| Re: Mac editors / development environment [message #32368 is a reply to message #32277] |
Tue, 01 October 2002 08:24  |
JD Smith
Messages: 850
Registered: December 1999
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Senior Member |
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On Mon, 30 Sep 2002 17:08:09 -0700, Kenneth P. Bowman wrote:
> In article <20020930181550619-0500@laika.space.umn.edu>,
> Doug Rowland <rowland@fields.space.umn.edu> wrote:
>
>> I'm starting a new IDL project on Mac OS X and was wondering if anyone
>> can help me with suggestions for a good development environment /
>> editor.
>>
>> The caveat handed down by my employer:
>>
>> No "weird"/*NIX software. Make it mainstream. Don't worry about
>> spending a little money.
>>
>> My background is mostly amateur software development, using vi and IDL
>> on Solaris.
>>
>> I have a copy of BBEdit Lite, but haven't found a language module.
>>
>> Mostly, I want a "mainstream" editor that knows about IDL, at least as
>> far as syntax coloring. I am also looking for a "mainstream" version
>> control / documentation system. My ideal would be something like
>> Project Builder that knows about IDL.
>
> I use the full version of BBEdit, mostly because I like a really good
> point-and-click editor. Unfortunately, BBEdit does not know IDL syntax.
> I never cared that much for syntax coloring anyway. It's like the
> rainbow color table, it emphasizes things that don't really need to be
> emphasized. I just make sure that IDL words are uppercase, while
> variables are lower case, and I indent and comment carefully.
>
> I have asked Barebones to add an IDL mode, but IDL occupies such a tiny
> part of their universe that it is not likely to ever happen. BBEdit is
> definitely "weirder" than any Unix-ism like vi or emacs (just because
> it's a Mac application). BBEdit does allow you to create file groups
> (something like projects). It does not allow you to set breakpoints and
> so on like you can in the DE.
>
> You can use the the Unix IDLDE environment, but then you are stuck with
> the X Windows DE (yuck).
>
> So, having offended a long list of people (X Windows fans, vi fans,
> etc.), maybe I need to go learn emacs. ;-)
>
> If money isn't a problem, get a Cinema display. It will compensate for
> a lot of problems with the interface. ;-)
>
>
I'll just chime in like a dully familiar choral refrain in a drawn out
opera: IDLWAVE for Emacs might just be what you're looking for
(idlwave.org). There is some news to report: we will soon be testing out
the package on (X)Emacs for MacOSX, and are hoping the next update will be
fully "OSX Certified". This includes running IDL as a sub-process of
Emacs in shell mode, since RSI has assured us a command-line version will
be part of the IDL for OSX release. Since you'll have to install an X
Server to run IDL under OSX anyway, getting Emacs will be no trouble. Of
course, learning your way around the varied and extensive landscape of
that editor cum lifestyle-choice is another matter...
JD
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