I know we are supposed to be using UNIX as a collection of tools but are there any big applications where I can run/test C programs without exposing the poor things to the outside world?

If that's what you think an IDE does, I'm afraid you're mistaken Unless you put it in a chroot or something, they run with the same permissions and access the same things they always would. I've never found an IDE that does differently.

IDE or not, you may occasionally find the Data Dump Debugger useful.

vim



It can be surprising that, how vim can become an IDE. By nature it does not comes as an IDE, but you can make it so using the plugins by Dr. Fritz for specific languages such as C, Perl, Bash. And source code browser -- taglist plugin. Also, with the project plugins.

Following are some of my write ups about making vim as IDEs..

• Ctags and Taglist: Convert Vim Editor to Beautiful Source Code Browser for Any Programming Language
• Make Vim as Your Bash-IDE Using bash-support Plugin
• Tutorial: Make Vim as Your C/C++ IDE Using c.vim Plugin
• Make Vim as Your Perl IDE Using perl-support.vim Plugin

Lot other resources at welcome home : vim online