Norman, thank you for your response, but that is deviating from the
intent of my original post, which is asking why there is such lacking
support for a good IDE with full support for the homogenous XML and
Javascript code used in OpenLaszlo. Something like "intellisense" with
autocomplete and syntax highlighting for both XML and Javascript. I
was not referring to a "visual editor". As a sidenote though, I do
agree with you. That does not seem very useful beyond initial
familiarization.
If any of the developers have any input, that would be greatly
appreciated. Maybe something is already in the works?
Thank you...
Date: Sun, 28 Feb 2010 08:42:21 -0800
From: Norman Klein<[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [Laszlo-user] Full-featured IDE for OpenLaszlo?
To: cem sonmez<[email protected]>, [email protected]
Message-ID:
<[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Although users think that an IDE that supports drag and drop
functionality is incredibly useful, experience has shown that it
isn't. For instance, Adobe's Flex Builder has just the features that
you're requesting: both a source and design perspective (visual
snippet side). The design perspective is generally used by new users
for a couple of weeks, until they reach a certain level of proficiency
and then never gets used again. It turns out that it really doesn't
deliver meaningful functionality -- think of it as training wheels --,
so its usage is generally dropped once developers become marginally
proficient.
To address these issues, Adobe is creating Catalyst (a separate
product), which provides a much more comprehensive design approach
towards building RIAs. This is a very ambitious product -- that is
vastly beyond the scope of Laszlo -- and will probably require
several releases until Adobe gets the paradigm correctly. Catalyst
also requires extensive tie-ins into their other products such as
Illustrator and Photoshop.
It appears likely that the next release of Flex Builder will simply
drop the design perspective and replace it with features that support
Catalyst.
In a perfect world, Catalyst could be easily fitted with a
Laszlo-specific back-end but I strongly doubt that is legally or
technically possible. But it makes no sense for Laszlo to waste its
limited resources creating such a limiting programming approach as
visual snippets.
Norman Klein
author: Laszlo in Action
On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 4:07 AM, cem sonmez<[email protected]> wrote:
I completely agree with you. I have shared my thoughts in an earlier
thread,
that is about a visual openlaszlo editor.
There is an Eclipse plugin called Spket [1] which is a useful tool
to create
openlaszlo applications. But it just supports syntax highlighting
and type
autocompletion and a visual snippet side. But anyway this is not a
reason to
do not need a featured Openlaszo Ide. Especially while creating the
visual
components in my openlaszlo applications, it takes a long time to do
what I
want. It would be great to use an Openlaszlo editor developed by the
openlaszlo community.
Kind regards.
[1] - http://www.spket.com/
2010/2/28<[email protected]>
I've been using OpenLaszlo for about 6 months now, so I am
certainly not
an expert.? And I don't want to sound like a complainer.? But I
must say, I
am REALLY baffled at the lack of a full-featured IDE (or plugin) for
OpenLaszlo.? I really like OL, and I want to develop with it.?? But
the lack
of IDE support is really a drawback, compared to other current
development
environments .? And I have seen this sentiment mentioned frequently by
others.?? With the seemingly-strong community out there, I would
expect a
nice full-featured IDE available, sponsored by OL.
I have tried most of the third-party available offerings, and don't
get me
wrong, they are certainly better than a text editor, and I greatly
thank
their contributors.? However they mostly seem 1) stalled in their
development and/or not updated, and 2) only have basic features beyond
common syntax highlighting.? What about project-wide "intellisense"
type
autocompletion support of Laszlo's mixed XML and Javascript code??
None of
them have this, to my knowledge.? Am I missing something, perhaps??
I've
searched and searched.?? It would be hard to believe someone not
having
discussed this already.
I think this is necessary to be competitive and gain traction, and
would
really be a big factor in attracting more developers into the
community,
thus benefiting everyone all around.? Is there some reason
OpenLaszlo has
not got behind such an effort?? Or maybe they are, but it has not
come to
fruition yet??? I certainly would like to have something to look
forward
to.? A current Eclipse plugin would be just awesome.? No need to
re-invent a
whole new IDE framework.? The available ones for Netbeans and
Eclipse are
good starts.? Couldn't they be updated and taken to fruition?
Thanks...
--
Cem SONMEZ
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