views:

175

answers:

4

Hi!

A great feature - I think - is, when languages, running in a virtualized way like C# and Java show errors during you're working on the source. Most often IDEs like Eclipse or NetBeans or VisualStudio have the feature to specify errors immediately.

Is there anything like this for C/C++? Just for coding... I'm currently searching for a way to gain the same coding experience with good old C :).

+4  A: 

Eclipse has C and C++ support with the CDT project. I've never personally used it but I would assume it has everything you want.

http://www.eclipse.org/cdt/

Greg Noe
+3  A: 

You can program in C++ in Visual Studio and it will give you the same intellisense an error highlighting features you would expect from it's other languages.

TheTXI
Intellisense, yes, but I haven't seen any error highlighting yet (with VC++ Express 2008).
Michael Myers
A: 

You don't see these kind of tools often for old languages such as C++. It's really hard to create a compiler/parser for C++.

For more info, read:

http://yosefk.com/c++fqa/picture.html

The C++ standard does not specify a machine-readable definition of the C++ grammar, and the question whether a given sequence of characters is legal C++ is undecidable. Building tools reliably processing C++ code (including compilers) is extremely hard.

and

http://www.nobugs.org/developer/parsingcpp/

This is always present in my mind when think about C++. It is C++ which make things difficult. Why not code in another language which is more elegant and easier to parse. Why struggle with Herculean labours against C++ when it's crippled by not being easily machine-processable. We're programmers! We write programs to do things for us! If C++ itself isn't amenable to being manipulated by programs, then why allow it to reside in your toolbox?

compie
Not exactly a productive answer. Sometimes the language you're working in is dictated by management or a client's needs. Saying "throw language X out" is not practical in many cases. The question was not "why does language X suck?" but "what tools can make working with language X easier?"
veefu
Creating a parser for any context-free grammar language isn't hard so Java and C are not too different in this respect.
qrdl
Ok, you edited your post to C++ only, but OP asked primarily about C (question tagged C, not C++), so your reply is off-topic.
qrdl
A: 

Netbeans and Sun Studio have C/C++ support (Sun Studio seems to have more advanced debugging features).