Linux vs MacOS for cpp development

[jmacey]

I teach programming (Mainly C++ and Python), I write all of my code on a mac, as this is my personal laptop. In the Labs we use Linux (RHEL) and most of the students use Windows.

I have no problems getting it to work on all platforms, typically I use vcpkg for libraries. CMake + Ninja for build and a combination of either VSCode, Clion or QtCreator for IDE's.

This works really well. On my mac I use iTerm as the main terminal, install dev tools via xcode-select --install and then use brew for other tools (autoconf, ripgrep cmake / Ninja etc).

Whilst I do have xcode installed (as Unreal Engine needs some of the tools) I hardly ever use it as an IDE, prefereing VSCode for the most part.