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Add to SafariWhen comparing CodeLite vs Microsoft's Visual Studio, the Slant community recommends CodeLite for most people. In the question“What are the best IDEs for C on Windows?” CodeLite is ranked 1st while Microsoft's Visual Studio is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose CodeLite is:
CodeLite is [actively developed](http://downloads.codelite.org/) with activity almost daily on [Github](https://github.com/eranif/codelite/pulse).
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Rapid development cycle
CodeLite is actively developed with activity almost daily on Github.
Pro Cross platform
Works on Windows, OS-X and Linux.
Pro File Explorer-like workspace view
The workspace view, unlike other IDEs, is a reflection of the actual directory structure on the file system (with user filters applied).
Pro Easy to find installed compilers
The search for the installed compilers is quick, and it usually yields useful results on the very first atempt.
Pro Open source and free
CodeLite is licensed under GPL with source code available on GitHub.
Pro Modest memory footprint
CodeLite takes up about 50MB when loaded into memory with a workspace opened.
Pro A lot of useful plugins
CppCheck, DiffTool, Git, MemCheck (Valgrind support, Linux-only), SVN, and many other plugins extend the IDE functionality greatly!
Pro Javascript Intellisense support
Javascript Intellisense allows Visual Studio to provide you with useful hints and auto-completion features while you code.
Pro Clean UI
Visual Studio has a clean, intuitive user interface.
Pro Cloud storage
Your Visual Studio online account gives you a place to store your code, backlog, and other project data with no servers to deploy, configure, or manage.
Pro Product backlog
In agile development teams, one really needs features such as product backlogs where you can assign features to teammates and track their progress on them. VS provides a web-based interface for you to track your team's complete progress on the project.
Pro Very good XML/XSD support
Syntax highlighting, Intellisense, and jump to declaration all work in XML documents.
Cons
Con Bland UI
The UI is fairly boring and has limited customization options.
There is a dark theme available, however it only applies to the editor. The surrounding windows and borders remain light.
You can see a collection of screenshots here.
Con Tons of feature bloat
If you're doing simple web frontend dev, then VS is far too arcane and feature bloated for most of your work.
Con Not cross-platform
Visual Studio is only available on Windows, which causes platform lock-in.
Con Slow
Visual Studio can be quite laggy.
Con Takes up a lot of space
Visual Studio can use about 6 GBs which a lot of space to be taken from your computer.
Con Terribly slow development
Keep dreaming about features already provided by alternative products.
Con Non-native window frame
The IDE main window lacks a standard window frame (titlebar/borders). A custom solution is used where the custom titlebar contains numerous application-specific controls. This results in inconsistent UX and can also be problematic when you're using shell replacements or other various window-management software (such as bbLean).
Con Terrible UI
Con Extensions
