What would you recommend for C Programming?

fiod · 2008-05-23 15:00:19

Hey,

I am just about to start a big C project in my university, and I was wondering if someone would mind
recommending a good C IDE.

I am looking for a reasonable IDE, with a good debugger as well (something resembling Eclipse for Java),
and not writing code with some editor and compiling using gcc from the CLI.

It should support:
API Lookup (if available)
Good debugger
Some automatic way for documentation
Anything else useful

Any suggestions would be appreciated,
fiod

Last edited by fiod (2008-05-23 15:01:26)

skymt · 2008-05-23 16:28:59

If you're used to Eclipse, take a look at the CDT.

Barring that, the best C IDE I know of is Emacs. It has a debugger (integration with gdb, complete with GUI), API lookup (a man page viewer), Doxygen integration, and automatic builds with jump-to-error. Oh, and Flymake will blow your mind. The only downside is the learning curve, which is shallow but tall.

Allan · 2008-05-23 16:37:22

I used CDT for a while but I didn't like the directions it has headed since eclipse 3.1. There is also Anjuta and Code::Blocks that should do all you are looking for. I haven't used either in a while though so I might be wrong...

skymt · 2008-05-23 16:44:02

Code::Blocks is for C++ only, so that won't work.

I hadn't considered Anjuta (last time I tried it was the broken release [2.1, was it?]). It doesn't appear to have much in the way of documentation tools, but the rest is there.

joe · 2008-05-24 05:06:45

Are you new to C? If so, I'd say start with the basic tools, and get to know them first.

I think the Emacs suggestion is fantastic.

sivad · 2008-05-24 07:27:55

gcc :S

moljac024 · 2008-05-24 09:01:12

I say vim. It can be an IDE if you like, just throw in some plugins!

Last edited by moljac024 (2008-05-24 09:02:22)

skymt · 2008-05-24 16:03:32

Vim doesn't have a usable debugger plugin, so that won't do.

gnud · 2008-05-25 13:10:31

Is it really that scary to start up a separate debugger?
ddd (a gui gdb frontend) is the best open debugger I know about.

lang2 · 2008-05-25 22:56:02

If it is really C you want to learn, learn it the hard way by using separate tools: editor, compiler (linker), debugger. Having an ide to do everything within one GUI will just hide you from those valuable knowledge..... just for a while. If you're only trying to pass the course, whatever.

venox · 2008-06-16 01:21:56

lang2 wrote:

If it is really C you want to learn, learn it the hard way by using separate tools: editor, compiler (linker), debugger. Having an ide to do everything within one GUI will just hide you from those valuable knowledge..... just for a while. If you're only trying to pass the course, whatever.

He doesn't want to learn C. He is going to start a new big project using the C language, so he probably already knows the language.

When I'm working on a big Java or C/C++ project I usually go with Eclipse. If not, I just stick with plain old and good CLI and vim

Last edited by venox (2008-06-16 01:23:40)

sniffles · 2008-06-16 02:03:01

skymt wrote:

If you're used to Eclipse, take a look at the CDT.
Barring that, the best C IDE I know of is Emacs. It has a debugger (integration with gdb, complete with GUI), API lookup (a man page viewer), Doxygen integration, and automatic builds with jump-to-error. Oh, and Flymake will blow your mind. The only downside is the learning curve, which is shallow but tall.

It has a debugger, api lookup, integration, etc. but IMHO the editor part kind of sucks [ vim for life ! ]

nsf · 2008-06-16 05:39:35

Vim, gcc it's all you need. Debuggers for the weak. The real problem for big projects is a build system.

neotuli · 2008-06-16 08:51:58

Integration isn't everything. One tool for one purpose and all that. I usually do C(++) using vim, ddd, make, and valgrind ... all separately. Interestingly enough I do prefer more of an IDE-feel for java, for which I use eclipse.

Nax · 2008-06-16 21:29:01

I'm using command line tools like vim, gcc, gdb, valgrind, ... for C/C++ and scripting languages too.
For Java, I'm using NetBeans since the creation of configuration files and so on is a bit complicated and time-consuming.

Anders · 2008-06-17 07:32:18

What I use:

- premake for the Makefile generation. very slick to use, I maintain the AUR package. You just write a 10 line script and bam it'll generate Makefiles, VS.NET projects, ...

- gedit as an editor

- gdb for debugging

Of course, this doesn't have any of the stuff you wanted. There's only two IDEs I ever liked, VB6 (but I don't like the language) and Komodo (PHP etc)

Arch Linux

#1 2008-05-23 15:00:19

What would you recommend for C Programming?

#2 2008-05-23 16:28:59

Re: What would you recommend for C Programming?

#3 2008-05-23 16:37:22

Re: What would you recommend for C Programming?

#4 2008-05-23 16:44:02

Re: What would you recommend for C Programming?

#5 2008-05-24 05:06:45

Re: What would you recommend for C Programming?

#6 2008-05-24 07:27:55

Re: What would you recommend for C Programming?

#7 2008-05-24 09:01:12

Re: What would you recommend for C Programming?

#8 2008-05-24 16:03:32

Re: What would you recommend for C Programming?

#9 2008-05-25 13:10:31

Re: What would you recommend for C Programming?

#10 2008-05-25 22:56:02

Re: What would you recommend for C Programming?

#11 2008-06-16 01:21:56

Re: What would you recommend for C Programming?

#12 2008-06-16 02:03:01

Re: What would you recommend for C Programming?

#13 2008-06-16 05:39:35

Re: What would you recommend for C Programming?

#14 2008-06-16 08:51:58

Re: What would you recommend for C Programming?

#15 2008-06-16 21:29:01

Re: What would you recommend for C Programming?

#16 2008-06-17 07:32:18

Re: What would you recommend for C Programming?

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