Which is the best open source C/C++ IDE out there?

[Chuck Robey]

JD Arnold wrote:

> Danial Thom wrote:
>
>>
>> --- Vladimir Tsvetkov <npacemo at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>> This is obviously a trick question, because
>>>
>>> real
>>>
>>>> programmers don't use IDEs. Case Closed.
>>>
>>> I'm not a real programmer, but UNIX is a great
>>> developer environment.
>>> It's a tool based environment.
>>> Small tools, strong cohesion in what they are
>>> designed for, easy ways
>>> to combine them to form more complex tasks.
>>> Good documentation too.
>>> Actually you don't need anything else, you
>>> don't need a colourfull IDE. But...
>>> Maybe only few, really exceptional people can
>>> benefit and grok the
>>> power of this kind of environments.
>>> To me the ideal "IDE" is actually a toolkit:
>>> - Source Editor, preferably with a object
>>> browser or other kind of a
>>> source browser. An autocomplete functionallity
>>> could increase
>>> productivity too - this could increase quality
>>> if we measure quality
>>> of code by the low number of syntax mistakes,
>>> but this could also be a
>>> threat to quality letting the programmer write
>>> without reading
>>> carefully what is written - code bloating.
>>> - Compiler with a debugger. We must discuss
>>> about the pros. and cons.
>>> of a grafic debugger versus a text-mode
>>> debugger. The things are
>>> getting really messy when it comes up to
>>> debugging multithreading code
>>> and I really don't know what is the ultimate
>>> tool for this task.
>>> - A build tool. Ant or make will suffice.
>>> - Source control tools. CVS, SVN etc.
>>> - Documentation tools. POD, Doxygen, Javadoc or
>>> something else.
>>> - Unit testing framework. This is not always a
>>> tool. This could be a
>>> language extension, or  a testing API.
>>> - Other tools.
>>>
>>> You don't need to put everything together in a
>>> single swissknife-tool,
>>> but this could be convenient in some cases.
>>>
>>> IDE vs. Toolbased Environments ???
>>>
>>> Which is more productive and how to measure
>>> productiveness?
>>>
>>> Best Regards,
>>> Vladimir Tsvetkov
>>
>>
>> Tools, schmools. vi and cc work for me.
>>
>> I do admit that I wish someone would get make to
>> accept spaces instead of the (damn) tab. I think
>> its time for that :)
>
>
> That's why you should graduate to Emacs - with the makefile syntax 
> highlighting,
> you'll at least see the differences between tabs and spaces before 
> getting into
> trouble due to bad whitespacing!-)
>
you're certainly giving a viewpoint that has a great deal of truth to 
it, but I guess what scares folks is the horrible, horrible emacs 
learning curve,.  At one point in my career (in school, lisp 
programming) I learned/used emacs.  I admit, it's got so much power, 
there isn't even a close competitor.  BUT at that time, I had a genius 
girl programmer at my side, and she helped me with emacs syntax so 
heavily it was funny, and so I could make use of emacs without really 
having to scale the learning curve.

If I'd actually had to scale that learning curve, do you think I would 
have, even COULD have used emacs?  One of the worst things I had happen, 
I needed, one year later, to go back to vi for a job, and just forgot 
enough emacs usages, and never went back.  I'd love to, but I'd have to 
find another genius Lisp girlfriend, before I could do that.

Likely?  That's why emacs isn't the world's most popular editor/IDE.