[sf-perl] IDEs and/or Editors

[Michael Friedman]

On Feb 22, 2007, at 4:54 PM, Andy Lester wrote:
> For me, vim's color coding is part of everything I do.  If I do
> anything wrong, it just feels wrong.  For example, if I close a quote
> incorrectly, the rest of my code is purple.  Even if I can't tell
> exactly what's wrong, I just FEEL that there's a problem, and I stop
> until I figure it out.

I use syntax coloring for the same reason. However, I'm now a big fan  
of perltidy, which automatically "fixes" any location-of-code errors  
I make accidentally. Between the two, it lets me both catch problems  
more quickly and understand someone else's code more easily.

Since I work in a group with about 20 people all writing their own  
idiosyncratic Perl code, quickly understanding someone else's code is  
extremely helpful. (And don't ask why we don't enforce some coding  
standards. I've tried, but the Boss refuses to let me use  
Perl::Critic or even forced-tidying. :-( )

To bring this back to IDEs, both TextMate and BBEdit on the Mac have  
shortcut key access to running perltidy on a file. You can set up a  
similar thing in any editor that can run outside scripts, if it  
doesn't already have it.

To me, integrated perltidy support is a Required Feature of any Perl  
IDE.

-- Mike


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Michael Friedman                     HighWire Press
Phone: 650-725-1974                  Stanford University
FAX:   270-721-8034                  <friedman at highwire.stanford.edu>
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