> From: bill lam <[email protected]>
>
> On Fri, 16 Oct 2009, Oleg Kobchenko wrote:
> > Some IDEs are not productive enough, J PM is among them. My tool of choice
> > for complex projects is often Total Commander with highly intuitive
> > keyboard commands or well-designed mouse interactions. I miss it thoroughly
> > on
> > Linux and Mac. It is a sophisticated two-panel file browser, has command
> > line,
> > built-in (de-)acrhiver, extensible file systems, such as archives, FTP,
> > ISO disks, even web sites, visual folder sync and file diff, separate
> shortcuts
> > for View, Edit, Run selected item; Explorer extensions like SVN and context
> menu
> > work the same way. I use it for more complex stuff like syncing versions,
> > archiving, SVN, shell scripts etc. So in comparison with Total Commander,
> > some IDEs can be slower rather than faster.
>
> Actually my current workflow is similar to you. I use vifm (another
> dual panel file manager) and vim to browse and edit j scripts. At the
> same time I run J PM in another terminal. Once I finish editing, I
> switch to J PM to load, test and debug. Then switch back to vim to
> further editing and so on. Our difference, I suppose, is that you
> wrote a script to automate loading and running, while I use PM for
> that purpose.
These aren't special simply load and run "harness" script, but rather
either meaningful particular test scripts or just the main script
with run'' or lines in Note'Test'. For a more complex system, I would
use something like a general/unittest addon.
> Did you ever try midnight commander (mc), the linux equivalent for
> total commander? Though I'm not sure if it has a version for Mac.
Yes, I use mc on Linux and build from sources for Mac. It is a distant
next best thing along with muCommander (in Java). But they have far fewer
features than Total Commander, e.g. diff and sync, working with archives.
Also I believe it is crucial--both for convenience and productivity--
to have responsive visual feedback of your actions. That's why I cannot
use command line for things like SVN. I need to see icon markers on
files that need committing and that they disappeared after submit. I don't
want to wonder if all went well or run additional commands to verify.
Visual feedback is important in the J project build feature: there should
be a log view or a separate window. From experience with Package Manager,
I believe the log view is one of the best features which contributed
to its success. Such feedback should also be passive--not a modal dialog
every time, especially with successful build. I like the Xcode idea of
a modeless build log window, which can optionally be open by clicking
a status indicator (Running, OK, Fail) in main window (on status
bar or a small spot on side bar).
The unit test sidebar with tree structure of folder/file/testverb
will have icons for pass/fail on each item, which change as the
test runs, simultaneously indicating the progress of tests sequence.
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