Random Perl ... rant

[Iain Barnett]

>> While for Java or C# a good GUI can make the difference, I think
>> that for dynamic and succint languages like Perl it only depends
>> on personal style: I feel productive with a shell, Vim, and some
>> ad hoc macros.
>
> Komodo-editor is free, as is perly-sense for emacs, but then I don't
> particularly like either - I don't want arg completion, I want the
> docs for the API I'm using displayed in the next window or another
> monitor.
>
>> s/Vim/Xemacs and I agree completely.
>>


Are you all having a laugh? Or perhaps you're watching WarGames on  
beta max while listening to Meat Is Murder?

Visual Studio s*** all over Komodo (the free one, don't know about  
the paid for one) and EPIC for Eclipse. Really. I'm not here to sell  
you a copy, but if you'd used it you'd realise it was light years  
ahead (and I don't mean back in the mists of time or for a week  
before you gave up). M$ may not do a lot of things well, but dotNet  
and Visual Studio are very very good. Perhaps Eclipse is really good  
for Java, too, I don't use Java. I get the feeling it would be better  
than EPIC, but EPIC needs more support (hint hint).

I like Vim, I don't use emacs but it's alright. I like using  
terminals and white boards, and having extra screens (you can have  
extra screens in Windoze too!;). I'm happy for you all to work in  
your favoured way, as long as you don't break the trunk :)

But you'll be killing off the language by clinging to old practices.  
Either you want to make it accessible to others, or you don't care  
because you've got unix and vi/emacs, and a copy of Programming Perl  
on your bookshelf.


Iain

>
>>  If you want to draw in programmers from other languages then you  
>> can't show
>> them a command line debugger and colorised emacs and expect  
>> converts. I want
>> intellisense, and I want a GUI for debugging, and so do a lot of  
>> other
>> people *because it makes us more productive and our lives easier*,  
>> which is
>> the whole point. Isn't it?
>
> Does it really make you more productive? - named params in perl means
> you don't need to rememeber the order of args, about 0.0001% of my
> time is thinking about things that intellisense would do for me.
> Graphical Debuggers are busy and usually annoying/restrictive.
>
> Given the choice between paying for a flashy IDE and shelling out for
> another monitor (or two) and a decent video card, it's a no-brainer.
>
> I really don't think I could work productively on windows, even with a
> "really clever" IDE. I want several screens, everything organised into
> workspaces/desktops, full screen tabbed terminals, good documentation,
> and a whiteboard and plenty of paper.
>
> A.
>
> -- 
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