From: Han Holl <han@...>
Date: 2002-05-28T03:15:36+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby code completion in RubyEclipse

Adam Williams wrote:

>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Han Holl [mailto:han@pobox.com]
>>
>>I understand that it will never quite equal the Java possibilities, and it
>>would probably take a lot of analyzing, but something like:
>>  a = Hash.new
>>  a.
>>would offer an opportunity for a drop down menu. But in a lot of cases
>>the IDE would indeed need extra help.
>>    
>>
>
>  
>
>>Han
>>    
>>
>
>Yeah, this is all something we've been contemplating. What do you think of
>having a live objectspace that the IDE is hooked into and asks the object
>for its class, at which point it could then present all of the methods
>defined on it and its parents? I don't have the Ruby experience to know
>whether this is possible. It amazes me that the Java plugin for eclipse can
>figure it all out even with typing.
>
>I have been wondering whether this project is something worth continuing. It
>has been stated that anyone who really uses ruby would never make a habit of
>using an IDE written in Java. They would want to be able to extend the IDE
>using Ruby. Then there is FreeRIDE...
>
>Anyone think I should absolutely stop?
>  
>
That's of course entirely up to you. But what you say is true: eclipse
seems to have quite a learning curve, and the promise would have to
be enormous to entice non-java people even to try it.
What I expect from an IDE is really only that it's an intelligent
editor. Maybe the approach of extending a good editor (like nedit)
with ruby-knowledge would be more promising.

Cheers,

Han