I see that making a custom editor for Eclipse is quite involved. So before I roll my own editor/plug-in for NetLogo I was wondering if someone else has done it already?
Alternatively, I see the Eclipse editor is quite involved but produces a very complete end product. I mainly want something that's keyword and indentation aware. So inasmuch as that's a simpler project... that will do too.
Finally, links to where I can read up on building one myself will be appreciated.
Mike
Related
At work we are using a proprietary language and to program we are using Notepad++ with a simple code highlight. That is really annoying so, what I want to do is to invest some time to setup a text editor or an existing IDE to support my language.
I've googled a lot and there are so many options and before starting to work I wanna ask to you what is the best choice.
What I want to do is to have, like an IDE, a syntax highlight, a window with the function list tree, with the local function variables inside the same subtree, maybe text autocomplete (if I type "pro" I would like to see the suggestion "procedure" and if I press enter it will write for me something like
procedure "name" {
--code--
}
with the cursor on "name" ready to change it.
etc etc...
Can you suggest me the right path to follow?
Is it to keep using Notepad++? With sourcecookifier? functionlist?
Or I have to change to another text editor?
Or there is some famous IDE like Eclipse, NetBeans etc that allow to easily add my own language?
PS. my language is pretty simple, I don't have complex structures, is Pascal-like. Something like that:
variable int xyz
PROCEDURE asd
BEGIN
END PROCEDURE asd
I would recommend you to stay with Notepad++ and extend it with some plugins and configuration. This would be fairly quick and easy to set up and still give a big win, even though you might not be able to get all the nice features of something like Eclipse. But since you already know the Notepad++ it wouldn't require learning an entirely new tool.
Some plugins that I have found useful
Function List
Light Explorer
XBrackets Lite
There are probably a lot more that can be useful to you.
Notepad++ also got some built in auto-completion functionality that can be enabled in the settings.
Have you evaluated Eclipse XTEXT ?
What is Xtext?
Xtext is a framework for development of programming languages and domain specific languages.
The only IDE I have used for the last few years is Eclipse. There are lots of other IDEs available, also notable and popular is Netbeans. There are many others. It's important to note that all IDEs have their fans, but I can only speak to Eclipse.
Eclipse is a platform, which means it is an application on which you can build other applications. Eclipse provides a framework which you can customize and extend to produce a working application. It takes care of the user interface, preferences storage, modularisation using OSGi, and lots of other things.
Eclipse has facilities to support what you're looking for:
Syntax highlighting in the editor.
The Outline View provides function and variable listing in a tree
Autocompletion and Suggestions (activated by hitting ctrl-space)
Code Templates to fill out files and procedures etc.
The disadvantage is that customising and extending Eclipse to do what you want isn't trivial. Having written a language debugger for Eclipse, I can tell you that leveraging Eclipse's platform helped enormously, but there's a learning curve. You'd essentially have to be coming up with a new set of plugins to provide your highlighting, outlining, autocomplete suggestions and templates (I'm not sure if template support is built into the platform or not).
So I would say, unless you can find some sort of extensible editor for Eclipse - I know Aptana is extensible for tag-based markup - you are probably as well staying with your existing tooling.
Do explore the other IDEs though - I've heard good things about IDEA as well as Netbeans. :)
Good luck!
I can recommend SynWrite editor. Good support for external languages, fully customizable. (Editor of new lexers is there)
I have recently started working with Perl. Googling reveals a number of editors but I am unable to find an editor that will help me navigate a large body of Perl source code. One of the features that I am looking for is the ability of the IDE to integrate with different modules and allow me to jump from one to another. If possible, it will also help if one can see the which function calls what.
I used source insight for C programming and it provides these very useful features. Am looking for similar features in perl.
Help appreciated
Have you looked at Padre? It is a Perl IDE developed by the Perl community.
I'm just giving EPIC a chance.
http://www.epic-ide.org/
Its an Eclipse plugin utilizing a mighty IDE. The advantage I see in using EPIC over Padre is the fact that eclipse can do all sorts of languages and I don't have to get used to multiple different editors every time.
Another great aproach for Perl programming is using emacs. Yes ... its old but I had quite some joy while getting into Perl.
cu
Roman
Komodo IDE, from Active State is also quite good. I haven't used any other Perl IDEs so cannot make comparisons. Most of the features that you are looking for I believe are available in Komodo.
On a side note: The feature that I most appreciated in Komodo was visual debugging.
I mainly use jEdit for Perl programming.
The PerlSideKick plugin, allows you to navigate huge Perl modules (mainly just a plugin for the SideKick plugin).
But there's not much to give you that easy Shift+click navigation you get from Eclipse. jEdit is 100% programmable through Beanshell macros (and JavaScript and Python and JRuby...). So, you can do some of this yourself. So there would be work involved.
For example, it been close enough for me to create "Selection macros" that will allow certain actions on the package or name either highlighted or at the caret. For example, open up the module indicated by the package name.
The Navigator plugin will at least remember where you were last across files.
You might be able to do cross-module navigation through one of the tags plugins
So this won't get you all the way you'd want to go, but it will get you some of the way, and for $0.
It has the most configurable source highlighting this side of writing Emacs-LISP.
It does FTP and remote editing cleaner than most editors I've used.
You can build up a library of Beanshell (shorthand Java) scripts that really help you get what you want done.
Just remember that this recommendation comes with caveats. I have found EPIC quite sub-standard for my use.
I have to choose a sizable (but not too sizable!) project for my next & last term in university. I thought maybe a nice IDE for scala is what the world might need right now :).
Would you like to see an IDE specifically made for scala? Or are you more comfortable using (the already available) plugins for popular (mainly java) IDEs & editors?
What do you think about the whole idea?
P.s. I'd make it open source & would add features one by one, so if it doesn't end in one semester, it won't be a problem from the university perspective.
Actually, not anymore. IntelliJ, Netbeans and Eclipse all have Scala-specific efforts that have more man-hours in it than you could possible start to begin putting in at a last term. And there's two very interesting efforts that were results of projects like that, both of which were made to contribute to any IDE effort: ENSIME and Scala Refactoring.
And, beyond these efforts, most programming editors, such as jEdit or TextMate, also have some Scala support to one degree or another.
So, really, contributing to one of these projects might be a good idea, but making a Scala IDE is not.
For his Masters thesis, Mirko Stocker contributed the refactoring functionality to the Eclipse Scala plugin, see:
http://misto.ch/scala-refactoring-talk-at-scala-days-2010/
Instead of creating an IDE from scratch, why not contribute a major piece of functionality to the Eclipse plugin, all contributions are welcome. For ideas, see tickets.
Or instead of reinventing the wheel.. you can contribute..
http://wiki.netbeans.org/Scala
But I am not sure if it will be somehow enough for your university work. At the same time, as you see, those plug-ins still require a lot of work.
While writing your own IDE you will just trying to solve problems that were already solved and tested. Besides, even if - what kind of IDE is that, which allows you to do
Scala (even if its great) only. So just for simple xml edit of ant file or whatever you will need another tool.
I think Brian Clapper already summed it up nicely.
I'd suggest something like CheckStyle but for Scala might go down well and be reasonable to tackle as a project.
Not a Scala developer but an Eclipse plug-in would probably be a worthy senior project.
Concur. Operating systems, text editors, and IDEs...does the world really need more of them? No. But everyone wants to write one.
If you want to do something useful, as opposed to simply academic, develop an extension for an existing IDE. Eclipse, NetBeans, Komodo, etc. are all nicely extensible through plugins.
I use Eclipse mainly for LSL (linden Scripting language). The plug-in for this language does not provide things like templates or task-tag recognition. Is there any way that these kind of features in LSL-files (or any other generic file/code for that matter) can be used?
Take look at the XText project. If you can define the grammar of LSL there it will generate full Eclipse plugin for it, complete with syntax Highlighting, code Completion, validation and quick Fixes and more.
Another one to try (one i use myself) is LSL Editor
Full Syntax highlighting, code suggest, and even a off world run time environment. plus able to test multiple scripts by building test objects with prims.
Take a Look :)
LSLForge is being actively maintained, and has most of what you describe. If there's something missing, the developer is always looking for new challenges.
Having programmed through emacs and vi for years and years at this point, I have heard that using an IDE is a very good way of becoming more efficient.
To that end, I have decided to try using Eclipse for a lot of coding and seeing how I get on.
Are there any suggestions for easing the transition over to an IDE. Obviously, some will think none of this is worth the bother, but I think with Eclipse allowing emacs-style key bindings and having code completion and in-built debugging, I reckon it is well worth trying to move over to a more feature-rich environment for the bulk of my development worth.
So what suggestions do you have for easing the transition?
Eclipse is the best IDE I've used, even considering its quite large footprint and sluggishness on slow computers (like my work machine... Pentium III!).
Rather than trying to 'ease the transition', I think it's better to jump right in and let yourself be overwhelmed by the bells and whistles and truly useful refactorings etc.
Here are some of the most useful things I would consciously use as soon as possible:
ctrl-shift-t finds and opens a class via incremental search on the name
ctrl-shift-o automatically generates import statements (and deletes redundant ones)
F3 on an identifier to jump to its definition, and alt-left/right like in web browsers to go back/forward in navigation history
The "Quick fix" tool, which has a large amount of context-sensitive refactorings and such. Some examples:
String messageXml = in.read();
Message response = messageParser.parse(messageXml);
return response;
If you put the text cursor on the argument to parse(...) and press ctrl+1, Eclipse will suggest "Inline local variable". If you do that, then repeat with the cursor over the return variable 'response', the end result will be:
return messageParser.parse(in.read());
There are many, many little rules like this which the quick fix tool will suggest and apply to help refactor your code (including the exact opposite, "extract to local variable/field/constant", which can be invaluable).
You can write code that calls a method you haven't written yet - going to the line which now displays an error and using quick fix will offer to create a method matching the parameters inferred from your usage. Similarly so for variables.
All these small refactorings and shortcuts save a lot of time and are much more quickly picked up than you'd expect. Whenever you're about to rearrange code, experiment with quick fix to see if it suggests something useful.
There's also a nice bag of tricks directly available in the menus, like generating getters/setters, extracting interfaces and the like. Jump in and try everything out!
One thing that helped me transition from Emacs to other IDEs was the idea that IDEs are terrible editors. I scoffed at that person but I now see their point.
An editor, like Emacs or Vim, can really focus on being a good editor first and foremost.
An IDE, like Visual Studio or Eclipse, really focuses on being a good project management tool with a built in way to modify files.
I find that keeping the above in mind (and keeping Emacs handy) helps me to not get frustrated when the IDE du jour is not meeting my needs.
If you've been using emacs/vi for years (although you listed both, so it seems like you may not be adapted fully to one of them), using said editor will probably be faster for you than an IDE. The level of mind-meld a competant emacs/vi user can achieve with a customized setup and years of muscle memory is astounding.
Some free ones:
XCode on the Mac
Eclipse
Lazarus (Open Source clone of Delphi)
Visual Studio Express
Editions
Try making a couple of test applications just to get your feet wet. At first, it will probably feel more cumbersome. The benefits of IDEs don't come until you begin having a good understanding of them and their various capabilities. Once you know where everything is and start to understand the key commands, life gets easier, MUCH easier.
I think you'll find IDE's invaluable once you get into them. The code complete and navigation features, integrated running/debugging, and all the other little benefits really add up.
Some suggestions for starting out and easing transition:
- start by going through a tutorial or demonstration included with the IDE documentation to get familar with where things are in the GUI.
- look at different kinds of sample projects (usually included with the IDE or as a separate download) for different types of areas you may be coding (web applications, desktop applications, etc) to see how they are laid out and structured in the IDE.
- once comfortable, create your own project from existing code that you know well, ideally not something overly complex, and get it all compiling/working.
- explore the power! Debug your code, use refactorings, etc. The right click menu is your friend until you learn the keyboard shortcuts just to see all the things you can do. Right click different areas of your code to see what is possible and learn (or re-map) the keyboard shortcuts.
Read the doc...
And see what shortcuts/keybindings equivalents are with your familiar ones. Learn the new ones...
Old question, but let me suggest that in some circumstances, something like Notepad++ might be appropriate for the OP's situation which may be encountered by others. Especially if you are looking for something lightweight, Notepad++ can be part of a developer's arsenal of tools. Eclipse, Visual Studio and others are resource hogs with all their automagic going on and if you are looking to whip out something pretty quick with a whole bunch of keyboard shortcuts and the like or if you are interested in viewing someone else's source, this can be quite useful. Oh yeah, and it is free too.