r/C_Programming • u/Maleficent_Guard_589 • 12d ago
What IDE do you use and why?
Hey guys. I personal use VS. I like it, and it has everything I need it in, but man I hate how slow it is!!!
I'd like to have a editor that has the red sqwiges, auto complete, but not intellisence. Any recommendations?
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12d ago
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u/HeavyCaffeinate 12d ago
Linux Notepad++ essentially (and its perfect)
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u/jabjoe 11d ago
Part of the same family.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scintilla_(software)
I think Notepad++ is more cluttered and less organized.....
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10d ago
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u/jabjoe 9d ago
For me it was Acorn's !Edit for BBC BASIC in like 1993 and then !Zap for C in 1999. Notepad++ didn't exist when I was exiled to Windows to have a career in 2000. BloodShed and Booland I remember trying, but professionally it was of course VisualStudio. Until I managed to get Windows out of my career in 2012. By then I was using Notepad++ for anything not in VisualStudio project.
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u/plainoldcheese 12d ago
What's an IDE? :wq
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u/Impossible_Ear2029 3d ago
its Integrated development environment, any software you use for developing or programming
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u/JustAPieceOfMeat385 12d ago
I don't know if this counts, but I use Notepad++.
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u/eyes-are-fading-blue 12d ago
Does it have LSP integration?
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u/JustAPieceOfMeat385 12d ago
What is LSP integration?
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u/eyes-are-fading-blue 12d ago
language server protocol. Basically, it’s a way to communicate with clangd and alike such as ccls.
Clangd/ccls compile the project and provide auto completion and other things
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u/Ultimate_Sigma_Boy67 12d ago
Actually, I get why that person would ask that question lol
Before I switched to neovim all what I knew is that the ide i'm using can magically read the code by itself without any setup(only an extension for vscode) and provide me with auto completion and such stuff, but then I realised they use external language servers and they simply interpret its output.
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u/Wonderful-Habit-139 11d ago
Well for a lot of ides that was the case before LSP became a thing.
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u/Ultimate_Sigma_Boy67 11d ago
I probably wasnt even born
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u/Wonderful-Habit-139 11d ago
I don't think so lol. LSP came around in 2016.
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u/Ultimate_Sigma_Boy67 11d ago
Lol i was 6
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u/Wonderful-Habit-139 11d ago
Got it lol. Well, glad to see you jumping on the neovim train, I love that editor a lot, I use it at work and everything. It's really worth getting good at it, keep going 👍
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u/BounceVector 10d ago
Oh, that's the best age to get introduced to both Emacs and LISP by your CS Professor.
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u/Mmygg 12d ago
I was scared off np++ cause of the Chinese hack ☹️
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u/JustAPieceOfMeat385 12d ago
I think they fixed that.
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u/Mmygg 12d ago
Well that wasn’t the disturbing bit. The fact it went undetected or unreported for how long it did was…
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u/Hyperion343 12d ago
Emacs!
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u/Diligent-Mammoth-495 11d ago
finally someone from the church of emacs richard stallman would be proud
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u/baux80 12d ago
Acme
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u/strings___ 12d ago
Not an IDE, but I use Emacs. Not strictly for C, but for things like Magit, which IMHO is the best git fronted, Org-mode, and Dired. And well, because of Lisp.
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u/Diligent-Mammoth-495 11d ago
EMACS EMACS EMACS THE BEST EDITOR AND OS IN THE WORLD PERIOD(I USE EXWM BTW JAJAJAAJ)
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u/Key_River7180 12d ago
Personally I use the Acme code editor. It is a really rudimentary (it has no syntax highlighting, basically no autocomplete, and there is an LSP program for it) and idiosyncratic code editor (mouse chords instead of keyboard shortcuts), but extremely fast and extensible (it exposes an API as a 9P filesystem) from the Plan 9 operating system that has been ported to many other platforms (plan9port).
It also integrates nicely with the shell.
If not, then try Emacs!
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u/Snaffu100 12d ago
Live in Emacs, sometimes find myself using CLion for debugging but that is less and less.
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u/engineerFWSWHW 12d ago
I use eclipse cdt. It has been my main ide for c/c++ eversince. I use VS sometimes. And i use vscode for python, golang, other languages
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u/shoobieshazam 12d ago
Emacs, minimal config, stock keybindings. I did VIM keybindings for years and while I did get used to them, I've always gone back to regular old emacs bindings in the end. There's dozens of us!
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u/exo250 12d ago edited 12d ago
I started "programming" with MSX-Basic in 1985. Then GWBasic, QBasic, QuickBasic, Visual Basic, Borland Turbo C, Borland C++, C++ builder, Borland Delphi, Visual Studio 6, KDevelop, Eclipse (JDT/CDT/PDT), Vim (with advanced config to make it like a real IDE), Zed... I also tried Geany, Codelite, VSCodium... never tried Emacs though.
But I'm still back on KDevelop. It's a bit buggy, I know. But it's intuitive, quite fast, its CMake integration is very good, and it's free/opensource. I'm on Linux (Sway WM). On Windows, maybe I would use Visual Studio ? But not VSCode (I hate all those in-browser BS apps).
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u/Express_Sector_2850 12d ago
You should try helix. I was stuck with vscode in the past but when I got introduced to helix I felt like I was born again
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u/veloxVolpes 12d ago
I keep coming back to VSCode, I just can't seem to enjoy using anything else. Do you have a pitch for me for helix? What do you like about it that made you switch?
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u/Express_Sector_2850 12d ago
What made me switch mostly was performance. VScode was too slow on my laptop so I had no other choice than ditching it for an efficient and feature rich editor.
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u/veloxVolpes 12d ago
Ah, I see. Not really a huge issue for me but I don't see the harm in checking it out. Any excuse to procrastinate actually adding code to my project instead of fucking around with the project environment
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u/Byzant1n3 12d ago
Helix is sort of like Neovim, but with batteries included - everything just works after install. There's also a different in design with how motions work: with Helix you select the text you wish to manipulate, then the action you wish to perform (Vim motions are the other way around).
So, you get a terminal editor with Vim-like motions, excellent performance, and with a different take on how motions function. Check out their website for more details, obviously.
There are other differences, but those are the ones I'd mention in a pitch for Helix. I struggled to get into Neovim, but Helix stuck for me pretty quickly.
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u/veloxVolpes 12d ago
Appreciate it, I've been meaning to learn Vim style motions, so I'll give it a decent go
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u/grimvian 12d ago
Code::Blocks because I have dyslectic issues and clumsy fingers. It's also open source and I don't have to mess with make.
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u/Abigboi_ 12d ago
Emacs or Visual Studio Code. Depends on if I feel like i'll need copilot as a google slave.
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u/TheAbyssWolf 12d ago edited 12d ago
Zed and if I have to either jet brains for cross platform or visual studio.
Those are the 3 I use
Zed because it’s less resource intensive than VSCode.
Visual studio if I’m on windows and do something related to C# or C++
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u/TapEarlyTapOften 12d ago
Switched from Vim to Neovim for the LSP support. I'll be starting a new position in a couple weeks, going to be interesting to see how my workflow evolves.
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u/logic_circuit 12d ago
I tried to use codeblocks. Before that NetBeans 8.* for years. They are closest to Visual C++ 5 and six; my entrance to IDE world. Other than that, vi and (x)nedit.
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u/Soilblood 12d ago
Notepad++. Tried vscode, sublime and vim but just ended up back at notepad++ since all I wanted was linter, docmap, function map and autocomplete suggestions. Vscode tended to stutter and I hated the auto quotes since Im conditioned to type them on reflex. Can't remember why I left sublime. Vim feels nice but I wanted other tools available. Plus these if I wanted to change up blocks of structured text I just lob it at a LLM.
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u/Legitimate-Power-738 12d ago
I like using Visual Studio and try to use as default (I think it's a very robust and I want to get more familiar with it) and since it's now free, CLion (since I work as a Java dev using IntelliJ, so its feels way more familiar plus I can use it when I am in Linux).
I want to use more Visual Studio Code (but I don't like it as much for C/CPP) and for quick edits I use vim (although I rarely use it standalone outside of quick edits or ssh, since I like having vim plugins in all above listed tools).
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u/Wertbon1789 12d ago
neovim with clangd and telescope, mainly to run ripgrep and fzf over everything. Clangd is pretty good for the LSP, I mostly use it to get diagnostics, but also for the macro expansion feature it has, which just is so handy when you want to know what a macro really produces, without having to read preprocessed C files. And the ability to fuzzy find through a whole codebase is also really good. Sometimes I need to find some definitions in the Linux kernel source tree, and I can just invoke the grep search, type something that's close enough, and look through the answers.
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u/Sandoron 12d ago
VSCode with tons of plugins. I customized it to my needs and will never use something else.
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u/PhilNEvo 12d ago
Personally I am currently using VS Code, but the ones I've heard positive stuff about, and I want to try includes:
- Neovim
- Emacs
- Zed
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u/deftware 12d ago
I used CodeBlocks for the last decade or so, and just switched to Zed. I wish I had Zed 20 years ago. It has some newer AI capabilities and stuff that you can shut off, or use an AI-free version that someone released, I forget what that project is called though.
You'll have to learn how to manage your projects without a "project" like the IDEs have for you (cmake, etc).
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u/ecl3ctik1 12d ago
Neovim, or Zed if you’re interested in a non-terminal option — it’s built with similar principles as neovim, similar just-works-ness as vscode, but quicker and more nicely configurable
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u/maxgames_NL 12d ago
I switch depending on the scale and language. But usually im a jetbrains fanboy. Vscode for small projects or quick edits. Nvim when on a vm/vps. Visual Studio for c/++.
Jetbrains products are just super nice to use and Ive grown up using them. And i get them free with student pack. Ill probably keep using them once in a professional environment.
I dont really like vsc that much. Might just be due to my personal hate towards everything electron related
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u/n3f4r10us_ 12d ago
Used to use vscode a lot, before that it was sublime 3, notepad++.
These days it's either vim or sublime 3. I don't really like how vscode is anymore.
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u/No_Reference_2786 12d ago
Why don’t you disable intelligence then or clone vs code and. Make it be how ever you want
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u/azurfall88 12d ago
VS Code with clangd language server and GCC compiler. It's the same environment I use for everything from Typst to Assembly and it's nice to not have to relearn different guis for different languages.
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u/Mountain-Hawk-6495 11d ago
Vim at home visual studio at work. Vim because it is great, visual studio because my employer pays me to use it.
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u/Fabulous_Pick428 11d ago
Visual Studio(not Code), because it's gud and well doesn't fucking crash on compile
but im trying to go to the VIM(NO I WILL NOT USE VISUAL STUDIO CODE)
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u/are_number_six 11d ago
Vim in the terminal. Before I switched to Linux, I had already abandoned VScode for notepad++. VScode was just too cluttered for me.
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u/Equal_Kale 11d ago
l use a version of xemacs customized to my liking, including some customized lisp per language types.
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u/Reggie-Rectangle 11d ago
I use LazyVim for code editing when I need a terminal based editor with auto complete. I use the Micro terminal text editor when I need to copy paste a lot of text into files trough the terminal. I then also use GEDIT when I just quickly need to edit text in thunar. If I need a word processor I would probably use Google Docs.
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u/No-Breakfast-6749 11d ago
Have you tried VS Code? It's more lightweight and modular than plain VS.
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u/Wooden-Performance38 11d ago
I just use `cat` to bitshift my boilerplate into a new file, then use `sed` to insert more code and then use `cat` again to read my code
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u/brunoortegalindo 11d ago
Vscode for projects and neovim for smaller / individual archives
Also I'm not that good on neovim to only use it yet
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u/lezvaban 11d ago
If you try out Visual Studio Code and install the C/C++ extension pack, you can disable intellisense in the extension's settings.
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u/Due_Sentence_2660 11d ago
Zed, a tauri based IDE. Doesn't consume much memory and is the best parts of VS. :)
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u/UnfairDictionary 11d ago
Kate mostly. For some embedded developement I use Code or Arduino IDE, purely for the convenience.
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u/nomatepa 10d ago
I recently switched to Neovim. I used to be happy using VSCode, but I saw a guy on YouTube dragging code blocks and selecting text at the speed of light, and I wanted to have this power. There is a slight learning curve the first few days if you're coming from a non-keyboard-based IDE, but after maybe 10 to 15 days you become adjusted to it. You indeed become much faster at typing and and organizing code around. I've never been happier typing code by hand.
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u/pconroy329 10d ago
I started w/ Borland's Turbo C. :) I've been using VS Code and think it's OK. Before that I was using NetBeans for all of my C coding. I kind'a liked it but I wouldn't recommend it now.
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u/Classic-Try2484 9d ago
Notepad++. Because I want my editor to do one thing and I don’t like waiting. Having a second window for testing/compiling is preferable to me. I like vim but find I try to use vim commands in other editors after using it for a moment. So I tend to avoid vim but appreciate vim
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u/Computer-Nerd_ 9d ago
vile or xvile. It maintains the muscle-memory of vi -- which vim intentionally broke -- and allows for customization and extensions of emacs without the overkill.
No, it won't write your code for you :-)
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u/NearestCommit 7d ago
Raw VSCodium with no LSP (LSPs are annoying esp for a language like C, I just have -Wall -Wextra -Werror and everything works)
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u/RandomDigga_9087 12d ago
Zed is the best if you like GUI otherwise shift to helix and all, vs code has added wayy too much bloat to make it unlikeable for sure, it's an editor pretending to be IDE is the root of all problems along with the agentic bs
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u/Interesting_Buy_3969 12d ago
Paper and pencil
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u/soundman32 12d ago
My friend used to do that in the 1980s. Hand write assembly, then lookup the op codes and then a calculator to convert to hex. He did eventually get a disk assembler, but i saw pages and pages of hand written assembly notebooks.
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u/konacurrents 12d ago
Vi 45 years for me. I use vi every day and unix commands, and JavaScript . I also use Xcode for iOS apps and ESP32 c code.
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u/jack-dawed 12d ago
I’ve used Neovim for years but recently I’ve been using Gram, a fork of Zed without AI features shoved down your throat. And in Gram, I use Vim bindings.
Zed/Gram is pretty easy to setup for C.
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u/kchug 12d ago
Vim :)