Apart from Eclipse, which Windows 7 IDEs should I become familiar with ?

Question

Hi all, this is probably a n00b question, but even so...

Apart from MS Office, I have not used the Win OS for anything other than playing games.

I think maybe with Win 7 it's time to get up to speed with .net and whatever other windows-focussed libs will probably be useful to know.

Until 4 years ago, I had worked primarily in mainframe environments. Since then I have worked primarily with Java, Python and C++, in the last couple of years more-or-less exclusively developing in Eclipse.

With the release of Win 7, I have changed my opinion on the future worth of development skills on the MS platform.

So finally to the question :

Apart from Eclipse, which other IDEs are well worth using on the Win7 platform ? Which IDEs best fit the Win 7 environment ?

Answer 1

Visual Studio 2008/2010 and the .NET Framework

Answer 2

Well, you can't really go past Windows development withought trying out Visual Studio. The Express editions are even free to try out and use.

Other than that, most IDEs are crossplatform anyway.

Answer 3

If you're going to be developing specifically for Windows, I'd personally steer clear of Eclipse and just use Microsoft's own Visual Studio. The Visual Studio Express editions are free (beer-free, not speech-free) although limited compared to the full-blown professional editions. They should, however, have enough grunt for all but the most complicated uses.

It is, in my mind, the best solution for Windows-only development.

Answer 4

Visual Studio 2010 for .Net is the only resonable choice if You want to work with .Net

Answer 5

Every man and his dog is using Visual Studio, either the full version or the free Express editions. I am only a beginner, so dont use 90% of what it can do, but its really nice to work with and has .Net SDK in the install (in fanct I dont think its optional).

Answer 6

I believe Microsoft's Visual Studio comes as the obvious choice. The license is quite expensive but you can get away with the Express versions.

Also, if you intend to develop utility apps for Windows then C#/.NET is definitively the way to go.

Finally, if you still intend on doing some cross-platform applications, then I would recommend Qt along with QtCreator IDE (which I think it is surprisingly good).

Answer 7

On the Microsoft platform, Visual Studio and .NET is pretty much the de facto standard to be honest. (You didn't say you were exclusively after open-source options.)

In addition to the 'full' versions there are however 'express' editions that are available for free. (You can also currently get a beta of the full Visual Studio 2010.)

Answer 8

Flex Builder / Flash Builder ... Good choice for cross platform development.

(Although the IDE itself is built on top of Eclipse)

Answer 9

If you had to develop in Python, Java, Php, Ruby or Rails I suggest you to use Aptana that's in my opinion one of the best IDE I've ever seen, and it work well on Windows 7. To work with .NET, Visual Studio 2008/2010 is the best option.

Answer 10

I would recommend Visual Studio 2008 and the .net framework if you're windows focused (as everyone else has said above).. if you're looking for cross-platform work; I would recommend NetBeans over Eclipse, purely for the speed enhancements if nothing else.

Take the time to consider your options, the right IDE makes a hell of a difference to your output.