Coding with C/C++ directly on Beaglebone, via IDE?

Hi all

I have a brand new beaglebone black and I’m also trying to install an IDE directly in Angstrom so I can do all the programming from within the board. I don’t want to use a cross compiler, do you know of any package that can do this?

Thanks a lot!!

Sadly there are no options to code directly on the BB; unless you run the full desktop environment on a tv or monitor.

In which case you may be able to use a couple of lightweight text editors…eclipse won’t run on Angstrom decently; it would take forever to use it honestly.

I hope that someone will make something simple, like Cloud9 but with C++ support, so you have a full IDE without having to cross compile.

The whole point of having a board that run a full OS is to have a full IDE to write code, after all. This is not an Ipad/Droid device in the end :slight_smile:

There is no reason why you can not use an IDE / Editor on a PC and then use SCP, SSH or whatever else to move the source over then compile on the BBB.

However, there is a reason why most people choose to cross compile. Anything sizable will take forever to compile directly on the BBB.

There is no reason why you can not use an IDE / Editor on a PC and then use
SCP, SSH or whatever else to move the source over then compile on the BBB.

However, there is a reason why most people choose to cross compile.
Anything sizable will take forever to compile directly on the BBB.

IMHO, the most easy way is to crosscompile and share a directory via NFS
with the beagleboard. This way you can test without copying.

re,
wh

Ay? You can do it all from the command line surely, there's gcc and
g++ there and make. There's also vi for editing your files. I
personally find that IDEs just get in the way.

Open multiple ssh connections to the BBB, run vi in one of them, make
in another and do testing in a third - the best IDE there is.

He is asking to code via IDE directly in Armstrong…G++ and the other command line solutions do not fit the IDE requirement.

BTW you have never tried to code pages and pages using just VI probably…

Any person in their right state of mind would not use VI, unless you are writing short programs (like shell script), or very simple applications.

Renounce to auto correction, color syntax, auto completion, and a ton more of functionalities, when you are coding millions of lines, is not different from running win 3.1 on a modern computer :slight_smile:

As much as I love terminal, there are things that are not feasible without a good text editor with plenty of functions; without even mentioning the pros of a real IDE, when you need to debug and such.

He is asking to code via IDE directly in Armstrong...G++ and the other
command line solutions do not fit the IDE requirement.

he did not specify what IDE could simply use emacs.

re,
wh

Exactly! :slight_smile:

   BTW you have never tried to code pages and pages using just VI
   probably....

I have used it since some time in the mid 1980s, so I am fairly
familiar with it - and it's available on *every* platform I program on
which is a big advantage. (Not to mention that I use it for composing
E-Mail, Usenet messages, etc.)

   Any person in their right state of mind would not use VI, unless you are
   writing short programs (like shell script), or very simple applications.
   Renounce to auto correction, color syntax, auto completion, and a ton more
   of functionalities, when you are coding millions of lines, is not

Er, have you looked at recent versions of vi! :slight_smile:

   different from running win 3.1 on a modern computer :slight_smile:
   As much as I love terminal, there are things that are not feasible without
   a good text editor with plenty of functions; without even mentioning the
   pros of a real IDE, when you need to debug and such.

As I said, editor in one window, make in the next, testing in the next
(i.e. the debugger).

I'm semi-retired now but I used to work on systems with several
million lines of code, everyone used either EMACS or vi.

Well, last time I checked vim has (even in text mode):

Color syntax (and syntax checking when doing save) : https://github.com/scrooloose/syntastic
Auto Completion and more: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=213
When I compile it can place me on the file and on the line where the error is...

And the "colorized" syntax works on ssh connections, and you can have multiple windows in text mode with just one ssh connection with tmux: http://tmux.sourceforge.net

It may not be a tool for everybody, editor and IDEs are alms a religious issue, and b=should be left to the individual taste, but vi (vim) is more powerful than it looks.

Best regards
Paulo Ferreira

VI ? Really ?

You should start using Eclipse or visual studio … they provide tons of function that vi don’t provide.

eclipse/visualstudio => with a few click you configure your workspace, you build your project, you deploy your project, your run/debug your project .

VI => with tons of hours you configure your workspace …

I don’t have time to argue with it, it’s just a simple matter of accepting the evolution …

Micka,

BTW you have never tried to code pages and pages using just VI probably....

Any person in their right state of mind would not use VI, unless you are
writing short programs (like shell script), or very simple applications.

That's just plain wrong and doesn't reflect reality.

Renounce to auto correction, color syntax, auto completion, and a ton more
of functionalities, when you are coding millions of lines, is not different
from running win 3.1 on a modern computer :slight_smile:

If you really need those things, vim and emacs are offering such stuff too.

Cross compiling is really as simple as downloading a Linaro toolchain, and just setting up the toolchain binary paths in an IDE. Even on Windows.

Then on Windows you can use Visual Studio, Eclipse, Code:Blocks, or even use the toolchain directly via comandline, with an editor like notepad++, or Sublime text. Notepad is even possible, but I think that any reasonable developer will know that notepad is not really an option.

Personally, I use Code:Blocks for project management, and cross compiling( Via Linaro GCC). Sublime text as my main editor, and a directory shared via Samba, which is them maped as a network drive in Windows.

Emacs is not an IDE, but a text editor.

IDE include a source code (text) editor, a compiler, a linker and a debugger

Eclipse, Netbeans, Mono development, Visual studio; these are IDE

I second the use of Emacs, it is great to write code, but you still need to use a compiler, linker and debugger to write executables on the BB

These are commodities added on top; the original VI or VIM do not have all of these features. If you log in into a standard Unix box, you won’t have that.

Technically you can write shell script that allow you to compile and link directly from VI, but is more work than expected…it was not made for that after all.

Not saying that you can’t do it; but that it is a pain to do it for big projects. I use VI all the time for any small project, but try to write something like a full size application and you can see that is not feasible.

BTW you refer to text editors preference, not IDE, since VI is not an IDE. I agree that each person choose their own, same goes for the IDE :slight_smile: For example I still love DEV C++; does all that I need and I wish that there was a version for Angstrom…and that’s an ancient IDE, but it is lightweight and decently fast. Most people do not need the ton of features that big IDE gives you, like VS.

Exactly, that was in the past…this is 2014; we don’t necessarily need to use things from the past, when there is something else new that perform better

Do you still drive your old carburetor car from the 70s? Do you still use an 8086, green phosphor monitor and textual OS? You may, but why would you, other than for a nostalgic/habit reason?

I own an old car because I love that specific model, but I have as main car an hybrid, which is fairly new…cost less to maintain, less to own

My point is not that you can’t use it; just that won’t make any sense, if you have better options.

I don’t see anything wrong…in this world nothing is “wrong” (other than the attitude), there is what is right for someone and what is right for most of the people.

In 15 years working as programmer, I have NEVER experienced a single developer using VI for anything other than modify server side files (either config, daemons, apache config files), or to create quick shell script to automate some process.

I’ve been in plenty of companies, where there were awesome people that had 40 years of experience, that were so kind to show me how they do their job…most of them avoided intentionally VI when they had the chance, because they had to work with it in the past, since there was nothing else :slight_smile: Strange enough, nobody loved it, while writing applications of a certain size.

If someone likes it as text editor, so be it, but I would not go around saying to others that they are “wrong”, just because they don’t see it in the same way. Conflicts are born because someone think that he/she has the right to be right, while the others are wrong. Especially in CS, there is more than a way to do anything, so the right or wrong is really a matter of personal opinion.

Then again: Emacs and VI are text editors, not Integrated Development Environments; for the same reason that a VW beetle with a Porsche engine is not a Porsche, a text editor with IDE functionalities is not an IDE…it can be used for that purpose, but there are a ton of other easier and more reliable alternatives; which means that the use of this or that method is purely discretional and based on personal preferences.

The original topic was “is there an IDE for the BB, to avoid cross compile?”, unless I am mistaken.

Have a good day

Did you try with Eclipse? It is multi platform, and there is a nice youtube tutorial video that show how to set it up for the BB.

Quite simple to cross compile, but not possible on the BB itself; Eclipse just sit and cry if you run it on the IDE, even without loading the full desktop (tried to just start X11).

Hmm, I wonder what you've did in 15 years.

You even didn't know that vim has code coloring since a long time but
then you say nobody uses vim.

Alexander Holler