Constellation's Great, But the Rev IDE Doesn't Suck

[Jerry Daniels]

Friends and neighbors...

First I want to thank all the folks who are voicing their excitement  
about the products from Daniels & Mara--mostly Constellation at this  
point. We've listened to suggestions and like to try different  
approaches to problem solving. We have had a much longer pre-release  
period than I ever thought possible, because we got so many great  
recommendations and ideas from the early adopters.

I wanted to say a few words about debugging a debugger (without a  
debugger) and tracking breakpoints.

When you're writing a script editor that lets you set breakpoints,  
you quickly realize: very script could have breakpoints and every  
user action could necessitate changing them. That means every time  
someone types a char, as the developer of the script editor, you have  
to be ready to update where the breakpoints should NOW be. If you  
test for EVERYTHING, your editor will be hard to type in due to  
performance issues. And what about undo or cut or paste? It seems  
like a life's work to get the right balance. Not easy.

Break Points Part Deux

We found the Rev engine had difficulty "coming back" from a "Step  
Into" another handler. So I created "ghost breakpoints" just on the  
other side of every handler call, in the event the user when down a  
rabbit hole into that other handler that was being called. The ghosts  
kept my debug session alive after the engine had given up. Since they  
were "ghosts" the user couldn't see them--that's the fun part about  
having your own script editor. The current Rev script editor has to  
deal with these same anomalies from the engine.

After a couple hundred test cycles and hundreds of suggestions on  
design and UI, I have decided that no two people want the same IDE.  
The diversity is staggering and heartening at the same time. I  
decided to enjoy the process of change and forget about having the  
perfect product or being the perfect programmer. Constellation  
evolves...as do we all with or without our consent or vote.

Luckily, I'm like Andre...some times I just like to open up  
Constellation and look at it!

Best,

Jerry

http://daniels-mara.com/products/constellation.htm
Check out the tutorials to see it work.

On Oct 18, 2005, at 10:36 AM, David Burgun wrote:

>> True and the real value of Rev is that the tools are built in the  
>> language so we can enhance the core product - the more  
>> contributions like Lord Daniels the better!
>>
>> On 18 Oct 2005, at 01:15, Dan Shafer wrote:
>>
>>
>>> A couple of you were kind enough to point out that in my  
>>> exuberant endorsement of Jerry Daniels' wonderful Constellation  
>>> Rev IDE, I came off sounding a bit like the built-in, out-of-the- 
>>> box Rev IDE was a piece of crap. Let me set the record straight.  
>>> It's wonderful. It has flaws and rough edges and quirks that  
>>> sometimes confuse newbies and even oldies. But it's still really  
>>> a great product.
>>>
>
> As a production tool to be used by professionals it sucks a fair  
> bit in my opinion! Other development environments suck too or did  
> during their evolution anyway. For instance a lot of CodeWarrior  
> releases had the same old bugs in them release after release, some  
> of them were not fixed for years. Yet the latest version always had  
> loads of new features. I see this mirrored in RunRev too.
>
> I mean I've been using RunRev now for about 2 years, but still:
>
> 1.  The debugger refuses to obey breakpoints.
> 2.  The documentaion is still poor.
> 3.  It crashes or causes me to ForceQuit at 3 times a day on  
> average when I am using it full time for development.
> 4.  Windows in the IDE never open where you left them, especially  
> when you have 2 monitors.
> 5.  The Script Editor does beswick at least 3 times a day, forcing  
> me to restart RunRev.
>
> There are loads more like this, but these are the things that  
> really get my goat. I reckon I waste at least an hour a day  
> fighting IDE and/or Documentation problems.
>
> Having said all that, it's still a good environment but it could be  
> much better. I just wish they would do a major IDE bug fix release,  
> especiallly with the Debugger. Putting this ahead of adding any new  
> features.
>
> All the Best
> Dave
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