Tools for development workflow

**VectraMan** · 21 December 2010, 13:58

I hate to say it, but if you're asking these questions you probably need to spend a good few months learning what you're doing before you start worrying about your project and which tools to use.

I've never used QT, but I understood it used some kind of preprocessor, which sounds like a terrible idea. If there's a Visual Studio plugin, then I would guess that can do everything you need, but be warned that VS2010 is dog slow at the best of times.

Subversion is great, and free, for version control.

**Durbs** · 21 December 2010, 14:30

Originally posted by VectraMan View Post

Subversion is great, and free, for version control.

Yup, Subversion is the best bet and fairly simple to set up and use.

you can further simplify setup by using Visual SVN: VisualSVN - Subversion-based source control for Windows

I use its server and its Visual Studio client, both are good.

**ThomasSoerensen** · 21 December 2010, 20:12

Thank you Durbs

**bogeyman** · 22 December 2010, 00:34

Are you serious?

You 'expect' it to be in C++?

As Vectraman says, it sounds like you haven't a clue what you're doing.

What's the application?

**ThomasSoerensen** · 22 December 2010, 12:40

I am currently evaluating which technologies to use, with my business partner.
One aspect of this evaluation are the surrounding tools, are they costly, are they easy to use etc.

So this post was an attempt to get some information on what surrounding tools are needed if the project uses Qt and C++ and Visual Studio and MS SQL server, in order to try to judge if this is the best way to go.

I might not have a clue about what I am doing, but right now I am investigating the possible technologies in order to make an informed decision.

There is no need to get all excited and call me names, if you don't have any suggestions you can just refrain from writing in this thread.

**VectraMan** · 22 December 2010, 16:15

£700 per person for Visual Studio Pro, or whatever the Euro equivalent is, and unfortunately that's the only version you can buy now. I used the free VC++ Express for a while whilst working on a wxWidgets project, which was fine but you don't get to use add-ins so you won't be able to use the QT one with Express.

A lot of these IDEs seem to be little more than the Scintilla text editor with the ability to launch make and a debugger externally. To my mind that doesn't qualify as an "Integrated Development Environment". Visual Studio really is the best for Windows development, even though it has many flaws.

SVN for source control, and VMs are very useful for testing. I use VirtualBox, which is free, but VMWare is better. Plus you need the OS licences to go into the VM.

You might also need to think about deployment; maybe you need something to create an installer?

If you're going to have a team of people, it's probably worth thinking about a continuous integration/build server. My last client had some god-awful system using Java and Ant. I would do the same with a WSH script.

And for bugtracking, I would just use Bugzilla, as a free non-nonsense tool. You can make it integrate with Subversion, which is nice.

That's my template for how to setup a small software development effort. The cost of the tools pales into insignificance compared to the cost of the people to do the work of course, and it sounds a lot like you're going to need somebody like me (or even me) to help you with "typing" the code.

**ThomasSoerensen** · 22 December 2010, 17:37

Thank you very much.

**Freamon** · 24 December 2010, 12:20

Originally posted by ThomasSoerensen View Post

How do I get the project to be built/compiled automatically after each code update?

Hudson: Hudson CI

**xoggoth** · 24 December 2010, 16:49

VC++? Some years since I used it but assuming the GUI is still done in MFC, quite horrible. C#.net miles better and easier to pick up.

Tools for development workflow