hi there
I'm into the learning stage of C and PHP. Until now I was using MS Visual Studio IDE for C/C++ applications and Notepad++ for PHP application.
Now I'm thinking to use same IDE for those languages and Eclipse seems to support both of them.
My questions are:
- Do you think is good to forgot about using MS Visual Studio for Eclipse?
- Do you think is good to use the same IDE?
IDE are tools at your disposal - you will be better off learning how to use many different tools rather that trying to find one that fits all your purposes. Based on my experience I would use Visual Studio for C++ and Eclipse for PHP but that is just the choices I would make based on the options you have presented.
There are so many IDE's and code editors out there it would be a shame for you to miss out on learning which one you prefer. Try all of them and stick with the one you like best.
It is a matter of personal choice. Eclipse PDT (for PHP) seems to be helpful with syntax check, code outline etc. I have only briefly used Eclipse for C++ (mostly I've been also doing that in VS). If you want to create cross-platform applications with C++ then may be Eclipse with gcc compiler will be better than MS Visual Studio; it's more lightweight, it's opensource so if something is wrong with the compiler / IDE you can in principle find out what is happening, etc. From the other side, MS Visual Studio for C++ is a very good tool which provides lots of help and assistance, especially if you are a beginner. Some questions to start with, for me, would be "what is the target platform of your applications, is it supported by the given IDE / which third parties code (if any) is used / if the work is done together in a team, which tools are used by the others?"
The real answer is, as it was already said, there are no right or wrong choices, it all depends on the circumstances / personal skills. By the way, if you like minimalistic approach, there is also SciTE editor which is my personal preference for doing small bits of code, it's even more lightweight than Notepad++ :)