codeblocks.org/
Depends...
Cygwin/Mingwin gives you a compiler. Qt or wxWidgets gives you a GUI toolkit that's easy to use and both are portable.
I agree with the question though. Visual Studio is a pig. Its debugger is pretty nice, but the rest is a pig to work with (particularly coming from a OSS background where the tools don't generally try to lock you in).
You could also look at nmake and calling the VC++ compiler tools directly from the command line.
We use VC++ as a compiler / linker but use Jam to drive the builds. The actual Visual Studio is only used as a debugger. The benefit is that once we set up Jam to build a project in Windows, it takes minimal effort (frequently none) to get it working for Unix.
The Zeus IDE works just fine as a MSVC alternative. It can even import MSVC project and solution files.
A bit late to the party, but I'd like to add that in 2018 there finally begins to show up a viable alternative that is good enough to promise emancipation from the monopoly of VS on Windows C++ development:
Sublime Text as editor, with the following plugins:
EasyClangComplete, a decent (like, just working) replacement for Intellisense;
[optionally] Clang Format, for much more flexible source formatting experience than MS would ever come up with;
Clang-cl as a wrapper around Clang compiler aimed for maximum MSVC compatibility.
Unfortunately, Microsoft Build Tools are still needed for standard library headers, but the download size is nothing compared to the whole VS behemoth. The upside is that Clang-cl picks them up automagically and Build Tools somehow don't mandate that you let their executables go online to sign in and activate your free license yet!
Setting this all up to a working configuration is a bit more complicated than slapping together a VS project/solution, but it's totally worth it. As a bonus, setting things up manually might give you a better understanding of what goes on under the hood of an IDE.
One thing to miss might be the superb VS debugger... Well, if you're ready to break habits, the open source x64dbg might come to the rescue, ability to view and step through source code via .pdb files included (and yes, Clang can generate them now!).
Update: As of 2019, a much better and future-proof alternative to EasyClangComplete is using Clangd via LSP plugin.
Absolutely, but it's just a lot easier to use Microsoft's IDE to develop for a Microsoft operating system. When in Rome...
Eclipse is a good alternative.
The Code::Blocks IDE comes with the MinGW C++ compiler and support for wxWidgits. The IDE is pretty minimalist which may or may not be what you are looking for - I really like it.
Dev-C++ I have found very useful, and free :)
Very possible, Qt is your friend. Qt Creator is in RC stage too so something to look forward to. Until then you can use it with something like Code::Blocks. Code::Blocks itself is a great environment alone, and also has a lot of support for wxWidgets. If you're just looking for an IDE change, as previously mentioned, Code::Blocks can use compilers from other IDE's as well.
-John
SlickEdit (or a number of other editors that support ctags or something similar) makes for a pretty decent 'IDE'.
You can use these editors with makefiles (or other build tools) to drive pretty much whatever compiler you want (MVCS, mingw, Comeau, Digital Mars, whatever).
A couple employers ago, that's exactly what we did. We used MS compilers driven by makefiles and the main editor used was SlickEdit. We used the Debugging Tools for Windows package for debugging (a lot of what we did was kernel-mode). Worked out pretty well.
Wascana Desktop Developer is a distribution of Eclipse CDT configured specifically for developing on Windows.
I would recommend giving Notepad++, MSBuild, and the Windows SDK a look over. You could also use XBuild, but that is more MONO specific. Mind you, MSBuild, and XBuild are just automation tools, so you'd be spending more time with Windows SDK.
I'm sure to receive a lot of flak for this, but I find C++Builder to be a much easier IDE/compiler to develop Windows C++ apps with than MSVC. It may not be the cheapest solution, or have all the same bells+whistles, or be the most language-compliant (its 32bit compiler does not support C++11 yet, but its 64bit compiler does), but you can't really beat its visual UI designer and 3rd party component market.
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What is the best C++ IDE for a *nix envirnoment? I have heard the C/C++ module of Eclipse is decent as well as Notepad++ but beyond these two I have no real idea. Any thoughts or comments?
On Ubuntu, some the IDEs that are available in the repositories are:
Kdevelop
Geany
Anjuta
There is also:
Eclipse (Recommended you don't install from repositories, due to issues with file/folder permissions)
Code::blocks
And of course, everyone's favourite text-based editors:
vi/vim
emacs
Its true that vim and emacs are very powerful tools, but the learning curve is very steep..
I really don't like Eclipse that much, I find it buggy and a bit too clunky.
I've started using Geany as a bare-bones but functional and usable IDE. It has a basic code-completion feature, and is a nice, clean [Gnome] interface.
Anjuta I tried for a day, didn't like it at all. I didn't find it as useful as Geany.
Kdevelop and code::blocks get a bunch of good reviews, but I haven't tried them. I use gnome, and I'm yet to see a KDE app that looks good in gnome (sorry, I'm sure its a great program).
If only bloodshed dev-c++ was released under linux. That is a fantastic (but windows-only) program. You could always run it under Wine ;)
To a degree, it comes down to personal preference. My advice is to investigate Kdevelop, Geany and code::blocks as a starting point.
As a programmer who has been writing code under linux for many years, I simply cannot seem to move away from using Vim for writing code.
Once you learn it, and learn some of its more advanced features (Code Folding, how to use ctags, how to work with multiple buffers effectively, etc) moving to another editor is very hard - as everything else seems to be missing features that you're used to.
The only other editor with a superset of vim's features is emacs. I highly recommend learning one or the other - and if you have questions, don't hesitate to ask here or in #emacs or #vim on irc.freenode.net - there's a very large and helpful community that will help you learn what extensions or commands best suit the software editing problems that you're facing.
[Edit: A comment noted that "vim isn't an IDE", I agree. I don't like the IDE moniker because it means a gui with a project manager and a bunch of drop down boxes. I like to use the terminology "Good Tools". See Ted Leung's writings on the matter]
I would recommend CodeBlocks.
Highlights:
Open Source! GPLv3, no hidden costs.
Cross-platform. Runs on Linux, Mac, Windows (uses wxWidgets).
Written in C++. No interpreted languages or proprietary libs needed.
Extensible through plugins
Compiler:
Multiple compiler support:
GCC (MingW / GNU GCC)
MSVC++
Digital Mars
Borland C++ 5.5
Open Watcom
...and more
I'm surprised noone has mentioned Qt Creator, as it's available in most repositories, quite small in size and yet does most things I need very well.
I just use Emacs.
Emacs is a fantastic, stay-out-of-my-way-but-be-able-to-do-everything kind of IDE. See this other related question: Using Emacs as an IDE
My vote is KDevelop (I wish I had more points so I can "vote up", so I could just agree with others indirectly than comment).
I've been using Eclipse for about couple years now for personal use, convincing myself that "since IBM donated it, it must be good", but then I've discovered KDevelop and never turned back. Because I'm quite spoiled with Microsoft Visual Studio for professional use, thus KDevelop felt the most comfortable to me.
I want to enjoy programming as a hobby, not spend time looking up what ctrl-k-k and ctrl-k-b does. Like others has mentioned, whatever "feels right" to them is the best IDE. For me, KDevelop feels the most comfortable because I can concentrate on coding (I could probably remap the keys to other IDE's to make it feel like VS, but as mentioned, I rather invest my time coding, which is more fun).
KDevelop is nice, especially if you run KDE. It supports many languages, as an added bonus. I've found its embedded terminal really useful.
If you're coming from Windows & Visual Studio, you might find Code::Blocks meets your expectations.
That was my experience; I tried a few others first, but they all seemed to expect me to do a lengthy tutorial before I could start doing anything interesting - and with a dozen IDEs to try, that could take days.
With Code::Blocks there were no hoops to jump through, and very little mandatory cruft to learn before I could be productive. I still prefer Visual Studio, but Code::Blocks can open my Visual Studio projects, and it doesn't seem to want me to waste any time, so it's the winningmost *nix IDE for me.
I use the NetBeans C++ plugin and it's superb. I come from a Visual Studio background and the Netbeans project management is very similar. I tried KDevelop but found it a little flaky (this was 12 months ago, so it is probably better now).
I also struggled with dependencies using KDevelop - i.e. where a program requires a raft of libs to be built first - but Netbeans made this simple.
The only complaint is that being a Java app, it isn't particularly fast - very noticeable when running under VMWare.
Simply put, Netbeans. You have to try it out. It's so good. It's much better than Eclipse with the CDT plugin.
Netbeans has gotten some pretty good reviews for its C++ support: http://www.netbeans.org/features/cpp/
I've never used Netbeans or Eclipse for C++ development, but it's worth looking at.
I was a VisualStudio + VA-X user before I switched to ubuntu, and needed good auto completion and function navigation features in any IDE.
I have tried Netbeans,Eclipse CDT,CodeBlocks,Geany,Anjuta, KDevelop and finally settled for KDevelop since that was the closest I could get to VS+VA-X.
Eclipse & NetBeans are too heavy & sluggish for my taste. Most of the other IDEs have buggy/incomplete/dumb auto completion & other features; or they want to take control of your code and needs to be imported into projects; or they put 101 files in your source folder. Only KDevelop allowed me to have a simple link to my src folder and let me work. auto completion is not brilliant, but better than the others.
KDevelop doesn't blend well with my Gnome, but I can live with it ;)
I really like CodeLite. Check out it's feature page.
Personally, I agree with the kDevelop crowd as well. Eclipse felt a bit bulky and mildly unstable. Something about kDeveloper just always feel right.
Ultimate++ [http://www.ultimatepp.org/index.html]
[edit]
It does have it's own C++ class libs (as Hernan points out), but nothing stops you from using any other class libs like the SDL, or you can roll your own. You can even use boost if you like, but I must say I find some of the supplied classes & techniques to be more useful.What I appreciate most is it's brilliant integration with the debugger and very complete context-sensitive editor. It uses the standard compiler & debugger (gcc, g++, gdb) on Linux and the MS compiler/debugger on that platform.The only (very small) gripe I have is the home-made names for projects (called Nest's & so forth). That is unnecessary and may even be off-putting to serious developers, but they are only names & I find I can easily ignore it.
I asked this question before to experience Linux users and they always say Vim and automake. I use Vim as my default editor in Linux and after a while it becomes intuitive. I learned it by working through some small examples while learning C++ so I could learn both at the same time.
At my old job we used SlickEdit for C++ development under Debian. It's cross-platform and quite powerful.
It's not free, though.
The problem with most IDEs is that they want to have a certain degree of control on how the project is organized, and this could be a problem if you have to work on that project with other people. In my experience this leads to two series of related problems:
If you start a project in a particular IDE, they will layout for you a particular directory structure, file organization, file naming convention, build system, etc. Of course most of these options are customizable, but it's not always possible to adhere to specific conventions which you might be required to follow. Projects with a complex build system might be difficult to implement from within the IDE. Moreover, the project might not be suitable for external, independent modification; so for instance, if you are planning to write an opensource application, avoid making the IDE a dependency for the project.
If you import a project started elsewhere, chances are it won't be very easy to use all the features provided by the IDE. You will have to figure out how to hook the build system, the debugger (as the binaries might not be where expected), etc. This is especially true for large and complex projects.
The reason why these ares not a problem under Windows is that Visual Studio is a de-facto standard. Under *nix there's a tendency not to impose particular tools/editors when developing a project collaboratively, and this is why these "cross-IDE communication" problems arise.
As a final note, if you learn, say, kdevelop or netbeans, you might have problems if one day you have to work on a machine where installing those is problematic (e.g. you might not have a Java runtime available and you might not be allowed to install it). If you learn (say) Vim + plugins, you are way safer: you can keep your configuration as a .zip file on your webserver and be pretty sure that Vim will always be available everywhere.
I can't really vouch for the Eclipse module, but that might be attributed to the fact that I'm on Windows and have nearly no idea what I'm doing.
Can't go wrong with your favorite text editor though.
Eclipse isn't bad, but you have to do things Eclipse's way. Eclipse has some built in ideas on directory layout. For a new project, Eclipse is a reasonable choice. Importing an existing project into Eclipse may require some restructuring.
I used to use Eclipse under QNX for C++. The QNX people actually developed the C++ capability, so QNX would have an IDE.
Emacs works for simple things but I use Eclipse for any larger project.