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Best C++ IDE or Editor for Windows
What is a very simple lightweight and free IDE for developing C++ with DirectX? I use Dev-C++ for simple C/C++ programs and like it very much. However, It does not seem to support DirectX. I have also tried Express edition of Microsofts C++ environment. I was wodering if any other good IDEs exist.
The open source, cross platform, free C++ IDE. Code::Blocks is a free C++ IDE built to meet the most demanding needs of its users. It is designed to be very extensible and fully configurable.
Dev-C++ was discontinued in 2005 and is distributed with buggy (3.x) GCC.
Code::Blocks is "Dev-C++" like but much better, that's the lightweight IDE I can recommend. AFAIK it doesn't come with support to DirectX, but what support would you like? Besides project templates I don't know what else could be provided so I wouldn't rather guide this way.
Visual C++ is very good on Windows but it's not surely lightweight. That would be my enterprise recommendation when talking about programming on Windows (and for Windows).
Notepad++ is pretty simple and lightweight. Whether it's really an IDE or not depends a bit on what you mean by that. It's primarily an editor, but includes some plug-in capability so (for example) you can compile your code from within the environment by clicking a button, rather than typing at a command line. This is somewhat limited though, so while you could get it to invoke your debugger, you can't do the actual debugging in it (though, in fairness, the same is true of many things that call themselves IDEs).
Vim! Both simple and light-weight. Can integrate with build/debug tools. Fastest way to edit complex documents (like code). Plus, figuring it out gives you something to do in all that free time that you're so anxious about filling ;)
Also: eclipse is kinda cool for all the plug-ins you can hang off it. Not light-weight.