Curious what IDE is popular and works well? What are the linux developers using? KDevelop?
Anyone have a baseline KStars template project they can share?

Can I run KDevelop on a remote (MacOS) machine with the code/build on a separate Ubuntu machine, or does KDevelop need to run on the build environment machine?

I believe the general recommendation, and certainly mine, is to use Qt Creator for Qt applications such as KStars, and indeed the entire KDE suite.
However I have never done so on Mac. I use Qt Creator on Linux Mint which is based on Ubuntu.

FWIW, in my case I develop mostly on an Ubuntu 22.04 VM on a MacbookPro M2 (and test using simulators), but then really test and in general image using an intel miniPC running Ubuntu 22.04 that's connected to my telescope and my "real devices". When editing/debugging code on the VM I use QtCreator as my IDE. I could compile for the VM using QtCreator too, but it's just as simple to compile using cmake and make. Once I want to test on the miniPC, I push the code from my VM to a cloud gitlab server, transfer the code over to the miniPC (using git pull), compile using cmake and make, and usually run under gdb. Old school, I guess.

Thank you Hy - makes sense. What do you use for VM? So if you're using command-line cmake and make in your VM, what does QtCreator provide that any other good source code editor/organizer doesn't do?

So you actually compile on your miniPC? Why not push binaries from your VM? Do you need to compile on the miniPC just for gdb? I'm with ya on the old school! Tried and true!

Have you tried QtCreator for MacOS on the M2, editing source on the miniPC? Eliminating the need for two Ubuntu instances?

I used VMWare Fusion on my MacbookPro, booting Ubuntu 22.04 onto a VM.

QtCreator provides auto-formatting, easy ways to find definitions of methods and variables, and to find other parts of the code that references those methods and variables. Just an IDE. I know Jasem and Wolfgang use the debugging facilities more than I do.

I compile on my miniPC because it's just as fast as compiling on my laptop (and I couldn't use the same binaries anyway). If I were running on an RPi (which takes an hour plus to compile KStars) I might consider figuring out how to cross-compile, but it takes 5-10 minutes to compile all of KStars from scratch on my miniPC, and a minute or two for a typical compile, so it's not a problem to compile directly on the miniPC.

I haven't tried QtCreator directly on the Mac. It's possible that John Evans or Rob Lancaster do that, you might want to ask them. I like working on Ubuntu--I've used Unix/Linux my entire coding life, so I'm happy doing that, and I don't see running an Ubuntu VM as an issue, I see it as a benefit. The Mac build is a bit tricky to set up--perhaps it's because I'm used to Linux--so I avoid that. When I do other coding-related things, I'll use the Ubuntu VM too. I'm not a Mac coder.

Hy

I've got it working on a VM in UTM - I have a newer M1 Mini, and VMWare doesn't have Fusion released on the Apple silicon yet. I've got QtCreator building the project and can debug fine. I keep running out of disk space in the VM (especially after installing the GSC for the simulators!), and can't figure out a good way to configure the VM for more yet.

@AirBourn

You said:Not so, I have been running VMWare Fusion on my MacbookPro M2 for at least 6 months.
Are you running Fusion 13? Looking on their webpage www.vmware.com/products/fusion/fusion-evaluation.html shows:Hy

You're absolutely right - my mistake. I meant to say VirtualBox, not Fusion. Do you compare Fusion to Parallels? I've owned both over the years, and am trying the latest Parallels now. Not sure UTM is going to cut it.