Questions about IDEs

[Eezyville]

Whats a good IDE availible to help me learn how to program. I want to learn how to program in C++ and Fortran to add a good set of skills as a engineer. I have two books on how to program in each language but I haven't started yet because I want to do this in a good environment. I don't have anyone to teach me since I'm not in classes right now so if there are any good suggestions I will welcome them. Thanks alot.

[Simian Man]

Code::Blocks is a nice, easy-to-use C++ IDE. There are many others, but this is a good starting point because of its simplicity.

As for Fortran, I have no idea. The words Fortran and IDE don't really go together. You may have to compile from the command line - which is a good thing to be comfortable with in any case.

[heamaster]

Personally I use Geany, http://www.geany.org/
Its nice and lightweight.

[keplerspeed]

You could use Eclipse, and use the photran plugin to program in fortran. I have done this and it works.

However, an IDE is over rated. You dont 'really' need one, especially for relatively simple programs.

You could simply use gedit, vim etc which all have syntax highlighting etc, and just compile you code using the terminal and a simple makefile.

[simeon87]

IDEs won't help you learning how to program, they will only ease the process when you already know how to program.

Also, you're now facing two hurdles to overcome: the language and the IDE.

[keplerspeed]

When I first learnt how to program, it was daunting! An IDE can make this easier as you dont have to worry about makefiles as some ide's will provide an automake feature.

So its a tricky one. I recon try to use the terminal first to comile code.

[Eezyville]

Ok guys thanks for your help. I'll look into some of the suggestions and see which one I like. The reason I wanted to use an IDE is because the first programming language I learned was MATLAB and I wanted to make the next two a similar experience.

[leblancmeneses]

learn tools specific to a language.. don't approach it as one size fits all.

c# work you need mono develop and visual studio
c++ you need eclipse
c++ in embedded environments.. (specific to vendor - freescale codewarrior)
java you need netbeans

while you can tweak ide's to support multiple languages .. why spend the time.. ide's are supposed to make your life easier when programming not give you headaches..

summary
learn the right tools for the job and learn those..
you don't get bonuses for making it work in another ide... you get a bonus for completing your project ahead of schedule and under budget.

[simeon87]

c# work you need mono develop and visual studio
c++ you need eclipse
c++ in embedded environments.. (specific to vendor - freescale codewarrior)
java you need netbeans

But that's just your view on language/IDE combinations. For example, Eclipse is commonly used for Java, not C++.

[Alexis Phoenix]

If you are just starting out, you may be better to use a text editor to write simple programs, then get your head around an ide at a later stage. Old school I guess but the principle is you don't have any distraction from understanding how the language works, when you are just setting out. Then you have time to figure out which ide will be best for you, and can get to grips with it when you reach a point at which it can really make a difference.

HTH
Alexis

[Can+~]

learn tools specific to a language.. don't approach it as one size fits all.

c# work you need mono develop and visual studio
c++ you need eclipse
c++ in embedded environments.. (specific to vendor - freescale codewarrior)
java you need netbeans

Maybe for you. Currently, I have Eclipse being used as a C/C++ with Subversive, python and of course, Java all in one.

Eclipse was designed to have different layouts for each language, which makes it a great editor.

In the end, it doesn't matter what you choose, that's the whole point of IDEs, the "tools specific to a language" should be the command line arguments to compile/interpret them, like GCC, Java, etc.