@chrisname: make is useful for even trivial programs. GNU make doesn't need a makefile to build a single source file program. "gmake foo" will automatically find "foo.cpp" and compile and link it into a working executable. You can even pass CPPFLAGS, CXXFLAGS and LDFLAGS to gmake this way (e.g. "gmake CXXFLAGS='-Wall -O3' foo". Anything that has multiple source files or links to external libs gets a makefile.
What do you know about those tools used to compare long strings (like Axaris) or something like that? Are they useful ?
Huh?
For memory testing, Valgrind is great on Linux. There isn't anything that works like it for Windows, unfortunately, so if I'm looking for leaks, I run the program with Process Explorer in the background. This works best with interactive programs.
I use GCC's mudflap support, Electric Fence and Valgrind for memory testing. I really like collect/analyze from Sun Studio for performance analysis. GCC's profile support works, but it is not as easy to use. I use GCC's warnings to flag incorrect code. It does a far better job on C++ than any static analyzer I have used. And for testing I use Boost Test and lcov.
I also use Doxygen for code documentation.
I keep meaning to look at cmake/ctest but have not got around to it.
You won't be able to do anything serious without an IDE and much less without a debugger
I disagree. Why are IDEs so amazing? I like to use a text editor and the command line. I use GDB as well. No-one said anything about debuggers or profilers (gprof).
@PanGalactic
Oh really? I didn't know you could use make like that. That's excellent.
I don't see why not. Again, what's so great about an IDE? All it is, really, is a collection of little buttons that you can press to call other programs. With the command line, you just type. The only advantage I can think of is that you click buttons rather than type stuff, and to be honest, I don't see that as much of an advantage.
@PanGalactic again
I see what you mean. Makefiles do speed everything up. Now I just have to cd to a directory and type "make" and it's all compiled and moved for me. It was a bit more difficult to write a makefile though, with no experience, but I think I did ok... It works, anyway, and that's the important thing.
I don't see why not. Again, what's so great about an IDE?
Because you can have a bunch of files open at once at flip between them very easily (or have multiple in view at once, if you just want to look at something). You can also look at sections of code in the same file in completely different places (i.e. lines 10-25 somewhere, then below it 500-515). They also save you from updating makefiles (or whatever you use), since they will automatically compile/link stuff together for you, and you can easily disable or enable specific files to be included.
They also save you from updating makefiles (or whatever you use), since they will automatically compile/link stuff together for you, and you can easily disable or enable specific files to be included.
This is the one thing a text editor can't do for me that you mentioned; and it's not as if it's hard to do so.