[ale] C++ Compiler Suggestions!

[Michael B. Trausch]

On Thu, 16 Jul 2009, Mills John M-NPHW64 wrote:

> ALErs -

Just to start, excellent post!

> On Mon, 13 Jul 2009, Marc Ferguson wrote:
>>
>> Thanks Richard,
>> Really, VIM or EMACS? Nothing close to Borland or Visual Studio!? :)
>
> Depends on what was important to you in the Win IDE you were using. I found 
> Visual Studio and Borland's [Pascal] products great ways to learn a language 
> because they link to a lot of specifications and code examples. I haven't 
> found anything like this is Linux, but these aren't what I want from and IDE 
> any more: I'm more interested in getting smoothly around the code to either 
> understand it or fix it.

MonoDevelop (on Linux) is also good, if you find you must work with C#/CLI 
code.  It also supports Vala, which is quick becoming a viable alternative to 
pure C, without managed runtime dependencies.

> I generally use Source-Navigator for code analysis (just like it's name) and 
> 'emacs' for most debugging. (You can even use 'emacs' as your editor in S-N 
> and have the best(?) of both worlds. I also find S-N's 'project editor' both 
> easier and stronger than VS. I appreciate using 'gdb' through both 'Insight' 
> and 'emacs' as primary debugger, but I don't like "raw" 'gdb' very much. 
> (There are scads of wrappers out there for 'gdb'. I wonder why? &8*)

I must check out that program (S-N). I like Nemiver for a gdb frontend... it 
is pretty doos, better than Emacs (IMHO).

> The *NIX tools don't give you much help as a beginner but you can expect 
> more flexibility as you become an experienced user.

Absolutely.  I thought they were way too complex, until I found highly 
compelling reasons to learn them.  Now, I cannot imagine life without them.

> Basically a religious argument. Spend some time with a tool and you mold 
> your style to its strengths and steer away from its awkward corners.
>
> Ask lots of questions on ALE (but _never_ "What's the best widget to do 
> ***?") and you can expect ultra competent help.

Amen!

 	--- Mike