Can anyone recommend a good development environment along the lines of Visual C++ that is NOT KDevelop!? I'm curious, does anyone even use KDevelop and if so is it generally a nightmare to use or is it just me?

Indeed, everyone has their own preferences. I for myself don't like KDevelop either, but here are some names:

- Anjuta
- Eclipse
- uh-oh i have a blackout

Also look at these threads:

- Obstacles to Linux game development (old)
- Release for Linux, or why I don't like GPL zealots

Good luck!

Eclipse is good.

I'm also a fan of VIM (and gvim). Good syntax hilighting, configurable smart-indenting and code formatting, etc.

Oh!
I had heard eclipse was build to "eclipse" sun's java dev environment so I'd never bothered to look at it. It seems interesting.
Thanks guys
Any other interesting invironments out there i should know about?
(not a huge fan of the vi style environments (to lazy to remember all the key generated commands, I know it's slack but click and drag works for me any time)

Also look here.

Quote: Original post by tadobie
I'm curious, does anyone even use KDevelop and if so is it generally a nightmare to use or is it just me?

KDevelop is pretty good, it isn't perfect. But it certainly is not a nightmare to use. What's so nightmarish about it ?

Some info came up in the thread I posted here: Simple alternatives to KDevelop?

Sadly I don't recall any of the options satisfying me, so I tend to just use Kate and compile very primitive Makefiles from a console window.

My biggest issue with KDevelop is the issue of configuration. I find it difficult to work out how to link includes and Libraries from other directories. For example I cant seem to get the program to link up with SDL.h and other external libraries. I'm not suggesting that it can't be done' it's just hthat I can seem to find any help on how it's done.
I've fumbled around and work out a few things by trial and error but it's a such a hassle. Maybe someone can help me or direct me toward some documentation that explains it clearly.
Unfortunatelty I came into the work of programming only relatively recently, that is to say I wasn't brought up on DOS and I'm new to Linux so my command line skills are poor. I guess the problem is that KDevelop shields me from these unknown demons for the most part but when it comes to linking, makefiles etc I guess the assumption is that you know what you're doing (yes, I'm afraid of the big bad command line).
My ignorance is my downful, what should I do? Who should I turn to?

Quote: Original post by tadobie
My biggest issue with KDevelop is the issue of configuration. I find it difficult to work out how to link includes and Libraries from other directories. For example I cant seem to get the program to link up with SDL.h and other external libraries. I'm not suggesting that it can't be done' it's just hthat I can seem to find any help on how it's done.

I think (I don't have kdevelop handy right now) that theres a linker options section in project->options/configurations/something. Theres about where you add linker flags and for SDL you add "-SDL" without quatations.

Quote: Original post by tadobie
My biggest issue with KDevelop is the issue of configuration. I find it difficult to work out how to link includes and Libraries from other directories. For example I cant seem to get the program to link up with SDL.h and other external libraries. I'm not suggesting that it can't be done' it's just hthat I can seem to find any help on how it's done.
I've fumbled around and work out a few things by trial and error but it's a such a hassle. Maybe someone can help me or direct me toward some documentation that explains it clearly.
Unfortunatelty I came into the work of programming only relatively recently, that is to say I wasn't brought up on DOS and I'm new to Linux so my command line skills are poor. I guess the problem is that KDevelop shields me from these unknown demons for the most part but when it comes to linking, makefiles etc I guess the assumption is that you know what you're doing (yes, I'm afraid of the big bad command line).
My ignorance is my downful, what should I do? Who should I turn to?

You're probably looking in the wrong place (Project -> Project options) :

- Include directories have to been done in the automake manager (a tab on the righthand side). Lets say you got an application in the src/ directory of your project. In the automake manager right click on the src directory and select settings (or options, I'm not sure, I'm currently in windows). A dialog will popup where you can add include directories (-I/usr/include/SDL for the SDL include directories) and do some other stuff to. For directories in your project all you have to do is check a checkbox.

- Linking libraries can also be done in the automake manager. Say that the application is named foobar. The automake manager has two views (the top shows the directories and the bottom the content of each directory). In the bottom there should be something like foobar in bin_PROGRAMS, just rightclick on it and select settings (or options, again I'm not sure). A dialog will pop up where you can add libraries (-lSDL and -lpthread if you want to link SDL for example)

Overall KDevelop has the best front end for the whole automake crap. But knowing the autotools can be helpfull. This book does a good job at explaining them.