Visual Studio is the best and is the industry standard. However, if you do use VS, you have to be aware that there are two versions of C++ on it. One is ANSI C++, and the other is C++/CLI. ANSI C++ is regular, standardized, compiled C++. C++/CLI is C++ running in .NET with custom .NET extensions. For game development, you most likely want ANSI C++.
Personally I'm done with Visual Studio after using it for a few years. I'm not ever going back ( unless I really have too ). Visual Studio ( Express ) do come with a ton of bloatware that I'm just not that interested in nor can I decline the installation on my computer for some cosmic reason. I'll give VS (E) the satisfaction of having the most advanced code-completion and syntax-highlighter but other IDE's offers more interesting tools as compensation ( nothing that can't be added as a plugin granted ).
I could recommend Code::Blocks or CodeLite, which is two IDE's I really recommend! I personally favor CodeLite over C::B due to aesthetics. Using CodeLite have also brought me closer to MinGW and GCC as well as giving me insight on compiler flags and linker flags.
Here take a bad computer/programming-thingy joke:
"The best thing about UDP jokes is that I don’t care if you get them or not."
Granted, VS does dull quite a bit when working with C++. It really shines above all else when working in .NET. When working with ANSI C++, it drops it down to just a good IDE, since you lose about 75% of code completion outside of .NET among other reasons.
Jackolantern wrote:Granted, VS does dull quite a bit when working with C++. It really shines above all else when working in .NET. When working with ANSI C++, it drops it down to just a good IDE, since you lose about 75% of code completion outside of .NET among other reasons.
No, yes VS is a great IDE in a lot of ways, but Microsoft has a tendency to sneak in it's own standard and keywords into the mix, which I do not like.
Besides the Intellisense in C++ is still great compared to others out there.
Here take a bad computer/programming-thingy joke:
"The best thing about UDP jokes is that I don’t care if you get them or not."
Jackolantern wrote:Granted, VS does dull quite a bit when working with C++. It really shines above all else when working in .NET. When working with ANSI C++, it drops it down to just a good IDE, since you lose about 75% of code completion outside of .NET among other reasons.
No, yes VS is a great IDE in a lot of ways, but Microsoft has a tendency to sneak in it's own standard and keywords into the mix, which I do not like.
Besides the Intellisense in C++ is still great compared to others out there.
My understanding was that provided you didn't use C++/CLI (which is all .NET all the time) and stuck with ANSI C++, most of the Microsoft stuff was in MFC, which could be used or not. I didn't think they had a lot of their own language features in the "true" favor of C++. However, I am not a big C++ user, so I could be very wrong. I know it isn't supposed to have custom Microsoft-only stuff in it lol.
Jackolantern wrote:Granted, VS does dull quite a bit when working with C++. It really shines above all else when working in .NET. When working with ANSI C++, it drops it down to just a good IDE, since you lose about 75% of code completion outside of .NET among other reasons.
No, yes VS is a great IDE in a lot of ways, but Microsoft has a tendency to sneak in it's own standard and keywords into the mix, which I do not like.
Besides the Intellisense in C++ is still great compared to others out there.
My understanding was that provided you didn't use C++/CLI (which is all .NET all the time) and stuck with ANSI C++, most of the Microsoft stuff was in MFC, which could be used or not. I didn't think they had a lot of their own language features in the "true" favor of C++. However, I am not a big C++ user, so I could be very wrong. I know it isn't supposed to have custom Microsoft-only stuff in it lol.
In my experience Microsoft highlights a lot of C++/CLI keywords even when doing fully blown ANSI C++ coding, such as the "event"-keyword. It confused me a lot in the beginning and seeing as it's a registered keyword I can't use it without using C++/CLI so my variables couldn't be named event, just to name 1 out of many examples.
I'v heard the PRO version is WAY better in the whole C++/CLI mixing with ANSI C++ and installation bloadware problems the express versions have, though I can't really afford it.
Here take a bad computer/programming-thingy joke:
"The best thing about UDP jokes is that I don’t care if you get them or not."