Is creating yet another IDE a good idea?

[Golodh]

No and yes.

No in the sense that there is too much fragmentation already. You're quite right about that.

Yes in the sense that Open Source IDEs still have a long way to go before they are as useful as e.g. the MS Visual product range, or Delphi. So there is room for improvement.

Take KDevelop for one. I've worked quite a bit with KDevelop before becoming disenchanted with it. After all these years of development it's still nursing a galloping case of featuritis. As a result, its interface is a grab-bag of "ghee-wiz-look-we-can-do-this-too" gimmicks, which makes for a steep learning curve; various things that should be dead simple are still awkward (e.g. adding a lot of existing C++ files to a project), and vital things (like creation and handling of the whole make process) is still as transparent as mud, as well-documented as the average Alchemy recipe, and as about user-friendly as make ever was. Oh, and did I mention the general attitude of developers towards people who would like to see them polish the product before they add anything more? "Code it yourself" is just about the most positive and polite response you'll get.

I strongly feel that GUIs and libraries like Qt are one place where the "Cathedral" approach is definitely better than the "Bazar" approach. In such cases I feel that developers should be disciplined enough (either by themselves or because a manager is politely insisting that they prioritize stuff) to polish something first before going on to the next bunch of interesting features.

Editing and code navigation is OK in KDevelop though. However, KDevelop isn't available for MS Windows (queue rants about MS Windows here) whereas Qt Creator is, despite the fact that the framework basic to KDE (Qt) is available on both platforms. In addition Qt Creator edges towards the GUI-building prowess offered by e.g. Borland Delphi and MS products (and Java), but does so in a way that can be used on practically all platforms of importance: MS WIndows, MacOS, Linux, and various handhelds. KDevelop does not.

Now if you can point me to an Open Source IDE that offers all that right now, *and* supports the Qt GUI builder process then I'd be interested.

In the mean time I'm more than happy to be able to benefit from the Qt framework in a dependable and easy-to-learn (if a somewhat feature-limited) little IDE and still be confident I can port what I write to Linux or MacOS or whereever with little more than a recompile.

That's why I personally feel that there is room for Qt Creator despite the wide range of existing tools.

[wysota]

I can tell you something from an academic teacher and trainer point of view - Qt Creator made my life easier.

Before switching to Creator I used KDevelop (version 3, I agree about every word about KDevelop4 said in the previous post) and it was (more or less) fine but Creator has many very nice and useful features when it comes to text editing. I treat it not as an IDE but a very advanced, yet extemely simple to use, C++ code editor. However I can say that its Designer integration module sucks. I prefer a standalone Designer over any integration.

I don't think we will see any updates to Creator from Nokia - apart from some bugs that are probably there somewhere, the product (as a core) is practically feature complete. All that remains is that people start implementing plugins for it. The product was meant to be very simple and focused on code editing and in that field it leaves each of its competitors far behind.

And it's more portable than any of its competitors (excluding vim and emacs-like solutions), Eclipse included.

[piotr.dobrogost]

I don't think we will see any updates to Creator from Nokia - apart from some bugs that are probably there somewhere, the product (as a core) is practically feature complete.

If they think like you than I hope they'll put some serious effort into organizing and stimulating plugin development for creator.
Without at least a handful of plugins making creator comfortable and feature complete ide I don't think creator's future is bright.

[wysota]

If they think like you than I hope they'll put some serious effort into organizing and stimulating plugin development for creator.
Without at least a handful of plugins making creator comfortable and feature complete ide I don't think creator's future is bright.

Notice I was talking about core, not plugins.

[Lykurg]

There is hardly to say more!

Now if you can point me to an Open Source IDE that offers all that right now

Well, define Open Source IDE because this sound quite open enough to me And isn't the creater published under the LGPL? Not sure..

In the mean time I'm more than happy to be able to benefit from the Qt framework in a dependable and easy-to-learn (if a somewhat feature-limited) little IDE...

I am just missing a code formatter, because I must confess: I am too lazy...

[wysota]

I am just missing a code formatter, because I must confess: I am too lazy...

Did you try selecting some text and pressing Ctrl+I?

[Lykurg]

Did you try selecting some text and pressing Ctrl+I?

That does the indent, but I mean all the stuff with spacing around braces, maximum line width, position of the "{" etc...

EDIT: To be not too negative, the indent helps a lot, but still, ahh, a simple astyle plugin would have been nice.

[wysota]

Oh, that one. Yeah, it's not there although this one is easy to implement. You can even write a plugin that will call an external formatter tool if you're lazy enough not to do the formatting yourself.

[Lykurg]

if you're lazy enough not to do the formatting yourself.

Guilty

But it is also because of that my preferences of my code design change from time to time (mostly from one to another and then back). I am such a happy-go-lucky fellow in that thing. And now I need chocolate to get in a better mood, after exposing my weakness and feeling quite terrible right now about that.

[wysota]

You misunderstood me. I meant if you're lazy enough not to implement manual code formatting in the plugin you are going to write

[Lykurg]

You misunderstood me. I meant if you're lazy enough not to implement manual code formatting in the plugin you are going to write

Ah, ok, I see. Well then I will see if I can find some informations about the creator plugin API and code a little one - if I am able...

[piotr.dobrogost]

Now if you can point me to an Open Source IDE that offers all that right now, *and* supports the Qt GUI builder process then I'd be interested.

What about Eclipse?

[ktk]

What about Eclipse?

Have you tried to use Eclipse for C++ development in earnest?

Did you make any observations when it comes performing any "complex" operations, like auto completion or even just starting up?