Slashdot Mirror
Are GUI Dev Tools More Advanced than CLI Counterparts?
JohnG inputs: "I just got into quite a long argument over on the Yahoo! message boards over the power of command line dev tools. Basically the guy told me that it is impossible to create 'state of the art' programs with command-line tools. But when I asked him to give me reasons why he just called me stupid and 'behind the times'. Considering he was an avid supporter of anything Microsoft, I take what he says with a grain of salt. But what I want to know is how many of you developers have switched from command line work to KDevelop or CodeWarrior? And what advantages you think it offers? Certainly there are many 'state of the art' apps created with command line tools, but I'm open to anything that can increase productivity. I've just never seen a compelling reason to make the switch from what I am used to and comfortable with." Personally, I feel the best development environment to work in would be one that ignores neither the GUI, or the command line.
We've been using Visual Age for Java (VAJ) at work for nearly two years now -- and it's really awesome. I hate to say it, but I'd prefer to stay within Visual Age instead of the command line. I was/still am a command-line jockey, obviously in Unix, but also in Windows.
From my quick skimming of the responses, people miss an important point: most tools (visual or otherwise) seem to require a compile to identify and fix errors - just general typos. VAJ not only does incremental compile of whatever method you are working on, but it also keeps all classes in synch. Huh? As I code, I'll code a method I know won't be correct. It'll show a funky red 'X' next to the method. As the methods and attributes get finished off, the 'X's go away. Not too much of a big deal, since that is within one .java file. However, that is working across all classes that are loaded in the workspace. Realtime. As you type it. Wanna rename a class? Not a big deal - I save, look at the errors tab, and I can edit right there, change the name. Actually, the tool will do the rename also. But, anytime a class is restructured (renamed, moved, split, combined, removed, etc) you just pop to the errors pane and fix. Not a big deal. You know the impact immediately.
Every piece of code is versioned. Down to the method - really cool if you've messed up a method and need retrieve a prior edition. You can compare different classes, different editions of the same class or method. Locate all references of a method or of a class or all implementations of an interface.
This tool was originally developed for Smalltalk, so it's geared for those of us doing OO. But, it's extremely useful. There are versions for C++, Java, Smalltalk, ... even RPG (ug). Unfortunately, the only trial edition available is for Java -- I use it at home I love the tool so much. It's also available for Linux, but unfortunately, that version is behind the Windows tool. The Entry edition (aka trial edition) is not time-bombed or anything - just limited to 750 classes that you add. That's quite a few, to be honest. And, as projects complete, I think you can just drop them off of the workspace and that resets the 750... although the basic edition costs less than $200.
Oh yeah, I'm not doing GUI development. Web development - a lot of it is framework (persistence, control, etc). Other developers are building messaging components (MQSeries). Just as an FYI that I'm not doing GUI drag and drop development. Not at all!
For those of you doing Java - bounce to IBM's site and try it! Give yourself some time to adjust... the big difference is that all code is housed in the repository. It doesn't sit in the filesystem. This is not a bad thing -- it enables all the cool features that make VAJ unique. You can export or import Java code - JAR or file system - when you need the Java source. You can connect to many types of version control software if you want or need to (I use CS-RCS).
The next version of VAJ will be called WebSphere Studio Application Developer. This will work from the filesystem - this will probably be good for the general acceptance of the tool (IBM kept getting clobbered in reviews because of the repository). However, I have a slight fear that this may end up removing a lot of the features that make Visual Age for Java such a strong development tool.
IIRC, Visual Age for Java won the Jolt award in 2000 and WebSphere Studio won it in 2001.