Dev-C++
Dev-C++ is an advanced, freely distributed integrated development environment for Windows, created by Bloodshed Software. It is based on the MinGW implementation of GCC. A similar IDE, Dev-Pascal, is available and works with both Free Pascal and GNU Pascal.
Perhaps the greatest feature of Dev-C++ for OSDev purposes is that it can be used with the Cygwin toolset as well as (or instead of) the MinGW one.
The last update to Dev-C++ from Bloodshed Software was made in 2005. However, in June 2011 Dev-C++ was forked by Orwell to continue its development and since that time several bugs were fixed and new features added.
There is also wxDev-C++, a Dev-C++ fork specifically targetted at users developing with the wxWidgets framework.
Using Cygwin with Dev-C++
It is possible to use a full (not minimalistic) GCC compiler with Dev-C++ by using Cygwin. To do this, you have to edit some settings of the IDE:
- Go to Tools -> Compiler Options.
- Go to the Directories tab, then add the appropriate Cygwin paths.
- You can use a custom Makefile by going to Project -> Project Options, selecting the Makefile tab and replacing the Makefile.
A more detailed and illustrated tutorial can be found at [1].