Which IDE to use for (freestanding) C?

[Nutterts]

I've been using C again after a long long time (and loving it). But I'm getting to the point where it would be nice to at least have auto-completion for code I've written. Other nice features would be templates when creating new files and (some) integration with auto-tools and/or cmake.

Using sublimetext 3 at the moment and looking at the Netbeans IDE but it got me wondering what everyone using C for osdev is using a they're IDE. Maybe you all have some other options I might look at.

For me it must run on Ubuntu (Mate) so Windows/Mac options aren't very helpful. But feel free to trow them in there.

[iansjack]

Eclipse. CodeBlocks is pretty good too.

[kzinti]

Sublime Text 3 =)

[Combuster]

I like KDevelop. Mostly for reasons beyond C.

[onlyonemac]

Eclipse.

That would be like using Visual Studio to develop Java applications.

[Nutterts]

Eclipse.

That would be like using Visual Studio to develop Java applications.

What would you suggest?

[iansjack]

Eclipse.

That would be like using Visual Studio to develop Java applications.

What a strange comment.

I can only assume that you have never used Eclipse and have some sort of idea that it is a Java programming environment. That is an error.

[Nutterts]

Eclipse.

That would be like using Visual Studio to develop Java applications.

What a strange comment.

I can only assume that you have never used Eclipse and have some sort of idea that it is a Java programming environment. That is an error.

I agree it's weird because there are no alternatives given.

But please let's not get that deep into this or turn it into a "what's better" discussion. That's in the eye of the beholder.

For me, eclipse-cdt sounds good. But there might be more lightweight options to try.

[Nutterts]

Sublime Text 3 =)

Srry I missed this. How you get autocompletion working? Am I that blind?

[kzinti]

Srry I missed this. How you get autocompletion working? Am I that blind?

My bad, I missed you needed auto-completion.

Well it does work, but only within a file... It won't auto complete stuff from other files. Which is too bad.

[Nutterts]

It won't auto complete stuff from other files. Which is too bad.

Exactly... use it for everything, replaced np++ for me and some plugins do provide auto completion for other languages. Just can't seem to find something for C to at-least do that. I could work around the other things but code completion would free me from quite allot of stupid typo-errors when compiling.

[Nessphoro]

Nothing beats Visual Studio 2013/2015 for C/C++ code writing, you get completion and many other things.
Of course, it is Windows only, but you could get it on Wine maybe?
If you're a student you could also get the enterprise version.

[Nable]

I use Vim for almost everything. It just suits me well (even without plugins it has a lot of useful functions).

But if you have enough resources, QtCreator seems to be a nice IDE: it's possible to enable vim-like key bindings + I sometimes find it good at code-search and navigation (find all places where function is used, switch header/source, go to type/function definition, etc).

[kzinti]

Mmm QtCreator looks pretty interesting.

[Roman]

I personally use Xcode, it can be easily set up for a freestanding C project, it has got all essential features like autocompletion, go to definition, etc. Hovewer, it's only for OS X.