Code::Blocks

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Code::Blocks

Code::Blocks Screenshot
Developed by	The Code::Blocks team
Latest release	8.02 / 28 February 2008; 262 days ago
Preview release	nightly builds
Written in	C++
OS	Cross-platform
Development status	Active
Type	IDE
License	GNU GPL
Website	http://www.codeblocks.org

Not to be confused with the computer programming term code block.

Code::Blocks is a free/open source, cross platform IDE. It is developed in C++ using wxWidgets as the GUI toolkit. Using a plugin architecture, its capabilities and features are defined by the provided plugins. Currently, Code::Blocks is oriented towards C/C++.

Code::Blocks is being developed for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. Users have successfully built Code::Blocks under FreeBSD^[1].

The latest version, Code::Blocks 8.02, was released on February 28th, 2008.

History

After releasing two release candidate versions, 1.0rc1 on July 25, 2005 and 1.0rc2 on October 25, 2005, instead of making a final release, the project developers started adding many new features, with the final release being repeatedly postponed. Instead, there were binary packages of the latest SVN version made available on a daily basis, called "nightly builds". These were supported better than the latest official 1.0rc2 release. While this approach provided users with bleeding-edge improvements and allowed developers to get constant feedback, it created an outside illusion that the project was stagnant (because no new releases have been made).

The first stable release was finally made on February 28, 2008, with the version number changed to 8.02. The versioning scheme was changed to that of Ubuntu, with the major and minor number representing the year and month of the release.

Instead of creating a branch in the code tree where bugs are fixed in the stable release and new features are added in a separate branch the project continued as before; new features and bug fixes are all added into the same code space. Version 8.02 is stable but a large progress has been made since. For the most up-to-date version you have to download the "nightly build".

Jennic Ltd. distributes a version Code::Blocks customized to work with its microcontrollers ^[2].

Features

Code::Blocks supports multiple compilers, including MinGW / GCC, Digital Mars, Microsoft Visual C++, Borland C++, Watcom and the Intel C++ compiler. Although the IDE was designed for the C++ language, there is some support for compilers of other languages, including GNU Fortran, Digital Mars D and GNU GDC.

The IDE features syntax highlighting and code folding through the use of the Scintilla editor component, C++ code completion and class browser, an integrated to-do list, and a closely integrated debugger frontend which supports GDB and, to some extent, Microsoft CDB. There is also an integrated rapid application development plugin for the wxWidgets toolkit, called wxSmith.

Some of Code::Blocks' features are targeted at users migrating from other IDEs - these include Dev-C++ and Microsoft Visual C++ project import, and Dev-C++ Devpak support.

Code::Blocks uses a custom build system, which stores its information in XML-based project files, but can optionally use external makefiles, which simplifies interfacing with projects using the GNU and Qt Software's qmake build systems.

See also

Free software portal

• Comparison of integrated development environments
• Scintilla
• SciTE
• wxWidgets

References

External links

• Official Code::Blocks website
• Code::Blocks wiki
• BerliOS project site (nightly builds and Subversion access)
• Comparison of RADs for WxWidgets
• Code::Blocks on Freshmeat (outdated)