Comments on: Developer Tools http://nslog.com/2003/05/06/developer_tools The Weblog of Erik J. Barzeski Wed, 23 May 2012 23:05:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Sci-Fi Hi-Fi http://nslog.com/2003/05/06/developer_tools#comment-2993 Sci-Fi Hi-Fi Thu, 08 May 2003 21:12:27 +0000 http://nslog.com/2003/05/06/developer_tools/#comment-2993 <strong>Apple Complaint #2: Project Builder</strong> The recent discussion about Eclipse on Erik's, and Michael's, and Jeff's and my blog says it all: Project Builder simply does not stand up to comparison with the newest generation of development environments for Java and (dare I say it!) .NET. Apple Complaint #2: Project Builder

The recent discussion about Eclipse on Erik's, and Michael's, and Jeff's and my blog says it all: Project Builder simply does not stand up to comparison with the newest generation of development environments for Java and (dare I say it!) .NET.

]]> By: quellish http://nslog.com/2003/05/06/developer_tools#comment-2992 quellish Wed, 07 May 2003 05:14:27 +0000 http://nslog.com/2003/05/06/developer_tools/#comment-2992 Once upon a time, I thought some of the mailing list posts I had seen about PB and IB crashing were flukes, but now I'm working on a set of projects that can pretty reliably crash either of them. I haven't seen the recent CodeWarrior versions, though we do have a license at the office. Slowly I've been playing with the script support in PB and it's... odd to say the least. The sample scripts that do HeaderDoc stuff are cool, but not all that useful. PB scripting in general is just really wierd, and I have yet to find anyplace online that has user submitted scripts for PB. What I had been using for Java work is <a href="http://www.jedit.org">JEdit</a>. There is a very cool plugin that applies the Sun java style guidelines to your code, fixing indents and whatnot, AND parses your methods and sets up the JavaDoc comments for you. I would kill to get PB or BBEdit to do that for objective-c headerdoc comments! Once upon a time, I thought some of the mailing list posts I had seen about PB and IB crashing were flukes, but now I'm working on a set of projects that can pretty reliably crash either of them. I haven't seen the recent CodeWarrior versions, though we do have a license at the office. Slowly I've been playing with the script support in PB and it's... odd to say the least. The sample scripts that do HeaderDoc stuff are cool, but not all that useful. PB scripting in general is just really wierd, and I have yet to find anyplace online that has user submitted scripts for PB.

What I had been using for Java work is JEdit. There is a very cool plugin that applies the Sun java style guidelines to your code, fixing indents and whatnot, AND parses your methods and sets up the JavaDoc comments for you. I would kill to get PB or BBEdit to do that for objective-c headerdoc comments!

]]> By: rentzsch http://nslog.com/2003/05/06/developer_tools#comment-2991 rentzsch Wed, 07 May 2003 03:26:35 +0000 http://nslog.com/2003/05/06/developer_tools/#comment-2991 Don't get into Eclipse is you're looking for something that crashes less than PBX. Eclipse crashes even more. It's not a shining example of a Mac OS X app, either. Basic things like <a HREF="http://objectstyle.org/woproject/lists/woproject-dev/2003/05/0021.html">views are broken</a>. Refactoring is cool, when it works. I stopped using that feature, since it would as often as not corrupt the source code. Sure, you have unlimited undo, but I found subtle corruption in long source files that I thought were originally refactored correctly. Basically, I lost all confidence in using that feature. What does work, is great, but I've officially have given up on Eclipse for the immediate future. After my current WebObjects project, I'm writing some desktop software, and I'll be springing for CodeWarrior Pro. I had the pleasure of using it again after about three years, and it felt like using a Mac again. Don't get into Eclipse is you're looking for something that crashes less than PBX. Eclipse crashes even more.

It's not a shining example of a Mac OS X app, either. Basic things like views are broken.

Refactoring is cool, when it works. I stopped using that feature, since it would as often as not corrupt the source code. Sure, you have unlimited undo, but I found subtle corruption in long source files that I thought were originally refactored correctly. Basically, I lost all confidence in using that feature.

What does work, is great, but I've officially have given up on Eclipse for the immediate future.

After my current WebObjects project, I'm writing some desktop software, and I'll be springing for CodeWarrior Pro. I had the pleasure of using it again after about three years, and it felt like using a Mac again.

]]> By: Buzz Andersen http://nslog.com/2003/05/06/developer_tools#comment-2990 Buzz Andersen Tue, 06 May 2003 15:06:21 +0000 http://nslog.com/2003/05/06/developer_tools/#comment-2990 Refactoring is an absolute killer app--I really hate it when I decide a class should have been named differently in Project Builder. I have to change both file names, as well as the class names and all references to the classnames or files. In Eclipse, it's basically a one step operation! It's funny--I actually used to be the kind of person who scoffs at really fancy IDEs. After using Eclipse for awhile, though, the productivity gains are stunning. I used to spend an inordinate amount of time, for example, enclosing code in "try/catch" blocks to catch exceptions. With Eclipse, when you haven't caught an exception, you simply click on the little light bulb thingy and it suggest a variety of options--do you want to add a throws clause to the method or surround the code with a catch block. There is tons of other stuff like that! I have often thought about how Eclipse could be adapted to Cocoa--it is supposed to be a "universal tool platform" after all, and they're supposedly working on a C/C++ tool for it. It's still a bit slow on the Mac, but I think that's going to get better, and if it could be adapted to work with Objective-C as well, I think it would give Project Builder a serious run for its money! Refactoring is an absolute killer app--I really hate it when I decide a class should have been named differently in Project Builder. I have to change both file names, as well as the class names and all references to the classnames or files. In Eclipse, it's basically a one step operation!

It's funny--I actually used to be the kind of person who scoffs at really fancy IDEs. After using Eclipse for awhile, though, the productivity gains are stunning. I used to spend an inordinate amount of time, for example, enclosing code in "try/catch" blocks to catch exceptions. With Eclipse, when you haven't caught an exception, you simply click on the little light bulb thingy and it suggest a variety of options--do you want to add a throws clause to the method or surround the code with a catch block. There is tons of other stuff like that!

I have often thought about how Eclipse could be adapted to Cocoa--it is supposed to be a "universal tool platform" after all, and they're supposedly working on a C/C++ tool for it. It's still a bit slow on the Mac, but I think that's going to get better, and if it could be adapted to work with Objective-C as well, I think it would give Project Builder a serious run for its money!

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