Dev-C++ is a free full-featured

integrated development environment An integrated development environment (IDE) is a Application software, software application that provides comprehensive facilities for software development. An IDE normally consists of at least a source-code editor, build automation tools, an ...

(IDE) distributed under the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public Licenses (GNU GPL or simply GPL) are a series of widely used free software licenses, or ''copyleft'' licenses, that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, or modify the software. The GPL was the first ...

for programming in C and C++. It was originally developed by Colin Laplace and was first released in 1998. It is written in

Delphi Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), was an ancient sacred precinct and the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient Classical antiquity, classical world. The A ...

. It is bundled with, and uses, the

MinGW MinGW ("Minimalist GNU for Windows"), formerly mingw32, is a free and open source software development environment to create Microsoft Windows applications. MinGW includes a port of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), GNU Binutils for Windows ...

or TDM-GCC 64bit port of the GCC as its

compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that Translator (computing), translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primaril ...

. Dev-C++ can also be used in combination with

Cygwin Cygwin ( ) is a free and open-source Unix-like environment and command-line interface (CLI) for Microsoft Windows. The project also provides a software repository containing open-source packages. Cygwin allows source code for Unix-like operati ...

or any other GCC-based compiler.

DevPaks

An additional aspect of Dev-C++ is its use of DevPaks: packaged extensions on the programming environment with additional libraries, templates, and utilities. DevPaks often contain, but are not limited to, GUI utilities, including popular toolkits such as

GTK+ GTK (formerly GIMP ToolKit and GTK+) is a free software cross-platform widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs). It is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License, allowing both free and proprietary s ...

wxWidgets wxWidgets (formerly wxWindows) is a widget toolkit and tools library for creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for cross-platform applications. wxWidgets enables a program's GUI code to compile and run on several computer platforms with no s ...

, and

FLTK Fast Light Toolkit (FLTK) is a cross-platform widget (graphical control element) library for graphical user interfaces (GUIs), developed by Bill Spitzak and others. Made to accommodate 3D graphics programming, it has an interface to OpenGL, but ...

. Other DevPaks include libraries for more advanced function use. Users of Dev-C++ can download additional libraries, or packages of code that increase the scope and functionality of Dev-C++, such as graphics, compression, animation, sound support and many more. Users can create DevPaks and host them for free on the site. Also, they are not limited to use with Dev-C++ - the site says "A typical devpak will work with any MinGW distribution (with any IDE for MinGW)".

Development status

From February 22, 2005 the project was not noticeably active, with no news posted nor any updated versions released. In a 2006 forum post, lead developer Colin Laplace stated that he was busy with real-life issues and did not have time to continue the development of Dev-C++. There are three forks of Dev-C++ since then: wxDev-C++, the ''Orwell'' version, and the Embarcadero-maintained fork version.

wxDev-C++ version

wxDev-C++ is a development team that has taken Dev-C++ and added new features such as support for multiple compilers and a RAD designer for

applications.

Orwell version

On June 30, 2011 an unofficial version 4.9.9.3 of Dev-C++ was released by Orwell (Johan Mes), an independent programmer, featuring the more recent GCC 4.5.2 compiler, Windows' SDK resources (Win32 and D3D), numerous bugfixes, and improved stability. On August 27, after five years of officially being in the beta stage, version 5.0 was released. This version also has its own separate

SourceForge SourceForge is a web service founded by Geoffrey B. Jeffery, Tim Perdue, and Drew Streib in November 1999. SourceForge provides a centralized software discovery platform, including an online platform for managing and hosting open-source soft ...

page since version 5.0.0.5, because the old developer is not responding to combining requests. In July 2014, Orwell Dev-C++ 5.7.1 was released featuring the then-recent GCC 4.8.1 which supports

C++11 C++11 is a version of a joint technical standard, ISO/IEC 14882, by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), for the C++ programming language. C++11 replaced the prior vers ...

. In a 2020 forum post, Orwell lead developer Johan Mes stated that he "will probably still not have any time to work on this project".

Embarcadero version

On July 1, 2020 a new fork version 5.50 of Dev-C++ was sponsored and released by Embarcadero featuring a code upgrade to Delphi 10.4. On October 12, 2020 a new fork version 6.0 of Dev-C++ was sponsored and released by Embarcadero with a more recent GCC 9.2.0 compiler with

and partial

C++20 C20 or C-20 may refer to: Science and technology * Carbon-20 (C-20 or 20C), an isotope of carbon * C20, the smallest possible fullerene (a carbon molecule) * C20 (engineering), a mix of concrete that has a compressive strength of 20 newtons per squ ...

support, new high DPI support, UTF8 file support, upgraded icons, dark theme, and additional changes.

Notable uses

On May 4, 2015, the Singaporean Prime Minister

Lee Hsien Loong Lee Hsien Loong (born 10 February 1952) is a Singaporean politician and former military officer who served as the third Prime Minister of Singapore, prime minister of Singapore from 2004 to 2024, thereafter serving as a Senior Minister of S ...

posted his Sudoku solver program in C++ on Facebook. In his screenshot, he's using

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and Dev-C++ as his IDE. It is often recommended for beginners learning C or C++, and is available on

Wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

. It is compared with Turbo C++ or other IDEs.

References

{{Integrated development environments C++ software Concurrent Versions System Free integrated development environments Free software programmed in Delphi Linux integrated development environments Software using the GNU General Public License Windows-only free software Pascal (programming language) software