[weerd]

I use Netbeans for C/C++ development (shocking, I know). Originally I was using it as an Eclipse alternative at a Java gig. After moving into embedded dev I just decided to try and stick with it and see how it goes. It worked.

Benefits:

- Free, cross platform. Someday I'll shell out $300 for slick edit, but a free IDE is nice.

- Solid C++/Makefile code analysis. C++ has a notoriously difficult syntax, but Netbeans can handle it.

- support for git and svn to visualize diffs

- very configurable syntax coloring & highlighting, also a good dark theme (Darcula)

- many configurable keybindings

- not vim or emacs ;)

Cons:

- can be a bit heavy/clunky

- there are some quirks that I've learned to work with, perhaps this could be said of any editor...

- on large codebases it will take some time to initially parse everything

- Java font rendering

- looks of disdain and confusion from other engineers

it's probably inertia that's kept me from moving to fancier editors, but overall Netbeans has been solid and I'm just as productive as the other guys & gals.

[fierarul]

  > Cons:
  > [...]
  > - looks of disdain and confusion from other engineers
  > it's probably inertia that's kept me from moving to fancier editors, but overall Netbeans has been solid and I'm just as productive as the other guys & gals.

+1

[karmakaze]

+1 this as a 'pro' rather.

[fierarul]

Yes, of course, what's not to like about that confusion?

[syockit]

I couldn't find other IDEs that fulfill my need for remote C/C++ development (not just debugging). Maybe Eclipse has that feature as well, but the last time I tried it required me to install Java on the remote machine and start the server by myself, while in Netbeans everything works out of the box and it copies the server to the remote for you (using scp I think). Code analysis is superb, remote git/svn works, I get to browse the function call graph etc.

Then one time last year, VS Code was hyping, and I boarded the hype train. C/C++ seems to work... but not so well for my needs. There is no remote git, it uses your computer's compiler for parsing (I had it use WSL's gcc). Everytime I search for howtos of remote C for VS Code, all I see are answers where they ask you back, if you have git why aren't you developing on your computer? Well there's the in-house build system as well, which I don't think I can replicate well on my PC.

Too bad C/C++ is no longer an official shipped feature of Netbeans since Apache, but the installable plugin still works well so I have no complaints.