Using an IDE that is not VS?

[bedhead]

I want to tinker around with TDM to learn more about programming in the process.

However, I'm using linux and don't have windows.

I'm currently trying to use CodeBlocks to edit the source code and to compile things.

However, I'm not sure how to open sln project file since I think these are VS files.

Can anyone help me get started in TDM modding using linux?

 

Any guidance or literature is appreciated

[Obsttorte]

Under linux sconce is used for compiling. There is a wiki entry that describe how to do this exactly here. In addition, a couple of our members are using linux. Tels is one iirc. I used it myself but it's been quite a while, so I can't recall a lot of details.

[bedhead]

Yea I read the wiki on how to compile. But using a text editor and compiling with scons is such a pain for a project the size of TDM. I want to see where the variables are defined, where functions are located, and how each module connect to one another. To do that I need to use an IDE.

 

It sucks that Visual Studios 2013 is used for TDM development rather than a crossplatform IDE. Especially since I don't have windows

[taaaki]

The features you are looking for will depend on the IDE you choose. The choice of VS for TDM on Windows shouldn't influence your choice of IDE for Linux (as mentioned above, the build system for Linux is different, namely Scons). However, you will need to configure the build process in whichever IDE you choose so that it uses Scons to make your life a bit easier - I was lazy and just ran the scons build script in a separate terminal. Also, the build system hasn't really got much to do with the features you listed above (function locations, etc.). I was using QtCreator when I was making changes to the Linux side of TDM and that seemed to work quite well (I can't recall if it had the function/variable referencing though). You might just need to have a look through the options in CodeBlocks to enable such features or see if there are plugins that can do it for you.

[OrbWeaver]

I want to see where the variables are defined, where functions are located, and how each module connect to one another. To do that I need to use an IDE.

You don't need an IDE to find where functions are located and variables defined. You can do this with a combination of a powerful programming text editor such as Vim or Emacs, and a source code indexing tool like Ctags (a decent search tool like Ack is also useful). I have been developing C++ in this way for years and never felt that I needed to switch to a full blown IDE.

 

But if you do choose to use an IDE like Code::Blocks, I don't see why compiling with Scons is going to be a problem. A Linux IDE is not going to do its own compiling but will invoke a regular Make or other build process in a shell, hopefully parsing the output to locate errors in the source code. You will just need to configure Code::Blocks to invoke "scons" instead of "make" to build the project.