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View Full Version : Nice IDEs for Linux and Windows?



Ingemar
03-10-2011, 05:35 AM
I am mostly working under OSX and I am pretty happy with that. However, the work of porting my code to other OSes, which I need sometimes, is hindered by the lack of comfortable IDEs. I have tried the BloodshedDev IDE, which has been unsupported for quite some time, which doesn't matter so much, but it also feels too complicated. Same thing for KDevelop, a messy and complex solution. The FPC IDE is good as concept but clumsy.

Are there any others to consider? Remember, I want it simple and straight-forward, and I don't want any visual RAD tools so Delphi and Lazarus are beside the point. Maybe some other time, but now I want something simple and code-centered.

Carver413
03-10-2011, 08:03 AM
if your not using lazarus your just making life hard on your self. you don't have to do the rad stuff to use it. I'm sure debuging got to be a real pain for you. I use a simple editor to code with and lazarus to compile and debug. I don't use any of the lcl stuff. to bloated. making my own x win opengl 3.2+ stuff with just the very basic stuff like sysutils. take some time to learn it you will be glad you did.

Ingemar
03-10-2011, 11:23 AM
if your not using lazarus your just making life hard on your self. you don't have to do the rad stuff to use it. I'm sure debuging got to be a real pain for you. I use a simple editor to code with and lazarus to compile and debug. I don't use any of the lcl stuff. to bloated. making my own x win opengl 3.2+ stuff with just the very basic stuff like sysutils. take some time to learn it you will be glad you did.

That could be an approach. I have tried using Lazarus under OSX but it doesn't even start. I got a bit disencouraged from that.

Naturally, the IDE should have some debugging support, otherwise I'd have to debug through the CLI of GDB (not very fun IMHO) or with WriteLn (I'd rather not).

Stoney
03-10-2011, 11:45 AM
I'm using Lazarus without LCL stuff on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Especially tools like code refractoring and jumping to the definition of a procedure/function are things I don't want to miss anymore. In case I don't have Lazarus available or I just want to open a file for quick editing, I use Geany on Linux and Notepad++ on Windows. (Geany can be considered an IDE, while Notepad++ is not.)

code_glitch
03-10-2011, 02:55 PM
Geany anywhere anytime. Just uses your fpc install, from the KDevelop mention, I'd guess linux so a


sudo apt-get install fpc geany

should have installation covered - geany has everything I'd expect, object browser, all word completion, native .pas and .pp syntax support, auto (and customizeable) indentation...

Second place I'd give to programmers notepad (some builds work OK in wine) or anjuta.

Carver413
03-10-2011, 03:48 PM
we've all had our share of problems with the installs. but don't give up other people are using it on mac's. try the trunk version that's alway's the most current and compiling it your self might do the trick.

Ingemar
03-10-2011, 05:00 PM
Especially tools like code refractoring and jumping to the definition of a procedure/function are things I don't want to miss anymore.
Jumping to a function is mandatory, can't be without that, but I never saw that much use for code refactoring. Do you need that that often?

Ingemar
03-10-2011, 05:05 PM
Geany anywhere anytime.
That one was totally new for me, and sounds pretty close to what I want from the description. Will try.

Andru
03-10-2011, 05:19 PM
I have used Geany a lot of time, but lately I'm using Lazarus with docking mode for projects. For fast editing pas files without debugging - Geany is pretty good solution.

JSoftware
03-10-2011, 05:45 PM
Jumping to a function is mandatory, can't be without that, but I never saw that much use for code refactoring. Do you need that that often?
It's pretty nice. Just place caret on an identifier, press F2, type something and you've just renamed something. Extract Procedure, and Complete Code are pretty awesome too. They even handle some cases of parameter renaming/retyping automatically!

Ingemar
03-10-2011, 08:34 PM
I have used Geany a lot of time, but lately I'm using Lazarus with docking mode for projects. For fast editing pas files without debugging - Geany is pretty good solution.
So it has no debugging coupling? Then it sounds like an editor and not and IDE. (But I know that that distinction is often confusing and people but the limit differently.)

Stoney
03-10-2011, 09:00 PM
So it has no debugging coupling?
It does have GDB support with a plugin called GeanyGDB (which can be installed from the package geany-plugins). I've never tested this plugin with FPC though, so I can't say if it works.

code_glitch
03-10-2011, 09:07 PM
For me, an IDE is a good editor with built in compiler support, and as stoney points out, it does have its share of plugins for those extra bits you might want - I tend to find that if my code crashes my custom debug code, gdb doesn't fare much better...

Andru
03-10-2011, 09:25 PM
So it has no debugging coupling? Then it sounds like an editor and not and IDE. (But I know that that distinction is often confusing and people but the limit differently.)
Yep, just an editor. There is a debgger plugin, but only for C/C++. You won't find good FPC-oriented IDE under Linux and Windows, so the only variant - Lazarus. Or old version of Eclipse with Pascaline (http://code.sidelab.es/projects/pascaline/wiki) plugin(but I haven't tried it yet).

Ingemar
04-10-2011, 09:04 AM
For me, an IDE is a good editor with built in compiler support, and as stoney points out, it does have its share of plugins for those extra bits you might want - I tend to find that if my code crashes my custom debug code, gdb doesn't fare much better...
Crashes are not always easy to catch in GDB, but if you can single-step, set breakpoints and watch variables, then I'd call it usable.

I think an IDE is a lot more than an editor with compiler support. That would make any stupid script turn an editor into an IDE. For me, the editor is a small part of the IDE. There is so much more, like code navigation, proper error reporting... I tried formulating a definition of the term IDE once but I left it since I got pessimistic, feeling that everybody seems to have a different pet feature that they will demand to be there or it isn't an IDE at all, like GUI layouts, class browsers... while at the same time some people will refer to full-blown IDEs as "editors", and some insist that Emacs is an IDE. So nobody would care about me suggesting a formal definition.

Anyway, it seems that the conclusion is that Lazarus is the one to try for an IDE with FPC support. Sometimes I think that a modernized version of the FPC IDE would be quite right, but as it is, it feels to much of a clone of Turbo Pascal from the 80's. (Not that Turbo Pascal was bad but some things, like everything visual, feel so crude today.)

Ingemar
04-10-2011, 04:33 PM
it seems that the conclusion is that Lazarus is the one to try
...but please don't stop suggesting! :)

Ingemar
07-10-2011, 06:05 PM
One more thing: What if I want an IDE where I can comfortably (or somewhat comfortably) mix languages? Like, C and FPC?

Andru
07-10-2011, 08:24 PM
What if I want an IDE...
You should write it by your self :)

chronozphere
08-10-2011, 04:38 PM
I'm quite into VIM actually, but that's not an IDE. When you use VIM, you trade comfort for high availability and flexibility. You can use it anywhere, in any shell or operating system, for any language/task. The harder part is to customize it to your needs. There are some nice plugins for it so it can do a lot of things IDE's can. However, VIM is not some easy tool. It takes serious effort to get familiar with it.

For "pascal" development, I still use lazarus. :)

Ingemar
10-10-2011, 10:06 AM
You should write it by your self :)
I guess so, but I am a little bit tired of spending a lot of time writing tools that nobody else needs, and there should be a whole lot of alternatives for Windows.

Andru
10-10-2011, 04:50 PM
and there should be a whole lot of alternatives for Windows.
The only alternative which I can remember for FPC is FPCShell (http://freepascal.ru/download/projects/FPCShell117.tar.gz), but it dead as Dev-Pascal and without source code... Comfortable IDE's for different languages with debugger and with Pascal support is something unreal unfortunately. Oh, also there is an scary MSEIde (http://sourceforge.net/projects/mseide-msegui/) :)


but I am a little bit tired of spending a lot of time writing tools that nobody else needs
Pascal development world is so hardcore, yeah...

Carver413
10-10-2011, 07:27 PM
and there should be a whole lot of alternatives for Windows.

I thought you were using a mac ?


but I am a little bit tired of spending a lot of time writing tools that nobody else needs

In the time it would take to write one you could figure out how to install Lazarus. problem solved.

Ingemar
11-10-2011, 08:34 PM
I thought you were using a mac ?

In the time it would take to write one you could figure out how to install Lazarus. problem solved.
I am using Macs, but I have cross-platform needs too.

I know that it takes time to write my own (I already have, for the Mac) but surely Lazarus wouldn't help me with my cross-language needs? (In contract to cross-platform.)

Carver413
12-10-2011, 05:47 AM
well I understand the cross language problem. I would have a very difficult time if I had to program in another language.and secretly I dream of a much different lazarus then what is offered today.but until then it is the best that is out there for working with fpc.