Qt: Should I use Visual Studio, Qt Creator or something else? [closed]

Answer 1

Another possibility is using Netbeans. Have a look at this
Netbeans provides great tools about memory and profiling for free. Morevover, the integration with Qt is nice.

Answer 2

I was confronted with the same problem not so long ago. I chose QtCreator in the end, because it really grew stable over the past few months.

It's just so much easier to have all your tools within one environment. The debugging facilities are also quite extensive and integrate well with the Qt framework. Code completion is almost as good as in Visual Studio (as long as you don't own Visual Assist ;-), and the code navigation is very easy to use!

That together with the fact that QtCreator works on all three major platforms made the difference for me in the end.

I think when starting a new project, QtCreator has become a serious alternative to consider...

Answer 3

Use QtCreator, but learn key all shortcuts first.

I'm 30% faster (veeeery subjective:-) since I switched, and I tried every IDE and editor there is for several days to several years. I'm fed up with visual-something and even eclipse, my long-time favorite.

First I thought 'another ide, what a waste of these developers' time', but after some days I used Qt creator even for non-Qt C++ development.

This IDE helps you to focus on your work, hides all distraction and lets you jump instead of search. (So, no class browser desired)

Answer 4

I use Visual C++ 2008 with Visual Assist and Qt Creator with MinGW:

• MinGW will drive you nuts, but thankfully you can use the VC++ compiler in Qt Creator.
• The debugger integration is not as good as VC++. You can't set the next instruction or do any of the fancy stuff like see what a function has returned in the locals window. GDB is as slow as a snail.
• Code navigation is as good as VA X (but use the tech preview, 1.2.1 is not that great)
• Code completion is acceptable, certainly not as good as VA X. Code completion doesn't work for anything a bit more complicated such as accessing the members of a const_iterator from a QList typedef.
• Lighter IDE than VC++ and has a nicer GUI IMO.
• .pro files are generally easier to manage than sln

QtCreator is a good alternative to VC++ and I would definitely use it on Linux. If you already have VC++ 2005 or 2008 and VA X, I recommend that you install the Qt addin and use VC++ for development. I also recommend that you install the Qt SDK side by side and compile in both MinGW and VC++ to catch cross-platforms issues early! Try to keep the .pro files in sync to the sln and beware of this issue.

Answer 5

QTCreator is still in the beginning of its dev if you are facing it with Visual Studio.

Personally I'm using QTCreator for QT devs since all QT environment (IDE, QTDesigner, QT Documentation) is embedded and I find it great but not mature for now.

But since you used to develop with Visual Studio (with the Visual Assist X add-in) you should continue using it. In addition new QT binaries have been released for Visual Studio 2008. So no need to compile QT before using it!

Edit (Oct 5) : Next QtCreator release 1.3 will have an improved completion system at least as good as Visual Assist X : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyfO-7lvy%5Fc&feature=player%5Fembedded.

Answer 6

I own Visual Studio 2005 and the wonderful add-on "Visual Assist X" (VAX I call it), but am pleased with using Qt Creator. Things get way better with Qt Creator 1.3, and I hope 1.4 adds a class browser, which is its worst weakness. But I am continually amazed by how good Qt Creator is, and how clear a vision its developers have. Amazed, I Say! It is as though all the VS competitors laid down and died and now Qt Creator is all that stands to truly develop a C++-Centric IDE. I always hated how VS watered itself down to adapt to every language, to the point that later versions downplayed the MFC wizards (yuck, but hey, I needed them back then). Eclipse is based on Java. I love using an IDE build with Qt and made for Qt. So go Qt Creator and don't look back. At first I was a bit wary that Qt Creator might be another "dies on the vine" type of project, but after the last two releases and the coming v1.3 I see that it is going to be the new kid on the block -- if only it gets that class browser!