[dorkbotpdx-blabber] Building an IDE (that doesn't suck)

[Greg Borenstein]

For me, the problem with IDEs is that they tend to trade away solid  
general purpose text-editing capabilities in order to get integration  
with some specific kind of environment. For example, the Arduino IDE,  
which does a great job giving you access to things like libraries, the  
build process etc., but is just a sucky place to edit text which is  
most of what you do when you're writing a program.

So, for my part, a microcontroller IDE would do best to integrate a  
totally kick ass existing text-editing system (like TextMate on the  
mac) with some tools that actually help you do your development (build  
process, dependency management, and simulation tools are the obvious  
ones for micro dev).

Just my two cents.

-- Greg


On Aug 8, 2008, at 12:34 PM, Paul Stoffregen wrote:

> As many of you know, I'm building a completely new microcontroller  
> development platform, which will eventually feature an IDE  
> (integrated development environment... not the disk interface  
> acronym).
>
> Many people feel a lot of IDEs suck.  I usually find them to be more  
> trouble than they're worth.  On the other hand, some people love  
> them and could never imagine using terminal windows, editing a  
> makefile and running it all via the command line.  Especially with  
> the Arduino IDE, it sure makes things very easy to learn, though  
> maybe somewhat limiting?
>
> So I'm looking for input and feedback, admittedly at this very early  
> stage.
>
> Are there any IDEs you particularly like, and what makes them  
> compelling?
>
> What sucks (if anything) about IDEs you've used?
>
> What features are essential, important, nice-but-not-necessary, or  
> just extra fluff?
>
> How can I make it easy to learn for beginners, yet also usable for  
> experienced users?
>
> Really, any ideas are welcome, as I have a completely blank slate  
> right now.  Well, in truth I'm hoping to reuse existing free code,  
> if not simply use an existing IDE with minor mods.  Eclipse,  
> Arduino, and Code::Blocks are ones I've looked at so far.  However,  
> I'm not against writing lots and lots of code if necessary.
>
>
> -Paul
>
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