Re: [ALACPP] GCC and friends

[Christopher Smith <x@xxxxxxxx>]

Jon Stewart wrote:
> I've got a slackware 10 box with an encrypted RAID1 for /home, with every 
> service shut down except for ssh. So data security and integrity is done.

Ugh... nothing will kill your compile times more than encrypted RAID. :-(

For the record, I'm increasingly leaning towards Gentoo for C++ 
development. Source-based distros avoid that whole mess of "which 
version of g++/libstdc++ was it compiled with" behind.

> I have gcc 3.3.4 installed as my system default, with gcc 3.4.1 installed 
> as a secondary option (I want to play with precompiled headers).

3.4.1 has anumber of other nice features, including a much better parser 
and an actually usable iostreams library (large file support *finally*).

> I'm using subversion for source control (SO much better than CVS).

I'm partial to arch, but hey, anything is better than CVS.

> Yesterday I got ccache going; ccache is awesome.

True 'dat.

> So, I know this list has a number of good *nix C++ developers on it. What 
> else do I need for my toolchain?

I always like to have a 2nd, good quality compiler. Intel's icc is 
apparently available as "free for non-commercial use". I'd get that.

> Is distcc worth it (I would have to install a cross compiler as my
> other machine is a Mac)?

Setting up a cross compiler can be a pain, although Dan Kegel as a nice 
how-to. That said, depending on the relative power of the other box, 
distcc can be a huge win.

> I am leaning towards emacs as I decide which editor to use, but I'm not sold yet;

Emacs rules! ;-)

> are there any editors which do a Visual Studio style auto-complete?

Aside from Emacs, off the top of my head I can think of Eclipse's CDT 
will do this. You might want to check it out.

> Any emacs modules that are must-haves for C++ developers?

Some standard ones are speedbar, semantic bovinator, folding mode, 
doxymacs, EDE, etc. Alternatives to speedbar include ebrowse, ECB (Emacs 
Code Browser), OO-Browser, etags, or for the very brave... COGRE.

There's an EmacsWiki with a pretty comprehensive set of suggestions for 
programmers to look at:

http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/CategoryProgrammerUtils

If you have ccache and distcc setup, your compiles are quick enough that 
you might want to look at flymake. I haven't used it yet as Emacs's 
syntax checking goes a long way for me, but it sounds like the coolest 
thing:

http://flymake.sourceforge.net/

> What about build tools, e.g. make? Am I still best off with make, due
> its ubiquity and simplicity,

Make + autoconf/automake is probably the right way to go.

> or can ant/bjam/custom python scripts/whatever offer me more (as 
> subversion offers enough more than CVS to justify the upgrade)?

Honestly, bjam is really not impressing me. I've heard that Ant's 
cpptask is getting there, but there is no substitute for a good make. ;-)

--Chris
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