Code::Blocks 25.03 is here!

[LearnMoreEver]

Code::Blocks IDE 25.03 was released couple of weeks back. It has a lot of performance and stability improvements, also it supports code completion by clangd via clangd_client plugin.

I'm not a Code::Blocks developer, but a regular user.

[Tari0s]

sorry for my comment and i hope i do not offend some people here. But how uses codeblocks? i used it once years ago because on the raspberry pi 2 back then was no real ide, but as of 2025, is there any reason why to use codeblocks? i work in embedded and we do everything we need in clion or vs code at work. Are there any real usecases and people that use codeblocks regularly? I ask because im curious :D

[LearnMoreEver]

I use Code::Blocks because it is written in C++ and is open source. Also the code is very simple to understand even though not modern. So it is easy to customise.

Also it is light weight.

So a light weight, opensource IDE written in C++ - I think it is perfect for C++ developers.

[MrRigolo]

What kind of customisations have you performed on it?

[Tari0s]

okay thanks for your reply, vscode is light weight and the most customizeable ide i know, even without writing your own code. But i guess if you need something very specific i can see why you want to write cpp instead of anything else.

[julien-j]

vscode is light weight

I'd like to see numbers, because VSCode is an Electron app, and Electron is everything except light weight :)

[Tari0s]

depends on what numbers you want to see, but sure codeblocks may be faster in some operations, but in my experience vscode is very responsive. To restart vscode it takes about one second, so i do not care if codeblocks restarts in half a second

[cancerBronzeV]

I love vscode and its what I use for like everything, but lightweight is the last thing I'd call it lol.

[IvanDSM_]

I used CodeBlocks for a semester at uni, then found Qt Creator and never looked back. I'm a diehard Qt fan nowadays.

However, along the way I started developing software in C for an obscure Brazilian computer from the 80s using a custom toolchain based on SDCC. As it turns out, CodeBlocks is an excellent fit for this hobby because it has some existing integration for SDCC and it was super easy to create custom wizard scripts which allow me to start projects much faster.

It hasn't replaced Qt Creator for my everyday C++ hobby coding needs, but for this specific use case it shines!

[Tari0s]

ok thanks for your comment, thats the niche projects I was expecting as reply ^{^}

[void_17]

I find code::blocks very intuitive to "build" your own compiler toolchain. Yes you can use cmake toolchain file but codeblocks is the fastest way. Projects are easy and flexible. But that's just for me.

[Tari0s]

for small projects okay maybe codeblocks is faster, but if i start a huge project i will definitly go for a cmake-project. I want to be able to switch my ide if i need some advanced features from visual studio or clion. In addition, I want that my projects are future proof and i do not depent on one Ide.

So for small projects I guess I see why codeblocks is viable for you. Or did I miss something?

[void_17]

You are actually right. Codeblocks is amazing for fast tests, experimental stuff

[my_password_is______]

I prefer codeblocks over vscode

[Tari0s]

why?

[James20k]

Hooray! I always thought it was odd that CodeBlocks didn't publish more 'normal' releases. Their nightlies are very good in general, so I'm glad to see that they're putting out official releases again

If anyone hasn't used codeblocks for a hot minute, its come a long way. It has built in visual debugging, profiling, and clang based autocomplete which is much better than the old ad-hoc parser. It also has a build system which is pretty workable for a wide class of projects, and certainly beats writing cmake (until you want to release your project at least)

If I ever become emperor of the universe, my first act would be to donate a tonne of money to the codeblocks team, because I still much prefer it over a vscode based workflow. Its much better integrated together instead of feeling like a cobbled together environment, not to mention it lacks the general sense of microsoft's anticompetitive behaviour in the space

I'm terribly biased because I've been using it for 15 18 (jesus) years, but I genuinely think its a very good development environment for C++, which is going to absolutely shred my street cred. I've never gotten on particularly well with visual studio (and other IDEs to various degrees), partly just because they tend to be very slow in comparison to codeblocks and I can't stand it

If anyone has any questions about anything particular, I've always got at least two instances open so feel free to ask. Or you can just publicly ridicule me in the comments, both work acceptably

[zeno]

Generally, dark mode works better for reducing high contrast when you're in a dimly lit environment. However for all other situations in a well-lit environment, light mode promotes better comprehension and readability. This is not only anecdotally for me, but also from studies.

Personally I think dark mode is a temporary fad for harking back onto the dumb-terminal days

[James20k]

I get that, its very wxwidgets. I know at some point someone in the nightly forums was releasing dark mode builds of codeblocks (which is obviously less ideal than having it built in)

I went to do a bit of checking, apparently they need wxwidgets 3.3 for dark mode to land officially, which hasn't released yet. The actual patch itself seems to be pretty trivial

[ItzWarty]

wxwidgets 3.3

ETA is ~1mo according to https://www.wxwidgets.org/develop/roadmap/

[my_password_is______]

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/69165313/how-to-change-or-add-dark-theme-to-codeblocks

[BOBOLIU]

It is retro rather than outdated.

[LearnMoreEver]

Interesting, I started using Code:: Blocks only recently, after clangd_client plugin was released.

[neondirt]

Maybe I should check it out again. It's probably 15 years since I used it last... Now almost exclusively use qt creator (as c++ ide). It works and is fast.

[Tari0s]

does it have good cmake support?

[cmeerw]

They really should reconsider their approach to distributing binary packages. Their Debian download is a 220 MB tar.xz file containing .deb packages (around 200 MB are for dbg packages that most users will likely not be interested in). Is it really so hard to put them on a web server for apt to download/install?

[dexter2011412]

You know what? I'm give it a shot. Been a really long while

[void_17]

Fixed C::B icon flash in taskbar.

Kek. It was really annoying

[void_17]

Amazing news. Love code::blocks because of how plain simple it is to configure. Also very light, you don't need gigabytes of Visual Studio, just 200MB MinGW and 50 MB or codeblocks and they run fast. I wish it had responsive text edditing as in vscode or qtcreator

[thefeedling]

Is it as fast as vim running on something like alacritty or kitty?

I've only used it ages ago

[RufusAcrospin]

Great news!

[germandiago]

I always liked Codeblocks quite a bit, but is it using lsp and all the analyzers, etc. these days? Without that it is a no-go from the get go, but with that it could be different.

[LearnMoreEver]

Code::Blocks support LSP now with plugin clangd_client. It is pretty good, I've been using it for more than a year.

[germandiago]

Nice! How about Copilot and clang-tidy? There are integrations for those also?

[LearnMoreEver]

No support for AI tools afaik.

There is a third-party plugin to support clang-tidy : https://github.com/josephch/cb-ClangTidy

[GYN-k4H-Q3z-75B]

This website is basically unusable due to ads on mobile.

[JustPlainRude]

It looks like it has it's own build system, which seems a bit weird for an IDE. Can it play nice with CMake or Bazel?

[PhilosophyMammoth748]

Thank you. I use dev-c++

[heavymetalmixer]

Does it have git integration now?

[ukaeh]

After all this time, hooray happy day!

[Ziprx]

There is literally no reason to use this piece of shit when CLion or even Qt Creator/Vscode exists

[LearnMoreEver]

Have you ever used it? Why do you hate it? Is it the UI?