GCC-based IDE's for DOS? 39
PM4RK5 asks: "Today in computer science 3, I was plugging away at compiling a string class in Borland C++ (version 3.x), and came across a glaring problem, in terms of compiler problems, not source problems, as I had successfully compiled the same source code earlier using GCC on Linux. Now we're looking at using DJGPP as it uses GCC/G++ and has a comparable IDE (RHIDE) to the Borland IDE, even though some features aren't available yet. However, before we use this on every computer, are there any better GCC-based IDE's and/or compilers for the DOS platform? Maybe any that support the Win32 GUI? (for those of us bold enough to try). I have to admit, I much prefer developing on a *NIX platform, but school computers are limited to Windows/DOS. Even if there aren't any better IDE's, it will still be nice to have a better compiler on hand with GCC and RHIDE. Any suggestions would be appreciated."
wait, i'm confused (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:wait, i'm confused (Score:1)
Re:wait, i'm confused (Score:2)
Your suggestions are good, but I would say our questioner's experience dealing with differing compiler abilities is just like that of a real world programmer. What I work on requires a bit of fighting with the MS compiler, gcc, Sun Forte and Workshop to get them to agree on code.
Also, just because STL implements string classes doesn't mean a student shouldn't try to do the same thing. But I'll skip the tedious teacher talk.
Emacs (Score:2, Interesting)
cygwin (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
DJGPP (Score:2)
Here's a quote from the djgpp faq [delorie.com]
Re:DJGPP (Score:2)
Well, the story mentioned DJGPP, so I assumed he already knew about it
cygwin is all you need (Score:1)
For Win32 (Score:3, Informative)
Re:For Win32 (Score:2, Informative)
Re:For Win32 (Score:2)
Dev-C++ absolutely refuses to allow me to use any library function from #include "conio.h" such as clrscr(); and getch(); at the end of my programs to pause results in function redefintion: getchar(); error messages. The same thing works perfectly in Broland...
I think they need to get their act together and clean the program up before it'll be worth anything. The best compiler in the world is only as good as the IDE tied to it, if you're using that. If no IDE, it's as good as your command line skills.
VIDE? (Score:1)
Clarification... (Score:2)
OK, I apologize for any confusion, but we're using Borland 3.x (I don't know the 'x'). But yes it's ancient, and thats the problem we've run in to. But the problem is, I'm looking at deploying this in a high school environment, and we need the IDE for debugging our programs, as that is what all the students are used to already.
I'm used to both the Borland IDE, and VIM/GCC/GDB in Linux, but nobody else in the class would be. We've all run in to quirks with the Borland compiler so that's why we want something new (copmiler-wise, and gcc is both free and extremely good, IMHO) with a familiar IDE, or one of comparable usage.
I hope this clarifies some of the questions.
So far it sounds like RHIDE is the way to go (with DJGPP), and those of us that want to can still use Makefiles to manage multiple-file projects. (I'd probably have to explain that to the class) Also, from my experience, we'd also be able to use RHIDE for both C++ and Pascal via gcc and Free Pascal. So this could provide an all-in-one solution for our Computer Science department.
If I convince the teacher(s) to use it, it will be a score for OSS =)
Re:Clarification... (Score:2)
The development environment should be emacs and Makefiles. Maybe vim instead of emacs. But for the type of projects you would do in a class, the build process won't be that complecated. If you make one Makefile that builds two
Re:Clarification... (Score:1)
I can understand that others might feel that "coddling" students with an IDE is a bad thing... but honestly -- if the "average" high school kids of today taking compu-sci related classes are anything like they were when I was in high school... they aren't going to get very far on a cygwin/vim/gcc/gdb type solution as the learning curve is far too steep for the limited time you have to actually teach in your typical high school course.
Your average student will end up spending more time asking questions along the lines of "How do I delete a block of text in VI?" as opposed to the more important questions centered around basic software development and debugging.
Just my $0.02...
D-flat. (Score:2)
Wasn't Al Stevens (of Dr. Dobbs fame) working on just this? I don't remember right now, but I seem to remember it fitting the bill. Here's a reference link I found in google:
http://ai.kaist.ac.kr/~ymkim/Program/c++.html [kaist.ac.kr]
Search for "d-flat Al.Stevens" and you'll find a bunch of stuff.
Quincy (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/6552/ (Score:3, Informative)
Tools for programming and developing your project
Programming enviroments
Robert Höhne developed (with the colaboration of some friends
A very used enviroment in the world of Linux is the GNU Emacs. Emacs is a very huge and powerfull editor that can be customized by the user. The program is splited in various ZIP files. Now v20.5 is available for DOS.
For people that comes from UNIX there are a VI clon for DOS called VIM (http://www.primenet.com/~imbe/vim/ The link seems to be broken, if you can get it download the sources and compile it). The sources of the last beta version (5.0t that compiles with DJGPP) can be obtained here. A GUI Shell for windows is available too.
SET's editor (SETEdit) v0.4.41 by
Lemur 0.3 (alpha) by Endlisnis scanning program. It is a sLisp script for Setedit (and hence RHIDE) plus a program to look up function prototypes, structure members, etc.
FTE is a portable editor compiled with djgpp under DOS, is available for Linux, X-Windows and OS/2 too.
DFE 95 by Will Weisser is a native win32 IDE for Windows 95. Is available in Simtel too (/v2apps) but 3.4 is only in this link or try this. Free. Sources. The author abandoned the project but Exuviae announced a new GUI called DFE98 (was in http://home.sprintmail.com/~exuviae) or try here, I'm not sure if that's the continuation. Note: the version I downloaed in november 1997 wasn't very stable.
colgcc by Richard Dawe colours the output of gcc to highlight warnings and errors. Useful for command line funs. Now v1.2 available. Sources. GPL.
RSXIDE by Rainer Schnitker is a IDE for Win32 systems. It can be used for RSXNTDJ.
Personally, I like RHIDE and DFE. Haven't done any DJGPP in forever!
I can remember the days building Allegro on my Pentium 75!
------------
Oh, here's a link for a billion Windows editors:
CNET Download.com [cnet.com]
allegro (Score:1)
http://www.talula.demon.co.uk/allegro/ [demon.co.uk]
Re:http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/65 (Score:1)
BC 5.2 (Score:2, Informative)
Re:BC 5.2 (Score:1)
Re:BC 5.2 (Score:1)
Source Navigator (Score:2, Informative)
Open Watcom? (Score:1)
http://www.openwatcom.org/
Emacs + Cgywin GCC + Cygwin GDB (Score:3, Informative)
Emacs the most powerful IDE out there. It integrates real nicely with GCC. The only down side is that there isn't a GUI oriented 'project' builder but that's what Make is for
I mean, it's easier to make a Makefile containing:
SRCS=File1.c File2.c
OBJS=$(SRCS:.c=.o)
all: ProjectName
ProjectName: $(OBJS)
$(CC) -o ProjectName $(OBJS)
Than to putz around with all that silly wizard stuff. I'll never understand why programmers need GUIs to generate code to compile their code.
I gather from your responses that this is for a school, and the simple fact of the matter is that most production environments (and consequently, most programming jobs) are Unix based so learning about Makefiles and how to use Emacs has to be incredible valuable (I know I wish that the new hirers we get would have been taught this stuff in school...).
Re:Emacs + Cgywin GCC + Cygwin GDB (Score:1)
CC=gcc
at the top of that makefile for it to work.
My preference (Score:1)
GCC under Win32 with Visual C++ IDE (Score:1)
Another alternative (Score:1)
The negative aspect is that EditPlus isn't free.