I have been looking around for a good - reliable - Graphical IDE for creating C++ programs. Now Ive noted the following

Anjuta
dev-C++
Kdevelop
gbuilder
Kylix

I've had problems getting Anjuta to work. I've installed borland's free Kylix program, but that wont start either!!

I have not tried dev-C++ or gbuilder.

The only program that seems to work for me is K develop & Im not happy about the 20 + files that are created even for a small 'hello world' app.

My question is - What is the best C++ graphical user interface IDE for Linux?

I have used kdevelop and kylix. Kylix works just like Borland Builder C++ or Delphi does under Windows. So if you are familure with how to use those it is a good place to start.

kdeveloper is a good program as well. It does create a lot of files, but that is because it builds the application framework for a full fledge gui program with help files and everything. It doesn't have a gui creator but works well with stuff created in Qt Designer and generated with uic (uic converts Qt Designer files to C++ headers/source).

Isn't Dev-C++ only for Windows?

Nylex - you are right Dev-C++ is a app for windows...

Another potential linux C++ IDE bites the dust.

I don't know why you didn't include emacs in the list.....

IMHO it is one of the best C++ editors and IDE.

After a lot of fiddling around with kdevelop, kylix, borland etc, i have decided to go back to emacs.

It takes a bit of time to learn the basics & get started, but as far as i am concerned it does beat all the glossy IDE's hands down. I was amazed to find that it can handle all kinds of languages: ada, perl, lisp, c , c++, fortran etc..

The editor is better than any gui ive seen and i can compile & run programs in a shell window without ever leaving emacs.!!

anjuta is the best... when working with large projects nothing beats it.

Anybody have any thoughts on Source Navigator?

It's been years since I've used it but my work situation is changing and I am going to have to address this topic shortly....

BTW, I was reading other posts and it seems folks are having problems with KDevelop with the latest RH distro...

As a text-editor (and light-weight IDE), Kate is my absolute Favorite. It has syntax highliting, support for multiple files/buffers, integrated terminal, etc. It still lacks a couple of features (creating buttons for external programs, for instance), but i find it far more intuitive to use than emacs. If you like marking text with shift+cursor-key, indenting by mark+tab, save by ctrl-s, etc, Kate is for you. I'm aware that one *could* program emacs to do the same, but hey -- i want to get *work* done

Kate also supports scope-folding (collapsing and expanding code-scopes in a tree-like fassion, like SciTe) it the syntax-files supports it. That works quite well for C++, but it's sadly still missing for XML...

Also, there are a bunch of plugins available for Kate -- for example, i have a plugin installed that shows me the structure of python files (classes, methods, etc). It's for one file only, and you have to update it manuall, but it's a start...

So, give Kate a try...

IDE GUI = I say Anjuta.
Lovely flow of work and really organized vs. most typical GUI IDE builders.

Dev-c++ beats emacs with no competition, I wish they would port it to Linux. ho hum...

The thing about KDevelop isn't that it creates everything necessary for a GUI app (it only does that if you tell it you want to create a QT/KDE app), but rather that it automatically takes care of everything that needs to be done to make it compatible with the GNU autotools build system.

My favorite tool is cat ;-)


$ cat > file.c

<program source>
^D

$ cc -o f file.c

$ f

But that cannot be used for editing files, and here we're discussing about editors .

How about vi?
simple. clean. fast. but not gui...

Actually, you can use kwrite as well. (if ur in the X system and using GUI and all)
Open a new file, and right away save it as whatever.c or .cpp and it will automatically start the nice color config for your standard C/C++ keywords.