I have been programming in C++ for a very long time, and like a lot of us, I have an established workflow that hasn’t really changed much over time. With the exception of bare-metal programming for embedded systems, though, I have been developing for Windows that entire time. With the recent “enshittification” of Windows 11, I’m starting to realize that it’s going to be time to make the switch to Linux in the very near future. I’ve become very accustomed to (spoiled by?) Visual Studio, though, and I’m wondering about the Linux equivalent of features I probably take for granted.

  • Debugging: In VS, I can set breakpoints, step through my code line-by-line, pause and inspect the contents of variable on-the-fly, switch between threads, etc. My understanding of Linux programming is that it’s mostly done in a code editor, then compiled on the command line. How exactly do you debug code when your build process is separate from your code editor? Having to compile my code, run it until I find a bug, then open it up in a debugger and start it all over sounds extremely inefficient.
  • Build System: I’m aware that cmake exists, and I’ve used it a bit, but I don’t like it. VS lets me just drop a .h and .cpp file into the solution explorer and I’m good-to-go. Is there really no graphical alternative for Linux?

It seems like Linux development is very modular; each piece of the development process exists in its own application, many of which are command-line only. Part of what I like about VS is that it ties this all together into a nice package and allows interoperability between the functions. I can create a new header or source file, add some code, build it, run it, and debug it, all within the same IDE.

This might come across as a rant against Linux programming, but I don’t intend it to. I guess what I’m really looking for is suggestions on how to make the transition from a Visual Studio user to a Linux programmer. How can I transition to Linux and still maintain an efficient workflow?

As a note, I am not new to Linux; I have used it extensively. However, the only programming I’ve done on Linux is bash scripting.

  • Herzenschein
    6•22 days ago

    My understanding of Linux programming is that it’s mostly done in a code editor, then compiled on the command line.

    That’s not really true. You can do that, but with most IDEs (and some text editors) you really don’t need to do that. You can do everything from the IDE.

    I’m aware that cmake exists, and I’ve used it a bit, but I don’t like it. VS lets me just drop a .h and .cpp file into the solution explorer and I’m good-to-go. Is there really no graphical alternative for Linux?

    It depends on the IDE and how it handles project files. Nowadays Qt Creator for example can just create your source code files and automatically add them to the generated project CMake. I’m pretty sure other IDEs or text editors have this functionality when paired with CMake or Meson too.

    It must be noted that if the IDE has some custom project file manager (like Visual Studio does with sln and vcproj files) and you use it exclusively, you’ll likely restrict your project to one platform and one IDE. Using something like CMake or Meson will make it easier to do crossplatform development and will let your users build the project without needing that specific IDE.

    Personally I like modern CMake, the problem is that you’ll see a lot of projects in the wild doing old CMake style, which is awful. Meson is okay, although it feels very Pythonic to me and lacks some features I use for Qt stuff.