Dev C++ Sigh.

[dejai]

Wow, Dev C++ has been playing up on me lately, this is on vista (another sigh) but I have had similar problems on my XP. First thing that happens is when I am organising header files and .cpp files into respective folders, after a while the names of the files just start to change for example CGame.h will be called CGameManager.h and sometimes .cpp will be called .h . This is superficial as it doesn't actually rename the file...

Now I think it has come to the last straw, it now has rendered itself completely useless. It won't save files and if I click anywhere in my code and write it won't compile it. Its just like one big useless text editor that can't save now.

Wtf? Any Ideas? Or should I not bother and go to VC 2008

[Ion Dune]

Or should I not bother and go to VC 2008

That's what I did. DevCpp just seems to brake down. I had never specifically had your problems, but I had tons of other ones, and VC08 works just fine.

[arras]

I switched finaly to Code Blocks after many years with DevC++. I did it after I had to rename project file nearly each time I wanted to recompile my ap. For some reasons old executable could not be rewriten/removed before system restart.

While C::B has many small features over DevC++ two things were better in Dev: much easier setup. C::B project setup is really complicated (may be it gives you more flexibility, don't know) and text selection on doubleclick is broken if you want to select single character expression: double clicking on a; would select only a in Dev but both a and semicolon in C::B (may be there is way to set it up somewhere but I did not find it).

Project setup issue I simply solved by creating template project which I just copy and paste.

[rogerborg]

If you are primarily targeting an MS Windows platform, I cannot think of a single good reason to use anything other than Visual Studio (Express) as your main IDE.

I can think of some pretty bad reasons, mostly along the lines of "I prefer to use FOSS products, even though I would never in a million years consider compiling or debugging them myself".

[Daaark]

People need to stop calling DevC++ a compiler, and then they need to just plain stop using it. It's a buggy piece of junk, especially in later versions. They would crash hard all the time, and then the software got abandoned. Use Code::Blocks or VSC++2008 Express.

If you are primarily targeting an MS Windows platform, I cannot think of a single good reason to use anything other than Visual Studio (Express) as your main IDE.

True. I dropped C::B like a bad habit a few months ago, and never looked back. But C::B runs better on a lower spec machine.

[Praetor]

I used Dev-C++ for all of a week and was disgusted, I now use C::B or Visual C++ 2008 (all the .net stuff gets annoying though (it generated 100mb of .obj files and such from a single compile.... when '03 made <1mb...), so I use C::B (with MSVC++ '03 for the compiler) a lot of the time)

[randomMesh]

"I prefer to use FOSS products, even though I would never in a million years consider compiling or debugging them myself".

Compiling GCC is fun

What was first? The compiler or the compiler to compile the compiler?

[Halifax]

Dev-C++ is alright, and in fact the choice of most beginners, especially since it is used in most books. I like to use it because it is lightweight, and I can get small projects down fast. But for anything else I use MSVC, although it is deathly slow. (Just like all MS products.)

[rogerborg]

Slow in what sense? Time spent compiling should be insignificant compared to design, coding, testing and debugging.

If compilation time bothers you, I'd recommend kjam Empirically, it compiles the same code using the same compiler (cl.exe) and options in half the time of doing the equivalent build through dev studio (on the command line) or gnu make.

[Halifax]

Slow in the sense that whenever I click something there is about 3 seconds lag. Buttons, menus, submenus, arrows to drop down menus, etc. There is so much stuff in MSVC that it bogs my system down. I generally have to close Internet Explorer and mIRC if I have either of them open because then it takes about 10 seconds to register clicks etc.

Even when editing code, with Irrlicht source code, there will be 3 character lag on my typing. It gets really annoying, but I am basically forced to use it.

[bitplane]

Sounds like you're running low on RAM

[Halifax]

Yuppers, 256 MB. I need to update my whole laptop, but I am running low on a little thing called cash.