Auto complete Text Editor for C

Question

First post here and a new to C and programming in general. I do have a little HTML and CSS experience but I am in the process of working my way through C for Dummies.

I am trying to find a text editor that auto completes C code. Currently using SubEthaEdit which is the third text editor I have tried. How can I get it to auto complete?

Answer 1

See c-ide-for-linux and many other similar SO questions.

Many IDEs mentioned are not limited to Linux, Eclipse works fine on Windows, and so does Code::Blocks.

Answer 2

Generally, "text editors" do not support autocomplete themselves. Try an IDE (integrated development environment) for autocomplete functionality. There are many to choose from.

Are you using Windows? I've had very satisfactory experiences with Dev-C++. Despite the name, it treats C every bit as well as it treats C++.

If you're on a Mac, check out msiemeri's answer. Xcode is free, but you need to sign up for a free account at Apple. This is what I use on a Mac.

Answer 3

Since I assume, you're on a Mac (using SubEthaEdit), you might want to try Xcode, the "official" IDE on OSX.

It's more than a text editor, though.

Answer 4

Vim supports code completion with not much fussing about.

But also take, that "auto complete" is a very wide term. What exactly is it that you need ?
Intellisense - Visual Studio.
Omnicomplete - Vim.
.
.

Answer 5

If you consider to try / learn Vim/Gvim look at c.vim.

Answer 6

We use Dev-C++ (you can use it for c) also Code::Blocks is good but these aren't only text editors they are IDEs :)

Answer 7

I use SciTE on linux for C.

There are a few reasons-

• I'm used to SciTE for editing Python, XML, JavaScript, and text config files on Windows and Linux.
• It's very configurable and reasonably fast
• I tend to use unit testing rather than debugging, so don't really care that much for debugger integration.

As with most good text editors, it has autocompletion and you can plug in your own commands. The set-up I use for C ( autocompletion, the standard APIs I use, project specific ctags, context sensitive help, build/test/run commands ) are detailed here

Answer 8

Visual Assist is a brilliant addon for the visual studio which has a very good autocomplete feature.

Answer 9

Since you mentioned SubEthaEdit, you must be using MacOS X.

Well, Eclipse is a good option for all platforms. I'd suggest you try it.

Answer 10

If you have the time, I'd recommend learning a serious text editor like Emacs or Vim. Both are great (I personally use Vim) and have tab completion with both default and customizable behavior (there are a ton of plugins online with extra functionality). By default, Ctrl-P in vim searches through the file and any linked files. For example, if you include stdio.h, then the tab completion engine will incorporate printf, etc.

Answer 11

As an IDE, I recommend Microsoft Visual Studio, the Express version is free.