IDE\whitespace\Clearcase problems

[quasar]

Hi.

New to Perl, but am an experienced programmer. I like to use an IDE as it helps me to get things right quicker. I have tried Dzsoft and Perl Express. The problem is that when I go to check things into ClearCase, there are always extra characters\whitespaces\etc, that are unacceptable.

Is there an editor that does not do this, am I missing some kind of seting in options, etc., etc? Am I stuck with notepad, etc? A free editor would of course be better, but not necessary. Thanks

[jbert]

Good free editors in the cross-platform world include vim and emacs. They are both highly programmable, have lots of 3rd party add-ons and provide colour syntax highlighting and tab-completion of symbols and filenames. It's a matter of opinion which is best, and a subject I'll not get into.

A non-free but popular Windows editor is textpad, which might work out for you better than notepad.

On the subject of the unacceptable additional characters, it sounds as though you are either getting tabs into your source files or having problems with Unix/Windows line-ending conversions. Could you provide more details? (Both the free editors above default to including tabs in your source files, but google can tell you how to get them to insert spaces instead fairly easily). It might be better fixing this problem rather than looking for a new editor.

(vi/emacs and tabs/spaces in the same post? /me prays fervently I'm not starting something we'll all regret later).

[Joost]

I don't know a thing about ClearCase, but the perl ide question pops up here plenty of time. here's a post with some good suggestions.

Alternatively use the search function.

[Jenda]

By "extra" you mean at the end of lines, right? If it were SciTE I'd suggest you turn on the strip.trailing.spaces option in the Options\...Properties. Not sure about the two you tried though.

[aufflick]

I use and swear by (and swear at) emacs for all my editing. It has great perl integration and since you can extend it yourself you can add features like checking the syntax on save (let me know if you want the lisp code for that).

I have also used emacs to integrate with Clearcase in the past with no problems (working with Perl files) - I seem to remember that the clearcase support was not in the default install however.

[MaxKlokan]

I would definitly recommend Eclipse with the Epic plugin.

[brig]

My Problem with an IDE is that you are generally stuck doing things their way. The other issue is portability.

Vim runs on everything. People that use it are really cool and hip and stuff. If you are willing to take the time to learn to use it, it is unlikely that you will ever go back

If you want a semi IDE like interface and you are on windows I have a soft spot in my heart for NoteTab There is a free version and an enhanced version. The download starts life as the enhanced version and then dumbs down after 30 days.

• It has direct support for Perl.
• It will display markers for non printing code characters.
• It has its own macro language that is very simple to use and comes with many examples.
I used it in college until I switched to FreeBSD, I actually still miss it, Great editor / IDEish. NoteBut it only works on windows and there are No plans for a port last I heard...

[JediWizard]

I use Active State Komodo, which I love.

[leighsharpe]

What kind of characters are you seeing and where? Most editors aren't in the habit of adding extra characters where you don't want them.

Is it possible that you're seeing windoze newlines when you load up a file edited on a windoze machine into a *nix system? If that's the case, all you need is an editor which recognises UNIX newlines. Try Ultraedit or similar.