Current Best Suggestions for C++ Compiler / IDE?

[juha_p]

It's a bit odd that there isn't a single really good C++ IDE for linux.
The last time I had tried Eclipse was unusable because of the directory structure it insisted on having, Netbeans was a memory hog, and QT-creator didn't have an option to set command line arguments for the program to be run, and none had support for multi-process debugging.

Have you checked KDevelop - https://www.kdevelop.org/
Quite new list of 'best IDEs' - https://www.slant.co/topics/1411/~ides-for-c-on-linux

[stratum]

I had tried an older version of KDevelop and it had crashed. Probably a solved bug.
On linux there is always a reason that ties you to ages old software.
Whether it's a large list of open source libraries that you may need to maintain in compiled form, or a specific kernel version one of them requires, or an IDE that's OK in its binary release but not when it's compiled form its source code, or a lack of binary compatibilty in general, there is always a reason.

[swatwork]

QT-creator didn't have an option to set command line arguments for the program to be run

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/159 ... -arguments

[swatwork]

Codelite + Nuwen Mingw (which is put together by one of the main MS devs).

Is it Bill Gates?

[keithwood]

I think Visual Studio on Windows and XCode on the Mac are both decent with a bit of Sublime Text when you just need a programmer friendly text editor.

I would heartily recommend learning to use cmake. I have found it really useful for cross platform compilation and build automation. It's definitely useful compiling on both windows/mac early on to avoid potential problems (especially mac). AppleClang is much more strict (a good thing I think) than MSVC.

[mhept]

It's a bit odd that there isn't a single really good C++ IDE for linux.
The last time I had tried Eclipse was unusable because of the directory structure it insisted on having,

Eclipse CDT works great for me, I use it on Windows together with MSYS2, Clang and MinGW headers.
It's the best solution by far.

I especially like the search, call hiearachy and refactor features in there. They are super quick.
gdb integration is also very good.

Visual Studio is clunky toy, I only go there if I need the M$ compiler or its debug capabilities.
Also Eclipses texteditors doubleclick block selection features make my workflow really fast.

I whished all editors worked a bit more like Eclipses editor.

[stratum]

It's a bit odd that there isn't a single really good C++ IDE for linux.
The last time I had tried Eclipse was unusable because of the directory structure it insisted on having,

Eclipse CDT works great for me, I use it on Windows together with MSYS2, Clang and MinGW headers.
It's the best solution by far.

I especially like the search, call hiearachy and refactor features in there. They are super quick.
gdb integration is also very good.

Visual Studio is clunky toy, I only go there if I need the M$ compiler or its debug capabilities.
Also Eclipses texteditors doubleclick block selection features make my workflow really fast.

I whished all editors worked a bit more like Eclipses editor.

Thanks for the tip. My problem with Eclipse is this:

Code: Select all

-- Configuring done
CMake Warning in CMakeLists.txt:
  The build directory is a subdirectory of the source directory.

  This is not supported well by Eclipse.  It is strongly recommended to use a
  build directory which is a sibling of the source directory.

I have to maintain scripts for the development environment and Eclipse insists on having its own directory structure and I don't want to change what works for me conveniently just because an IDE does not agree with it.

[stratum]

Update: Current version of KDevelop from Centos 7 seems to be usable and works fine with CMake.

[syntonica]

I think Visual Studio on Windows and XCode on the Mac are both decent with a bit of Sublime Text when you just need a programmer friendly text editor.

I broke down and installed Windows 10 since there was so much going on, I didn't want to futz with Wine. Worst OS. Ever. I can't even begin to explain how much I am despising my "user experience".

That aside, I installed VS Community, the very basic c++ install. It raped me for 10Gb hard drive space and I can't even tell if I've got the right compiler. It seems to want to "manage" me and compile to .NET4 drivel. If I wanted a VM, I'd go Java. Next step is to completely uninstall this crap and try a different solution that takes only 100Mb or so.

Probably CodeLite since it as pretty nice on the Mac side of things.

[syntonica]

Eclipse CDT works great for me, I use it on Windows together with MSYS2, Clang and MinGW headers.
It's the best solution by far.

I use Eclipse for Java programming and I far enjoy it compared to using Netbeans (where I first started and made the mistake of using Matisse!) and IntelliJ.

However, I remember trying it on the Mac with CDT and not liking it at all, although I forget the exact reason why. The usual suspects are poor app packaging and being overly fussy in Eclipse's inimitable way.

How is the CDT on Windows? Is it install and go, or is there a lot of setup to do?

[satYatunes]

I recently started learning JUCE so installed VS Community edition as per their tutorials. It is well integrated with Projucer and working like a charm. However I don't like that it takes huge chunk of HD space.
I use NetBeans for my website development (PHP, HTML5. CSS, etc.). It's actually pretty good but bit of a memory hog. I never used it for anything else.
I have used Eclipse exclusively for Java and really like it. People swear by VSC debugging capabilities, how does CDT compare to that? As I am starting out I guess I will need it bit more.

[camsr]

I think that most of the data in the visual studio install is the MSDN stuff. It can be very useful but you can also find the MSDN online.

[stratum]

I use NetBeans for my website development (PHP, HTML5. CSS, etc.). It's actually pretty good but bit of a memory hog. I never used it for anything else.

Being a memory hog is a common property of all IDE's written in Java, Eclipse included. For those doing Linux development in a virtual machine, that means at least 8 GB of RAM needs to be assigned to the virtual machine, which in turn means the host machine needs to have about 16 GB minimum.

[satYatunes]

I took a look at EclipseCDT and CodeLite. Both of them need additional downloads such as compilers, tools, plugins and whatnot. Plus some initial configuration. This is the deal with most Open Source apps. Not complaining just an observation. If it's any consolation, there are some step-by-step guide available to make it easier. To be honest, I didn't have to do any configuration after installing VSC. It just worked from get go. After reading a few reviews I have decided to stick with VSC for now. My laziness is another contributing factor too .

[mcbpete]

I installed VS Community, the very basic c++ install. It raped me for 10Gb hard drive space and I can't even tell if I've got the right compiler. It seems to want to "manage" me and compile to .NET4 drivel. If I wanted a VM, I'd go Java. Next step is to completely uninstall this crap and try a different solution that takes only 100Mb or so.

The installer is a little under 100Mb (but expands to a bit more) but maybe try the 'universal' IDE approach of Visual Studio Code - https://code.visualstudio.com/

That way you can use your compiler of choice (I use GCC) for whatever programming language of choice you want - all under one 'roof'. You may need to find documentation online for build instructions to get VSC to 'talk' to the relevant compiler for each project