C++ / Python & IDE's

[knightrous]

Okay, looking for a bit of advice.

Currently do a bit of light programming in VB.NET on my VM Machine and some at work on my Windows box, I basically learn what I need to get the job done. Now, I'm starting to look into writing a few things for my own personal use, and I'd like to start developing more on my Linux boxes so I can use the software, as my windows machines are slowly dieing out, and I don't want my gaming partition to be flooded with software beta's :lol:

I like VB.NET because it was really simple to pick up, having only written PHP/HTML and Basic (For PicAXE Microcontrollers), I could knock stuff up reasonably fast, especially with Visual Studio Express 2005/2008 Beta (One of the best software packages Microsoft has released IMHO, and it's one of their Freebies :lol: ). But I'm looking for something I can run cross-platform, so I'm looking at C++ and Python.

I really need a bump into the right direction with which language will provide a good balance of simplicity and power, and most importantly, which have good, user-friendly IDE's and GUI creation. For now, I'm going try to get VB.NET Studio installed into WINE, an ugly solution at best.

Thanks in advance!

 

[linux_0]

Look at emacs and vi

Then check out Eclipse and Kdevelop

C/C++, Python, Perl, Tk/Tcl and shells are cross platform.

So is Java if it's your cup of tea.

There are many other tools and languages as well. Poke around in Add/Remove Software see what you can find at the Ubuntu repos

http://www.activestate.com/ has free and commercial dev tools you can use.

Zend.com, the PHP people, also make Zend studio.

 

[Zorak]

Looks like Linux_0 beat me to the punch! I have been doing all of my coding for my computer microarchitecture class just using vi and gcc ( i don't know how to use gdb just yet). However, from what i've read, kdevelop and eclipse are good IDE's. If you choose to go the kdevelop route, you could install cygwin on your windows partition with enough addons to run a full X windows session and a KDE desktop and that should work to get it running in windows.

Good luck to you. And remember, if you go the vi/gcc way, printf() is your friend!

-Zorak

 

[audiovoodoo]

** Remember back to the days of his first ever "Hello World" in C on a SunOS box using CC and the GUI text editor **

There is something about a simple and basic environment... Maybe I should have another play. Its been years since I wrote any code. Any recommendations for a befuddled chimp that once did a bit of C/C++ but never really got into it?

 

[linux_0]

printf, fprintf, sprintf, snprintf, vprintf, vfprintf, vsprintf, vsnprintf definitely are your friend.

gdb and family are your friends too

http://oreilly.com/ has some good books on coding.

You can read some chapters online and download sample code.

The sample code can be useful even without the book.

If you have the time and patience you could teach yourself to do just about anything you want

You can also learn a lot just by reading the man / info pages and other free documentation that comes with BSD or Linux.

 

[knightrous]

I like Visual Studio because I'm such a lazy programmer.

I like just clicking the button tool, slapping it on the form, double click it and write some code. I'm really, really wanting to avoid having to get back into the text based editing like HTML/PHP. I usually only learn what I need to get the project to work, so I really hate having to run around a lot to get something simple to happen. I also like how VS 2008 also provides possible endings for the code I'm typing, also helps me learn as I experiment with different things.

I know VB.NET isn't elegant or anything, but I found it a snap to pick up and its effective.

Is there an IDE out there for Python that will allow me the freedom of generating GUI like VS 2008 with click and drop style placement, even if I have to write the code behind it in IDLE.

I'm going to try Eclipse & C++, but C++ always makes my head hurt.... I'd rather be debugging my program instead of bending my head around namespaces, #includes and cout :-(

 

[linux_0]

Methinks Eclipse supports various languages.

There is a PHP plugin.

 

[Zorak]

I do know that at bare minimum Eclipse now supports c/c++ in addition to java and I wouldn't be surprised if there were plugins for other things like perl, python, c#, etc.

Also, working with cout isn't that bad, certainly no worse than working with printf(), but if you don't want to deal with the eccentricities of c++ there is always c or java...

Also, if you don't find a linux based IDE that you like, as a nasty hack you could try and get your Visual Studio running in WINE or CrossoverOffice or set up a VM.

If all that fails, you could opt to become a badass and only code in vi and only use gcc at the command line and use straight-up gdb with no pretty front ends

Good luck to you man

-Zorak

P.S. I really would like to know more about why you don't like C++. From my experience it really isn't so bad, so I am curious as to what about it is eating your lunch.

 

[knightrous]

I looked into running Visual Studio via WINE, no one has accomplished it AFAIK... I want to avoid VM because I can't test all my programs properly, some of them will need direct access to Serial/Parallel ports and even the IrDA ports. A few things I've had issues with VM's.

The hardest part about C++ to me is that all the tags don't mean anything to me. I've grown up using languages where the tag you use sticks in your mind and is easy to remember. I liked VB because I could easily remember items on the forms and how to write the code with them. I can easily remember stuff like:

if box1.text = "text" then
form1.open()
else
form1.close()

It's just easy to me. Maybe it's because it's just so dumbed down that I can work with it In regards to the languages, a friend of mine has giving me a few pushes in the right direction with Python and explained a bit about using wxPython. I just guess there is no easy way to learning to program

 

[linux_0]

Check out Perl/Tk