A free and relatively simple IDE for Windows XP/Vista/7?

Question

I'm used to using iterations of Visual Studio for my IDE needs, but I've long since wiped the machine I had that on and don't think I can have the program reinstalled on new main machine. Because of this I've mostly been using Geany to write up my code, then FireFTP to send it off to a faraway UNIX machine, then using gcc or g++ to compile my code. While I have no real qualms with this method, it is a bit annoying to have to always send off my code to a faraway machine just to compile and test it (as well as the constant back and forth between Geany and FireFTP when I have to do fixes and updates). This also causes an unintentional problem where I can only make executable files for the UNIX machine, but bringing it back over to my Windows machine for testing wouldn't work (unless there's something I don't know about that could make this work).

Does anyone know of a free IDE I could use for a Windows environment in order to solve this problem? Or at least some ways I could make the process of coding to FTPing to compiling to testing (and back again) easier and make my code cross-compatible?

Answer 1

Have you looked at Code::Blocks?

Answer 2

It sounds like you would still prefer to use Visual Studio, so why not use Visual Studio Express?

Answer 3

How about Eclipse?

Answer 4

How about Qt Creator ?

Edit: It supports a cross-platform framework (Qt) on Windows and Unix/Linux (as well as OS X), it supports most revision control systems -- and you can even run it on Windows and Linux and it'll look and behave the same.

Answer 5

How about setting up crossplatform environment?

Subversion + MinGW/Cygwin + Eclipse/Subclipse

This suits my needs perfectly in the similar problem to yours :-)

Answer 6

What about Dev-C++?

Answer 7

Try out Netbeans, It has support for C/C++.

Answer 8

Have you tried Notepad++?

Answer 9

Don't leave home without emacs. Maybe not your only "IDE" but I find it an indispensable companion.

Most recently I've been relying heavily on TFS + emacs integration (from TFS+emacs on SO).

Answer 10

Scintilla provides a simple IDE with SciTE. I've only used it for dynamic languages, but it has compile and build options - which you may have to configure. I don't see an FTP option, but maybe you can add it.

Answer 11

Lots of answers already, but it must be said:

Try Vim. It's the most powerful IDE I've come across in all my years programming, and I've never been happier than with Vim. It's got everything a complete IDE needs except debugger integration, but I can live without that. ;)

Answer 12

Install Perl.

Create a tool that runs a perl script to ftp the files in your project to the unix machine.

Associate that tool, with a button.

When you want to move the file, click the button, and they land on the unix box in short order.

Answer 13

How about if you had an IDE that looks like VS, has an integrated FTP and SSH clients, and allows you to setup and environment to do all of the steps you mentioned in one click...
Check out Magic C++ .NET (not a freeware, but you can download a free trial)

Alternative: Install cygwin and use it with your favorite IDE/editor (Eclipse, Notepad++, ..)

Answer 14

Check out Wascana, an Eclipse-based IDE that also comes prepackaged with CDT, MinGW+MYSYS, wxWidgets, and SDL. Just install and start developping immediately with Eclipse without the hassles of installing seperate installations of Cygwin or MinGW.

Answer 15

Codeblocks and Codelite are two good options if you're sticking with C++. You can use Netbeans and Eclipse for C++. There is also SkyIDE, which is good choice for C++ development, but not actively developed these days. There is also Bloodshed DevC++, but the GCC bundled with it is not updated version. and DevC++ is not actively developed. So better avoid discontinued projects like this.

If you think IDE are too heavy for you. Then you can go with Notepad++ or Scite. Simple and effective. But for more comfort go with IDE's.

Answer 16

I do belive that SharpDevelop is still being worked on. From their website '
#develop (short for SharpDevelop) is a free IDE for C#, VB.NET and Boo projects on Microsoft's .NET platform'

A screen shot of the application can be seen on the front page of the website. I used it back when it was still being developed for .net 1.1 and 2.0. Alot of the things that you know from visual studio can be translated into the same actions with SharpDevlop.

Hope this helps.

Answer 17

I'll add PSPad to the mix. It's a very full-featured Windows programming editor / IDE with built-in FTP.

It's definitely worth checking out.