4 ms·

why must IDEs look like this? Qt Creator is currently my favourite IDE to develop C++ in (even if it does not use Qt) and it doesn't look like this.

ajross 15y ago
I've used Qt Creator only once or twice, but my memory (and the handful of screenshots I see on google image search) is that it's pretty much the same. An editor rectangle embedded in a bunch of other crap with way too much vertical space above and below it dedicated to things that aren't very important. For reference, my emacs window has the gnome 3 panel and the window manager title bar as waste and that's it. And for years I ran a custom metacity theme which turned off the title bars entirely (haven't managed to port that to gnome shell yet).
- mkl 15y ago
  I think your recollection/search is incorrect. Qt Creator has a menu bar, navigation bar, and output selector etc. bar, all the height of a single line of text. There are no toolbars at all - none that can even be turned on. Much of the status and control interface is in a vertical bar on the left.
- dkersten 15y ago
  A typical session looks like this [1]. With the documentation window open, it looks like this [2]. The GUI designer looks like this [3] (there's also a second "designer" for Qt Quick). The debugger looks like this [4]. With the compile log/error log/search results window open, it looks like this [5]. About 80% of the time, when I use Qt Creator, especially if I'm not developing a GUI application (in which case I also use the designer), my screen looks like [1]. On the other hand, to my eyes at least, most other IDE's look something like this [6], [7] or very very extreme cases [8]. That is, they lose a lot of vertical space to tool bars. When I'm developing on Linux and I'm not developing a Qt GUI application in C++, I use a mixture of text-mode vim, geany and gedit in a tiling window manager (that is, the "dock windows" in most IDEs are windows that I have tiled, or vim panels) with no window borders or decorations whatsoever [9]. [1] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/QtCreator-Linux-2.0.1.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/QtCreator... [2] http://www.developer.nokia.com/Resources/Library/Porting_to_Qt/Porting%20WP%20to%20Qt/Screenshot-qtcreator-overview.png http://www.developer.nokia.com/Resources/Library/Porting_to_... [3] http://linux.leunen.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/qtcreator_designer.png http://linux.leunen.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/qtcreator... [4] http://lists.qt.nokia.com/pipermail/qt-creator/attachments/20090903/70c85ec2/attachment.png http://lists.qt.nokia.com/pipermail/qt-creator/attachments/2... [5] http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-teVIBJ45OEU/Twbi9_wQd_I/AAAAAAAAAYQ/eixJ2YLG-Pk/s1600/snapshot12.png http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-teVIBJ45OEU/Twbi9_wQd_I/AAAAAAAAAY... [6] http://www.eclipse.org/screenshots/images/SDK-RedFlag_Linux.png http://www.eclipse.org/screenshots/images/SDK-RedFlag_Linux.... [7] http://www.hanselman.com/blog/content/binary/WindowsLiveWriter/MultithreadedDebugginginVisualStudio2008_E599/Listing23-04_app%20(Debugging)%20-%20Microsoft%20Visual%20Studio%20(Administrator)%20(5).png http://www.hanselman.com/blog/content/binary/WindowsLiveWrit... [8] http://swtswing.sourceforge.net/screenshots/images/EclipseMetalL&F.png http://swtswing.sourceforge.net/screenshots/images/EclipseMe... [9] Not my screenshot, but similar: http://static.milkbox.net/ss/ss-2009-05-06.png http://static.milkbox.net/ss/ss-2009-05-06.png
  - ajross 15y ago
    Wait, what? You use four different editors? How can you stand that? How could you be good at any of them? I can barely type into a text field on a web page without pasting from emacs.
    - dkersten 15y ago
      I don't use vim on windows. On linux, I use geany for Python code and plain text. Sometimes I also use gedit, but its rare. I use Qt Creator for all Qt development and for non-Qt C++ development if I'm not using linux. So, most of the time I'm using Qt Creator, some of the time I use geany and the rest I use vim. I probably sholdn't have mentioned gedit as I really don't use it often. I'm planning on dumping geany in favour of vim next time I have to set up my development environment (basically when I get a new laptop, hopefully real soon) as I've been meaning to practice my vim skills for a while now. I was real good at it a few years ago, but then I got a little rusty, which is why I ended up using geany for python and plain text instead... Actually, to be completely accurate, I use MPLAB too ;) I use it exclusively to program C for the PIC24 microcontrollers. I also used Notepad++ for AVR development a few months ago - if I had been developing on linux, I would have used vim, but I really dislike gvim, so do not use it on windows. I use MPLAB for PIC development because it integrates with the hardware programmer, the remote debugger and saves having to set up paths for a gcc thats not compatible with the one I use for desktop C++ development (though I plan on switching to clang, so I won't have any gcc clashes anymore then).

ajross 15y ago

I've used Qt Creator only once or twice, but my memory (and the handful of screenshots I see on google image search) is that it's pretty much the same. An editor rectangle embedded in a bunch of other crap with way too much vertical space above and below it dedicated to things that aren't very important. For reference, my emacs window has the gnome 3 panel and the window manager title bar as waste and that's it. And for years I ran a custom metacity theme which turned off the title bars entirely (haven't managed to port that to gnome shell yet).

mkl 15y ago
I think your recollection/search is incorrect. Qt Creator has a menu bar, navigation bar, and output selector etc. bar, all the height of a single line of text. There are no toolbars at all - none that can even be turned on. Much of the status and control interface is in a vertical bar on the left.
dkersten 15y ago
A typical session looks like this [1]. With the documentation window open, it looks like this [2]. The GUI designer looks like this [3] (there's also a second "designer" for Qt Quick). The debugger looks like this [4]. With the compile log/error log/search results window open, it looks like this [5]. About 80% of the time, when I use Qt Creator, especially if I'm not developing a GUI application (in which case I also use the designer), my screen looks like [1]. On the other hand, to my eyes at least, most other IDE's look something like this [6], [7] or very very extreme cases [8]. That is, they lose a lot of vertical space to tool bars. When I'm developing on Linux and I'm not developing a Qt GUI application in C++, I use a mixture of text-mode vim, geany and gedit in a tiling window manager (that is, the "dock windows" in most IDEs are windows that I have tiled, or vim panels) with no window borders or decorations whatsoever [9]. [1] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/QtCreator-Linux-2.0.1.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/QtCreator... [2] http://www.developer.nokia.com/Resources/Library/Porting_to_Qt/Porting%20WP%20to%20Qt/Screenshot-qtcreator-overview.png http://www.developer.nokia.com/Resources/Library/Porting_to_... [3] http://linux.leunen.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/qtcreator_designer.png http://linux.leunen.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/qtcreator... [4] http://lists.qt.nokia.com/pipermail/qt-creator/attachments/20090903/70c85ec2/attachment.png http://lists.qt.nokia.com/pipermail/qt-creator/attachments/2... [5] http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-teVIBJ45OEU/Twbi9_wQd_I/AAAAAAAAAYQ/eixJ2YLG-Pk/s1600/snapshot12.png http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-teVIBJ45OEU/Twbi9_wQd_I/AAAAAAAAAY... [6] http://www.eclipse.org/screenshots/images/SDK-RedFlag_Linux.png http://www.eclipse.org/screenshots/images/SDK-RedFlag_Linux.... [7] http://www.hanselman.com/blog/content/binary/WindowsLiveWriter/MultithreadedDebugginginVisualStudio2008_E599/Listing23-04_app%20(Debugging)%20-%20Microsoft%20Visual%20Studio%20(Administrator)%20(5).png http://www.hanselman.com/blog/content/binary/WindowsLiveWrit... [8] http://swtswing.sourceforge.net/screenshots/images/EclipseMetalL&F.png http://swtswing.sourceforge.net/screenshots/images/EclipseMe... [9] Not my screenshot, but similar: http://static.milkbox.net/ss/ss-2009-05-06.png http://static.milkbox.net/ss/ss-2009-05-06.png
- ajross 15y ago
  Wait, what? You use four different editors? How can you stand that? How could you be good at any of them? I can barely type into a text field on a web page without pasting from emacs.
  - dkersten 15y ago
    I don't use vim on windows. On linux, I use geany for Python code and plain text. Sometimes I also use gedit, but its rare. I use Qt Creator for all Qt development and for non-Qt C++ development if I'm not using linux. So, most of the time I'm using Qt Creator, some of the time I use geany and the rest I use vim. I probably sholdn't have mentioned gedit as I really don't use it often. I'm planning on dumping geany in favour of vim next time I have to set up my development environment (basically when I get a new laptop, hopefully real soon) as I've been meaning to practice my vim skills for a while now. I was real good at it a few years ago, but then I got a little rusty, which is why I ended up using geany for python and plain text instead... Actually, to be completely accurate, I use MPLAB too ;) I use it exclusively to program C for the PIC24 microcontrollers. I also used Notepad++ for AVR development a few months ago - if I had been developing on linux, I would have used vim, but I really dislike gvim, so do not use it on windows. I use MPLAB for PIC development because it integrates with the hardware programmer, the remote debugger and saves having to set up paths for a gcc thats not compatible with the one I use for desktop C++ development (though I plan on switching to clang, so I won't have any gcc clashes anymore then).