Date: Mon, 29 Jan 1996 14:22:21 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> To: rnordier@iafrica.com (Robert Nordier) Cc: pblonde@agrium.com, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: compilers Message-ID: <199601292122.OAA04545@phaeton.artisoft.com> In-Reply-To: <199601292032.WAA00449@eac.iafrica.com> from "Robert Nordier" at Jan 29, 96 10:32:37 pm
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> On Mon, 29 Jan 1996, Paul Blonde wrote: > > I am interested in finding out if there is any > > effort/interest in creating (if it does not already exist) > > an advanced IDE comparable to the > > Borland/Microsoft/Watcom/etc. environments for > > FreeBSD and/or Linux. [ ... ] > I think the DOS-based IDEs were to some extent an attempt to overcome DOS > limitations, like lack of multi-tasking and lack of support for inter- > process communication. I don't know that there would be much _point_ on > Unix. I mean, you can already compile and edit and read man pages at > the same time.... This is certainly true of source level debuggers, which are primarily there (IMO) because of lack of memory protection and mapping of page 0 preventing fault-trapping of NULL pointer dereferences. In the other hand, the pointer-timeout in the MS debugger is sexy. You put the point on a variable in the cose window, wait a second, and it displays the value of that variable. The ability to click on a compiler error for a multifile project and have it pull up an editor with the curs at the offending location in the correct source file is also nice. The ability to "auto-generate" makefiles with all dependencies is nice. Many programmers (all right, not me) don't want to know what the Makefile syntax is; they just want it to work. The application builder is nice. It would require the adoption of a standard GUI library to make it work in BSD, but it may be worth it. The ability to click on functions and manifest constants, etc., and go between their references and their declaration is nice. The same for displaying the value for manifest constants. The ability to have debugging and non-debugging targets from a single pop-down menu selection is nice. The man page interface is so-so -- I prefer DEC's LSE for that. 8-). Class libraries for things like SQL clients is a biggie (UNIX ODB sources were posted to comp.unix.sources a while back). > On the other hand, I guess it is kind of fun to click on dialog boxes and > radio buttons, and resize them and move them around, and let the system > write the code for you. That stuff is pretty neat, if it can manage to > stay out of your way when you're not interested in the GUI side of things. An IDE means that a programmer doesn't have to know a lot of the details of the platform before they can start coding and end up with things that run. This is, I think, an overriding benefit. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.
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