I just starting using VS2005 and I wish to have code highlighting in C/C++. The VS menu Tools->Options->TextEditor->C/C++ is very poor.
I come from PHP and there the IDE's are very friendly when is about highlighting. I didn't expect that Visual Studio to be so poor at this kind of options.
Can you recommend me a free tool/plugin/lib in order to have code highlighting for C/C++?
It's not free, but Visual Assist X has some really nice highlighting.
Another (suboptimal for you) solution is to switch editors. Emacs is infinitely configurable. I believe that Eclipse CDT and NetBeans have better syntax highlighting.
We also use Visual Assist X where I work; I would highly recommend it. Beyond simple highlighting it has refactorization tools, go to definition, auto completion and more.
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I've installed Visual Studio Code and a number of plugins for C++ development (C/C++, CMake, Doxygen, LLDB Debugger) but I can't seem to make this work. I can't refactor, auto-complete has no clue where to look for options and syntax highlight could be much better.
Are there any configuration options I'm missing or is this just a glorified text editor?
Visual Studio Code is a Text Editor, which is available on Windows, Linux, and OSX. It has several plugins which allow you to get some cool features, you can find a lot of documentation online.
Visual Studio (or Visual C++) is an IDE (Integrated Development Environment). It is available on Windows and on OSX (for C# only for now if I remember). It provides a lot of useful Integrated tools such has syntax highlighting, auto completion, compiler and debugger, Intellisense, etc..
I really think you are mistaking those two, tell me if I'm wrong.
I want a Visual Studio plugin to collapse C++ code in visual. For example, I want to collapse the statements in a if block (as shown below). I know Visual Studio has the "outline" menu, but it doesn't seem to work well for me because it sometimes collapses macro defines and other things.
Does anyone know of a tool that can help me?
You need to enable this feature :
Tools -> Options -> Text Editor -> C/C++ -> Formatting -> check everything in "outlining"
Then, reopen the source file to reload outlining.
(PS. This works at least in Visual Studio 2008.)
I have been using Visual Assist X plugin for Visual Studio with great success. It can do what you are looking for and then a lot more.
Unfortunately this is not free software, but this is one of those developer tools that improve your productivity a lot and really worth paying for.
So, I started programming in C++ moving from Java, Eclipse IDE. I use VS 2010 proffessional, I have it for free from DreamSpark.
However, I am very unhappy with its Intellisense, beeing far far worse than Eclipse (its C++ version) has. But almost everywhere on the internet I read that VS has great, superior Intellisense for native C++. So I want to ask, is there any way, some settings to change to make VS intellisense behave simmiliar to Eclipse? Or is there any other functionality in VS intellisense that compensate that?
To be exact, Eclipse intellisense does much better job guessing what object I want to create, suggests includes, generate keywords, generate few common for cycles etc...
I would not even as this question, but I found somuch possitive feedback on native C++ VS 2010 intellisense, so I have feeling I am doing something wrong... Thanks.
If you are writing managed C++ (C++/CLI) there is a post explaining that intellisense is not currently implemented here
As for alternatives you may like visual assist X.
This question has also been answered before on Stackoverflow. Please see below for some alternative answers and suggestions:
No IntelliSense for C++/CLI in Visual Studio 2010?
I would like to enable the IntelliSense 'auto' feature (like the Visual Studio C# 2008 Express) but I am using Visual Studio C++ 2008 Express Edition and in the Tools > Options > Text Editor > C/C++ (there is no option 'IntelliSense' (like Visual C#). How do I get this feature enabled? I know I can get a shortcut in place (CTRL-space etc...)? But how do I get it automatically (the drop down menu)?
In C++, IntelliSense is turned on by default (and AFAIK there isn't even an official way to turn it off). However, when you're coming from C#, you might think it's turned off, because it's so much less powerful in C++. (The reason for this is that C++ is much, much harder to parse. You can find more information on the subject here and here.)
Visual Assist improves C++ considerably (although it might not be all that considerably when you're used to C#), but I don't think you can install plugins in the express edition.
This should be enabled by default. But sometimes for C++ projects it stops working.
Is there a .NCB file in your project folder? If so, close your solution, delete that file, and then re-open your solution and do a rebuild.
I use VC++ 2008 Express Edition as my primary environment. All I can say is that sometimes Intellisense works wonderfully, sometimes it doesn't work at all. The Intellisense parser seems to be slow as can be and stumbles over a lot of cases, especially when templates are involved. Sadly, I just don't think you can count on it being consistently available.
One thing that sometimes helps when intellisense doesn't do what it should, is to delete the .ncb file in the project folder in order to force VS to rebuild the internal database (close VS before deleting the file).
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I'm from a Java school, but I'd like to get my hands dirty in C/C++ development as well. Can you suggest:
a Lightweight beginner IDE [Eg: JCreator for Java] (Simple and small download)
a full-blown advanced IDE [Eg: Eclipse for Java] (Every feature and huge download)
should I use GCC or other compilers?
Thanks a lot guys!
1) a Lightweight beginner IDE [Eg: JCreator for Java] (Simple and small download)
Eclipse with CDT (~40 MB download) or Visual Studio 2008 Express edition (2.6 MB download for installer and then tons of stuff that it'll pull from the net) -- it's free. Also, get the SP1. But, I still suggest that you take a look at Visual Studio.
2) a full-blown advanced IDE [Eg: Eclipse for Java] (Every feature and huge download)
Eclipse with CDT (~40 MB download) or Visual Studio 2008 Professional (if you are going to pay).
3) should I use GCC or other compilers?
Yes and no. Depends on your needs. GNU g++ is great to get started with. However, hooking up with CDT may prove to be difficult.
If you intend to do professional Windows programming in near future, it is best to buy the Visual Studio 2008 Pro (and install SP1) and get used to it.
If you have to do it in Vista and if it is Microsoft platform-specific, then there is no better full-blown IDE than Visual Studio. You can download Visual Studio Express Edition for C++ development as a lighter IDE (Not that light though but it is free). Eclipse with GCC works great as well if you want to go cross-platform.
I suggest Code::Blocks. Remember to download the codeblocks-8.02mingw-setup.exe, it includes the GCC compiler and GDB debugger. With it you're ready to start :)
I agree that there is no better Windows IDE for C++ development than Visual Studio. Apart from the free Visual Studio Express, you might also want to consider Visual Studio Standard. It costs about $200 in the US and, among other advantages, allows you to use third-party plugins such as Visual Assist. Those will help you speed up your development even further.
For really light weight, you can go without any IDE. Grab Cygwin, install GCC and start writing code in any text editor (E.g. Crimson Editor). In fact, I suggest you try this to get an idea of how C++ programs are actually compiled behind the scene of an IDE.
You can get Visual Studio Express C++, which is a good package for a beginner. Probably easiest to get started with this.
You can get Eclipse with CDT and use the Cygwin GCC tools, but this is inferior to Visual Studio in certain ways.
Then there's CodeBlock, which I've heard good things about, but don't know how it compares to Visual Studio or Eclipse/CDT.
Do you want to just learn C++ or use C++ to interact with Vista components? The title of your question says Vista but your description is asking which IDE to use.
I agree using Visual Studio C++ Express is a great place to start. It will basically give you the foundation for writing Windows Apps with C++. You said you're from the JAVA world and if you have experience with C# or VB.NET, don't expect all the designers and wizards to be here in C++. Anyone who had done C++ GUI work knows that this isn't always the case. Not to discourage you, there are designers, just not for everything.
If you want to learn how to interact with Windows through C++, the VC++ main site is here, and the how-do-i videos here, also download the feature pack if you haven't installed SP1 yet is here, besides ribbonizing MFC, they've included Boost in the STL, which is awesome. And finally, the guided tours are here.
Also, you don't technically need MFC to write GUI applications, you can call Win32 API functions directly, but MFC is a foundation and will help.
That should get your started. If you need more help, just post a comment.
I agree with the posters above. For microsoft platform specific development, the Visual Studio environment is by far the best. The express editions are nice, but if I remember correctly, they do't come with the win32 SDK, so you still can't make windows GUI programs with it (officially)...
If all you want is to learn C++, gcc/g++ is a great free compiler and an editor with syntax highlighting should be enough. I find an IDE only adds value for larger projects, for simple test/learning projects and IDE is not that neccessary.
You mentioned that that you know about Eclipse for Java. If you have any experience with Eclipse for Java then you can leverage most of that experience towards your C/C++ development by using Eclipse's CDT ( C/C++ Development Toolkit ) plugin.
I strongly encourage using Eclipse with CDT over using Visual Studio because any time spent learning Visual Studio will be lost if you ever want to do any Linux development.
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I forgot to mention that Eclipse with CDT has all the important features that full version VS has ( and probably more ) ... but doesn't cost any money.
I am rather partial to the Code Gear (formerly Borland) C++ compiler line which I have been using for years.
They have recently release a free 'community' addition called Turbo Explorer
Netbeans is also very good IDE with many futures in it.