What are some ways that I can develop C++ apps in Linux from a Windows workstation?

Question

I'm developing C++ apps for Linux, but my workstation is Windows 7. I've read that Visual Studio is the strongest C++ IDE for Windows, but I actually want to execute the code on Ubuntu and be able to use a more graphically pleasing debugger than gdb, although the functionality of gdb is pretty good. I'm really happy with valgrind as well, but again, I'd like to be able to leverage that in an IDE in windows.

I currently use QtCreator as my C++ IDE and I edit the files over a samba mount to the linux box. I use Putty to run the Linux commands. I use git as my source control system, gcc as my compiler and cmake as my build system. I like QtCreator, but as I have it configured, I'm not taking advantage of code-completion or debugging.

The closest thing I've seen is CodeWarrior. It allows for executing code on remote embedded systems and a full debugger. Has anyone ever used this for general app development on Ubuntu?

Is QtCreator the right IDE for me? Is there something else that I can do to configure it so that it'll give me those rich IDE features that I'm looking for? Or should I look to another IDE? Also, are there some tools that I've neglected to mention that would make C++ development easier on a Linux box from a Windows workstation?

Thanks in advance...

Answer 1

It is not clear, you run QtCreator on windows? If so, you can run QtCreator in Linux, plus install nxserver on Linux, and nxclient on windows (http://www.nomachine.com/).

So you run nxclient on windows, login to linux, and work on linux, in compare with virtual machines, you get more prefomance.

Answer 2

使用VirtualBox和linux虚拟机？

Answer 3

X Windows.

You could install Cygwin to run an X11 server on your Windows 7 desktop, then run an X11 graphical IDE like QtCreator on your Linux server that renders directly to your Cygwin Windows 7 desktop. I actually tried setting this up with Code::Blocks on openSUSE and Cygwin on Windows 7 just a few weeks ago because I'm in the same situation you're in. It works... kind of. There are weird intermittent errors.

Your scenario is exactly the scenario that the X Windows system was designed for, and it is awesome in concept, but the actual X11 protocol design and implementation is, I gather, old and pretty hairy. I have very little experience with X, but the people who do have lots of experience with it seem to complain about it a lot, and I suppose there are good reasons for that. Too bad, because it would be wonderful if there were a technology like X Windows that worked. AJAX is basically a cheap hack for solving the same kind of problem that X Windows tried to solve... running a remote application with local rendering of a rich GUI.

I gave up on X and I still do the same thing you do: I have putty and Samba-mounted files that I edit with Visual Studio. Visual Studio is the best text editor I've ever used. All the other Visual Studio IDE features are gravy.

Answer 4

There's some solutions :

• VmWare : not free but really good
• Virtualbox : free but less powerfull than VmWare
• KVM/Qemu : Free but less powerfull than VmWare