Re: Code Readability. Break Rule Number 5?

[roboticus]

DACONTI:

But nowadays we are on the 21st century, and we program on specialized and powerful IDEs, so why to stick with ascii?

Erm... That's equivalent to saying "But everyone runs Windows!" or "The only browser you'll ever need is IE". Just because you like something doesn't mean it's best for all. </rant>

My "powerful IDE" is a few console windows, one running vi. Not everyone likes running in an IDE. Most IDEs I've tried force you to change your habits unnecessarily. I've not tried Eclipse yet, but it sounds a lot closer to something that I'd like.

In my day job, I have to use Visual Studio 2003, and I find it quite annoying. Just as you'd probably find vi annoying, or Marty would find emacs annoying...

Currently, ASCII is the lingua franca for programming. I'm certain that we'll start a drift to unicode, but as a touch-typist, I'm hoping that we'll not go crazy with odd symbols just because we can.

...roboticus

...who wonders if he's just feeding the trolls.

[robot_tourist]

I don't think working with an IDE has enforced anything on me, although I did spend a while fixing what I think is the silly and ugly way VS automatically puts in curly braces. I also admit I don't have a clue about linking and makefiles because in any project I've worked on VS or Delphi has built everything for me at the hit of a couple of keys.

I suppose it's like deciding whether to use iTunes or Winamp. For me, iTunes's ease of use trumps even Winamp's AVS, and even when you use Winamp's excellent Super Mario skin.

I don't mind working with vim and have almost liked it for doing some cgi work where JEdit couldn't ftp to the server, but for me, when working on a big project a big IDE like Delphi, or especially VS, is great for its code completion and automatic hyperlinking. That is something I think is fantastic for navigating around my code, kind of like increasing the screen's resolution virtually.

Vim does have the benefit that in most cases it is white on black. At first I thought coding white on black was stupid, but Delphi's Twilight (which I had to tweak a bit in version 8) converted me. VS's flaw as an editor is that it doesn't have a white on black mode and it took me a while to set all the colours manually. JEdit is even worse in that regard - I just made the background light grey because there were so many other colours it used for highlighting that clashed with black.

[roboticus]

robot tourist:

You might not notice things that IDEs force on you unless you have a particular way of doing things. Some IDEs will limit you to a particular editor, a particular coding format, a limited ability to lay out your windows the way you want to see them. Some may decide to help you by reformatting your code, or typing partial names for you, or some other thing.

Some people really like the instant feedback and helpful suggestions--so I'm not saying that IDEs are dumb or useless. But one size never fits all. I find many of those "helpful features" quite intrusive and distracting--like Clippy(tm). I'd prefer the system wait for me to ask for assistance, than to just keep throwing help in my face. So when I have to use an IDE for a project, the first thing I do when I'm forced to use an IDE is to configure it to be as tolerable as is possible. Unfortunately, none of the IDEs gives me the choice to set things up the way I want them. (A little bit of OCD is enough to make using an IDE feel like a stint in Hell.)

Finally, I tend to switch around machines and environments frequently. It's destructive to productivity to have to do things differently on every environment. I find a large monitor with multiple consoles *quite* comfortable. I can put the windows anywhere I want, and have any (or all) of the features that IDEs provide. I typically have a wide window at the bottom of my screen for compile/run. I have my source code in multiple windows, and on the other monitor I use a couple of windows for help screens. Any time I want to change things, I'm free to do so. I can switch editors quite easily in my NIDE (Non-integrated Development Environment).

...roboticus

Sorry for the rant! But at least I didn't mention that when I have to use an editor other than vi that I keep having strings of "jjjjjllllll" and such in my code..... 8^)