Emacs's GDB integration is probably my favourite (aside from using GDB directly): https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/GDB-Graphical-Inter

Emacs's GDB integration is probably my favourite (aside from using GDB directly): https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/GDB-Graphical-Interface.html https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/GD... It gives you an IDE-like interface but supports easy access to the command line (as you'd expect, given Emacs's focus on text-based UX). Unlike (some of) the full IDEs it doesn't require you to be fully committed to a particular way of doing things (build systems, projects, etc). I understand that VScode and CLion are also fairly lightweight IDEs and have GDB integration too, though ISTR VScode doesn't have watchpoint support yet. You can always type directly into the console, though.