Re: Anjuta2 editor interface limitations

[andy piper freeuk com (Andy Piper)]

Biswa wrote:
> Actually I'm just beginning to go through the code base myself - I might
> have got the thing wrong for all I know. That's why I posted this here -
> hoping someone would correct me or tell me the rationale behind it.

Compared with the Anjuta1 lists, this is very low traffic. 
Suprising in a way, since it is supposed to cover all GNOME 
Devtools.

(incidentally, has anybody - other than me! - talked to the 
author of Meld http://meld.sf.net about integrating into Anjuta2? 
what about gcvs? *is* there a coordinator for GNOME Devtools?)

> That's because glimmer's highlighting style is word based. This is
> pretty limited and does not allow for things like proper lexing,
> folding, etc. I also think that we should concentrate on addiing *good*
> support for a few languages rather than OK-ish support for a large
> number of languages.

Agreed. But you will always have cries from people wanting more 
(again, see the Anjuta1 Feature Requests tracker). What do you go 
for? Presumably:
- C, C++, C# (there really ought to be something supporting Mono)
- Java (questionable - lots of other Java IDEs out there)
- HTML, XML etc.
- Perl
- Python
- PHP

... it's a can of worms!

> This is purely a personal perspective, but sometimes I get really
> bothered about our aims. 

I have no aims any more. I gave them up when I stepped down as Anjuta1
maintainer. I'll provide opinions but that's all. Disillusionment rules 
my world at the moment.

I'd like a nice, easy-to-use IDE with Visual Studio-like features - 
which was one of Naba's aims with the original Anjuta. Beyond that, 
you'll always have to fend off user requests.

> No known popular IDE gives choice about multiple embeddable editor 
> interfaces (except possibly CVS KDevelop).

Oh, does KDevelop provide that now? Interesting. Shame I hate it as 
a development environment...

I happen to agree with your point here, and it's where the "advantages" 
of Bonobo have been overblown and raised expectations. Unfortunately the 
counterpoint here is that glimmer is already at the heart of Anjuta2 and 
I guess it won't be replaced in a hurry.

> IMO, it is more important to support one editor
> *really well* (customizable keybindings is not really that hard to
> implement) rather than having so-so integration with lots of editors.

It's important for Anjuta2 to do something, quickly. Other IDE projects 
are rapidly moving forwards.

-- 
Andy Piper - Farnborough, Hampshire (UK)
andy piper freeuk com
http://www.andypiper.co.uk/