Is there a good IDE?

Hi! First post...

So I've bought BlitzMax and since then I've been scouring the message boards trying to find a usable IDE for it. Because, let's face it, the MaxIDE isn't very helpful. Especially if you're used to other environments such as Eclipse or Visual Studio.

I read something about an Eclipse plug-in but that seems to be "out of print".

So do you have any suggestions? By the way I'm on a Mac running OSX Leopard.

Thanks :)
/Daniel

The only real solution you have is the MaxIDE CommunityEdition that can be found on source forge and here on the boards somewhere.

The eclipse plugin is dead that long from what I know that it isn't even worth mentioning anymore ...

Links to the Community version of the IDE in my sig below.

Yeah. Unfortunately Brucey kinda stopped working on it, for some reason. Us Linux users are pretty much in the same sorry state of affair. I would have bought Blide, but contrary to claims made by its author, it doesn't work on mono (like I told him).

Still, if you can live with the limitations of older versions of Eclipse, the Eclipse plug-in is probably your best bet - the Community Edition IDE, while much better than the official IDE, still has quite a while to go before it can hope to match Eclipse. I don't even think it would be possible, considering the limitations of MaxGUI (but feel free to prove me wrong).

I was working on a plug-in for X-Develop but it seems like support for X-Develop has all but disappeared and the much anticipated support for compilers that aren't Java or .Net isn't likely to materialize any time soon. Sorry.

A *long* way to go to match Eclipse, based on my limited use of Eclipse. Although there's no reason select really popular / useful features might not get done. At some point. Maybe.

And yes, maxgui is often a hindrance...

Use textwrangler (or BBEDIT) or textmate to edit the code and blitzbuddy to compile. Blitzbuddy includes the syntax highlight rules for bbedit/textwrangler.... as far as I know there are no plugins for textmate (which is what I use regardless).

PLS

@Flameduck:
I've never said (or claimed) BLIde can work on mono. I've said it could be ported to it.

Except it can't.

Ok, thanks for your help guys :) I'll try the community edition.

*** UPDATE *** Tried to install the BlitzIDE CE into my BMax folder but when I run it it says that it's unable to find the required files. My BMax folder is in a subfolder in the Applications folder called "Dev Tools".

I have previously tried the TextWrangler/BlitzBuddy combo and though it's a nicer text editor with syntax highlighting, it's the auto-completion and some kind of class/type browser functionality I'm really looking for. But hey, I really like BlitzMax and for now I'll make do with the tools at hand :)

See you out there!
/Daniel

I supose two things:

1.- You know better than me how is BLIde built.

2.- In this thread, you were telling me to do something impossible http://www.blitzmax.com/Community/posts.php?topic=59637#666313

http://www.blitzforum.de/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25672

A list of IDEs.

bye

No. But I think I have a better understanding of which parts of the .Net API is covered by mono then you do. Seriously though, since you seem so convinced it's possible, why haven't we seen a mono version yet?

I was being secretly ironic.

Becouse 'porting' doesn't mean magically converting, and I don't have the time or the motivation to make it.

Ironic? So it was easier to port BLIde from 1.1 to 2.0? In wich basis, wich parts of BLIde are easier to convert from 1.1 to 2.0 insted of porting them to mono? I'm very interested on this, maybe the code analizer? the code control? the GUI library? Have you seen the code of any of them or have any idea how they internally work? ... why don't you just suggest to port BLIde to COBOL? (that would have been ironic, and it would have had the same knowledge basis about BLIde internal API in my opinion)

By the way, where did you get the impression that I'm so convinced, maybe here:
http://www.blitzmax.com/Community/posts.php?topic=60998#689036
or here:
http://www.blitzmax.com/Community/posts.php?topic=44956#500185

Best Hijack Ever

It needs to be installed directly in the BlitzMax directly, just like the official IDE. If this doesn't work, something's up.

Yeah I know. As it happens, I do this kind of thing professionally every day.

It was a comment about the amount of work involved, rather than the completeness of mono.

Well I haven't seen any of the code (as far as I'm aware the source code isn't available), but I have a pretty good idea how it would work (if it was well written, which it seems to be), and am no stranger to porting applications from one platform to another (am currently working on porting several integrated web applications and services from Windows/ASP to Linux/J2EE - so trust me when I say I know the amount of work involved).

Since there isn't a COBOL compiler for mono (only .Net), and aside from performance issues, there really isn't much of a reason to translate an application from one language on the same platform to another. So it wouldn't have been ironic at all. Just stupid.

No. From every .Net discussion ever, when someone points out that .Net isn't cross platform, you instantly chime in with, but it is because of mono. I'm glad to see you've finally realized that while mono definitely gets an A for effort, it is not a complete .Net implementation. With the imminent release of .Net 3.5 the gap isn't likely to get any narrower.

Becouse it is. Windows XP is a different platform from Windows Vista, and at the same time it is a different platform from Windows Me, etc. If you considere the different Windows Platforms, as versions of the same OS, then you're right, in that case .net should not be considered cross platform, but I consider Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows Me and Windows 98 SE different OS platforms, so the Microsoft.net under my point of view is cross-platform. Not to talk about the fact that .net applications using the XNA framework are suposed to be runable from a XBOX 360 (haven't tested this).

Project Studio IDE - although its Windows only.

Get Windows, then get this.

You could try jedit. It's made in java so it should run on mac os x just fine.
You will need to copy a mode file to $HOME/.jedit/modes/ and add a following line to catalog file (in modes folder too) for it to properly format bmax code.

<MODE NAME="blitzmax" FILE="blitzmax.xml" FILE_NAME_GLOB="*.bmx"/>

Auto-indentation, highlighting works. A couple of small quirks remain though. Anyway, best to take a look at example screenshot.

Hmm... can't get the BlitzMax IDE Community Edition to work. It says it's missing required files.

try posting here: http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=55410

I'm using Blide and it's working great for me. I would recommend it.

I don't really have any experience with particularly sophisticated IDEs so I have no idea why the Max IDE is deficient. I think it's pretty useful but everyone seems to take it as an obvious fact that it is not terribly useful. What am I missing?

The OP kinda explained when he said "it's the auto-completion and some kind of class/type browser functionality I'm really looking for" but even then I'm not sure what "class/type browser functionality" means if not the sidebar in the Max IDE.

its difficult to find the line that has the fault because the cursor is so small.
I have had issues with some of my code being deleted -function headers-

You never worked with autocompletition and scope autocompletition if you don't think it misses much :)

Simple example:

local bank:TBank = new TBank
now if you enter bank. then the list of the methods, fields and functions of TBank will appear in a drop down and you can choose what you want or just write it and press enter when only your "choice" is remaining to complete it.

and the browser functionality is simple: instead of searching a ton of useless functions, you directly look at the class, with above example: TBank and it will list the features it offers straight there. Thats much more usefull than the 17 level documentation of blitz which is horrible to work with due to the sheer amount of "splits"

I have worked with autocomplete and I hate it. In the programming languages I've used that had autocomplete I always turn it off. Must be just me, but I find it horribly distracting to have crap popping up on the screen while I'm trying to concentrate. I do like syntax highlighting to give me a visual cue as to when I've typed the command correctly, but beyond that it's too visually distracting for me.

As for the class/browser functionality, so you mean a browser for the built-in classes just like the way you can browse classes in your own code. Yeah, I can see how that would be useful. I mean, it's technically there already because you can open the code for built-in classes under the Project list, and then browse it in the Code tab just like your own code, but I suppose that is a little roundabout.

Autocomplete takes a little getting used to, but I can't live without it in Blitzmax. IMHO its essential for OO development. Especially since you can't use 'With' blocks in Blitzmax.

I use Project Studio Pro, and the only time I get stuff "popping up" is when I press backspace to delete something, or if I press CTRL+space. IF something pops up and you don't want it to, just press ESCAPE to cancel it.

Basically it means you can type a line of code a hundred characters long in about 15 key presses.

Each to their own, though. :)

Agree with jhocking, that can be quite annoying. Though, maybe there are more convenient autocompletion tecniques than pop-up listbox...

I would love if my typing speed were the bottle-neck in how quickly I can write a program. Surely I can't be the only person who spends 10 minutes thinking for every minute that I spend actually typing?

you will get more experienced and be able to think parallel on the next topic while implementing the current one ...
Or you are able to "design" stuff in your head within seconds that take you an hour+ to implement ...

Its all a mather of experience and visual imagination capability.
I've been 3 days implementing stuff that I designed (visually and code wise) within about 30minutes on paper ...just because there were different "basic" structures in where a simple name was enough like TMap based resource manager ... which sounds simple ... but if all resources including entity types are meant, this is a thing of a few hours ^^