Is there a Windows equivalent to XCode?

For those that are not familiar, XCode is a free, full-featured IDE from Apple for OSX development. What is important here is that it is free and full-featured. I'm kind of in shock that Microsoft doesn't offer something similar. Sure, I can download their express edition, but it is crippled at best and seems to exist for no other purpose than to force developers to buy the expensive full version. I've used XCode. It is quite powerful and easy to use.

I find the disparity between Apple and Microsoft on this matter rather odd. Apple, with their lower market share, freely gives away software to invite more people to develop apps for their OS. Microsoft, on the other hand, sees fit to charge market price for the same software. That may not be a problem for professional developers, but if you're not a professional developer, you're left with few, if any, options. Even the cheapest version of Visual Studio would take no less than three full paychecks in order for me to buy it. It would seem that Microsoft only wants professional developers to write code for their OS's.

I'd like to try my hand at Windows 7 (Vista) programming as well as x64 programming. What is out there (C/C++) that allows this and at a price that wont require me to get a loan? Are there any open source IDE's that support Vista and/or 64-bit programming? All I have access to right now is a very old version of Borland's IDE, which is fine for 32-bit XP development, but nothing more.

Any help would be appreciated.

Eclipse

Will Visual Studio be free during the next one? Lunar or Solar?

Wow with a response like that, maybe I shouldn't give you this link

http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/do...nymede/SR2/eclipse-cpp-ganymede-SR2-win32.zip

Not trying to be rude, but you typed a single word. I've never heard of it before.

[edit]

It seems to only support Win32 programming. Not sure this is what I'm looking for, but I'll try it to be sure.

MarkS said:

It seems to only support Win32 programming. Not sure this is what I'm looking for, but I'll try it to be sure.

Click to expand...

I'd like to try my hand at Windows 7 (Vista) programming as well as x64 programming.

Click to expand...

Visual Studio, even the express editions, are geared for .NET programming, which is the current trend for windows programming. "64-bit programming" in .NET is a matter of checking a checkbox at compile time. And Visual C++/C# Express is not crippled unless you plan on doing mssql development, in which case mssql express (or other alternate databases) is more than enough for the kind of developer that can't afford full licenses (you).

I'm not sure that saying VS Express editions are crippled is a very fair assessment. Sure they don't offer source control hooks, etc, but for a free IDE, it's better than most out there. If you need something beefier, with source control integration, database projects, automated builds and built in unit testing, then maybe you should look into using MS BizSpark to get a license of VS Pro or Team Foundation: http://www.microsoft.com/BizSpark/

/edit

If you're after source control, you could just get a free subversion account at Google Code, SourceForge or CodePlex. You could use VS Express for an IDE (despite your assumptions that it's crippled) and use an SVN client like Tortoise (fantastic, free and integrates into your OS) to hook into your repository.

I'm sorry if I came across wrong. When I say crippled, I'm going off of memory. I downloaded the express edition quite some time back and while looking over the site, found a page with a chart that showed the various versions and their features. The Express Edition lacked such things as Vista and x64 support. From what I saw there, I can write basic Windows code and compile it, but that's about it. However, I now go back to the site and I can no longer find this chart.

No matter, doing a little more research shows The standard edition to only cost $300. I thought I remember it being much more than that, but obviously I was thinking of a different edition.

Still, I'm intrigued by Eclipse and I'm downloading the Express Edition. Hopefully one will do what I need.

Thanks for the help.