Comments on: C++ Development Tools

By: Larry

Larry — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 22:14:50 +0000

Thanks for sharing, David!

By: David Barnwell

David Barnwell — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 01:57:28 +0000

I don’t know very many good ide’s but a good, command line c compiler is mingw.
It is far easier to install than cygwin, you are not presented with a bewildering array of installation options, and installation is far quicker. A full download will let you conpile, c, c++, fortran, and openc.
To compile in c, enter:- gcc -g programName.c -o programName.exe

To run your program enter:- ./programName.exe

If your program has a runtime error

enter gdb programName.exe

then enter r at the prompt.

This allows you to run your program until it reaches its trouble spot.

Mingw is not as simple as a good ide but it’s still pretty good.

Also Eclipse can be used for c or c++ development as well, see the Eclipse website.

As for text-editors, I use notepad++, i think it’s a great free text editor and it’s open source so you can see the editor’s source code. Pretty cool.

By: Larry

Larry — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 12:38:55 +0000

Thanks, Nordin, for recommending those. Always good to be aware of a better editor or IDE!

By: Nordin

Nordin — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:40:47 +0000

Hello Larry,

About finding a good IDE for beginners, I think Code::Blocks and CodeLight will do the job. Especially CodeLight, it’s just install, create new project, give it a name, next next next and there is the first Hello World project. Just hit the Build button and than run…

It’s that easy, for real beginners it might be useful to add the steps for creating a new project. The good thing about those two IDEs is they have built in debugger and windows to read the watch values and local values and so on.

Learning to program is one thing, but learning to debug is another. 80% of your time is debugging, so they should learn that too!

By: Larry

Larry — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:28:07 +0000

Thanks for sharing. Any IDE that does some of the work for you is a good thing!

By: Hope

Hope — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 18:26:03 +0000

I’m taking a C++ class and the professor wanted us to use the 2005 version of Visual Studio, but because I have Vista I have to use the 2008 version. It works fine, I guess, since I have no other experience with C++.
However, I would like to mention that the flowcharting software he recommends is a Godsend: http://raptor.martincarlisle.com/
It’s a little quirky, but once we saw HOW to use it, programming C++ was much easier to understand. If you are doing a lot of decisions – it’s a great help because it will do your code for you. You have to clean it up, but you didn’t have to write it all.

By: Larry

Larry — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 13:17:19 +0000

Thanks for sharing. I am familiar with Crimson Editor, although I don’t think I’ve ever used it for C++ development. But, yes, anything is better than Notepad!

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 09:09:54 +0000

My college C++ professor recommended installing the Cygwin suite to make Windows useful for developing in general, and then using GCC programs along with general *nix utils with the command line. The actual editor he recommended is called Crimson Editor, and it’s not bad. (I think anything other than Notepad is pretty much acceptable for beginners.) I’m in the crowd where “Linux is my IDE”, and take advantage of lots of separate tools instead of one big bloated IDE that something like Visual Studio presents.

By: Larry

Larry — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:15:39 +0000

Well, I don’t feel as strongly about it as you do, but thanks for recommendation. My only concern with wxDev-C++ is people getting confused about the addition of wxWidgets to what they’re doing. Still, good to have (free) options.

By: Jason Adams

Jason Adams — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:27:41 +0000

> some readers still say that Dev-C++ is so much easier > to learn with than the others, so I wouldn’t rule that > out entirely.Dev-C++ should never be used; in cases where someone is considering Dev-C++ for ease-of-use and is unwilling to use a more modern option wxDev-C++ (an updated version with some new features) should be the go-to choice.