java ide platform a non java language

F

falcon

Hi,
I know there are at least three java IDE/Platforms which claim to be
very extensible: Eclipse, Netbeans and jEdit. I am thinking of writing
a little IDE for a small, non-mainstream language. Which one of the
existing IDEs is likely to be the easiest to extend? Provide most
functionality for the least effort?

I don't care about the license, and I am looking to provide at least
the following functionality:
- Syntax highlighting (obviously)
- Some sort of library browser
- Intellisense
- Integration with the compiler/interpreter

....the usual 'beyond notepad' type stuff.

Look forward to some good advice, thanks!
 
R

Rhino

falcon said:
Hi,
I know there are at least three java IDE/Platforms which claim to be
very extensible: Eclipse, Netbeans and jEdit. I am thinking of writing
a little IDE for a small, non-mainstream language. Which one of the
existing IDEs is likely to be the easiest to extend? Provide most
functionality for the least effort?

I don't care about the license, and I am looking to provide at least
the following functionality:
- Syntax highlighting (obviously)
- Some sort of library browser
- Intellisense
- Integration with the compiler/interpreter

...the usual 'beyond notepad' type stuff.

Look forward to some good advice, thanks!
From the list you've given, I've only used Eclipse but it seems to be
expressly designed for the sort of thing you want to do. Since I've never
used them, I wasn't aware that the others even claimed to be extensible so I
can't say if they'd be easier for what you are planning.
 
D

David Segall

falcon said:
Hi,
I know there are at least three java IDE/Platforms which claim to be
very extensible: Eclipse, Netbeans and jEdit. I am thinking of writing
a little IDE for a small, non-mainstream language. Which one of the
existing IDEs is likely to be the easiest to extend? Provide most
functionality for the least effort?

I don't care about the license, and I am looking to provide at least
the following functionality:
- Syntax highlighting (obviously)
- Some sort of library browser
- Intellisense
- Integration with the compiler/interpreter

...the usual 'beyond notepad' type stuff.

Look forward to some good advice, thanks!
I can't compare them but there is an impressive flash demo of building
an HTML editor using the NetBeans platform here
<http://www.javalobby.org/eps/netbeans_platform/>. Go to item 4, the
first demo. It takes 5 minutes! It is cheating because NetBeans
already has syntax highlighting for HTML but worth a look.
 
F

falcon

Thanks Roedy. Some of the information is a little old but still a nice
comprehensive list.

For others who may read this later, it looks like Eclipse had a project
called LDT for 'dynamic' languages, but apparently that proposal was
withdrawn. There is now work to extend CDT (C/C++ functionality of
Eclipse) to work with other languages which are based on the GNU
debugger and compiler (Phortran is a project which is porting fortran
to eclipse). It is still in early stages though.

Netbeans apparently has a project called Coyote, and is currently being
developed for Groovy and Jython. I didn't find too many developer
docs.

Netbeans and Eclipse are complex pieces of software, I was hoping that
Jedit would be simpler to extend. That may indeed be true but their
documentation for developers (not users) looks to be a little shallow.
I found that syntax can be highlighted using an xml file that doesn't
look too complicated...a good sign. I still have to look at how I can
provide intellisense. I expect an 'extensible' editor/ide to provide
some datastructures and utlities to help me build intellisense, I don't
expect to have to build the whole thing myself.

Apparently there has been some talk of extending IDEs for 'dynamic' or
'scripting' languages. They are usually defined as
non-statically-typed (dynamically typed?) , higher level languages such
as python, perl and ruby. Where do languages such as Haskell and ML
fit in? I get the feeling that 'dynamically typed' has less to do with
a language's actual type system and is instead used as a definition of
languages which do not require a code-compile-[link/jar]-run cycle.
For example, Haskell is very well typed (I'm using the word loosely my
self here), but it can be run as a read-eval loop. A bit of a
digression, and probably a moot point since the infrastructure for
'scripting' languages is still in early stages.

And finally, I only spent two or three hours looking at this stuff so
take it with a grain of salt :)
 

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