More than one compiler

[Mathias Puetz]

On Fri, 23 Jul 1999, you wrote:
>I'm trying to add support for java in KDevelop, so I added the "Java" tab
>to avoid editing in the "Header/Resource" tab. I liked the proposal of an
>independent KJDevelop, but I really don't know how to start such thing.
>I'm a newbie in KDevelop and KDE, but I have a lot of experience in Java.
>I'm using KDevelop as a Java IDE because I really hate any other Java IDE I
>tried (and I tried a lot of them). I just want a very good source code
>editor, integrated with CVS, etc, but not necessarily a visual bean builder.
>
If you don't want anything more: Have you tried xemacs ? ;)
For me xemacs is the best source editor you can probably ever find.

This inspires a suggestion. Why not make the editor for KDevelop
configurable, so everybody can use his/her favorite one.
No offense to be taken, but compared to the features of xemacs
and it's editing modes KWrite appears a bit wimpy and I figure It
will take years of serious development to catch up with emacs/xemacs.

My suggestion is the introduction of an abstract editor steering class
which is used as an interface to the IDE, so everone can write
a subclass for his/her favorite.

>I want an opinion about the best way to handle the java support:
> - hacking KDevelop, or
> - try to make a KJDevelop based on KDevelop code.

IMHO a more flexible KDevelop which handles several kinds of source
like C/C++,Java,Fortran,Perl or whatever would be best. Most of
my projects involve several types of programming languages
(C,C++, Fortran90 + some scripting language).
It would be nice to do everything within Kdevelop.

Currently Kdevelop only supports flags for GCC(EGCS), it would
be much more usable if it was compiler independent.
(I for example use DEC C++ 6.1 and Portland Group C/C++/Fortran90
 very frequently). Unfortunately, the IDE of Kdevelop isn't of
much help customizing for these compilers. I always have to run
configure by hand specifying the compiler flags manually.

Perhaps one could make the dialogs for compilers more general.
Maybe we could generate some sort of database for various compilers
and create the dialogs from that automatically.
If someone want's a specific compiler supported he/she just adds
a new database file. Or one could solve it a plugin module
for each compiler, if the database approach seems unfeasable.
Thus I recommend little bit more planning before everbody starts
hacking kdevelop to get his/her compiler/language supported.

Just my 2 cents,
Mathias

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| Mathias Puetz \__________________________________
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