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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 >