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Re: Whay IDE am I supposed to use/is the best?

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On 04/07/12 03:55, Patricia Shanahan wrote:
> On 7/3/2012 5:48 PM, Patrick May wrote:
> ...
>> I do think there is value in simplicity (and yes, I do see the
>> humor in calling Emacs simple). I also think there is value in
>> understanding what your tools are doing, and many IDEs make that
>> difficult or impossible. It is possible to deliver large enterprise
>> projects using a programmer's editor like Emacs and a shell window or
>> three, with occasional reference to documents in a web browser.
>
> Why is understanding what your tools are doing such a good thing? And is
> it feasible, even if desirable?

Because if you don't, how are you going to clean up the mess that the 
tools generate when they go wrong?

>
> Computing advances by making details irrelevant, and letting people
> focus on bigger issues. Even the simplest of program editors, let alone
> a tool like emacs, hides many layers from its users.
>

The more all-encompassing the tool becomes, the greater the potential 
for disaster when they go wrong. The more they hide from the user the 
less able the user is to fix the mess that the "tool" creates when it 
does go wrong.

Just recently I decided to try the latest Netbeans (7.1), having used 
Netbeans 6.x for some years. When I attempted to open one of my 
applications (which I have been developing for over a year in Netbenas 
6) and perform a clean-and-build it failed, throwing up errors in 
build-impl.xml. This file is internal to Netbeans, created and 
maintained entirely by the Netbeans. There is no user involvement in its 
operation at all, so the "tool" provides no mechanism or assistance in 
fixing the problem that the "tool" has generated.

I now had an application which would not build in Netbeans 7.1 because 
Netbeans had screwed up its own internal files. There was no mechanism 
provided by Netbeans to help clean up the mess. Furthermore, in 
attempting to convert its own files from 6.9 to 7.1 it had rendered the 
files no longer usable by Netbeans 6.9. So, the upshot was that I could 
no longer build my application.

What is this "bigger issue" which I should have been focusing on?

-- 
Nigel Wade

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Whay IDE am I supposed to use/is the best? ericmiranda7@gmail.com - 2012-06-30 23:32 -0700
  Re: Whay IDE am I supposed to use/is the best? Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2012-07-01 03:53 -0700
  Re: Whay IDE am I supposed to use/is the best? Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2012-07-01 07:37 -0700
  Re: Whay IDE am I supposed to use/is the best? Patrick May <patrick@softwarematters.org> - 2012-07-01 14:20 -0400
    Re: Whay IDE am I supposed to use/is the best? Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2012-07-01 14:44 -0700
      Re: Whay IDE am I supposed to use/is the best? Patrick May <patrick@softwarematters.org> - 2012-07-03 20:48 -0400
        Re: Whay IDE am I supposed to use/is the best? Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-07-03 19:55 -0700
          Re: Whay IDE am I supposed to use/is the best? Nigel Wade <nmw@ion.le.ac.uk> - 2012-07-04 09:26 +0100
            Re: Whay IDE am I supposed to use/is the best? Patrick May <patrick@softwarematters.org> - 2012-07-05 13:36 -0400
              Re: Whay IDE am I supposed to use/is the best? Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-07-05 13:25 -0700
              Re: Whay IDE am I supposed to use/is the best? Joseph Parkton <jparkton@gmail.com> - 2012-07-19 21:54 -0700
          Re: Whay IDE am I supposed to use/is the best? Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-07-04 10:04 -0700
            Re: Whay IDE am I supposed to use/is the best? Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-07-04 10:14 -0700
              Re: Whay IDE am I supposed to use/is the best? Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-07-04 10:47 -0700
                Re: Whay IDE am I supposed to use/is the best? Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-07-04 12:32 -0700
                Re: Whay IDE am I supposed to use/is the best? Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-07-04 13:01 -0700
                Re: Whay IDE am I supposed to use/is the best? Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2012-07-04 16:03 -0700
                Re: Whay IDE am I supposed to use/is the best? Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-07-04 17:38 -0700
                Re: Whay IDE am I supposed to use/is the best? Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-07-06 08:29 -0700
  Re: Whay IDE am I supposed to use/is the best? Timothy Madden <terminatorul@gmail.com> - 2012-08-21 16:21 +0300
    Re: Whay IDE am I supposed to use/is the best? Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2012-08-21 11:47 -0700

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