Ross wrote:
> I honestly think choosing the best* development language is very 
> similar to how one settles on politics, religion, diet, etc. 
> Environment plays a part, of course, but, in the end, what generally 
> works best is the language that jibes best with you and your 
> personality.  Since you've dabbled with several different languages, 
> you've had to have come across this - some languages just "feel 
> better" than others.  This is, however, an entirely personal
> choice.  

I also think that the IDEs or editors (and languages, like Ross is
pointing out) one chooses is connected to an amalgam of a person's 
1 - history and experiences, 
2 - mode of learning/working

On #2 and editors/IDEs, I've written a little more extensively on this
pet theory of mine here: 
 http://zzzoot.blogspot.com/2009/07/emacs-mode-and-learning-modes.html
 "My theory is that - like learning, where it has been established that
 different people learn in different ways (Visual/Verbal,
 Visual/Nonverbal, Auditory/Verbal, Tactile/Kinesthetic) - I believe
 that particular modes of human-machine interaction are better suited
 to some individuals than others." 

-Glen

Dan wrote:
> At the risk of making this worse... Bill makes good points, and I
> wasn't saying "don't use an IDE".  I meant "I don't like using an IDE,
> so I don't want to be forced to, and that affects my language/tool
> preferences.  You might want to consider whether you like using a
> particular IDE or not, in addition to other considerations."   
> 
>  Where I work we try hard to keep IDE-specific files and choices out
>  of the vcs,  aside from maybe adding some patterns to the .ignore
>  file to reinforce this.  We value letting all the different
>  developers use whatever tools they prefer, and we do often use
>  different ones (emacs, vim, eclipse, coda, etc.) to work on the
>  same project and the same code at the same time without stomping on
>  each other's toes, which is a Good Thing. 
> 
> I love you all.  Really.
> 
>   -Dan
> 
> 
> On Jan 6, 2010, at 9:37 AM, Joel Marchesoni wrote:
> 
> I should have worded my response differently.  I didn't mean one
> shouldn't use any IDE at all, but as Dan said if there is a special
> IDE *for that language* and otherwise one can't develop it I would
> stay away from it. 
> >  
> > Joel 
> >  
> > -----Original Message----- 
> > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> > Behalf Of Bill Dueber 
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 9:23 AM 
> > To: [log in to unmask] 
> > Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Choosing development platforms and/or
> > tools, how'd you do it? 
> >  
> > On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 8:53 AM, Joel Marchesoni
> > <[log in to unmask]>wrote: 
> >  
> >> I agree with Dan's last point about avoiding using a special IDE
>> to develop 
> >> with a language. 
> >>  
> >  
> > I'll respectfully, but vehemently, disagree. I would say avoid
> *forcing* 
> > everyone working on the project depend on a special IDE -- avoid
> lockin. 
> > Don't avoid use. 
> >  
> > There's a spectrum of how much an editor/environment can know
> about a 
> > program. At one end is Smalltalk, where the development
> environment *is* the 
> > program. At the other end is something like LISP (and, to an
> extent, Ruby) 
> > where so little can be inferred from the syntax of the code that a
> "smart" 
> > IDE can't actually know much other than how to match parentheses. 
> >  
> > For languages where little can be known at compile time, an IDE
> may not buy 
> > you very much other than syntax highlighting and code folding. For
> Java, 
> > C++, etc. an IDE can know damn near everything about your project
> and 
> > radically up your productivity -- variable renaming, refactoring, 
> > context-sensitive help, jump-to-definition, method-name
> completion, etc. It 
> > really is a difference that makes a difference. 
> >  
> > I know folks say they can get the same thing from vim or emacs,
> but at that 
> > level those editors are no less complex (and a good deal more
> opaque) than 
> > something like Eclipse or Netbeans unless you already have a
> decade of 
> > experience with them. 
> >  
> > If you're starting in a new language, try a couple editors,
> too. Both 
> > Eclipse and Netbeans are free and cross-platform, and have support
> for a lot 
> > of languages. Editors like Notepad++, EditPlus, Textmate jEdit,
> and BBEdit 
> > can all do very nice things with a variety of languages. 
> >  
> >  
> >  
> > --  
> > Bill Dueber 
> > Library Systems Programmer 
> > University of Michigan Library 
>