Favorite IDE/editor for Qt
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I wish, I could use Eclipse, because I used it for years, also for Qt project.
But in the last time, since Qt Conference 2012, I use Qt Creator because I wanted to use them for Qt project.But I really miss functions (for example a good/working debugger or tabs for every open cpp/h file).
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[quote author="Tobias Hunger" date="1360838300"]sptrakesh: What makes MSVS better for C++ development than Creator? Which features do you miss the most? What should we improve to make it more appealing to MSVS users?[/quote]
A few items would be:
Code completion is very limited. Placing using directives within the function scope usually ends up with no completion support in Creator.
MSVS will usually show documentation from included header file when showing completion hint. Very useful needless to say.
MSVS IDE features generally work when working with templated code, Creator usually leaves it to the developer.
Ability to pin documents to panes. I have more of less similar layout for both Creator and MSVS. Two editor panes, one in which I view header files and the other the implementation files. Creator does not distinguish between the panes (which may also be a good feature for some), while VS keeps the open document stack separate for each pane.
That said, I must say I prefer the way creator automatically shows folders in the project view (much like Java based IDE's), while MSVS makes you create a group to represent the same
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Serenity: The debugger works pretty well for me. Please consider to file bug reports if it does not work for you (provided you are debugging debug builds, unfortunately there is little information in release builds to show in a debugger;-).
Not having tabs is a design decision that we took very early on: We think tabs do not scale at all. We recommend to use Ctrl-Tab (popup with files in a chronologically ordered list), Ctrl-K (generic code navigation) and Alt-Left/Right (history navigation) instead. There is also a open document view available which is the closest we have to tabs;-)
sptrakesh: Using directives should not break code completion, but we do have quite some problems with templates, true. I also agree on the split-view mode, I personally do not like that too much either.
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I've used both Qt Creator and KDevelop, and I much prefer KDevelop.
- KDevelop gives me a tab for each open file. Qt Creator does not, and that makes having lots of files open at once annoying to deal with.
- KDevelop doesn't make me manually re-run CMake after modifying CMakeLists.txt, and even has some support for automatically adding new source files to CMakeLists.txt.
My favorite IDE for Qt doesn't exist yet. I want a good C++ (and Qt) plugin for IntelliJ IDEA :)
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As was stated before: using tabs for files is not very scalable. What happens if you have 30 open source files? I think QtCreator actually used to use tabs, but I find the open files list and using ALT-tab to be more convenient than tabs. I find having to manage lots of files using tabs annoying.
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@Tobias Hunger: I am more accustomed with Eclipse than with Qt Creator because I used it before a long time ;) That's the reason, why I miss tabs, but it's not bad to have it not ( I don't know the shortcuts, thanks for that :) ).
The next thing, what I am missing is a "good" integration of subversion. I don't know, how I can create a new subversion project. I can only commit existing projects. Using Eclipse with Subclipse (Linux) or TortoiseSVN (Windows) is the only solution to use Subversion useful. The intergration in Qt Creator is nice, but not as good as with Eclipse. (e.g: I don't see in the project/filetree which file was changed since last checkout or when the last checkout was)
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Serenity: I have a bug open about adding "Check project into subversion", but never got round to actually implement it yet, sorry.
We will never cover 100% of all use cases in creator -- I do not think any IDE will ever manage that. So rarely used features as "create a new project in a VCS system" tend to get a rather low priority.
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My first choice IDE is definitely MS VS 2012.
Heres why:
- Multi screen support
- Better debugger
- Easier project linking and code organization
- Tools like dependency charts etc...
- Better code completion ( due to a plug-in), otherwise QtC has extremely good one ( and syntax highlighting)
- Better overview over entire project ( Solution Explorer), open documents ( tabs), all objects, methods and functions in a file ( drop down menu).
- VS Does not have problems with localized keyboards. QtC has "ALT (GR) + B" by default for build since QtC 2.6 if I recall correctly, the same shortcut that is for "{" on my keyboard. And is not the only one.
- Analyzer ( for lazy days :) )
But QtC also has few nice functions, which I miss in VS:
- That light bulb at end of class methods, which can update it in cpp file
- I love that F1 button for docs
- Auto change "." to "->" ( in VS again custom macro or plug-in)
- Cross platform
And last time I used QtC, it crashed 3 times per hour ( if I was lucky). That was the day after Qt5 was release. Also version 2.6.
Regards,
Jake -
Well since the topic is still going...
I prefer QtCreator in pretty much all cases except when ssh'd into something, then I prefer nano (which isnt installed 1/2 the time)
I like the experience QtCreator provides, makes what i need to do simple and fast. No to mention improvements as of late with testing deployment across multiple devices even simpler.
just my 2cents
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QtCreator in my case, too, sometimes a bit of Kate/ Notepad++, and in corner cases (1% of the time, maybe) MSVS. I don't like tabs in text editors, so the way it's done in QtC and Kate is perfect for me. Also, the clear and simple, yet powerful GUI in QtC is a winner for me.
While lack of some basic features in MSVS is simply a disgrace ("." to "->" conversion, no "dark mode" with black background, very confusing build output).
Anyway, everybody uses what they like. No point in forcing anything :)
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Am late to the party again 8-(. I really like QtCreator but I want to mention one thing. Using *.pro.shared files is not good enough to easily separate stuff that you want to share (i.e. put into the repository) and things you do not want to share (not good enough means cumbersome and not safe). The only safe solution is not to share the *.pro.user file and send documentation to the team on howto set up the build and run environments.
It's still better than VisualStudio where things you do not want to share are in the *.sln or *.vcproj files which you just have to share obviously. With VS projects you get the feeling that someone is leaving little pieces of pupu all over the place in your repository. And if you get a pupuconflict when merging, you have some undocumented XML content you may absolutely not understand - and when you figure it out, it turns out that it's ridiculously irrelevant stuff.
How is this issue handled in KDevelop?
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thanks for your comment - I fully agree that this looks like a missing piece.
I suggest you bring this topic up to the Qt Creator mailing list or create a suggestion at bugreports.qt.io (In that case - please post a link here so others can follow).
Regards
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Qt Creator is my all-time favorite. :-)
For UI development and exploring QML components and features I also rely on the Felgo Cloud IDE: https://blog.felgo.com/updates/cloud-ide-qt-development-online
You can develop QML in the browser without installing any tools at all - it's really nice make small changes on-the-go or to prototype ideas.
