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JetBrains releases CLion - new cross-platform IDE for C/C++ users

Also out is ReSharper C++ for Visual C++ folk

Developer tools company JetBrains has released CLion, a new cross-platform IDE for C and C++.

JetBrains is a survivor in a product area dominated either by vendor-specific tools (such as Microsoft’s Visual Studio and Apple's Xcode) or free open source projects (Eclipse and NetBeans).

The core JetBrains product, IntelliJ IDEA, is a Java IDE with strong smart editor and refactoring features. Building on this foundation, the company has created IDEs for PHP, Python and Ruby, as well as AppCode which runs on the Mac and supports C, C++, Objective-C and Swift.

All these tools run on the JVM (Java Virtual Machine). Google’s Android Studio, the official Android IDE, is a version of IntelliJ IDEA.

The CLion IDE

The CLion IDE

Now there is CLion, which builds on the work done for AppCode and takes it cross-platform. CLion supports C and C++ and runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. A key feature is the smart editor, as you would expect with code completion, auto formatting, multi-selection, parameter info tooltips, find usages, code generation and refactoring. CLion uses CMake projects, for which support is built in.

Clients for several version control systems are integrated, including Subversion, Git, Mercurial, CVS, Perforce, and Microsoft TFS.

CLion is suitable for Windows users looking for a nimbler IDE than Visual Studio, but there is a catch. Visual C++ is not supported, and you have to use either the GCC/G++ compilers, which means installing either the MinGW or Cygwin environments. CLion also supports Clang, on OS X and Linux.

Visual C++ users are supported via another route, which is a new ReSharper C++ extension for Visual Studio. The name seems wrong, since the original ReSharper (which is still available) presumably gets its name by combining "Refactoring" with "C Sharp"). However, if you like ReSharper but code in C++ this may be worth a look, bringing refactorings, navigation, code inspections and quick fixes to the Visual Studio environment.

CLion costs £78+ VAT for personal use, or £157 + VAT for businesses. ReSharper is £78+VAT for personal use, or £181 + VAT for businesses.®

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