From: Thomas Kirchner <lists@...>
Date: 2005-04-28T21:55:04+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby and IDE

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* On Apr 28 17:45, Lothar Scholz (ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org) wrote:
> No they do not. I'm really surprised how hostile some ruby developers
> are against IDE's and tool support. Especially some of the well known
> oldtimers here in the group. Even when you point them to the benefits
> in other IDE's, for example in the smalltalk area you get disgusting
> comments. Until now the community is still very dominated by
> technical geeks which is not a good thing.

Just to chime in my opinion... I'm not "hostile" to IDEs, I've given them=
=20
a shot.  The biggest sticking point for me is a good IDE would need to=20
have a vim text-editing part.  Customizable key bindings or vi-like=20
behavior wouldn't be enough, it would need vim embedded.  Until this is=20
accomplished, an environment just could not be productive for me - as=20
said in another thread, it's a life changing editor ;)

> t> 3/ easy source code navigation (like go to declaration, implement=20
> this method, etc)
> Time consuming, just because you must build a complete repository of
> all accessible items. This must be robust and fast to search and the
> whole concept does not work well with normal file level editors like
> vi and emacs.

Integrated documentation would be nice, but this would be even better=20
(after all, I've got my handy-dandy pickaxe, which is hard to beat).  A=20
well-integrated resource for navigating full projects would be great, as=20
the solutions for vim aren't quite up to the level required, as far as=20
I've seen.

> t> 4/ autocompletion
> Difficult in a dynamic language like ruby. We discussed this to death
> in the past. Please use google.

Obviously, this is incredibly difficult for ruby.  However, when I've=20
used IDEs in the past, this was exactly what I appreciated most.  I think=
=20
it'd be possible to get some basic autocompletion, skipping some of the=20
more difficult dynamic elements, and most people would be happy, if not=20
content.

> t> 5/ probably many others I don't remember now.
> Many many others. And everybody has its own preference, some only want
> a debugger but there they want the best one, for others a profiler would
> be the most important and there are people who would not accept anything
> if it does not look like a Smalltalk image.

I think the most important feature(s) for me, and many others when they=20
think about it, is stability and speed.  You should not be hampered by=20
your environment, whether through delays or crashes/bugs.  When I tried=20
FreeRIDE a little while ago, it unfortunately couldn't pass this test. =20
The devs have made great progress, but it was still a bit slow and=20
unstable.  (I should really give it another try now though, as they've=20
made new minor releases.)
Tom

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