Lowest Common Denominator

Post date: Oct 15, 2008 3:46:39 AM

I've been thinking a lot about my coding practices of late, and the tools I use to get my work done. And for all my complaints there are some pretty decent tools out there, to work with text files.

My question is, why are we still working with text files?

I can understand the advantages inherent in the simplicity of the format, but it seems to me that we could be working with so much more. So many of the features that our favorite IDEs provide are there to alleviate the difficulties of working with what is essentially the lowest common denominator of our computing experience.

I'm not saying that saying that we should get rid of text files, in fact, that would probably be catastrophic. All generated output should be in the LCD for the sake of portability, but that doesn't mean we have to work what is essentially a glorified text editor. The environment in which we work should be uniquely suited to our task, and to that end I've generated a list of requirements to facilitate an efficient Code Editor.

User State Must be Saved

I love code folding, I think its a brilliant idea. MSVCs implementation of code folding is terrible, Kwrite/Kate/Kdevelop's code folding is brilliant, beautiful, and intuitive, but despite that, its still worthless, because the second I quit the program, all of my carefully folding functions and comments are ruined.

View Must be Configurable

I really like header files, but not for any good reason, I simply appreciate the fact that there is a brief succient file I can look at to see all the (hopefully) implemented functionality. This is ignore the fact that they are almost completely redundant.

Documentation Must be Cleanly Integrated

Compilation/Code Generation Must be Transparent

asdf

Source Control Integration Must be Flawless

File Proliferation Must be Prevented