Not a compiler (we have 3), only a front-end. Preferably in D itself and preferably as modular as possible (e.g. not everyone needs the semantic parser). Provided a good D front-end in D it'll be very easy to make a great IDE, even if it's GUI is bad.
On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 10:20 AM, Jacob Carlborg <d...@me.com> wrote: > On 2011-10-19 21:35, Marco Leise wrote: >> >> Am 19.10.2011, 13:40 Uhr, schrieb Gor Gyolchanyan >> <gor.f.gyolchan...@gmail.com>: >> >>> I've yet to see a single worthwhile IDE for D. >>> I think it would be a great idea to have a standard reference IDE >>> (just as DMD is the standard reference compiler). >>> These things would be so useful: >>> Inline compile-time ddoc and mixin views would make development >>> process so much easier. >>> Inline compile-time non-ctfe-able code highliting. >>> Automatic import detector, based on visible import paths. >> >> Seems like I'm not the only one who thought of an IDE recently that is >> fast and can give hints on functions. Except I thought of highlighting >> pureness, safeness and the like by changing the background color slightly. >> The next thing is all the features of Eclipse that have to do with the >> code you write or running / debugging. Like regex search and replace, >> finding references to methods/fields, refactoring, code templates, class >> outlines, type search, jump to declaration etc. >> A difficulty for IDEs seems to be the complexity of D's CTFE and return >> type inference. DDT for example cannot give auto-completion hints on >> auto variables. That needs to be addressed. >> I'd also like very much a way to set up multiple targets for a project: >> - typical debug build >> - typical release build >> - unit test build >> - external launcher (i.e. dump MySQL table structure and generate D >> import) >> - run another program that uses my program (through IPC, as a debuggee) >> - run a DLL host using my library (also debuggable) >> - cross-compiling (currently x86-32/-64 for DMD) >> >> Especially a D frontend written in D would be a good start for a >> cross-platform IDE and other derived work. Ideally I think it should not >> be an external program or parse everything in one step. It could be a >> lot faster if it worked closely together with the editor itself and only >> updated the syntax tree where the user edited code. Changes in >> templates/functions/classes have to be propagated to the users of that >> code. > > Yet again, what's needed is a D compiler (or at least a front end) that can > be used as a library. > > -- > /Jacob Carlborg >