The IDE is important too [was Develop-test-debug cycle]

[Dale Strickland-Clark]

Tim Peters <tim.one at comcast.net> wrote:

>
>Yes, and we're not going to fix it <wink>.
>
I don't think you should dismiss it so flipantly and readily - unless
you see Python as a toy language for small scripts and noddy programs.

The large systems that we are writing take a while to crank up. To
have to shut them down, fix the bug (if it was obvious) or add some
debugging code (if it wasn't), then crank them up again, is a
significant time overhead.

It seems to me that the development environment has been seriously
neglected in the rush to add sexy new features to the language.

Microsoft, Borland and the like realised a long time ago that a nice
IDE makes a huge difference to programmer productivity - even if the
language is crap. Consider this: without the IDE, would anyone have
given VB a second glance?

I don't want all the frils of VB - PythonWin is almost there but - and
I'm guessing here - it is limited by the language runtime environment.

It would be an enormous help if the runtime environment had debugger
hooks that could preserve program state in the event of an untrapped
error, then allow any of:

1. statements to be executed interactively in the current context;
2. execution point adjusted forwards or backwards (with obvious
restrictions)
3. continue execution;
4. program reset to initial entry conditions - including terminating
any threads.

You can already do 1. at breakpoints in PythonWin so some of the hooks
are there.

If you could fix all these four requirements, I reckon you could more
than quadruple my productivity on large projects.


--
Dale Strickland-Clark
Riverhall Systems Ltd