The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5)

The IDE Blues...

Aauurrgghhh! I use many, many IDEs. IntelliJ IDEA for Java (which is the best.) J++ for Java at school since they don't have IDEA. VB6. VC++6. Sun One. .NET IDE, etc. And it's driving me mad! I can barely remember all the shortcuts for one IDE, let alone remember them all. And, I used to like Visual Studio 6 five years ago, but it seems like I'm trying to work with twigs and bones compared with IDEA.

Sorry, just a rant... But I'd like to hear other people's experiences with using many IDEs.

anon
Friday, May 28, 2004

Why don't you use a third party editor that handles all of the languages you use. In fact some editors even implement refactoring for most of the languages they support. Use the best tools money can buy. That's why I have a $10k computer, the latest MSDN, etc etc... the best money can buy. I am so productive because of that, that I even have time to post BS on JOS.

Anon
Friday, May 28, 2004

> I am so productive because of that, that I even have time to post BS on JOS

oh go retire

i like i
Friday, May 28, 2004

You can always use vi.

5v3n
Friday, May 28, 2004

I have actually seriously considered getting more proficent with VI or more likely EMACS. Both are on every platform I use and most IDE's allow using the shortcuts or even the editors themselves in the IDE. I just seems like a backwards step to me. My first step has been to learn regular expressions since all the major IDE's are now support them.

Bill Rushmore
Friday, May 28, 2004

I can't comment on VI since I'm not as proficient in it, but I would say that emacs holds its own against just about any IDE, plus can do things that would be very difficult to do with most of them.

Exceptions to this would be if I'm doing Java, I would definitely want something like IntelliJ, or if I need to use Visual C++ or C# I would use microsofts IDE's.

Oren Miller
Friday, May 28, 2004

I prefer edlin.

Nilde Referpi
Friday, May 28, 2004

I miss WordStar's CTRL-key combinations.

Should be working
Friday, May 28, 2004

Aren't "WordStar's CTRL-key" something like Ctrl+K+Ctrl+C I use in DevStudio all the time?

WildTiger
Friday, May 28, 2004

Why bother using a third party editor for everything ? Some languages "just work" with one editor. IDEA fits Java.. VSlick tries to do a LOT of different languages, it sort of works too, but it pales in comparison to IDEA for Java..

For some strange reason, I simply cannot do gcc using anything but vi... and for everything else, a decent syntax highlighting editor seems to work.

deja vu
Friday, May 28, 2004

C:\> copy con: hello.c

For those who don't make mistakes.

Herr Herr
Friday, May 28, 2004

Environments like IDEA, that are very specialized for a particular language are great if you're only working in a single language. My JSP development was far more efficient with IDEA than with anything else I've tried (Eclipse, JEdit, Emacs, etc.).

However, the tradeoff is that if you need to work in multiple languages then you're totally out of luck. IDEA will not really help you write SQL or Python code or DOS batch files or very much else. This is a minor obstacle when trying out new languages because you lose the whole environment that you've been using.

Eclipse is probably the best compromise I've seen - lots of good Java features, but also the ability to load up plug-ins that can be used for non-Java stuff like writing SQL procs. If Emacs had Java refactoring support, it might be the best, but I'm not aware of refactoring tools for Emacs and there are ways in which a more visual environment is good for refactoring.

Beth
Friday, May 28, 2004

The LEO text editor(http://webpages.charter.net/edreamleo/front.html) is totally brilliant for the languages I work with (C/C++, Python, PHP/HTML, VHDL). You can add little python scripts to do all the compile/build things you want, and the outlining is a true stroke of genius. Beats code folding and multiple buffers hands down.

Plus it's free (although the developer--not, it's not me-- would like donations), cross-platform, and just works: no drama

bah humbug
Friday, May 28, 2004

Just get a decent programmer's editor:

http://www.zeusedit.com/lookmain.html

Jussi
Monday, May 31, 2004