KDevelop: using gdbm

[Kevin O'Gorman]

I suppose I'm a jerk for trying to use this without extensive reading
first, but I was hoping that KDevelop would be a reasonable environment
for building a couple of projects I'm working on.

Besides the awkwardness I've always had going from using the command
line nearly exclusively for the last 40 years to using a GUI-based
IDE, I find I cannot train this beast to let me link with -lgdbm.
The "Linker Options" window does not have a checkbox for gdbm, and
putting "gdbm" in the "other" spot leads to a failed dependency when
make tries to make the target "gdbm".

I find automake Makefiles completely unreadable (I know, RTFM, but
I was looking for easy, not for an education).

So the question is this: is there an easy way?  Failing that, does
anyone find KDevelop to be a reasonable platform for C++ development?
Should I just bag it and go back to the command-line?

BTW, I was hoping to make this fairly portable, and put it on sourceforge,
which is why I was thinking automake and tools like an IDE.  Advice?

++ kevin