To BLIde or not to BLIde
BlitzMax Forums/BlitzMax Programming/To BLIde or not to BLIde
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| I haven't yet used BLIde but I've been considering it. Just wanted to get some opinions before I went forward. Would you say that it improves development time? Is it truly handy? What do you think of it? |
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| Why not try the Free Edition of BLIde? And find out how great it is yourself! http://www.blide.org/index.php?section=products |
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| It really does improve development time, and I'm only using some of its features. |
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| I own blide. Its very worth using compared to the default ide. But it's not perfect. The amount of memory it takes up is a testament against ever programming in dotnet. |
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| Blide makes me feel like a grown-up! |
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| Buy it ! You won't regret it ever. Not only Blide really does improve development time but it also help you to manage your code safely for the 3 platforms and learn new modules more easily. It is also very fast, customizable and updated often. The free version is cool but not as much as the full one and I'm really concerned about my budget while buying tools on the Internet. You can use it with many others languages and publish your program with customized icons, NRV (UPX) compression, in just one click! There is a nice tool called the expression evaluator in which you can write a line of BlitzMax code and get a quick result (handy for math or conditional). You can even write and add Plugins for it. My favorite one is the Metrics Lab by Alex Okafor that let you know how many lines of code, comments, files and blank lines you write in your solution (Metagolf is 48.497 lines for 100 files whooohooo \o/, it's useless so you must have it). My customized layout, skin and preferred font/color is easily saved and shared between my desktop and my laptop. You can also choose which modules to highlight or show in the intelliprompt if one of them is annoying but personnaly the first option I enable is Use complete BlitzMax modules highlight in the advanced Blide settings (and disable the Start a new line after pressing ENTER on autolists :p). I like the split edit view too (by the way, this icon on the top right corner is a bit displaced since a few version ;). The features I'm using the most is the functions, types and methods combobox shortcuts to find my way in my code and the powerful find and replacement menu (working with the current file, selected lines, all opened tab and even all files of your solution). Also the Advanced module builder that let you choose which module to build (threaded or not) or document. There are many features I used once or two like line bookmark, folding/unfolding code, comment/uncomment selection. I only had one issue with the format whole document once, the indentation was right but a line changed in my code and I wasn't able to find it with the debbuger so I'm less tempted to use it again. All of this take less time to learn than you can imagine because everything is often at the right place at the right moment. |
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| ^ | Just what he said! Armitage didnt mention Managed/Ungamanaged Blide Solutions, which allow you to assemble multiple includes and Modules into a single solution. When you build a solution, not only will the participated modules automatically get rebuild, you can even set an Icon for your EXE! PLUS Blide wont just highlight BlitzMax, but even C, C++, Java, Lua, XML Code and many more! Bare in mind that Blide is programmed (largely) by a single person, so it is not Glitch-free. But after all, Ziggy does some pretty committed Support! |
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| ..i have it, love it and highly recommend it..excellent add on for bmax and making things A LOT easier.. |
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| I'd kill (or at least, slap repeatedly) for a Mac version of BLIde. |
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| Ah, yes, I was planning on buying it myself as soon as I got the chance. I've been toying with the free version, and I absolutely love it. |
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| I've used it on three projects and have been very happy with it. Ziggy is amazing at responding to problems quickly. Also if you come from a Microsoft development environment it's really easy to use. |
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| ThHere's one thing I don't particularly like about it, and that's how when you fold code and exit the editor, all the code is back unfolded. Is there any way to change this? Is it different in BLIde Plus? |
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| I'd agree with Cartman. I started out using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, when I programmed in C++ and BLIde has a very similar look and feel. Personally, I use the free edition, because I am not an advanced programmer, at least not advanced enough to take complete advantage of everything that BLIde Plus has to offer (which is a LOT). Right now what I find really helpful are the code trees which allow you to jump directly to a type, function, etc. I also really enjoy the code-folding since it helps me neaten up my files by hiding code that isn't relevant at that moment. Also, the integration of Intellisense (or something very close to it) is wonderful for bigger projects where you've forgotten certain variable or function names. Once I become a more proficient programmer I will most certainly invest in BLIde Plus because of its publishing features, module support, and support for other languages (C++, Java, etc.) If you're a serious programmer, it is an IDE worth investing in as far as I'm concerned. |
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| I'm hoping that Blide becomes multi-platform, as my household is 100% Linux based. I'd definitely buy it myself if they ever released a Linux version! |
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| ThHere's one thing I don't particularly like about it, and that's how when you fold code and exit the editor, all the code is back unfolded. Is there any way to change this? Is it different in BLIde Plus? This is something I raised with ziggy months ago - unfortunately it is no different in BLIde Plus. As well as the ability to "retain" folding states between sessions, it would be nice to be able to only auto-fold functions (i.e. without folding everything inside as well). However, BLIde really is superb - I purchased a BLIde Plus license very soon after I started using it, and can't see me ever needing another IDE. |
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| After some experimentation, I found it does save folding for solutions, just not individual source files. |
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| I've been using Blide for Years! Since 2007 in fact. It's super! Cheers Charlie |
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| ThHere's one thing I don't particularly like about it, and that's how when you fold code and exit the editor, all the code is back unfolded. Is there any way to change this? Is it different in BLIde Plus? ..while that may look like an 'big' issue, F11 is your friend :) |
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