Re: Need suggestions for: C++ IDE and threading/GUI libraries.

From:

=?UTF-8?B?RXJpayBXaWtzdHLDtm0=?= <Erik-wikstrom@telia.com>

Newsgroups:

comp.lang.c++

Date:

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:20:24 GMT

Message-ID:

<s39Ij.5487$R_4.4572@newsb.telia.net>

On 2008-03-31 16:54, Daniel Pitts wrote:

Davis King wrote:

On Mar 30, 8:31 pm, Daniel Pitts
<newsgroup.spamfil...@virtualinfinity.net> wrote:

A little background first. I've done a bit of C++ programming in the
past, but then fell in love with the ease of multithreaded and GUI
programming in Java. I've been using Java for a long time now and have
learn quite a bit about OO design, and its application in Java. I'd
like to re-enter the world of C++, but I feel reluctant to give up my
favorite IDE (IntelliJ IDEA) and easy-to-use Swing GUI framework.

I'm not looking to start a flame war, so I'd prefer hearing the merits
of your suggestion, without criticizing other suggestions.

The projects I will be doing initially will be strictly
non-professional, personal projects. In particular, I'd like to be able
to quickly get up and running with single frame.

Actually, my goal is to re-write a simple multi-threaded Ray Tracer of
mine in c++. Yes, yes, I know their are plenty that are already way more
sophisticated than I'll probably ever be able to create... Its an
exercise, nothing more.

I'm comfortable with either a Linux or Windows, although I'd prefer
Windows for now.

So, with all that in mind.
    What would be a good IDE to invest time and maybe some (preferably
small amount of) money in?
    What GUI framework should I check out? Ease of getting set up is
the primary goal, portability is secondary or lower at the moment.
    What should I look into for create a multi-threaded c++ program? I'm
familiar with a lot of concurrency issues, but only specifically to Java.

Thanks in advance for all who feel like suggesting something,
Daniel.

--
Daniel Pitts' Tech Blog: <http://virtualinfinity.net/wordpress/>

IDE:
If you want to do programming on Windows then you can't really beat
the new free versions of visual studio express. Although if you want
a really powerful editor I suggest you check out Vim (http://
www.vim.org). It runs on every platform I'm aware of including
windows and integrates with visual studio. But, I have to admit that
during the first 2 or 3 weeks of learning Vim you will want to kill
yourself since learning it is a pain. However, it is my favorite
editor by far and once you get good at it using any other editor feels
like trudging through molasses by comparison. :)

Quite in love with Vim myself, but I've gotten use to a much more
heavyweight IDE. Even heavier than Visual Studios; I would have thought
they'd have make a useful auto-complete by now, instead of this
half-broken and you-still-have-to-type-out-most-of-it (un)Intellisense. :-)

Unfortunately I think it is one of the better auto-completes for C++
(though I have not tested other editors recently), C++ is a complex
language which makes auto-complete hard. You should see the auto-
complete when writing C#, sometimes it knows what you want before you
have even started typing.

C++ Libraries:
There are a number of good libraries out there but I'll plug mine :)
If you want to take a look it is at http://dclib.sourceforge.net and
includes all the threading functionality you should need (including
the Monitor synchronization approach like java does). It also
includes a simple GUI framework that would allow you to display an
image on the screen along with a few buttons quite easily.

I'll check that out too.

You might also want to take a look at boost (www.boost.org), a
collection of various libraries, such as threading and more.

For a GUI framework I like Qt, but wxWidgets is also popular.

--
Erik Wikstr??m