Re: Project Center inspiration sshots

[Nicolas Roard]

Le 3 janv. 05, à 17:33, Adrian Robert a écrit :

> On Jan 3, 2005, at 11:37 AM, Nicolas Roard wrote:
> > In my opinion, PC should stay as it is for the moment, but hopefully 
> > evolves with bundles; so for example you will add some bundles that 
> > will let you
> > work on a higher-level (in the PC browser, not stop at the files, but 
> > allow browsing "high level structures",
>
> > Basically, I think instead of writing an IDE from scratch, it could 
> > be a good idea to modify PC and extend it.
>
>
> I agree with the first but am wary when you say "modify" in the 
> second.  It is important to actively maintain encapsulation, and not, 
> e.g., start making PC _depend on_ various advanced bundles -- with 
> various levels of stability -- to start up or work in a reasonable 
> way.  It has taken PC a long time to get to its current 
> usable-for-some state and it would be a shame to start losing this due 
> to the desire of some to experiment and advance the technology -- 
> worthy pursuit though this is.

of course... that's the whole point of using bundles. If PC evolves 
that way, a "default" PC would be just the same as today in fact (even 
if some parts move to bundles),
that shouldn't impact the stability. But it will be more extensible.

I repeat myself, but something that would be nice, is to have the 
ability to work on a more high-level than just files. Basically, what 
I'd like in a good IDE, is
not just managing my files and my makefile (but of course, that's a 
prerequisite ;-) , but moreover to work directly on my objects, their 
relations, etc.
That's something needed if you want more interesting features like 
refactoring for example.

Think also that, by having the possiblity of directly "playing" 
(messing ;-) with high-level structures like your project or your 
classes, you could easily plug
Steptalk and have some powerful macros / scripts done, which would 
otherwise be very difficult to implement in a non-"high level aware" 
IDE ...
(we can imagine things like aspects, "syntact sugar" macros, whatever..)

Actually, DevelopmentKit provides already that, roughly. PC provides 
you a standard old-school IDE to manage your files and makefile.
GORM let you do the UI in a simple way, as well as some basic object 
edition. It would make a lot of sense to try to make a synergy with all 
theses tools !

I can imagine ProjectCenter dealing with more "high-level" things, 
perhaps using DevelopmentKit, and having GORM or other tools (Steptalk 
scripts, UML editor,
whatever...) communicating with PC to manipulate directly the classes, 
objects, etc.

Add on top of that some bundles in PC to have it render/navigate 
through theses "high-level" structures (basically, you'd end up with 
something similar to a smalltalk browser when you will browse your 
classes -- but that could be extended also to completely different 
things : imagine a "literate" version of your program (in the Literate 
Programing sense), etc.), and we'll have some seriously fantastic 
environment !

Just some random thoughts...

--
Nicolas Roard
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
 -Arthur C. Clarke