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magland
24th June 2007, 02:14
I develop open source software on Windows with Qt4, and I'm stilling using MS Visual C++ 6.0 as my text editor, simply because it is most stable program I have for managing files and editing code. I convert my project (temporarily) to a MS project so I can get the benefits of syntax completion (internal to my project), class management, search project files, etc. But I always create .pro files by hand, and compile on the command line using qmake/mingw32-make. I don't want the IDE to generate code or modify my .pro file.

I would LOVE to find an alternative to MS and I've been searching for quite a while. QDevelop is unacceptably buggy, Eclipse is too confusing (ten step tutorials don't seem to help), and Monkey Studio didn't work for me (although I can't recall the reason). The most promising I think is Edyuk, and the author is very willing to help -- but unfortunately doesn't seem to have a Windows machine. Edyuk takes a long time to start up, and double clicking a class method does not take you to the appropriate source code line - so I cannot use it at this point.

Now I'm not looking for anything fancy -- I want to edit my .pro files by hand, and I don't need a fancy interface to designer. But it would be great to get something as stable as Visual Studio. For me, something small, simple and transparent would do the trick -- important extras would include - class browser, syntax highlighting, and function completion.

Now, please don't judge me for using Window$ -- I need it for my line of work -- and I do make efforts to make everything I do available for Linux. :D

My question: Who has a good solution?

Thanks,
JM

jacek
24th June 2007, 02:19
If Edyuk lacks a few features, you can add them yourself. It's an Open Source project.

magland
24th June 2007, 02:25
If Edyuk lacks a few features, you can add them yourself. It's an Open Source project.

It's not so easy to add the feature: "don't take 180 seconds to start up" or "don't crash".
Also, if it was straighforward to add the "go to appropriate source code line", then fmc would have done it a while ago.

Do you use Windows for development?

jacek
24th June 2007, 02:32
It's not so easy to add the feature: "don't take 180 seconds to start up" or "don't crash".
Also, if it was straighforward to add the "go to appropriate source code line", then fmc would have done it a while ago.
But it might be easier than finding the ideal IDE.


Do you use Windows for development?
Fortunately not. Have you tried Code::Blocks?

magland
24th June 2007, 02:53
Have you tried Code::Blocks?
Yes, without success, but perhaps others have had better luck. ???

I'll put up a poll...

fullmetalcoder
24th June 2007, 11:58
It's not so easy to add the feature: "don't take 180 seconds to start up" or "don't crash".
True enough.... :o
The long loading comes from completion data setup. I tried my best to trim it down but I faced some troubles and decided to postpone this a little because exams left me very few time and I needed more to figure out a way to speed things up. Hopefully it does not take 180 seconds but only about 10 with a busy six years old PC. As for the crash, which seems to be very Windows-specific, I'm investigating the issue but as you pointed out : I don't have a Window$ box myself so it's not that easy to lead proper tests...:(


Also, if it was straighforward to add the "go to appropriate source code line", then fmc would have done it a while ago.
It isn't that complicated but a few other things kept me pretty busy... The most difficult thing is to figure out what is the appropriate line... Indeed not everyone has the same coding style and it can make it difficult to find a function implementation sometimes.

magland
24th June 2007, 13:15
Thanks, fullmetalcoder, and as I said I think Edyuk looks very promising - and I greatly admire your work.... The point of this thread was to point out that for the time being there really is not a satisfactory (non-microsoft) IDE for Windows Qt development. At least I haven't yet found a good alternative for my purposes, but I am interested in hearing whether others have had more success... Anyone use QDevelop on Windows, for example?

yop
24th June 2007, 21:20
I 've had the same problems as you did. For now I 'm settled with Eclipse for my general programming tasks but I 'm not 100% happy with it. I use Code::Blocks for all my Qt related projects (I have even set up a plugin for doing so QtWorkbench (http://code.google.com/p/qtworkbench/)) and that's what I voted on your poll. I would say that your needs will be partially satisfied by Code::Blocks. This is because everything there is build around the project base path so if you prepare typical .pro files (with SUBDIRS and stuff) you 'll lose the (most importantly) debugging facilities and all the other features that depend on the working directory during builds. My usage is as follows:

* Generate my project with Code::Blocks
* Let my plugin generate Code::Blocks "friendly" .pro files
* I "turn on" code completion for Qt classes (works quite well and this is for me the strong point against Eclipse)
* Code, Build blah blah using Code::BLocks (which IMHO is a pretty good IDE)
* By the time I have to release something I handwrite my .pro files and test them using the command line.

magland
25th June 2007, 01:12
Thanks yop for that info. I will certainly give your QtWorkbench a try.