What IDE should I use?

[dennisvb]

Hello,
I am using the Debian Linux distribution. Should I use the GNU tool chain or an IDE for developing games with SFML? If I should use an IDE which one? Code::Blocks, Eclipse?
Thanks.

[eXpl0it3r]

Whatever you feel comfortable with. There are arguments for and against all kinds of development enviroments and it's usually a topic that can end up very quickly in a flame war.

Personally I've been using Vim + terminal quite often, when being on a Linux distro, it just feels easy to use, since everything plays nicely with each other and isn't as clumsy to handle as on Windows.
If I'd develop more often on Linux, I'd probably use KDevelop, since it seems to have very nice support for CMake.
On Windows I'm currently using Code::Blocks since it's easy to use and next to VS and Qt Creator about the only other larger IDE.

[dennisvb]

Thanks, I will go with code::blocks for now.
EDIT: I will not use KDevelop, because it has so many dependencies that you need to download when not using KDE.

[Nexus]

If you look for something lighter, Geany might also be an option.

[dennisvb]

If you look for something lighter, Geany might also be an option.

Is that something like Emacs but more IDEish? If so, I might use it.

[eXpl0it3r]

I haven't really heard of Geany, but just by looking at the website, it seems to be more into the direction of Code::Blocks, but even more lightweight.

I don't think it's much like Emacs though, but you should probably just test all of them to see what you like and what you don't.

[dennisvb]

Sounds like a good plan!

[Ancurio]

Hi!
My primary platform is Linux, and I use both Geany and QtCreator for coding (sometimes a plain text editor too, haha).
While Geany is really light in that it can be described as an text editor with IDE capabilities and syntax highlighting, and is sufficient for C, it isn't as helpful with C++ if you're heavily relying upon context aware input completion (Geany has no context awareness AFAIK).

That's where QtCreator really shines IMO, it has perfect context aware completion and a lot of other nice utilities (like the integration with gdb) and is definitely worth the few Qt dependencies. Although the native build system is qmake, it also supports cmake.

[Haze]

I haven't really heard of Geany, but just by looking at the website, it seems to be more into the direction of Code::Blocks, but even more lightweight.

Geany hardly qualifies as an IDE, because it lacks a lot of basic features such as generating your makefile, code completion, managing lib dependencies, link edition and creating build targets.
It's "just" a text editor with the ability to compile your current .c/.cpp unit into a .o object.
More advanced features are just buttons for which you need to specify the command line callback.

So if you want to use Geany for a SFML project, you need to write your makefile first. Which leads to pick a tool for generating your makefile as soon you have to deal with more than a couple of source files or build targets.

If you're not used to write your own makefile and the tools chain which come with them,  Code::Blocks is definitely the way to go, it's very easy to use and it even has default SFML project templates (linker settings + minimal code).

[Ancurio]

Geany hardly qualifies as an IDE, because it lacks a lot of basic features such as generating your makefile, code completion, managing lib dependencies, link edition and creating build targets.
It's "just" a text editor with the ability to compile your current .c/.cpp unit into a .o object.
More advanced features are just buttons for which you need to specify the command line callback.

Which is why it's called a "light IDE". It has syntax highlighting, rudimentary code completion, and can "make all" on click as well as custom defined targets.
And since when do IDE's generate Makefiles? That's the build system's job

[Roose Bolton of the Dreadfort]

Visual Studio.. just love it.

Some very cool features... although that being said I still don't know what half the buttons do.

[mateandmetal]

Codelite has a very powerfull code completion system