D language dev environment

Question

What is the current state of the art development environment for the D language?

I know about DDT for eclipse, Visual D and Codeblocks. Each has its disadvantages - DDT doesn't have a debugger, Visual D is for windows (and Visual Studio) and CodeBlocks doesn't have emacs keys bindings and I have some bad memories about it from my CS intro days.

Using tools like emacs + gdb is good enough for simple programs but when the code gets bigger I find it really hard to get around the code just with emacs. Without smart code completion and code layout (meaning, list of all functions/classes in a file) it gets really tedious and I feel I spend way too much time struggling with the editor instead of just writing the code I want to write.

Additionally, with Java+eclipse for example I have this neat documentation popup window whenever I mouse over a method/class. I find this extremely helpful, and really miss it when working in emacs.

And debugging with gdb is really just... antiquated.

So, for the love of god, save me from the 1970s! :) Although, any tips concerning emacs and gdb (if nothing else exists) would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Doesn't Emacs have GDB integration that allow you to do stepthough and add brakepoints - all in emacs?

I would suggest you try to configure your Emacs.

I also suggest using a good build tool(I use Rake when I program in Vim, but Emacs might have an elisp build tool), and the ctags and cscope really help in mapping big projects.

Answer 2

I switched from Code::Blocks to Mono-D half year ago. However, there is a new kid on the block NetbeansD. For simple stuff Geany and Kate have enough support. :)

All this said, Mono-D beats all competitors at the moment, so try that one first.

Answer 3

Have you looked at Mono-D?

Further, Sublime Text 2 has pretty good D support. I also maintain an improved highlighter for it.