C++ IDE for OS X

Question

I am now starting to get back to C++ coding (just for fun), and would like an opinion on good IDEs for Mac.

I am currently using Xcode which seems kinda cool because it has everything built into it.

Do any of you have any other IDEs that you would suggest that O give a shot or should I just stick to Xcode?

Answer 1

Eclipse and NetBeans are both capable of working with C++ and they will run on OSX (as well as other platforms). They're both free, and have large communities behind them. They can both do much more than C++ via plugin frameworks, if you want.

Personally, I'd stick with Xcode - for C++ on OSX.

Answer 2

You have a few options:

• If you're the "full-blown IDE kind-of-person" then Xcode is the way to go. Xcode is to OS X what Visual Studio is to Windows.
• If you're the "flee market" kind of person (like me!) then MacVim with make (or any other build tool) and other tools is your thing. Of course, I heard there's also Emacs on OS X, if that's your sex-appeal, or TextMate. On the GUI text-editing scene on the Mac these are the dominating giants.
• Then there's Qt Creator, which comes with the Qt SDK. Qt Creator is an IDE, yet it's very lightweight and quite simple at first-glance. It uses the Qt SDK so your code should be cross-platform among Windows, KDE, and OS X. It will run on other Linux windowing systems given Qt is installed, but I personally think these are the three platforms on which Qt applications integrate best.

I have experience with all three of them. I personally love the editing feeling of MacVim most, by far. On the other hand, it's hard to compare with Xcode's debugging features. Xcode is also your only option if you develop for some specific Apple platforms and frameworks — the iPhone for example. And then, Qt Creator is an IDE with all the intellisense and debugging you expect from an IDE, yet it's simple, light and fast. Beyond that (and given the just-over 0.5GB cost) Qt also gives you that write-once-compile-"everywhere" feature, which is very nice.