free C/C++ development environment?

[Big_Mac]

I'm looking for a decent free C/C++ compiler/editor (well, a dev environment really).

anyone have a favourite?
(for the windows platform)

[mikead_99]

Phew! Haven't seen or heard of anything out there. You might be able to find a free compiler and Textpad (http://www.textpad.com) can give you a decent editor. (Won't keep your preferences unless you lisence it for like $40)

If you can claim to be a student you can get pretty big discounts. I picked up visual studio.net for $99. It's the "Academic" version, which is "Pro" in a different box.

[barton boi]

Try Bloodshed Dev-C++ (htpp://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html).

[JSClark]

I'm a MS VC++ 6.0 boy myself ATM. The compiler that comes with the Visual Studio suite for C++ works just fine for me. I don't have much time to play around with different compilers, but eventually I'll give them a try :D.

[archaned]

Yeh I ordered Visual Studio .NET 2003 Academic Version for $99.
Full price its $1079. You get VB,VC++,C#, etc.
Its not free, but the value is immense at that price.

[mikead_99]

I agree, I hate the thought of being tied to a M$ environment, but for the price you really can't beat it.

[anfpunk]

My personal opinion (take it as that) is to just use a text editor with syntax highlighting. Getting tied into an IDE can hurt you down the line if you ever find yourself stuck without it. And if you're ever forced to use an IDE, you can just use the syntax highlighting part and ignore the rest.

[Tekime]

Dev-C++ is the best free IDE I've used.

[gameboy1234]

Well Bloodshed Dev C++ is very good, I've used it some.

What I really like though is to assemble my own. I have MinGW (http://mingw.org/) installed for the compiler. Then I added MSYS (http://mingw.org/ yes that's the same link) for some unix like tools.

Then head over to http://www.vim.org/ and pick up Gvim for win32. Vim has a learning curve like a cliff face, but if you want portability, this is it. Works the same as vi on unix land and almost every IDE has a vi compatibility mode because so many programmers use it.

Last, set up your _vimrc and _gvimrc files. Just copy the g*vimrc_example.vim files, they work great. The add to the end of _vimrc file:

set autowrite
set ignorecase
set ts=4 sw=4
set sh=sh
set shellpipe=>%s\ 2>&1

And you are set!

Hint: to use this, set up a makefile to compile a simple helloworld program. Then from gvim, type :make in command mode and watch the cools stuff happen.

More good docs on make and the gcc compiler over at http://www.gnu.org and the "tips" section on http://www.vim.org is probably the best way to figure out practical things in vim.

Good luck! But post back here if you have any questions.