Hi Chris/Everyone, Coming from a .NET centric dev group, I kept hitting this hurdle where people who I train to use J would complain about the Project Manager. Heck they even complain on the name itself (J) ... heheheh.
I know that you guys are better qualified in this than me so I'll just add my experience and look forward to the new IDE/PM for J7. Well, at first, I was planning on building a PM/IDE in .NET for J and just use J in the background. I actually did that but later on I kept missing or looking for a lot of the interactive capabilities of a J session. So in the end, I compromised and embedded J inside the IDE I built and used it as an "immediate" window just like in VB. Here is a screenshot of the main application: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2795/4015976312_9a052b62fe_b.jpg If you look at the screenshot, you will see the following: 1. A tabbed EDIT window 2. A tree list for a projects script files 3. Property page for each of the script 4. An immediate window which is actually a J session imbedded and fully controllable by the IDE 5. A task/TODO list As an additional feature, I added the capability to execute SQL DML command and the resulting data can be loaded into the J session as shown in this screenshot: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2525/4015976330_f88886e71f_b.jpg The IDE does not store the J commands/script as an IJS file instead as an XML file. You see, our applications are web-based wherein J scripts and other .NET DLL's are downloaded when need by the client application. I use the following XML format <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <Application code="Application" name="Application" description=""> <Library id="483550cb-1dd5-472e-b750-8be4c4ffdd68" name="English Object Engine" description="EOE Library" seq="1" enabled="True" autoload="True"> <Script id="f2872379-f62d-4aee-a304-fe95d351adbd" name="Core" description="EOE Core Library Script" seq="1" enabled="True" autoload="True"> <code> NB. Sample J Script foo=: verb define i. 10 10 ) </code> </Script> </Library> </Application> Of course, besides the listed features above, I also included the following basic features: 1. Edit commands: Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, Redo and Select All 2. File options: Save, Save As, New and Open 3. Find: Find, Find in Files, Find in All Open Files, Replace, Find and Replace, Replace All 4. Font: Font Size and Color, Background Color The only thing that I was not able to implement is the Syntax Highlighting and code formatting (which is already part of J's PM). When I started replying to this email, I had a vague notion of how I was going to brag about how great my IDE was ... but as I've actually writing it, I felt a loss of words on what to say. Still, I believe that for my intent and purpose, the SmartIDE was a success since in a sense that some project technical lead opened up to the use of J into their project (but not as much as I want to) because they weren't intimidated by the original J Session and PM. I hope this helps. r/Alex -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Chris Burke Sent: Friday, October 16, 2009 8:43 AM To: Beta forum Subject: Re: [Jbeta] J7 Project Manager Oleg Kobchenko wrote: > An interesting solution for a simplified IDE is the Xcode Organizer. > http://www.macresearch.org/tutorial-introducing-xcode-30-organizer > > http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/DeveloperTools/Conceptual/XcodeProjectManagement/140-Using_the_Organizer/using_the_organizer.html > It is like a text editor with a "projects" browser in a side bar tree. > > A project is just a folder with sub-folders and some defined > targets (build, clean, run, custom) similar to Java Ant. > Many projects can be added to the tree as roots, so there is > an active project, and an active target. Thanks. The Organizer looks like a combination of J's project manager + find in files. In the new IDE these should be both together; right now they are partly linked, but as separate applications. > One way to promote ProgMan and make it easier to use, is to integrate > such Organizer with the edit window. It would act as an "explorer" to > browse or open adjacent files and folders, but when a project file is > present it will run targets from it. Yes, PM will be integrated into the edit window. > Separation of targets and actions. E.g. "compile" is an action of > combining one or more J scripts, resolving imports and removing > comments; then "compile" action can be used in different targets > such as "build" alongside other actions like copy, create folder etc. > There may be multiple targets per project. A target may be dependent > on other targets in current or other (sub)projects. This ability to associate various actions with a project is a very nice feature. In J, I often switch to another project, do something, then switch back. In Organizer I could stay on the one project, but still run that something in another project. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
