On-Rev / Off-Rev

[Richmond Mathewson]

My initial question may have been misread. I am well aware that
programming languages can exist independently of IDEs (what was
Fortran 4 ????).

What interested me was the Runtime Revolution language (or any other
xTalk dialect) existing independently of an IDE.

I am aware that for a while Metacard were offering a command-line version;
so, presumably this is possible.

AND, if that is possible I cannot see any real reason why one could not
type one's code in a text editor and then "push it through" an xTalk
compiler.

Peter Alcibiades wrote:
> Can a language exist without an IDE? 
>
> Yes, look at the Bourne Shell.  Until recently it existed without an IDE
> other than your ordinary text editor.  Recently its been supplied with two
> IDEs of sorts, the Gnome one, Zenity, and the KDE one.  Or look at AWK, it
> still has only a text editor as IDE.  Maybe there is a Windows-only gui IDE
> for it?
>
> It seems to be a bit like OSs.  If you look at Windows and Mac you'd think
> the OS and the desktop environment are the same thing.  But if you look at
> Linux you see there are actually three things, the display manager (mine is
> WDM, but I usually install GDM for other people).  Then the window manager,
> where I'm currently using Gnome's Metacity, but Openbox is a popular
> alternative for Gnome.  Then the desktop environment if you want one (KDE,
> Gnome, XFCE).  And then of course a fourth, the file manager, which in Mac
> and Windows looks like part of the OS, Finder or Explorer, but which in
> Linux is independent.  You don't have to use Nautilus with Gnome....
>
> Of course, on Windows or Mac its quite hard or impossible to use a different
> component for the desktop environment, and on Rev the choice of IDE is more
> restricted than on Python, and you seem not to be able to write Rev just
> using a text editor, as you can on the shell or awk or Python.  Not that I
> really want to!
>
> Every now and then I have a fit of irritation and check out Python.  Virtual
> desktops or revPrintField are the usual causes.  There are lots of IDEs,
> independent of the language, and you can just use a text editor.   But they
> all seem to involve a lot more typing than Rev does, so, at least so far, I
> decide to hang in there.  
>