4 ms·

> VS, C++ Builder, KDevelop, QtCreator My understanding is that the state of semantic IDE features for C++ was pretty miserable until CLion and clangd came alo

> VS, C++ Builder, KDevelop, QtCreator My understanding is that the state of semantic IDE features for C++ was pretty miserable until CLion and clangd came along. That is, sure, there were a whole lot of “literally” IDEs — gui wrappers around editor/build system/debugger/compiler combos. In the post, when I say IDE, I focus on “refactoring rubicon” connotation of the term, not on the literal meaning (https://martinfowler.com/articles/refactoringRubicon.html https://martinfowler.com/articles/refactoringRubicon.html).

pjmlp 4y ago
Nope, there were plenty of VS plugins like Visual Assist, and the first IDE to offer something like LSP was a C++ one actually, Energize C++. Here is the documentation to cadillac, https://dreamsongs.com/Cadillac.html https://dreamsongs.com/Cadillac.html, and the respective demo of their XEmacs based environment from 1993. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQQTScuApWk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQQTScuApWk Refactoring is one feature of IDEs, not the whole package. Still, here is your refactoring rubicon in Visual Age for C++ (1999), http://www.edm2.com/index.php/VisualAge_C%2B%2B_4.0_Review http://www.edm2.com/index.php/VisualAge_C%2B%2B_4.0_Review
- DrBazza 4y ago
  Maybe I'm "misremembering", but there was a version of SunStudio in the very late 90s that had "intellisense" style help for C or C++. It was really basic, but it was there.
  - pjmlp 4y ago
    It was based on NetBeans, SunForte. https://www.developer.com/java/suns-forte-developer-7-simplifies-extension-of-c-c-and-fortran-applications-into-sun-one-architecture/ https://www.developer.com/java/suns-forte-developer-7-simpli... Still available under Oracle, now rebranded as Oracle Solaris Studio. https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E24457_01/html/E21989/gkofj.html#scrolltoc https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E24457_01/html/E21989/gkofj.html#...
asdfasgasdgasdg 4y ago
Visual Studio was pretty decent for semantic assist for C++ at least as far back as '05 when I was doing my undergrad. It was night and day better than etags and whatever was available in the Linux world at that time, at least as far as I was able to get it configured.
- ______-_-______ 4y ago
  Even longer than that. You could install Visual Studio 6 on Windows 95 and get intellisense/debugging that's quite good. A lot of newer languages still haven't caught up.
ogoffart 4y ago
I've used KDevelop and QtCreator to write C++, and they had pretty good auto-completion and semantic information way before clang came along. Example, these blog posts from 2009 showing that KDevelop already had semantic highlighting, smart auto-completion, quick fixes and whatnot https://zwabel.wordpress.com/ https://zwabel.wordpress.com/ KDevelop had its own C++ parser at the time, and it was quite good. Same for QtCreator. They both moved to use libclang much later.

pjmlp 4y ago

Nope, there were plenty of VS plugins like Visual Assist, and the first IDE to offer something like LSP was a C++ one actually, Energize C++. Here is the documentation to cadillac, https://dreamsongs.com/Cadillac.html https://dreamsongs.com/Cadillac.html, and the respective demo of their XEmacs based environment from 1993. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQQTScuApWk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQQTScuApWk Refactoring is one feature of IDEs, not the whole package. Still, here is your refactoring rubicon in Visual Age for C++ (1999), http://www.edm2.com/index.php/VisualAge_C%2B%2B_4.0_Review http://www.edm2.com/index.php/VisualAge_C%2B%2B_4.0_Review

DrBazza 4y ago
Maybe I'm "misremembering", but there was a version of SunStudio in the very late 90s that had "intellisense" style help for C or C++. It was really basic, but it was there.
- pjmlp 4y ago
  It was based on NetBeans, SunForte. https://www.developer.com/java/suns-forte-developer-7-simplifies-extension-of-c-c-and-fortran-applications-into-sun-one-architecture/ https://www.developer.com/java/suns-forte-developer-7-simpli... Still available under Oracle, now rebranded as Oracle Solaris Studio. https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E24457_01/html/E21989/gkofj.html#scrolltoc https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E24457_01/html/E21989/gkofj.html#...

asdfasgasdgasdg 4y ago

Visual Studio was pretty decent for semantic assist for C++ at least as far back as '05 when I was doing my undergrad. It was night and day better than etags and whatever was available in the Linux world at that time, at least as far as I was able to get it configured.

______-_-______ 4y ago
Even longer than that. You could install Visual Studio 6 on Windows 95 and get intellisense/debugging that's quite good. A lot of newer languages still haven't caught up.

ogoffart 4y ago

I've used KDevelop and QtCreator to write C++, and they had pretty good auto-completion and semantic information way before clang came along. Example, these blog posts from 2009 showing that KDevelop already had semantic highlighting, smart auto-completion, quick fixes and whatnot https://zwabel.wordpress.com/ https://zwabel.wordpress.com/ KDevelop had its own C++ parser at the time, and it was quite good. Same for QtCreator. They both moved to use libclang much later.