With the use of GNU g++ on Linux, and a growing number of MS-Windows users of mingw32, the standard Vdistribution now includes a basic Integrated Development Environment (IDE) called VIDE. VIDE lets you compile via Makefile, and edit your source code with a generic windowing editor with C++ syntax highlighting.
The current version of VIDE is rather basic, but still provides a useful environment for developing programs. This is a very basic overview of using VIDE.
VIDE is currently designed to work only with GNU g++, either on a Unix-like system, or on MS-Windows with mingw32. Operation of VIDE is based on standard GNU makefiles. To build a project, you must have a working Makefile - either based on one generated by vgen, or one you've written yourself.
Once you start VIDE, the first action normally is to select a Makefile. The opening window will be the message window, and is used to output the results of your make. Click on the Sel Mk button to select a makefile. You can then run the makefile by clicking Make. This runs make with the default target (often äll"). The results of the make are shown in the message window. If you get an error, you can usually right click on the error line and the source file will be loaded into an edit window, and the cursor placed on the offending line. This all assumes that the source and makefile are in the same directory.
After you correct the problem, clicking Make again will rerun make. On the MS-Windows version, there seems to be some problem with GNU make and time stamps, and sometimes the final .exe target is not made until you click Make again.
You can also make a specific target in your makefile by using the Make menu: make:Make <target>. If you include a "clean" target in your make file, make:Make Clean will run make clean.
The tools menu allows you to run a program (this will often be the program you just compiled. Future versions of VIDE will be able to run your program.). Tools:Run a program will prompt you for a program to run, or you can browse.
Tools:Run OS Shell will run a MS-DOS command window, or execute rxvt on X. Tools:V App Gen will run vgen if it is installed in your PATH, and Tools:V Icon Editor will run the V icon editor.
Future versions of VIDE will include management of code projects - you will be able to specify source files, and a makefile will be automatically generated. You will also be able to customize options as needed. Work is also being done on writing an interactive dialog builder. A V based class browser is also waiting to be included. I also plan to include support for the gdb debugger, and probably RCS. While future versions of Vwill be included with V, incremental versions will be released independently.