Date: Sun, 1 Dec 1996 10:14:59 +0200 (IST) From: Eli Zaretskii To: shaman AT nlc DOT net DOT au Cc: djgpp AT delorie DOT com Subject: Re: Idea for powerful IDE In-Reply-To: <32A0FD87.66AA@nlc.net.au> Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Sun, 1 Dec 1996 shaman AT nlc DOT net DOT au wrote: > all quite simple. When projects are being made by several people, most > IDEs do not have features to help out. Some examples of things that irk > me: Frankly, this sounds like the all-time programmer's wish-list to me. You can't *really* expect a program to do so much of a programmer's job. Anyway, some of the things you wish are already there in Emacs (of course). > * I want to be able to get to the function I'm interested in without > flipping through pages of code. Why can't IDEs put each function/class > on it's own? (Visual Basic does this) Emacs has a program (called `etags') which tags all the functions, macros, typedefs etc. and lets you jump to it with a keystroke. > * What if several people are working on the same project? Keeping > everyone's version of the code up to date is a bitch, compiling is > difficult at best and with very large projects it becomes a total > nightmare. No wonder projects like Windows 95 are so badly organised. Check out the integrated version-control support in Emacs. > * Why can't compilers automatically notice and warn me about common > mistakes like leaving out semi-colons at the end of class declarations > using colored highlights? Emacs does that. It has a package which, when loaded, automatically paints in color the matching paren when your cursor is on a paren. If the parentheses mismatch, it changes the color to catch your eyes. The source indentation in Emacs is syntax-sensitive, so if you forget a semi-colon, you usually will feel it right away, when you press RET, becaise it won't indent correctly. > * Why aren't there nifty features in compilers like being able to see > what a typedef/constant/macro actually is in a seperate window just by > moving the cursor over it? The `etags' facility described above does this. It can show you the definition of a macro or a typedef in a window other than the current one. > etc, etc.. I'm sure everyone can think of hundreds of things that > annoys them about compilers/IDEs.. > > So.. anyone feel like making and IDE this good? 8) How about sitting down and implementing some of these wonders, then letting others use them for free?