Using Other IDEs 25

Using Other IDEs Book I

Chapter 1
Even though this book will focus on the Code::Blocks IDE and the GCC com-
piler combination, the knowledge you gain can be used with any IDE and

Configuring Your
compiler combination. In fact, all you really need is the compiler. Most devel-

System
opers use an IDE, just because it makes things easy (and we all like things
easy). You may find, though, that Code::Blocks simply doesn’t provide the
functionality you want or that it’s too hard to use.

The selection of an IDE is a personal thing, and most developers have spe-
cific reasons for choosing a particular IDE. In fact, I use several different IDEs
and make my choice based on the needs of a particular project. So it’s not
even necessary to use the same IDE all the time. IDEs provide management
features, while compilers control how the source code is interpreted and
turned into an executable file. The two applications perform completely dif-
ferent tasks.

GCC is a great choice for a compiler because a number of IDEs support it. If
you decide to use a different IDE from the one found in this book, that’s fine
with us. In fact, we congratulate you on your desire to take a different path!
Here are some alternative IDEs that you might want to consider:

✦ CodeLite: http://codelite.org/
✦ Dev-C++: http://dev-c.soft32.com/free-download/
✦ Eclipse: http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/) when used with C/
C++ Development Tooling (CDT) (http://www.eclipse.org/cdt/
✦ Emacs: http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/) when used with
the Emacs Code Browser (ECB) (http://ecb.sourceforge.net/
✦ Netbeans: https://netbeans.org/downloads/
✦ Qt Creator: http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtcreator.
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