[Ocaml-biz] IDEs

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Shishir Ramam wrote:
>
> Both the editors have steep learning curves.

Amen to that!

> > > What editor you use shouldn't even come up when discussing
> > > programming languages.
> >
> > As far as businesses are concerned, it should and does.
>
> So you're saying that my manager or even worse, my VP
> engineering, can dictate which editor/IDE I use?! Ahem.

Yes, she can, she will, and she should.  The team's engineering
coordination is more important than your personal editor preference.
Your editor preference is only allowed if it doesn't interfere with the
team's engineering requirements.  You are being paid money to deal with
it.  If you don't like it, you either change jobs, become the manager,
or become a self-employed consultant.  Even in the latter scenario, you
can only choose your editor when you do the work on your own premises.
On-site, you do what they do.

Standards across an enterprise are a more loosey goosey issue.  They
resolve according to enterprise politics, not editor politics.

> Instead of nit-picking on which editor to provide support for, it
> might be better
> to use this forum to define what are desirable features of an
> IDE.

Sure, feel free.  But I think the field of choices is so small, that
we're going to come to conclusion just by inspection first.  I mean,
either Eclipse is wonderful or it sucks.  If it's wonderful, then it's
only a question of whether to put everything behind that, or to pay some
homage to Emacs and Vi.  If Eclipse sucks, then it's Emacs and Vi.

Or, if Eclipse sucks, we might conclude that changing that is a core
strategy.  Maybe far more important than even worrying about Emacs and
Vi.

I'll get on with looking at Eclipse.  But as usual, I've typed all day
and foregone eating.  ML Seattle meets tonight, maybe someone there will
know some things.  I will definitely present the ocaml-biz show so far
to them.


Cheers,                     www.indiegamedesign.com
Brandon Van Every           Seattle, WA

"The pioneer is the one with the arrows in his back."
                          - anonymous entrepreneur