Don't use autocrap unless for some reason you really have to. SCons is nice, you just write very simple python scripts for the build scripts. CMake is also good

Don't use autocrap unless for some reason you really have to. SCons is nice, you just write very simple python scripts for the build scripts. CMake is also good, it can generate native makefiles or project files for your build tools, including Unix Makefiles and Microsoft Visual Studio project files. I usually use vim, SCons, and GDB for most of my stuff. If you need a graphical debugger, try DDD. If you like IDEs, might want to try Eclipse and KDevelop. I usually use online docs in HTML format, including man pages. (So to look up how stat(2) works, I google for "stat 2 man page".) Another indispensable tool in general is GNU Screen.