Developers who work in C or C++ can use the NetBeans integrated developer environment to build applications on Windows, Linux, and Solaris.
NetBeans made the C/C++ Pack available as an open source project.
The development pack replaces the cpp and cpplite modules that C developers would have used previously.
The development team plans to update the project about once a month.
“While the updates don’t have all of the functionality we’ll have when we release, they definitely have enough functionality for many uses,” they noted.
This IDE provides language-aware features in code completion and folding, and syntax highlighting.
Developers can import existing makefiles into the editor and work on those C/C++ projects from there.
A makefile wizard in the IDE helps developers bring in the already-created makefile. Users can specify compiler, pre-processor definitions, compile-time options, and define and manage targets/configurations.
A class browser is part of the environment, but a debugger is not yet, though the project noted that it is coming soon.
Since the editor has been built in pure Java, developers should have no problem getting to work on the three OS platforms already qualified by the project for it.
The project team did make an observation about compilers, and said, “The bulk of the testing has occurred with the compilers in the GNU Compiler Collection.” They are soliciting feedback on usage of the editor with other compilers, and plan to formally support more of them in the future.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
