GCC for Linux, only because Clang/LLVM isn't yet ready.

 

GCC is pretty good, yeah. I'd recommend that for Linux. Visual C++, don't have any personal experience but a friend of mine has plenty of good things to say about it.

 

Visual C++ is pretty great. Especially considering Microsoft are giving away Visual Studio to students for free.

 

I use gcc both for GNU/Linux and Windows.

I dislike IDE that comes with VC++

 

I personally use the Bloodshed's Dev-C++ IDE for Windows. Its a pretty neat IDE (not cluttered).

 

I am not a big Microsoft fan, but their compilers have always been among the best, and Visual Studio Express (available for free to students) has the best C++ debugger of any IDE.

For Linux, I'd go with Eclipse with the CDT plugin for an IDE. That's actually a front-end for whichever compiler you'd like to use (usually gcc). Also has the advantage of working in Windows as well (although then you have to install either MinGW or Cygwin, which is a pain, and the debugger is not as good as MSVS's).

 

If you want just a compiler, gcc is available for both windows and Linux, and has really nice optimization algorithms and lots of settings. If you want IDE, i suggest NetBeans(sun studio) for linux. Install gdb and enjoy easy debugging (in NB). Some useful plug-ins, good code highlighting etc. Use it with callgrind + cachegrind + kcachegrind + massif + ms_print for starters and you can set a good workplace.

 

As I'm both cheap and not a computer science student with loads of free software at my disposal, I had to scrounge what I could off the net.

Compiler I use is Borland, IDE is the rather terrible Code::Blocks.

 

If you're looking for a good IDE, I'd suggest Qt. It's free and you have the advantage of being able to use it on both systems (and OSX too if you feel like it). It also comes with gdb so there's no problem with debugging your app. Plus, Qt is awesome.

 

You might want to check out the Intel Compiler suite for C++ too. The compiler for Linux operating systems is available free of charge. In my work, I find more use for the Fortran compiler that's also available in the suite and I've configured Eclipse to work with it. The debugger and Math Kernel Library that Intel provides are also excellent. The only issue is that installing it on Linux systems and configuring your IDE to work with it can become a right pain very quickly, if you're not careful.

 

For windows I use VS 2008, I tried Bloodshed Dev-C++ awhile back but I found it to be a pain when compared to pretty much everything else. For Linux I use NetBeans or Eclipse (much prefer Eclipse tbh, especially as there are so many great plugin/language options for it) but only for the predictive text/other IDE goodies, as GCC stuff is the the fuckin' shit - gotta love open source.

Hmmm, when you get to decent sized projects (thousands of lines of code + a dozen files) full blown IDEs are definitely the way to go, keeping track of all of your project at once is awesome. There is going to be way to much stuff for you to try and keep track of at one time, they really do make your life much easier - especially once you get used to whichever you choose.

 

This. I recommend it Oz. I'm at the level that you are at, and I found it very easy to use and simple to learn. Not to mention that it's only a few MB's.

 

Does it even have such a basic feature as code folding? Just asking.

 

I've never found IDEs to be all that, but maybe it's because I've been writing code, often on systems without fancy GUIs, since before IDEs. Unless you're programming professionally, I think your time is better spent learning one powerful editor very well (I recommend xemacs or vim), "gellifying" your code formatting style into something legible and logical, and improving your coding skills.

As for the original question, all the developers for the code project I lead use gcc/g++ for compilation with vim and/or xemacs editors. I find this to be a good, general purpose option for the unix world, anyway (including Mac). We don't write for Windows. Whatever you choose, just be sure you use spaces for indents and not tabs. (Tab-indents make me want to go back in time and kill the offender's parents).

 

What's so bad about tab-indents?

 

Not all editors know what tab-indents are. Especially the editors Pers listed. Also, not all systems show tab-indents the same. Some show them as 4 spaces, some as 8, even more convert the tabs to spaces automagically. If you mix editors (multiple people working on the same project) code becomes a big jumble of wtfmess.

Take it from someone who spent more time fixing the mess than actual coding. Tab-indents are for noob coders who use IDEs or don't know how to set the options on their fancy text editors.

I should note that I prefer a fancy text editor myself (gedit), but I'm not new to coding.