Education Ecosystem Blog

Every engineer worth his/her salt should have a set of awesome tools to help increase productivity. Livecoding.tv engineers are no exception. We would like to share one such set of C and C++ productivity tools, plugins, and libraries that streamers use on Livecoding.tv on a daily basis.

What Is C and C++?

“C is a high-level programming language that was developed in the mid-1970s. It was originally used for writing Unix programs, but is now used to write applications for nearly every available platform. C++, pronounced ‘C plus plus,’ is a programming language that was built off the C language. The syntax of C++ is nearly identical to C, but it has object-oriented features, which allow the programmer to create objects within the code” (Techterms). But the usage of C and C++ have enhanced application in hardware and robotics. An example is its application being used in modern production lines.

C and C++ Productivity Tools, Plugins & Libraries

Here are the ten (10) best C and C++ productivity tools, plugins, and libraries recommended by Livecoding.tv engineers:

Vim

Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing. It is an advanced text editor that seeks to provide the power of the de-facto Unix editor ‘Vi’, with a more complete feature set. It’s useful whether you’re already using vi or using a different editor.

Ctags

Ctags generates an index (or tag) file of language objects found in source files that allows these items to be quickly and easily located by a text editor or other utility. A tag signifies a language object for which an index entry is available (or, alternatively, the index entry created for that object).

Cscope

Cscope is a developer’s tool for browsing source code. Cscope generations an information database for faster searches and later reference.

Cmake

CMake is an open-source, cross-platform family of tools designed to build, test and package software. CMake is used to control the software compilation process using simple platform and compiler independent configuration files, and generate native makefiles and workspaces that can be used in the compiler environment of your choice.

GDB

GDB, the GNU Project debugger, allows you to see what is going on `inside’ another program while it executes — or what another program was doing at the moment it crashed.

GPROF

Gprof is a performance analysis tool for Unix applications. It can profile C, C++, Pascal, and Fortran 77 applications.Profiling allows you to learn where your program spent its time and which functions called which other functions while it was executing.The gprof program prints a flat profile and a call graph on standard output.

Valgrind

Valgrind is an open-source, instrumentation framework for building dynamic analysis tools. The Valgrind distribution currently includes six production-quality tools and three experimental tools.

TotalView

Livecoding.tv engineers rely on TotalView for their parallel debugging needs. Its scalability, built-in debugger, and multi-language support makes it an indispensable tool for the engineers at Livecoding.tv.

SciTE

SciTE is a SCIntilla based Text Editor. Originally built to demonstrate Scintilla, it has grown to be a generally useful editor with facilities for building and running programs. It is best used for jobs with simple configurations – Livecoding.tv engineers use it for building test and demonstration programs as well as SciTE and Scintilla, themselves..

Code::Blocks

Code::Blocks is a free C, C++ and Fortran IDE built to meet the most demanding needs of its users. It is designed to be very extensible and fully configurable.

In Conclusion

And there you have it, folks! The ten (10) best C and C++ productivity tools, plugins, and libraries to help you become more productive, as recommended by Livecoding.tv engineers. What are your favorite C and C++ productivity tools? What did we miss in this list that definitely needs to be added to make it complete?