Installing development environment (IDE)
Writing plugins with plugin-sdk implies the use of Microsoft Visual Studio or Code::Blocks. A detailed list of supported development environments can be found below.
| IDE | Creating a new project | Multi-target project | Compiler |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visual Studio 2017 | Project Wizard | Yes | msbuild |
| Visual Studio 2015 | Project Wizard | Yes | msbuild |
| Visual Studio 2013 | Project templates | No | mingw-64 |
| Visual Studio 2012 | Project templates | No | mingw-64 |
| Visual Studio 2010 | Project templates | No | mingw-64 |
| Code::Blocks | Project Wizard | Yes | mingw-64 |
! For Code::Blocks, and also for Visual Studio versions before 2015 you will also need to install the compiler (mingw) (for details, see Installing mingw-64).
When installing Visual Studio, make sure that you have selected components Common tools for VC++, Windows SDK and Windows XP Support for C ++ (the latter only for version 2012 and later).
! The names of these components may differ slightly in different versions of Visual Studio.
Visual Studio 2017 is distributed in three main versions - Community, Professional and Enterprise.
You can download Visual Studio 2017 at the page https://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/
The Community version is available for free, Professional and Enterprise versions are available for trial period.
In the installer window, select the "Develop classic applications in C++" component, and on the right, in the "Summary" section, select these components:
For more detailed settings, go to the "Individual components" tab. Here you can enable the Git and GitHub extensions for Visual Studio.
In the "Language Packages" tab, select the languages you want.
When you start Visual Studio for the first time, you need to select a color theme, as well as the parameters of the development environment ("Visual C++").
Download the latest version Code::Blocks and get get installation instructions at the official Code::Blocks forum.