Setting up to write C++

Ask Fedora
1

A neighbor and I are considering doing a joint project using C++ under Fedora 38. He is an experienced and current C++ coder for windows and I haven’t written any C since it was just “C” about 40 years ago. I need advice on tools to load on my Fedora 38 machines that will be good for both of us to use.

The project will be writing a program fronted with a GUI that operates connected hardware by sending commands and getting responses via a serial port (TTYx).

I’ve done this sort of thing many times, but for the last tens years or so I’ve been using Python

I will be designing and building the hardware and learning some C++. My neighbor will be the programmer.

Thank in advance for your help

2

For the record, C & C++ are different languages. I only mention this because I work in both and thinking about them the same way will lead you in the wrong direction.

You should consider deciding what you are going to use for the UI. For example, Qt Creator is an all in one solution that lets you design the UI and develop the C++ in a single IDE that is easy to setup.
Conversely, if you want to build a Gnome application there are tools like Gnome Builder.

Alternatively, you can put all the tools together yourself. Using a code editor, compiler and debugger and running them all yourself.

Then there are IDEs that are between those two extremes like Visual Studio Code, Eclipse, etc.

Each person will have different opinions on which of these is optimal. Since I develop mostly Qt applications in C++, I generally use Qt Creator because it easy to get started, well documented and highly integrated.

3

Does your neighbor use an IDE and if so is there a linux version? If not, were you using a python IDE? Many are cross-platform and also support C++, so only your neighbor would need learn a new IDE.

If you are using C++ for some specialized libraries, you may want to check IDE’s are used by the library developers and users. I find there are often informal communities around certain libraries. Members of such communities will often use the same IDE.

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For my Python code I’ve been using Thonny since Eclipse disappeared from the Fedora repo. and they don’t seem to do Python anymore. In any case Thonny has be serving. My neighbor uses MS Visual Studio. He looked at Visual Studio Code under Fedora and didn’t think it would work for us.

For the five minutes I’ve spent with it so far I like what I see in QT Creator. Especially since I can apparently use it for Python code too. The main concern I have with regard to libraries is finding one for using a serial port (TTYx) that will work with QT Creator.

Thanks to both of you for your help.

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It all depends how complicated your project is going to be.

I like Geany, but that may be too minimal for you.

I would consider CLion, which is IntelliJ’s app for C/C++. That way you would have an app that works on both Linux and Windows.

Code::Blocks is kinda quirky and not modern, but it works.

Like another commenter mentioned, QT Creator would work if you go for the QT toolkit.

QT is an excellent choice, even if you go with a different IDE.