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  Gideon Development Update
Developer Posted by Navindra Umanee on Saturday 09/Jun/2001, @03:38
from the emacs-vs-this dept.
Two months ago, we announced the birth of Gideon, codename for the next generation version of KDevelop that was most notable for its modularity and extensibility. Since then, Gideon has made enormous strides -- not the least of which includes Java, Perl, Python, PHP and Fortran support, full Python scripting, and an editor framework that will allow one to plug in a favourite editor. Furthermore, thanks to the remarkable efforts of hacker Richard Dale, KDevelop plugins can now be developed in Java. Read on for the full update from Bernd Gehrmann including screenshots and download link.


Bernd Gehrmann writes:

It's been two months since KDevelop's HEAD branch has had a story on the dot. In this time, a lot of functionality has been added, so I thought I'd provide a little update. :-)
  • Java support. Java programs can now be maintained with automake-based project management. Classes are displayed in the class view and class browser. The application wizard includes a template for Java programs based on the Qt/KDE API and using Richard Dale's Koala framework. Furthermore, even KDevelop plugins can now be written in Java. (sic!) This may, for example, be used in the future for a debugger based on the Java Platform Debugger Architecture.

    Screenshot: Debugging the Qt scribble example program in Java.

  • Perl, Python and PHP support. Functions and classes are parsed and available in the class view. The documentation TOCs are integrated into the documentation tree with the documentation index being (partially) searchable. Python docstrings can be browsed dynamically through an ioslave based on pydoc. Work is underway to allow the configuration of php.ini and the usage of the PHP debugger.

    Screenshot: Editing the Sketch program.

  • Fortran support. This includes a frontend for ftnchek and compiler options, dialogs for g77 and the Portland Group compilers.

    Screenshot of Fortran support.

  • A new and flexible editor framework, not yet fully implemented. This will allow one to plug in other editors, even when they have a different feature set than KWrite or use different UI paradigms.

    Screenshot: Editing KDevelop.

  • A port of the gdb debugger frontend from the current KDevelop.

  • Full scripting through Python. The scripting framework needs almost no maintenance. The interfaces of all DCOP classes in KDevelop are automatically available in Python.

  • An integrated Konsole part.

    Screenshot showing the konsole part and some scripting examples.

  • An integration of Artistic Style for indenting source files and configuring the indentation style.

  • A frontend for ctags for "turbo-grepping" through all identifiers in a project.

    Screenshot showing ctags and Artistic style integration.

  • A new view that allows one to view files grouped by their file type. Groups are configurable by the user.

  • An improved application wizard. Apart from the usual KDE and Hello World stuff, this includes templates for kicker applets, KControl modules, KIO slaves, and even GNOME applications.
That's about the main points I recall off the top of my "HEAD". ;-) Of course, many many details have been improved or newly implemented, such as, for example, a Tools menu, an overhauled and much more user-friendly project management interface, automatic loading of the previous project at startup, an improved compiler frontend, etc.

A source snapshot is available here.

There are still many areas where we could use more developers, whether to add features, complete existing ones, or to polish the user interfaces. Please don't hesitate to get involved!

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Over 40 comments listed. Printing out index only.
Re: Gideon Development Update
by gunnar on Saturday 09/Jun/2001, @06:03
Great Stuff!
looks amazingly!
-gunnar
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Re: Gideon Development Update
by Kyle on Saturday 09/Jun/2001, @06:23
i really look forward to see the new version :)
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Re: Gideon Development Update
by dc on Saturday 09/Jun/2001, @06:32
What about RAD and CodeInsight?
Is it possible to make KDevelop fully RAD like Delphi while not requiring the RAD module.
Will there be a feature like Delphi's CodeInsight?
Those two are my most wanted features.

And will there be tabbed MDI support?
In the current version, I need to click on the Window menu to be able to switch to another open document, which I find very annoying.
A tabbed solution like GnomeMDI would be much better.
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Re: Gideon Development Update
by Toddler on Saturday 09/Jun/2001, @06:37
I would love to see this support palm os dev. I would do it myself but I wouldnt know where to start.
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Re: Gideon Development Update
by Daniel on Saturday 09/Jun/2001, @11:12
I am very happy about Gideon, because we will be able to programe with any lenguage , as C, C++, Java, Php ...

But, the problem i see is that the documentation about new lenguages will not be created by KDE team. The QT/KDE documentation is great, one of the best docs over Linux documentation. Then, if Kdevelop support new languages, as Php for example, KDE team has to integrate the Php Manual from www.php.com, and there are lenguages that there is not a good work about their documentation.

Another thing i am thinking is why there is not a
documentation about ANSI C and C++ with the documentation in Kdevelop. I mean, when you are programming, sometimes you have question about some sentence, and you have to search a book to read how it is. Then, it would be great, if in the kdevelop documentation it has a section named ANSI C-C++.

And to finish my willings :-) , when Kdevelop will have an integrated GUI-Builder alo Borland C++ Builder? I mean, a "glade" integrated into Kdevelop (I dont like much more Qt-Designer because you cant code KDE or gnome aplications). Then, with this function, will be able to build big aplications, without worrying about the GUI interfaz. With this feature, will be able to programe Java aplications too.

I have to give to KDE and Kdevelop team, my congratulations about you work.
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Re: Gideon Development Update
by Anonymous on Saturday 09/Jun/2001, @12:19
I'm especially excited about the Fortran support. Fortran is not dead and having an open source IDE for g77 will be very, very useful!

Any plans for integrating g95 when it is ready?
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Re: Gideon Development Update
by Carbon on Saturday 09/Jun/2001, @23:43
One of the noticable things about the PHP (and possibly other language) docs is the user comment system. It's noticable in particular with PHP since almost all the in-code examples for the function reference are submitted by the users. It would be very nice indeed if developers, for any given release of the Gideon copy of the docs, included these coments as of that date.

Also, what about Kate? It seems suspisously similar to what Gideon is beginning to look like (Multi-doc editing, syntax highlighting, embedded konsole, etc). I'm not suggesting a merge, that would almost certainly not work well. However, what about making some sort of base "kde style mdi editor" framework, then using that as the basis of Kate (editing framework and hierarchial sidebar in kate would be nice), KDevelop, and, in the future, maybe even KWord (for power-user support for vim style editing in kword!)
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Sick scary news about Visual Interdev
by sick puppy on Sunday 10/Jun/2001, @03:17
Some people use Front Page and Visual Interdev
together to create SQLServer/ASP powered websites (I don't know how they work together ActiveX OLE thingamaboobies). Any cool ways to do similar things with Gideon kpart/konqui/some html source code editor and MySQL/PHP/Zope/Python etc. ??
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Re: Gideon Development Update
by ddd on Sunday 10/Jun/2001, @15:38
WohohohohohohohoW!!!
This rox man. You kde people never seize to amaze me. Why even bother to use windows? (rethorical question, everyone knows that the answer is "no reason")
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And Basic ?
by Alain on Sunday 10/Jun/2001, @15:41
I see Perl, Python, Fortran, but nothing about Basic...

Why ?

How is going KBasic ?

Has KBasic some interactions with Gideon ?

Is really KBasic the only solution inside KDE to nearly program in Basic ?

Or is existing something else like to translate Basic in Python, for example ? (not only about VB programs, but also about MS Office VBA programs...)
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Re: Gideon Development Update
by dc on Sunday 10/Jun/2001, @18:29
CodeInsight anyone?
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Re: Gideon Development Update
by Michael Pujos on Sunday 10/Jun/2001, @20:31
Maybe one day emacs embedded in KDevelop with the editor framework?
I'd love to have this ! =)
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What's wrong with MDI?
by Jörgen S on Sunday 10/Jun/2001, @21:39
Most of the posts here are quite negative towards MDI. Why is that? I think it is probably the best "invention" yet.

I hate being able to view just one editor pane at once. So, please, keep the MDI-stuff in Gideon. At least as an option, that would make me happy. (Window splitters aren't that bad either, so keep them too. ;)
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Re: Gideon Development Update
by Daniel on Monday 11/Jun/2001, @08:23
Why dont someone implement a class for Gideon that make code autocompletion ? I mean, while you are coding, if a sentence belongs to the language sentence, then, the kdevelop autocomplete the sentence.

If i am writting for example:" fo ..." then, kdevelop has to writte"for _ = _ to _ step _" where _ is a space. Or put the {} automatic.

Or another idea is to integrate a sintaxis corrector (i dont remember the name of the program).

What do you think about these ideas?
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Gideon has Objective-C support too!
by Richard Dale on Monday 11/Jun/2001, @09:49
It's a little known fact that Gideon has Objective-C support - class browser, syntax highlighting. If you use a 'patched for Objective-C' version of gdb ,it works fine with John Birch's gdb front end. But it still needs a GNUStep, and 'Kangaroo' (forthcoming KDE Objective-C api) project templates.

-- Richard
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What ever happened to Quanta?
by Lenny on Monday 11/Jun/2001, @12:21
I know they're not for the same thing, but this story reminded me that Quanta has gone w/o updates for a very long time. It's one of my favorite KDE apps. Anyone know if development will continue?
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Re: Gideon Development Update
by Petr Husak on Tuesday 12/Jun/2001, @05:43
Supports Gideon code completition ? It's fine thing for sclerotic people like me... Espetially for me it is more important tool than class browser.
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Re: Gideon Development Update
by Alain Gibaud on Tuesday 12/Jun/2001, @12:00
"Furthermore, even KDevelop plugins can now be written in Java."

I'am not sure it is a good idea. Java is slow, the JVM is memory-hungry. Java is an excellent
solution to slow down a 1Ghz computer to a 100Mhz one, and a good vector for multi-platform viruses.
Therefore, my question is : Do we really need Java plugins in KDevelop ?
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