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Prune: A Tree-Based, Home-Row-Oriented Code Editor

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Re: Prune: A Tree-Based, Home-Row-Oriented Code Editor

#42
post #36

Interesting notion. I am inherently skeptical, because, like many I imagine (and as the article actually discusses), I am squarely in one of the text editor camps (which shall remain nameless to avoid anyone thinking I'm intending on a flamewar). I am certainly open to the notion of alternative forms of interaction with code, but too often I see this take on the form of an IDE with “designer-like” capacities (this is…

Out of curiosity, how do you deal with not having some of the things that IDEs support? I too am firmly in a text editor camp, but I've recently been basically forced to use Eclipse while writing Java (ick) at work. The fact that it knows a lot about the code is invaluable sometimes - auto-importing package names as you type, fixing build rules in other files automatically, code completion, type-definitions that appe…

Actually, many of the advanced text editors offer plugins that replicate a variety of the functionality you mention. To better answer your question, I am forced to reveal the text editor I prefer (please do not take this comment as a slant to any other text editor): vim.

For vim, there are several plugins that provide completion functionality (for various languages)[1]. There are things to deal with Java imports specifically[2]. (I don't know what you mean by fixing build rules.) Hey, there are even plugins meant to facilitate whole IDE functionality for some languages[3].

Personally, I avoid things like Java so I have less of a use-case for IDEs anyway. Specifically, I code in C and Haskell (and a touch of by-hand llvm-ir for fun). In C, automatic imports and the like, I do not even wish for (since it is so necessary for me to completely understand the function calls I make, I need to read the docs quite commonly which mention the header for #inclusion). And, for Haskell, I'm constantly prototyping in ghci, so I learn what I need anyway. In neithr of these languages do I feel it is helpful enough for me to desire such things. Having said that, I understand that many people disagree; not too long ago, there was a small uproar that Haskell did not have a proper IDE yet. And I am exposed to IDEs at $DAYJOB, but if anything, that has further soured me towards them.

To all their own, text editors and IDEs alike; I think I'm likely to stick to my text editor :)

[1] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5169638/autocompletion-i...

[2] http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=325

[3] http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=213

Re: Prune: A Tree-Based, Home-Row-Oriented Code Editor

#43
Very interesting concept - this would allow the human and the compiler to actually work together from the same conceptual model, as opposed to the antagonistic process it is now.

Too bad the multi-billion dollar Facebook didn't actually produce any usable code to benefit the community, for a change.

Re: Prune: A Tree-Based, Home-Row-Oriented Code Editor

#44

Very interesting concept - this would allow the human and the compiler to actually work together from the same conceptual model, as opposed to the antagonistic process it is now. Too bad the multi-billion dollar Facebook didn't actually produce any usable code to benefit the community, for a change.

"Multi-billion" is irrelevant here because most people working for a large company don't have anywhere near that kind of budget. We're talking about two programmers who were allowed to work on a research project for a month.

Also, Facebook releases lots of great open source software. Apparently you haven't heard of React? For more see https://code.facebook.com/projects/

Re: Prune: A Tree-Based, Home-Row-Oriented Code Editor

#46
post #37

Didn't Jetbrains build something similar?

Did they? Can you think of something to google?

Their editors have an Expand Selection command, which, given the initial cursor position on the first line shown below, will result in subsequent executions of Expand Selection highlighting the text shown on each subsequent line.

   System.out.println("Hello wor_ld")
   System.out.println("Hello #world#")
   System.out.println("#Hello world#")
   System.out.println(#"Hello world"#)
   System.out.#println("Hello world")#
Are you thinking of something else?

Re: Prune: A Tree-Based, Home-Row-Oriented Code Editor

#47
post #37

Didn't Jetbrains build something similar?

It was mentioned elsewhere in the comments, but I believe you're thinking of Meta Programming System: https://www.jetbrains.com/mps/

I regret that I have not had enough real world experience with MPS to comment on how it might relate to what Facebook is doing.

But as for real world, a JetBrains employee told me that they wrote YouTrack (https://youtrack.jetbrains.com) in MPS, presumably using an "issue tracker DSL" but he wouldn't elaborate further.

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