Andrew Lentvorski([EMAIL PROTECTED])@Fri, Dec 02, 2005 at 09:54:45PM -0800: > boblq wrote: > > >Now what does one gain with an IDE? I am not > >trolling. I really would like to know what people > >get out of these things. > > Autocompleting just about everything > Popup documentation of functions > Overall code visualization and navigation (ie. outline views with > color/icon views showing things like public/private/static at a glance) > Syntax sensitive editing (ie. can rename someVariable just within a > function, a module or project without affecting those you don't want) > Refactoring and hoisting assistance in the editor > Style suggestions which may not be pure errors > Lots of stuff which can be displayed at the relevant point in the editor > buffer rather than requiring hunting between separate messages. > Automatic updating of references when you rename a file (ie. > import/include statements and the like) > Full Unicode support > On-the-fly editing of code inside the debugger which can then be > immediately pulled into the environment during debugging > <snip>
I don't do much programming, but I've used eclipse a little. Mostly I use vim. One thing I noticed while I was making an initial run at learning Java is that using the IDE required me to learn a *lot* about the IDE and how it works. IDEs assume and default a lot of things from what I can see. That not only distracted me, but it also interfered with my learning some of the basics of java and how a project is organized. I'm certain my experience would've been better if I had been well versed in Java. As it was I couldn't know that something was done automatically by the IDE because I didn't know that the something existed. The above is a useless anecdote for you expert programmers. One thing I _did_ appreciate was the object browser and the way I could autocomplete those long names. It was not enough to make me forget how much more power I have in vim, though. Not sure what Unicode support buys you. It must matter, but you don't actually code in unicode, do you? As long as you are able to designate unicode chars for your interpreter or compiler, why would the IDE care? I also can't imagine editing inside the debugger. The idea breaks my conceptual model of the development process. That's not a problem with IDEs, I guess. Several other features in the list seem to be more of an issue for large projects with numerous files. My programming mostly involves only one file, and always less than 5 or 6. Wade "Glad Bob was persistent in re-asking his question" Curry syntaxman -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
