My workflow/tools looks like this: I mostly use Emacs as my main editor. I also do debugging from Emacs. In other terminal windows I read manual pages for libc

My workflow/tools looks like this: I mostly use Emacs as my main editor. I also do debugging from Emacs. In other terminal windows I read manual pages for libc and other standard libraries, compile my code with http://a-a-p.sf.net http://a-a-p.sf.net or simply (GNU) Make. I also test my projects from the command line since most of them are daemons or command line tools anyway. Library wise I try to stick to STL and Boost for most of my C++ projects. Both are well documented in online and offline resources. I recently also added the Intel Threading Building Blocks library to my personal toolset. You did not mention anything about doing GUI work, but in that area there is a good amount of options too. I would certainly pick the one with the best community support. That will help you most in the long run I think. S.