User response: "includes a wide range of good tools: unit test framework, refactoring, quick assist and code assist, excellent debug tool, share project framework, cvs client, javadoc".
It took a while for my little brain to wrap around this thing, but Eclipse is cool. It's an extensible IDE, meaning it's a framework that in itself isn't much of anything but could be used for an endless variety of things. Go download Eclipse, then install the C/C++ development tool (CDT), and now you've got a full featured C/C++ IDE. The upfront work you have to do in configuring the system is worth the payoff: you get a wonderful work environment for your C/C++ programming. Has a function/class browser, syntax highlighting, etc.
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jEdit is written in Java, and is an excellent tool for programming in any language. It is available on many platforms. This editor appears to be popular, although probably more amongst Linux developers than users of Windows. The editor is expanded by plugins, which is good because it means the editor is just as functional as you need it to be, and it may possess any feature you desire. In the past I have been prejudiced against Java applications for 2 reasons: 1) they are slow, and 2) they have an awkward look and feel. After downloading Java2 1.4 (from Sun) and then jEdit, I must say that it's not unusably slow (although on my Athlon 800 Windows XP box there is a noticable delay in drawing dialog boxes on the screen), and it looks great. And in terms of features, it may blow away even the better shareware editors. I *love* how easy it is to install new plugins. (You get a list of available plugins, download and install them, all within the editor itself through an incredibly simple interface.)
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From the site: "When you download the NetBeans IDE, you get a development tool for writing Java programs. There are plug-in modules available that support other languages and technologies, from C and C++ to XML, HTML and Java Server Pages, to almost any technology you can think of. Some of its features are: Syntax highlighting code editor - with support for code completion, annotations, macros and auto-indentation, capable of mixed-mode operation for multi-language documents. Support for the Java, C, C++, XML and HTML languages. Pluggable support for compilers, debuggers and execution services Visual design tools for graphically creating and manipulating visual components. Wizards and code generation and management tools for creating code faster and more easily."
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For several reasons SciTE is now my favorite editor. SciTE is an open source editor designed by Neil Hodgson to demonstrate his other awesome creation: Scintilla, which is a windows control along the lines of a Richedit but with properties specially suited for a programmer's text editor. (Several of the editors listed on this site use Scintilla.) I like SciTE because it has:
- fantastic syntax highlighting (with lots of languages),
- other neat features related to Scintilla, like code collapsing, code completion, etc.
- a powerful find-&-replace feature,
- configurable line numbers,
- file tabs across the top of the screen,
- useful viewing options (you can view indentation guides, whitespace, etc)
SciTE is
highly configurable, although you configure it by changing variables in a file instead of through a dialog. This seems inconvenient at first, but now I think it's probably easier. Neil Hodgson works hard on this project, and there's a vibrant user community for both Scintilla and SciTE, so you see frequent updates to the software on his site. This editor loads fast and works well. Spend some time playing around with the Options menu and once you get SciTE configured the way you like it, I think you'll love this program.
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