Whats Your C++ Plugin Development Workflow?

[Ashmanix]

I was wondering, for those who develop c++ plugins for OBS, what IDE/workflow do you use for development?

I am using Visual Studio Code and the plugin template code as a basis that allows me build a simple plugin using the included scripts. I've been looking at Qt creator as an option for helping me make a plugin with UI but was wondering if that's needed?

I attempted to look at c++ plugin development last year when I wanted to edit a plugin to build for MacOS and then add to it. I was able to get it to build for Mac but was found it hard to really get an understanding of the OBS api. I'm a software developer but I mainly code in Javascript and the last time I did anything in C++ was back in my uni days!

Trying to get my head back into the idea of compiling and static typing has been...fun. So far I've been able to make a basic plugin that shows an empty QDockWidget which I feel is an achievement.

 

[Lain]

I just write/browse my code in vim and then use the terminal if on linux/mac or visual studio if on windows to build and/or debug. I don't really use an IDE seriously. Once you learn vim it's pretty hard to go back to a normal editor. I don't even have auto-completion and I don't even mind (maybe one of these days I might get into nvim for the LSP, but I've never really needed auto-completion anyway, I feel like it's better to just try to use your memory for things to keep yourself fresh and enforce good api patterns).

I use gdb for debugging on linux, lldb if on mac (although I should probably learn to use xcode for debugging/building because lldb sucks), visual studio on windows. Visual studio is the best debugger of any system.

Hey you asked! As for your case though, any workflow that works for you is fine. I wouldn't stress it too much. You can make almost any build setup work and use almost any editor and become perfectly comfortable with it. And as long as you yourself are comfortable, that's all that matters. You can always try learning new code tools/editors/setups if you want though. After 30 years of programming I feel like IDEs are mostly unnecessary. Just having a good editor, a good terminal, and a good debugger is enough to get everything done and be highly productive.

 

[Ashmanix]

Thanks for the insight! I did try Vim once and it scared me! I'll stick to Visual Studio Code for now and see where I get. I'm trying to get my head around memory allocation, I've been spoilt with JavaScript.