My top 3 choices are for features that allow a third-party tool
market to emerge:
1. A "plugin" API for the IDE, that is, the ability to add editing
and programming tools directly to the IDE that would be accessed
through menu items or toolbar items. Many other IDEs, such as
Eclipse, IDEA, Visual Studio, NetBeans and JBuilder allow this.
2. An API for inspection of the compiler abstract syntax tree and
symbol table for tools such as project reports, quality assurance,
refactoring, etc. Eclipse, NetBeans and IDEA all allow this.
3. Introspection of class properties and methods to get information
about symbols in the frameworks such as modules, classes, interfaces,
methods, properties, etc. Java, C# and Objective-C allow this.
Trying to get this information from the on-line docs results in
information that is always out of date.
The lack of these feature has seriously impaired my ability to make
progress on my Reality Check project. It is simply not worth my time
as a lone programmer on a free project to rewrite the entire RB
compiler front end simply to get syntax and symbol information from
program source code (with no way to get framework symbols). Why
duplicate all this effort in a free-standing tool because I can't
integrate it into the IDE and take advantage of existing code?
As much as I love RB, it's the lack of high-end programming tools
that makes me keep thinking of going back to Java or Cocoa.
-Scott
Dr. Scott Steinman
Brought to you by a grant from the Steinman Foundation (Thanks, Mom
and Dad!)
Recommended by Major University Studies Over the Leading Brand
steinman at midsouth dot rr dot com
I hope I die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. . .not
screaming in terror like his passengers. -- "Deep Thoughts", Jack Handy
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