IDE for C++

What are the most used IDE for C++ ?
Which is suitable for Windows ?

1 Like

I am not big fan of IDEs unless my organization mandate it. Moreover no IDE is best for an OS, it may be best for your requirement or to your taste.

  • I have used Visual Studio most (I use visual studio 2010 express edition, it is free). The command line version cl is also useful for some tasks. And I think MS Visual studio is most used. (AFAIK)
  • I have also used exclipse with C++ plugin, but I still prefer Visual studio.
  • DEV-C++ is also a good choice.
  • Netbean is also available with C++ plugin, but I never used it.

Use all of them for some time as find the one that fits best to your need.

I have used codeblocks. it seems fine with a debugger and variable watches.

2 Likes

Sublime Text is Best for Competitive Programming

All you need for competitive programming are the following things.

Should be fast (rules out certain heavy weight IDEs)

Easy switching/integration with the compiler.

Auto-complete so you don’t make silly mistakes (Kate, Sublime have it by default, You could also get a macro in VIM)

Automatic and language aware indentation, and parenthesis matching

I use Sublime Text for a few reasons.

Ability to add multiple templates and snippets (can be done in VIM as well, but lower learning curve) for e.g. I use for(int i=0;i< VariableName;i++){} quite often which is available to be on subl easily, and this is possible in other IDEs as well, just that I am used to subl.

Extremely fast switching between files, in fact faster than all IDEs I have used, if you get familiar with the Ctrl+P shortcut, else the sidebar helps.

Multiple cursors by default (Again VIM + Macros), for quickly changing multiple things (for example you decide to convert Char Array into STL String, etc)

Little known feature is you can build (i.e compile) from the editor itself, and just shift to a terminal window to run.

Handles both mouse and keyboard really well.

Powerful fuzzy code completion.

Credits → Abhimanyu

You can find Some best Answers here → http://www.quora.com/CodeChef/Being-a-competitive-programmer-which-is-the-best-IDE-to-use

7 Likes

Hi! I was searching for a light-weight ide for competitive programming. Inspired by TextPad and Sublime Text, I just built one: GitHub - svr8/Desk: Light-weight ide for competitive programming.
Do give it a try…
Thanks!

3 Likes

CLion is best in my opinion. The greatest thing about is that it contains on the pass parser. That is any syntactical error can be detected while writing code itself(it’s same as IntelliJ(for Java), PyCharm(Python) or Android Studio), this saves a lot of time while writing code during Short Contests as you don’t need to first compile your code to check syntactical error and then go through a rigrous process to fix them. Apart from this it also has features that any other standard IDE has, like Auto Code Completion, Syntax Highlighting and Support for Debugging.

Although CLion is not a free product you can get it for free if you are a student(or teacher) by getting Jet Brains’ student’s license which can be renewed after every one year.

No IDE, (g)vim all the way :smiley:

4 Likes

I’m a big fan of gvim :slight_smile:

Hi I am trying to setup CLion for CP but I don’t know how to execute individual files instead of the whole project. Can you help me out? I installed the plugin for separate executable but that seems like a lot of work :frowning:

Looks cool and fast. Will try tomorrow first thing in the morning and let you know!

1 Like

Since this question is asked on CodeChef discuss, I’m assuming that you need an IDE for doing competitive programming:

Your IDE should ideally have:

  • Support for running/validating multiple test cases consecuitively out-of-the-box or via an extension.
  • Feel lightweight and load/switch tabs fast (especially if you have a low-spec system)
  • Autocomplete, debugging, linting etc.

You don’t need a full-fledged IDE for these, a decent code editor would be more than enough, and in fact, recommended. You should go for Visual Studio Code (not Visual Studio). Sublime Text will also work, but VS Code has a wonderful extension called IO Run which is better than the Sublime counterparts (CPPFastOlympicBuilder etc.). There’s hardly anything in Sublime which is not in VS Code.

Talking about some more, Atom works significantly slower, Dev-C++ is known to have several bugs, most other IDEs would be too heavy and are meant for big projects.

Hope this helps!

Edit: Vim can be an excellent option, but it has a steep learning curve.

2 Likes

UPDATE: I just used it and imo it’s a decent ide. Fast and snappy. Best thing is it makes you set flags first which is very helpful. Overall 9/10 (9 being the highest (room for improvement always there). Although it kept shifting to the right continuously in windowed mode as I typed. Bug or feature?)

Okay. Its definitely a bug. It seems to work fine on my machine though. I’ll test on other devices. Btw right now, I’m using a third-party syntax highlighter. I’m building my own syntax highlighter but its gonna take a while until the next release.
Thanks for the update!! Glad you liked it:)

1 Like

can’t find the extension called IO Run.is that its complete name?

Ever heard of Geany?
It’s fast, small, lightweight, customizable with tons of other support.

2 Likes

Yes that’s the name. Here’s the link: IORun - Visual Studio Marketplace

Best ide in World

for CP the best combination is vim + terminal or vscode + terminal

@skarthick better shift to ubuntu(linux) as soon as possible !! It has tons of benefits over windows…

vsc with cp-plugin.