Talk:C:Development Environments

From GPWiki

The dev-C++ IDE kinda sucks. The auto indentation is fairly silly, requiring a lot of manual effort to get code to line up reasonably. Additionally, the debugger doesn't seem to work at all.

It works well for me... debugger, too. It probably just takes some getting used to. Besides, it's free! Ryan Clark 10:56, 25 May 2005 (EDT)

Sucks compared to what? Can you suggest an alternative for a free IDE to use on a Windows platform? I'm not trying to be adversarial; it's just that often when I hear "X Sucks", it really means "I couldn't get X to work right". Although I have found the need to fiddle with the indenture... Could be that I'm doing something wrong, tho'. :) --Wade 11:15, 25 May 2005 (EDT)

I've never had any problems with DevC++. I've had problems, of course, but they were problems with me, not the IDE as I'd like to think. :)--Snoolas 12:40, 25 May 2005 (EDT)

I updated the information on Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition and added some information on differences with the non-free editions. I removed the information about it only being freely available until November, because MS just announced it will remain free (I never really understood how they planned to sell software when they had spent a year getting everyone used to the idea of it being free and giving away ISOs with the need for activation disabled).

I considered adding some more info on VC++ 2005 Express, but the entry was already getting too long and I wasn't sure where a page on VC++ 2005 Express would belong in the hierarchy of pages (there seem to be at least 2-3 different Visual Studio categories already?). If it receives its own page, some useful information could be added like instructions on installing the Platform SDK and enabling the creation of win32 apps (beyond those given by MSDN, such as how to add the Platform SDK help to the Visual C++ help viewer), a mention of installing the DirectX SDK, and information on dealing with the need for the 8.0 CRT to be installed as a shared assembly.

With the availability of CodeBlocks, Eclipse CDT, and Visual C++ Express, I'm not sure if the page's statement that Dev-C++ is the most feature-rich is still true, but I haven't tried Dev-C++ in a while so I left it in place.

Finally, it doesn't belong in the wiki since it is only true until June 30th, 2006, but for anyone reading this: you can receive a free copy of Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition from Microsoft by watching 3 webcasts (on the subject of ASP.NET, the technology which brings you those horrible __PostBack("__$aack__3","aba") links that break your ability to use tabs) at [1]. It still wouldn't include the 64-bit compiler or the fanciest optimizations included with the Pro edition, but it would have the ability to use add-ins and include MASM (I think) and MFC. --216.184.0.180 18:39, 27 April 2006 (EDT)