[plt-scheme] Interacting w/ MzScheme

I concur with Bradd. Many people use Visual Studio only for it's
tools, not for editing. IMHO, one should allow devs to use another
editor for most dev tasks, provide some simple command line tools
(build, smarter etags, check syntax), then provide an IDE like
DrScheme for advanced tools like debugging, profiling, code coverage,
code analyses, etc. Beginners can use DrScheme for editing and they
won't complain about esoteric Emacs features. It's less work for you
and better for IDE Luddites like me.

If the "Check syntax" feature can be turned into a command-line
executable, then it could be neatly integrated into Emacs. Also, the
stepper & backtrace could just print the line/col/range numbers and
let Emacs display it. Then I would use DrScheme for it's profiler,
code coverage check and those cute arrows, but rely on a souped-up
interpreter for most development.

AllegroCL had very nice Emacs integration, but I still used their IDE
for more advanced tools. Only Squeak has made me question my fealty to
Emacs. Try it out, it's very cool.

Finally, some small things I miss from Emacs: 
- outline-mode
- mmm-mode: multi-major-mode allows me to use different modes within
Scheme, for example, for ad-hoc literate programming.
- grep: I can search for TODO and jump directly to that code. Even VS
has that now.
- bookmarks: easier to jump around many files
- version control integration
- diffs
- generally avoiding the mouse

Overall, PLT Scheme & tools are much too nice to let a little thing
like an editor get in the way of world domination.

Pinku

PS: What magic incantation will erase MzScheme's state without
restarting? DrScheme somehow does this.



On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 08:53:59 -0800, Bradd W. Szonye
<bradd+plt at szonye.com> wrote:
> So the feature I miss most is "my favorite editor," and the solution is
> to support or replace that editor. Without that, IDEs are only useful to
> me as clunky debuggers.
> --
> Bradd W. Szonye
> http://www.szonye.com/bradd
> 
>