NetBeans doesn't have /C++ support by default.  You need to install a plugin for this.  The C/C++ plugin is not available (yet?) for NB17 so something special has to be done to get the existing C/C++ plugin into Netbeans.

• Open NetBeans

• Select Tools -> Plugins

• Select Settings

• Make sure you also tick the checkbox next to NetBeans 8.2 Plugin Portal

• Select Available Plugins (x)

• Click the Check for Newest button at the top of the screen to be sure you have the latest and greatest versions of the plugins

• Search for C/C++ and tick the checkbox

• Press the Install button at the bottom of the screen: the installation will start and you will be asked to agree with the license

• Download will start and you will be asked again during the installation process to agree with the signing

• After some time the installation should be successfully finished: you now have the C/C++ plugin installed

Some screenshots make things clear:

Now that the C/C++ plugin is installed it's time to create a new project for a C/C++ program.

• Select File -> New Project

• In the Categories list, select C/C++

• In the Projects list select C/C++ Application (we're going to make a simple console app at first)

• Press Next

• Give the project a name, location and folder (on the Windows PC)

• Leave the Project Makefile Name as it is: Makefile

• Tick the checkbox Create Main File and select the C/C++_ variant you want to use

• For Build Host, select localhost if you want to make a Windows C/C++ application or select the RPi host if you want to run it on a Raspberry Pi
  See the section Add remote C/C++ development for the RPi on how to setup NetBeans to develop C/C++ applications on the Raspberry Pi

• Based upon the Build Host selection, choose the corresponding Tool Collection

  • For Windows this can be quite a few (Cygwin, CLang, MingW, WinAvr,..._

  • For Raspberry Pi it mostly will be limited to the GNU compiler

• Click the Finish button to create the new C/C++ project

See below images for detailed information.

Sometimes it's necessary to add extra libraries in the linking process.  An example is when you want to use wiringPi in your C/C++ applications.

Next to the header file inclusion (#include <wiringPi.h>) you also need the wiringPi library itself.

To get the library in the linking process, do the following:

• Right-click on the project

• Select Properties

• Open the Build -> Linker section

• Click in the area next to the Additional Options section (bottom of the screen)

• Add -l wiringPi

If you now compile an application that needs wiringPi functionality the wiringPi library will make sure the linker will find all necessary functions.

Below is a screenshot to show the addition of extra libraries: