Well, when someone says about Vim or Emacs as IDE, the editor + gdb + gcc/g++/fpc/whatever + make + integration of control into editor is suggested. Surely it is a must not to leave editor for every compile, and to navigate source code easily.

Emacs is an IDE because ...

• Compilation = M-x compile -> settable by major-mode and (of course) by buffer
• Fixing = Click on an error line in the compiler results -> goto that line / column and edit away (compiler message parser definable by regex)
• Navigation = IMenu / etags -> build a list of functions / classes / etc (definable by regex) for instant navigation via cmd or menu
• Source control = C-x v prefix -> supports a lot of version control systems, even darcs
• Debugging = GDB -> can interact with at least gdb, probably others too [1]

Notice I'm not saying anything about Vim because I don't use it for programming. So Vim users are welcome to add their own arguments for why Vim is an IDE.

Now some things that Emacs is more or less lacking ...

• Project Support = managing a set of files as a project unit
• Autocompletion = while some support is available, it's nothing like Eclipse or VisualStudio has

So, barring anything I may have forgotten, if you think those last two are absolutely essential to being an IDE, I guess you wouldn't think Emacs is one.

[1] Actually, I've never used this functionality before, because I simply don't use debuggers for a lot of my code (like SML). But conceivably, Emacs could work with almost any debugger or interpreter through shell mode.

For Vim Navigation, Compilation, Fixing and Debugging points are nearly the same.
For version control and project file grouping you need to download something from www.vim.org . Completion.. There is some, but it is text-only. Convenient if good names are used for variables and functions, though.

My knowledge of abusing Vim as an IDE is limited, but:

• Compilation = :make
• Fixing = Goes to the first compile error found by :make. Then skip forward and back with :cnext and :cprev
• Navigation = Exuberant CTags
• Source Control = various vim scripts, I know there is one for SVN/CVS for sure
• Debugging = http://clewn.sourceforge.net/
• Project Support = Why? Shouldn't each project get its own directory, Makefile, ctags, whatever? (I might not be understanding what this means)
• AutoCompletion = http://insenvim.sourceforge.net/

I haven't really gotten around to using all this stuff, though. I generally have a bunch of rxvt's up.

Hello,

What, no VIM! That is what I usually use. It can be tweaked to be a very useful IDE with tools, compilers for several languages and debuggers, too.

Anyway, of the choices given, I prefer KDEVELOP best. It is a very nice IDE and has many great features.

Zend Studio; the least time from download to getting actual work done. No juggling different libraries, fixing 8,582 dependencies, compiling, recompiling, etc. -- It Just Works(tm).

I'd vote Geany but it's not in the list here either. I'm not much of a programmer, just starting to learn a few things, but I think that a lightweight IDE is a good place to start.

MagicMan

Please add Lazarus!

www.lazarus.freepascal.org

Has more then 250.000 downloads on source-forge:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...group_id=89339

It´s a Delphi clone that supports Windows, Linux, all BSDs, Mac OS X, Windows CE and many other platforms natively.

Another vote for Vim here (which won't show up in the results ).

As others have pointed out, Vim has support for an integrated edit-compile-fix-compile-run cycle, RCS/CVS/SVN/Darcs and project files. Plus everything else you could ask from an IDE: syntax highlighting, a powerful diff tool, auto-indentation, source-code navigation, folding, ... Version 7 adds some nifty new features like autocompletion and improved debugger support.

All in all, I don't see why Vim shouldn't qualify as IDE if Emacs does.

Eclipse all the way!

how could i missed that ??!! i apologize ...


its really strange that Lazarus is not in the list ... ^_^


.

KDevelop forever!

gvim + some stuff out of the scripts repository. Disappointing that emacs makes the list, but a properly configured vim/gvim doesn't...

I like KDevelop a lot. Eclipse always seemed way too big, and Anjuta has "issues". Like, if you move a toolbar, it segfaults.

I like KDevelop a lot. Eclipse always seemed way too big, and Anjuta has "issues". Like, if you move a toolbar, it segfaults.

Actually, codeblocks is the very best, but I'm not sure I saw it on the list.