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GCC-based IDE's for DOS?
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."
MS Visual Studio can run external tools, use 3rd party helpfiles for it's help system, etc.
If you want to swap out the compiler, you can do that too.
Are you running windows or dos? Are you looking for zero or low cost (I'd guess yes if you're using a seven+ year old compiler)? Really, RHIDE is comparable to the borland interface, and gcc/g++ will knock the pants off of turboc 3.0's c++ code generation, simply becuase turboc 3.0 is ANCIENT. Actually, you can get a dos VIM as well as (part of djgpp) make and whatnot, so why even bother with an IDE? IDEs really do very little but coddle students. Or, get a dos ssh client and make people shell to a free unix host like linux or *bsd. If you're actually running Windows, putty is good (google for "putty ssh download"). If you're running windows AND your school has money, the Metrowerks compiler is pretty good for education (MSVC is just too goddamned quirky and complicated for me to recommend). I hope this doesn't come across as a flame, but if you are in the third section of a CS course and they have you all writing string classes (hello, STL?), win32 gui programming with c++ (which pretty much means the awful, horrible, abortion known as mfc) is waaaaaay harder than what you or they want to get into. There's a ton of interesting things you can do with c++ that don't involve GUIs. e.g. networking code, interacting with a database, console-graphics user interfaces, etc. heck, as a semester long project write a point of sale system using some old 386s as console-mode clients hooking to a central server that you write (networking code) that stores the transactions in something like berkelydb or mysql or something... Do it in teams, require documentation, have the teacher set milestones, etc. Have the whole class earn the same grade based on the functionality of the system. This will be the closest you ever get in school to what it's like to be a real world programmer.
EMACS has a DOS port, and there are packages for EMACS to turn it into a fairly decent GCC IDE. I have no DOS/Win machines, but perhaps you should give it a try.
Try Cygwin, which has a Win32 port of gcc. As for IDE's, I used RHIDE waaaaay back in the day with DJGPP, and it was decent, I suppose. But really, when you've got vim, what more do you need? :)
fire up cygwin and you've got all you need; make, vim, g++? the cygwin project has become incredibly impressive. my windows boxes magically suck much less (if they would manage to stay up throughout the day).
Dev-C++ is a nice packaging of MingW with a workable IDE. It's not exactly the best IDE I've ever used (IMHO it's a little shabby compared to the later Borland IDEs), but it's good enough for beginning programmers to cut their teeth on before they move to a Real Editor like vim or Emacs. Plus it's Free (as in speech) and free (as in beer), which is nice for an educational environment.
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 =)
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
Search for "d-flat Al.Stevens" and you'll find a bunch of stuff.
Shamelessly cut+pasted
;-) a whole IDE (Integrated Development Enviroment) with the same look & feel of the Borland's IDE but more powerfull ;-). It's called RHIDE. I contributed to this project with the Help classes (aka InfView, to read the Info files) and the text editor (specially designed for writing C/C++). The last stable version is 1.4.9 and is available for Linux too!.
... SET, that's: by me ;-). SETEdit is a very powerful editor with a lot of tools for programmers (is the one used by RHIDE). That's the last version publicly available. If you want to cooperate just contact me. Free, donations accepted ;-). For information and downloads visit this page. Last beta version is v0.4.49 and is a candidate to become the next stable release. A test binary for Win32 (native Win32) is available. Debian packages and test versions for Linux/PPC and Linux/SPARC are also available. We need help to fully support Solaris and FreeBSD, also to fix problems in Linux/Alpha.
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
His C++ book (which I recommend) came with a free gcc-oriented IDE called Quincy. I never tried it, not having Windows, but the screenshots look promising.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Why not download the latest (free) Borland command line compiler, and use that (using makefiles if necessary). It's much more up to date than the 3.x one (obviously).
No sharp objects, I'm a programmer!
Try Source Navigator. It works on windows, and UNIX's
Not GCC, but....
http://www.openwatcom.org/
Here's a quote from the djgpp faq
yush
Ok, this is off-topic a bit, but you might be interested to know, if you don't already, that Allegro is still alive and well, and reached version 4.0 just last month. Runs in DOS, Linux, FreeBSD, Irix, Solaris, Win32, and BeOS, with MacOS and QNX in the works.
http://www.talula.demon.co.uk/allegro/
Emacs offers syntax highlighting, integrated debugger support, keyboard macros, next error jumping, etc.
:)
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...).
int func(int a);
func((b += 3, b));
This is a little off topic, but somewhat related. A list of free compilers.
e x. shtml
http://www.thefreecountry.com/developercity/ind
I have played a bit in the past with this issue, and come to the conclusion of mingw (Minimalist GNU for Windows) and the dos/windows version of VIM. With this approach you sidestep the issue of cygwin.dll being GPL rather than LGPL, and thus can release proprietry programs if you choose. The windows version of GVIM (Graphical VIM) has the ability to use the commons windows hotkeys and so on, as well as the normal vim shortcuts, so users comfortable with either should feel at home. Another advantage MinGW has is the size of generated executables, by default they are so much smaller than cygwin and MSVC executables.
Can someone explain to me how I would go about setting up the former? I take it I'd need all the GCC tools, but would it allow me to create working Win32 programs?
There was a good article with similar question (but for Java). Well, the program EditPlus has an intersting system of "scripting" that permit you to create menu with custom command, like compile, run, debug; in a dialog panel or directly in a ms-dos prompt, with any type of compiler. And the color coding of keywords is very good (in c/c++).
The negative aspect is that EditPlus isn't free.
I'm just wondering what folkz have tought of VIDE ... http://www.objectcentral.com/vide/
hfx_ben
http://hfx_ben.blogspot.com/
-- When you look to see how the system works, you usually find that it doesn't.
>I can remember the days building Allegro on my Pentium 75! I was there...and it doesn't seem that long ago now does it?
http://students.washington.edu/djwatson