I would like start a new with IDE

VonGodric · Post by **VonGodric** » Dec 25, 2006 12:07

Hey everyone,

first of all about FBIde -it's dead. I lost the sources and what is on cvs is very old and frankly a peace of crap. I have started anew with writing a new codebase for editor, but rather then do blindly I'd like to start a discussion what should an IDE for freebasic be like and what not.

Besides most of my problems that I announced a while ago have been solved and now I am inspired yet again to work on it.

I am willing to lead the project and do most of the job -but I'd like some support with testing, graphics (for icons and etc), ideas and writing and designing the code.

So please people tell me and offer advice and criticism -what you'd like to see or have in next FBIde. And anyone who would be willing to help with the project?

relsoft · Post by **relsoft** » Dec 25, 2006 12:29

Awesome news! It could only get better since you knew what you're doing. Testers abound in this forum. :*)

arenth · Post by **arenth** » Dec 25, 2006 13:20

I personally would love to see true, and simple project support, I hate #include "blah.bas".

I'd like to drop a .bas into a project and have it automatically added to the build line. As well as the ability to rearrange their build order, and set whether a .bas in the project is actually added to the build line or not.

VonGodric · Post by **VonGodric** » Dec 25, 2006 13:26

I agree -full project management is a must.

axipher · Post by **axipher** » Dec 25, 2006 15:22

A more customizable interface, where you can move toolbars around etc. and relative paths in the config file, for use on USB drives that change letters on different computers. I hated having to change the location of the helpfile everytime my USB drive was a different drive letter on public computers.

Hexadecimal Dude! · Post by **Hexadecimal Dude!** » Dec 25, 2006 17:29

at the risk of sounding backwards looking, I really like the feel of FBIDE, allthough its intangable it'd be nice if it retained it.....

some actual ideas: it'd be nice to have a radio button or something for the -lang option, as it might commonly need to be changed lots if you're going thru the forum...
on a similar vein, it would be nice to have a "paste in a new tab" key shortcut functionality (time to tell me there's been one since 1989)
finaly, you mentioned support for plugins for the last incarnation i think... they would be good... so people would have no excuse :), if you could get those working it'd be easier to maintain...

Dr_D · Post by **Dr_D** » Dec 25, 2006 17:56

I'd like to see some kind of an option like when you hit F1, it brings up a window with the header declaration printed in it. I liked the tabbing in FBIDE, auto indent, and code format. Also, easy project support would be awesome. ;)

VonGodric · Post by **VonGodric** » Dec 25, 2006 18:30

project management is a priority. also new codebase is built around plugins -so quite a lot of functionality can be easily extended.

but how should projects work? what is easy and what is useful? To be honest -the design part of application is mostly the most challenging.

I also like FBIde look and feel -so like it or not it will mostly stay same. More customization options will be included. I think.

Mordred · Post by **Mordred** » Dec 25, 2006 19:22

How about some Linux support?.

Btw, are you going to use wx like the older version?, or something else like QT or Gtk?

VonGodric · Post by **VonGodric** » Dec 25, 2006 19:30

definitely wx. I plain dislike QT and gtk is crap (my personal opinion)

Veggiet · Post by **Veggiet** » Dec 25, 2006 20:16

one feature I've thought of recently for 'projects' would be a dialog (or sidebar) that would automatically detect the addition of consts and then allow you to adjust the values right there, which would make testing much easier, also a 'add new const' button would be nice.
(edit: [coded] so that rambling is hidden)

Code: Select all

<dreaming of perfect IDE>With OO being added to fb, an IDE could be made to automatically parse the code into an nested html-like structure, different subs/function/loops/global variable area/consts/main code/types/type functions/etc... this would mean that (like qb) "declare functions" could be autoadded, and functions could have seperate tabs, include files could appear to be within the main code, and could be written as one file and saved as both, blocks could be not only color coded but could have inline frames with minimize/maximize/delete and comment/uncomment button, comments could be hidden or could be linked with different words/vars in a line of code, so that a person looking at the code could simply hover the mouse over the word to read the comment etc... etc... etc... oh and a vista like 3d interface would be nice not critical, multiple versions of code could be included and alternated simply by double clicking a block of code, and the block would 'flip' around to allow a different version(linux, 0.18a, alterante methods) to be written.</dreaming> <dreaming of a white Christmas>....</dreaming>[/b]

EDIT: for project management I think that some sort of up front pr0ject bar is a must, with perhaps a double-list of files, one list showing #included files and the the other showing module files, these could be moved back and forth just in case a file is added in the wrong place(I don't know if that would happen. also in the project bar would be a set of check-boxes/radio buttons that would control command-line options.[/code]

C · Post by C » Dec 26, 2006 6:32

Just keep it simple. A project's primary objective should be a simple way to compile files together. If you add a file to a project, then change it, let a dialog ask the user if he or she wants to rename it as another file. And if it's possible you could have some thing like a drop down window for quickly selecting files without having to go into a dialog each time. I think a dialog with selection boxes for comand line options for each project would be cool also. You could, perhaps, let the user name a certain configuration and save it for later use. Don't make them mandatory though, I'd still like to just be able to cut, paste, and run code with some type of common default configuration. (Maybe do some type of auto detect for the -lang option?)

Anyway, I'm glad to see you back doing another IDE. I still use the crap out of FBIDE.

Oh, and better themes ;D

Deleter · Post by **Deleter** » Dec 26, 2006 8:15

Personally I would like a feature to complete types. IE, when I type "myclass.", fbide brings up a completion menu of all the members of myclass. Also, once I have typed "myclass.myfunc(" it would be sweat if fbide could tell me the func's variable name and count like a lot of other editors do. So it would peruse the files attached to my program and find all the class info, etc. Obviously this isn't the thing for everyone, but if you could add it as an option that would be sweet. :)

Mysoft · Post by **Mysoft** » Dec 26, 2006 11:00

hum... sincerely the IDE part itself is something easy to do, my idea is wait for 0.17 release and start to do a true FORM editor, not just a design constructor that we always see here... the vb style is in my opinion is the best way of doing that things... subs for the window events...

and for the code editor itself 2 things will be really helpful

1) separate window for SUBS

2) bookmark to some part of code

then i can do a index of any part of my program and then when i reopen my project i just press one key... and seek to the bookmark that i have stopped.

like:

------------------------
' **************** Main Menu ***************
'(here i can put a bookmark that will apears transparently to the code)
' code...
' code...
' code...
' code...
' code...
' ************ Redirecting to the correct sub-menu *************
' (here go another bookmark)
' ...

just like a PDF index ;)
i hope that you can understand this :P

jevans4949 · Post by **jevans4949** » Dec 26, 2006 11:19

Straightfoward project management would be good.

With a simple 'make' facility, so you don't have to recompile evrything all the time.

And a way to specify include folders per project.

A print option would be handy.

Not strictly part of the IDE, but a thing we had on mainframe compilers which you seldom get on desktops is a variable cross-reference listing.