C ++ compiler needed to work with libraries (boost, ...)

There is always Digital Mars . Alternatively, you can freely download the Microsoft WDK that comes with their C / C ++ compiler and command line build system.

You will find it difficult to find an IDE as capable of MS VS. It's incredibly feature rich.

However, if you just want the command line compilation and linking can do that too.

GCC is also an option.

Please note that you do not need another compiler or IDE to use the boost libraries. I wouldn't replace Visual Studio with any other IDE / compiler, at least not on Windows. Installing Cygwin or SUA (better than Cygwin, closer to the Windows kernel) will only be a pain for what you are trying to achieve.

Try to minimize memory usage by disabling unnecessary things, reduce the number of open source files, use an alternative to document explorer to search for help (your browser in msdn will do). Also, I would not call a few megabytes of memory a big use. As long as it doesn't slow down your system, there is no real problem.

A better idea would be to upgrade your computer rather than replacing something powerful with something you don't know.

There is seriously no real alternative to the Ms compiler on Windows. Everyone else is ok if you can't spring for Visual Studio or if you're just doing a hobby. Cygwin can be painful to deal with.

If you don't want the IDE like anyone else, just use the command line compiler.

I found VS to be great for Boost + Qt to work. Especially if you have a Qt + VS integration tool. You get a GUI designer and respectable Qt project management tools.

If you are looking for a compiler that uses fewer system resources than MS, you will probably find that most modern compilers, which can compile much or almost all of it in Boost, will be quite heavy on system resources, both cpu usage and consumption. memory. This is true to some extent for the course when it comes to C ++.

However, I like having a second compiler if I am writing portable code, as it is much easier to remove portability issues when you can ensure that the code compiles in different environments. If you want to do all this on Windows, Cygwin might be worth a look. However, it looks like the GCC you get with Cygwin is not exactly what you would call the latter.

The above Digital Mars compilers are noteworthy, Walter Bright (the guy behind them) has been writing C ++ compilers for a long time and they are pretty good. I've used them and started from the early nineties and I've always been happy with them. Not to mention, they always seemed noticeably faster than Microsoft's suggestions, but I haven't received any recent measurements to support this.

After all, most third party tool vendors on Windows tend to target the MS environment, so if you write C ++ code professionally and need tools like leak detectors, you pretty much need to be able to build with MS compilers. even if they are not your main development environment.

I suggest, Netbeans.org   NetBeans IDE , download Cygwin, follow one guide from http://www.netbeans.org for configuring C ++ in Netbeans IDE, just 2 steps .. and y ok autocomplete (faster than VS )

classes and all ... you want xD

Need to mention DevCpp. This is a simple UI workaround for the gcc compiler (oh, that sounds like a tautology). It provides a lightweight IDE, but is not that stable (which is why its IntelliSense is somewhat buggy).