Over the course of many years we have wondered why U2 UniBasic programmers still insist on coding with vi, notepad, ED or AE. The latter two are line by line editors that were developed in the 1980's and are installed with the database. So coding with horse blinders on seems to fit some of our esteemed colleagues.
Many programmers believe ED or AE keeps them focused on what is in front of them, encouraging them to pay attention to the code rather than other distractions. ED or AE programmers are commonly seen to help keep them from being distracted or spooked. See the real Wikipedia explanation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinders and not the satirical piece that was co-opted in this paragraph.
That not to say they cannot do the job or that the job they do does not have value with those tools. The point really here is that some U2 programmers are stuck in the 1980's coding with those tools or have some hybrids that have been cobbled together from various open source projects. Why should we not be programming like millions of Java, C#, and VB programmers that have great tools.
We can have state of the art tools with full screen editors, reserved word colorization, syntax completion, cognitive help, local or database editing, search, local history change log, and version control to name a few of the new features. Bugzilla or other connectors can be attached to some editors an allow you to see what bugs you have to fix or software you have to enhance.
Some enlightened programmers live all day in their tool set and very rarely wander into the world of TCL (terminal control language). Of course, we know a few of them.
Eclipse platform is what IBM, the former owner of the U2 databases, believes is the integrated development platform of the future. Eclipse is used by hundreds of thousands of programmers. There are plug-ins for many languages such as Java, PHP, Cobol, C++, and C# to name a few that come to mind. There are thousands of other plugs-in to do whatever you can think of.
The Basic Developer Toolkit that is part of client software for U2 databases since 2008. The Basic Developer Toolkit is free when you upgrade your database. The other Eclipse developer is from U2logic, Inc. and it is called XLr8Editor. XLr8Editor has been on the U2 market since late 2006.
It time to change old habits and move to the 21st century.
No comments:
Post a Comment