XP Based IDE for C Coding in OpenGL

[Zeon]

Hey guys,

I havent written anything on a PC for donkeys years, mostly mac stuff using xCode.  Even a while since done that, cause now I get to be the boss mostly.

Asking around for a PC based IDE for XP so far only produces VS.  The thing is, I've been asking mostly Comp. Sci. grads, who learned coding at uni. and generally they couldnt code there way out of a paper bag without 5 billion lines of code and 8 different SDKs being needed.

So, figured this would be the best place to find out which is the best XP based IDE.  I know I'm not going to get the beauty, ease of use, and it just working sweet first time on PC (Serious Mac bias) but, surely there must be something.  I cant go Linux either.  It must work on an XP machine, as strange as it sounds.

It must be able to handle C, C++ would be handy too.  The project is OpenGL with significant net access.  I dont have time to learn C#, or even want to learn any MS stuff.  I'll be accessing ErLang C libraries for alot of the net stuff anyways.  Dont even ask what version of OpenGL either, cause not a big fan of the new stuff, but maybe that just cause I'm old.  Probably, not the latest if thats a potential issue.

My first IDE (if u can call it that) was DevPac on the ST, so I can handle a simple IDE as long as its clean, bug free and fast.  I really hate long compile times.

Thanks in advance...

Cheerz.

[LittleWhite]

Hey,

Don't hesitate to show your work

Now, the answers:

You have the main soft:

Microsoft Visual Studion (Express version if you don't want to pay). Learnt in Uni, because it's used in most of companies (I am a GNU/Linux boy ... so I don't dare ... and I don't like it :p)
Code::Blocks (the spiritual successor of Dev-cpp) http://www.codeblocks.org/
Geany (From GNU/Linux world) Less advanced -> http://www.geany.org/

After I don't really know ... I guess ports of all the GNU/Linux stuff.
QtCreator is really cool too ... but really oriented for Qt ...

[benny!]

Hey Zeon,

I haven't touched C/C++ since some years - so all I say might be out-dated. However, I was actually really happy using VS. You can "down"-configure it if you dont like its bloated reputation ;-)

Nevertheless, after reading your post I think you should have a look at Code::Blocks. I had a quick look at it some years ago and did some mini progs with it. It "feels" really bare-boned and natural (cannot think of any better words to describe it).

And I second LittleWhite:

Don't hesitate to show your work

Best,
benny!

[hellfire]

For Windows there's no better IDE than Visual Studio Professional plus Visual Assist.

[JL235]

My personal favourite IDE, NetBeans, has C support and so does Eclipse. Both are excellent and very mature. For NetBeans you do need to install Cygwin (it doesn't come with a C compiler and it's designed for use with GCC). I don't know if it's the same for Eclipse, but I'd imagine there is an C-Eclipse package available you could use (which might include it's own copy of GCC).

If you really want as much simplicity as possible then you could also go with a text editor + cmd prompt + Cygwin for GCC. There might also be other standalone C compilers available for Windows to avoid the Cygwin install.

[LittleWhite]

My personal favourite IDE, NetBeans, has C support and so does Eclipse. Both are excellent and very mature. For NetBeans you do need to install Cygwin (it doesn't come with a C compiler and it's designed for use with GCC). I don't know if it's the same for Eclipse, but I'd imagine there is an C-Eclipse package available you could use (which might include it's own copy of GCC).

I wanted to avoid these IDE.
For me, they should just stay to there area of excellence. But that's my opinion ... the plugin and C support are good and make the job

If you really want as much simplicity as possible then you could also go with a text editor + cmd prompt + Cygwin for GCC. There might also be other standalone C compilers available for Windows to avoid the Cygwin install.

MinGW which is the port of the GCC (and GNU Compilation tools) on Windows

[ninogenio]

hi Zeon welcome to the forum,

as others have said visual studio is the way to go its the best ide i have used. if you use it you might have to spend a few hours getting used to the interface but in the end its worth it.

it does some pretty clever stuff that makes working with huge projects a cinch. and if you need any help with it at all please dont hesitate to ask. most of us here have varying levels of usage/understanding with it.

cheers.

[rdc]

I use Code::Blocks on both my Vista and XP box. It works just fine on both, has excellent coding facilities, very good debug support, and a lot of ways to manage your project. The default distro comes with MinGW on Windows, but it has support for several other compilers. It is definitely worth a look.