Best C++ IDE for *nix [closed]

Question

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?

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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]