C++ Execution Inspection - Ideas Wanted

"C++ Execution Inspection" is the best term I could coin for what it is I'd like to do. Suggestions from anyone who has done programming in C++ on Linux are welcome.

I was taught C++ in classrooms that used MS Visual Studio a few years ago. Visual Studio had a debugging mode that made it really easy to keep track of what all my variables where at a given break point. Because of this, I was able to figure out what my code was doing rapidly. Now I'm looking for advice on how to achieve the same thing on Linux.

I've got two books on vim and am *trying* to become savvy with it. So far I like the way one can navigate in vi. Supposedly it is supposed to be stellar for programmers. Has anyone been able to achieve the kind of debugging I'm describing from within vim?

FOSS, it's unix like OSes, and command line tools are thing I put a lot of faith in. However, I don't have much experience using them for C++ development. As such, I'm looking for solutions that don't involve clunky IDEs, non-FOSS, MS Windows etc...

C++ is my favorite language. I have friends who like Clojure, Ruby, and many more who like Java. While I'm mildly aware of the cool features these languages have, they don't seem as intuitive to me as C and C++. A common gripe for these two languages are that they both use pointers, which seem to confuse some people. Personally, I think pointers are super cool.

It is just called 'debugging'.

gdb Tutorial

Do not compare a text editing engine with a comercial IDE. Since its just a text editor it only offers text editing features (makes sense?). To add some IDE behavior is possible with extra applications, but most of them are sluggish at best and nowhere as good as what you would find in popular IDE(s). Also gdb native terminal interface is simple enough as it is.

If you really want to go with a terminal based development (personally I think using an open source IDE is much more productive) you should try emacs as it has a 'better' additions of 3rd party tools to create an IDEish environment.

Just run gdb parallelly.