Best "Visual Studio" Alternative On Linux

Microsoft ISV writes: "We are beginning the next major release of our product, and we have been a Microsoft ISV for many years. In a few months Microsoft will be entering our market, and we wish to hedge our bets by supporting Linux in this next new major release. Can you ask your readership what is the best 'Visual Studio' like IDE for Linux? Especially for an ISV who will be maintaining the same product on both Windows and Linux?" Or is there even such a thing?

Comments

Re:Metrowerks CodeWarrior

[johnjones]

it sucks as a linux dev because the visual translation layer for X (so it looks the same on all platforms) is horribly broken for linux

very bad hope it improves but I dont hold my breath

regards

john jones

vi

[SpanishInquisition]

vi is a visual editor, isn't that what you're looking for?

XEmacs

[Alex Belits]

Other environments may be better looking or follow languages' syntax more closely, but XEmacs certainly is most flexible and gives least amount of distraction to the programmer.

Re:Serious question...

[JabberWokky]

I am a developer. KDevelop is very good (the K means it runs under KDE, not that it is just for making KDE apps - it makes command-line, KDE and Gnome apps also). If you develop a Qt App, you can cross-compile for Windows as well. It's also Free in every sense of the word, if that matters to you.

On the commercial side, KDE Studio Gold from the Kompany looks to be even better, and they also have Blackadder for Python and Ruby development if you need that. And language legends Borland are in the process of bringing over most of their modern packages including Delphi (confusingly renamed Kylix), Java and C++. Right now, Kylix is available, with C++ Builder and JBuilder coming in the next few months. Again, as long as you stay away from OS specific API calls (that does for Linux and Windows), you can reuse all objects and source with a simple recompile aimed at either Windows or Linux.

--
Evan

gah... point and drool

[Anonymous Coward]

/usr/games/fortune:

"I'd crawl over an acre of 'Visual This++' and 'Integrated Development That' to get to gcc, Emacs, and gdb. Thank you."

(By Vance Petree, Virginia Power)

What language are you currently developing with?

[wrinkledshirt]

Seems like that would be the most important question. Recommending Kylix to a group of people who know nothing about Pascal doesn't seem like such a hot idea, nor does recommending KDevelop to Visual Basic developers...

If you like C++, go with KDevelop.
If you prefer C and can do XML, go with a combination of a good editor, gcc and Glade.
If you like Pascal, go with Kylix.
If you like Java, there's Forte (don't know anything about it).
If you like Visual Basic, get ready to buckle down and learn a new language...
Also, consider giving Emacs a whirl. It's scary as all git, but it does just about everything short of fixing you a sandwhich.

Go with Delphi/Kylix

[mikera]

If you haven't tried them already, I would seriously check out the Delphi/Kylix combination. The IDE and the Visual Development tools in particular are IMO a class apart from Visual Studio, and certainly far superior to any of the free tools available. Not to knock the others, but Borland know how to make development tools like nobody else.

Also the fact that you get sub-second compiles for large projects is rather sweet :-)

Code that you produce with the Borland CLX toolkit should be portable across Linux and Windows. Also, the forthcoming iterations of C++ Builder (essentially Delphi for C++) will be Delphi/Kylix compatible as well. For obvious reasons, Borland have always stayed very Microsoft-compatible and support for things like COM objects, creating DLLs and linking with C/C++ etc. is very good.

The fact that Delphi/Kylix use Object Pascal is frequently raised as an objection which I appreciate may be a concern. However, Object Pascal is a very powerful Pascal derivative that is easy to learn and any competent coder should have no trouble making the transition. I find that I code better in Object Pascal if only because the compiler is much more smart at picking up dubious code.

Even if you don't eventually use Kylix, I would strongly suggest downloading the free Open Edition just to give it a test drive. It's quite an experience that may change your views on how development ought to be done.....

Re:Serious question...

[DeeKayWon]

I believe it stands for Independant Software Vendor.

To answer the question, I may not be a developer, but I have heard good things about KDevelop.

Metrowerks CodeWarrior

[Smitty825]

Although I've never used their products for anything but Mac and Palm development, I've had lots of success with Metrowerks Codewarrior. They have Win32, Mac, Solaris and Linux versions available (...and versions for the PS2, Nintendo 64, etc).

Visual SlickEdit

[netinlet]

Very nice development environment. Runs on linux, solaris, windows, and about half a dozen other platforms. Was not ported to unix as an afterthought. Slickedit definitely helps my productivity. I use it on Linux and on Windows. I am not associated with Microedge, the manufacturer, in any way other than a very satisified customer. http://www.slickedit.com Doug

Re:Visual SlickEdit

[Howie]

I downloaded the slickedit demo for windows after someone mentioned it on the dcdev mailing list. I had high hopes for it - the feature list is impressive! However it is the only editor I've used that I've mananged to crash within 20 minutes, doing ordinary tasks. So I switched back to EditPlus and XEmacs and gave it the heave-ho.

Editors, like OSes and X servers shouldn't crash. Ever. Particularly when they cost at least ten times (or infinitely) more than the editor they replace.

Komodo

[winterstorm]

Komodo from Activestate is very "Visual Studio"-ish and supports PERL, Python, PHP, and a lot more.

You might look at Sun's Forte as well.