Is creating yet another IDE a good idea?

[ktk]

I'd like to hear your opinion on what you think about creating yet another C++ IDE this time from Trolltech.
Wouldn't it be better to put resources devoted now to Creator to better integrate Qt toolchain with existing IDEs?

There is no existing IDE in the area Qt Creator is targeting: Cross-platform, fast. Eclipse is the only one that's remotely cross-platform, and even with CDT, C++ is an alien there. I won't discuss speed for obvious reasons. MSVC is fast, but obviously not cross-platform. KDevelop is basically (non-Mac) Unix only as well. Then there are not too much serious contenders left, certainly none with a reasonably extentable architecture.

Then, look at the existing Qt integrations into MSVC or Eclipse. They certainly ease the worst pain, but they still do not feel "right". And they have been worked on for years, by the same people that produce Qt. So I am tempted to believe that "just a but of polish" is not a technically feasible solution.

Also, Creator is >95% cross platform code. Adding a feature means it is available cross-platform. "Integrating into existing IDEs" would mean duplicating, triplicating, ... a big part of the effort, plus the glue code needed to interface the respective IDEs. Plus the effort to solve "political" problems with the then-upstream "vendor", plus the effort to solve legal problems with the then-upstream "vendor". Multiplied by two, three, more. I really doubt that this is less effort in total.

And there is another aspect, too. With Qt Creator the Trolls have an in-house "reality check" for the usability for the toolkit as such. Qt 4.0.x had serious scalability problems in some areas. I am pretty sure we would not have seen a few of them if there had been an in-house application of the size of Creator.

So from my point of view the answer to your question is a clear "No".

[Cruz]

I think developing yet another IDE would make sense, if the result was a long awaited, cross platform and fast IDE that actually aids C++ development with Qt. It makes me wonder why in 20 years of existence of C++ no such thing was developed. In comparison, the fairly new Java language can be edited with Eclipse so nicely that you have the impression you are not even writing the code yourself anymore. Rich and powerful refactoring tools, auto completion and code fix suggestions make it feel like you are pressing the O.K. button through a wizard that is generating your code automatically. Why doesn't such thing exist for C++?

Personally I use Eclipse with Qt integration, because so far I found Eclipse to be a nice tool and I had my hopes high, that it would help me develop Qt code just as well. Well, I do miss the refactoring tools. It can't even rename a class in an automated way. But at least it integrates Designer (which I think works perfectly fine for my needs), automatically modifies the .pro file for me, has a CVS or SVN integration and the obligatory integration of project building and execution on the press of a button. And most importantly, I'm platform independet with it.

I had my hopes high for Creator, because I'm very fond of Qt and the tools that come with it. So I gave it a shot and yes it looks really nice, but it doesn't really do anything you would expect from an IDE. I'm disappointed to hear that development won't be continued.

I also tried MSVC and yes, it is by far the best C++ IDE I have ever seen. At least after several weeks when you got used to it, learned some shortcuts and know where to look for your settings. But I refuse to sacrifice the platform independence for it, so I went back to Eclipse + Qt integration and do more things manually.

[piotr.dobrogost]

I'm disappointed to hear that development won't be continued.

That's something new to me. Where do you have this information from?

Very nice post, thanks.

[nish]

he is wrong... Qt Creator is is very much alive and kicking

[Lykurg]

Well, I do miss the refactoring tools. It can't even rename a class in an automated way.

What version do you use? Since "years" I use the refactoring tools for my C++ code. And it worked just fine. I won't miss them

I use
Eclipse C/C++ Development Tools
Version: 6.0.0.200906161748
Build id: 200906161748

[Cruz]

Wysota said

I don't think we will see any updates to Creator from Nokia

, so that's why I assumed that development will be discontinued.

And yes Lykurg, you are right! When I tried it first, I tried doing it the way I used to do in Java, taking the name of the class file as a starting point. I tried this in CDT a while ago and it only renamed the file but not the class, so I assumed it doesn't work. But now that you said that it should do it I looked more closely and hooray, I can refactor classnames now. So all the more, in my opinion Eclipse with Qt integration is currently the best solution available.