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digitalmars.D - UNA 1.1 Released - "Live" Syntax Checking for D

reply John A. De Goes <john.withoutspam. n-brain.net> writes:
Hi,

Just a brief note to announce we've released UNA 1.1. For those who don't
already know, UNA is a "multiplayer IDE", but has a standalone mode for all the
hermits out there. :-)

The main change in UNA 1.1 is "Live Tools", which are run in the background
when documents are changed or saved. A new tool output option detects errors
and warnings in tool output, and highlights the errors and warnings directly in
the source code. When combined, these two features bring real-time syntax
checking to dozens of languages and hundreds of command-line tools, including
any tool conforming to the GNU error/warning message formatting guidelines.

(D does not conform to such guidelines but we've supported it separately.)

A screen cast demonstrating these new features for the Java programming
language may be found at http://www.vimeo.com/1653402, while a screenshot
demonstrating the feature in the context of the D programming language may be
found at the following URL:

    www.n-brain.net/unashots/D/ErrorHighlighting.png

Another major feature of UNA 1.1 is preconfigured tools for dozens of

Groovy, Scala, and many others. These tools showcase the power of the tools
interface and can be customized by developers for greater flexibility.

The single-user edition of UNA 1.1 is completely free and may be downloaded
from http://www.n-brain.net/updates.htm. The multi-user edition of UNA 1.1 is
free for open source groups, while pricing for commercial use starts at $25 per
user.

Regards,

John
Sep 10 2008
next sibling parent reply bearophile <bearophileHUGS lycos.com> writes:
John A. De Goes:
 including any tool conforming to the GNU error/warning message
 formatting guidelines.
 (D does not conform to such guidelines but we've supported it separately.)
I think D was developed mostly on Windows, so maybe it conforms to error/warning message formatting guidelines of Windows. Anyway, D2 isn't set in stone, so especially if those GNU guidelines are better D may change in such regard. Bye, bearophile
Sep 10 2008
parent reply Rayne <DiscipleRayne gmail.com> writes:
bearophile Wrote:

 John A. De Goes:
 including any tool conforming to the GNU error/warning message
 formatting guidelines.
 (D does not conform to such guidelines but we've supported it separately.)
I think D was developed mostly on Windows, so maybe it conforms to error/warning message formatting guidelines of Windows. Anyway, D2 isn't set in stone, so especially if those GNU guidelines are better D may change in such regard. Bye, bearophile
UNA's D tools are so hard to figure out to use I just gave up on it.
Sep 10 2008
next sibling parent reply John A. De Goes <john.withoutspam. n-brain.net> writes:
Rayne Wrote:
 UNA's D tools are so hard to figure out to use I just gave up on it.
Sorry to hear that. Did you check out the screencast we have showing how to setup UNA for D? http://www.vimeo.com/1364875 It takes all of 5 minutes. And actually isn't necessary anymore for casual coding because we've preconfigured UNA with a tool to compile D source code. If you have any difficulty after watching the above or trying UNA 1.1, we'd be happy to get you up and running. Just contact us using the support form at http://www.n-brain.net. Regards, John
Sep 10 2008
parent reply Paul D. Anderson <paul.d.removethis.anderson comcast.andthis.net> writes:
John A. De Goes Wrote:

 Rayne Wrote:
 UNA's D tools are so hard to figure out to use I just gave up on it.
Sorry to hear that. Did you check out the screencast we have showing how to setup UNA for D? http://www.vimeo.com/1364875 It takes all of 5 minutes. And actually isn't necessary anymore for casual coding because we've preconfigured UNA with a tool to compile D source code. If you have any difficulty after watching the above or trying UNA 1.1, we'd be happy to get you up and running. Just contact us using the support form at http://www.n-brain.net. Regards, John
I'm afraid I agree that it is too difficult to use right out of the box. I watched the Una and D video and the one on setting up the collaborative version (one of which I have not got). Two big problems and then one I couldn't get past. 1) It wasn't obvious how to get the system to recognize my existing files. I could copy them into the project, but that's not the same thing. And 2) when I ran the D compiler it exited with a cryptic error message, the gist of which was that it couldn't run. Neither of those were fatal problems -- any new IDE has a learning curve. But when I went to look for help the only options I found were an "about" dialog and a tip of the day. That was the one I couldn't get past. Uninstall. The product looks promising. I like the premise, although I'm working solo on my D projects. But it wasn't worth the cognitive effort. The controls were not intuitive (to me, but that's what intuitive means, right?) and there weren't help files or examples to bring me up to speed. I'll keep checking on developments. If I were working on a collaborative project I'd spend more time evaluating it. But for now I'll stick with my text editor and batch files. Paul
Sep 10 2008
next sibling parent John A. De Goes <john.withoutspam. n-brain.net> writes:
Hi Paul,

Thanks so much for the feedback. If only more people took the time...

Paul D. Anderson Wrote:
 Two big problems and then one I couldn't get past. 1) It wasn't obvious how to
get the system to recognize my existing files. 
You need to copy them into the project or use a version control plug-in. Currently, we don't support in-place editing of existing files, which is a limitation caused by the Collaborative Edition, but present also in the Personal Edition.
 And 2) when I ran the D compiler it exited with a cryptic error message, the
gist of which was that it couldn't run.
Hmmm, not sure I've seen this before. Probably, D was expecting some arguments but not getting them.
 Neither of those were fatal problems -- any new IDE has a learning curve. But
when I went to look for help the only options I found were an "about" dialog
and a tip of the day. That was the one I couldn't get past. Uninstall.
Sure. We've heard this before and tried to do something about it in version 1.1. This is why we have preconfigured tools for 20 different languages, including D. All these tools have been tested and found to work with very recent versions of standard tools. They should work out-of-the-box for many languages. And in any case, they provide a list of examples from which to learn from.
 The product looks promising. I like the premise, although I'm working solo on
my D projects. But it wasn't worth the cognitive effort. The controls were not
intuitive (to me, but that's what intuitive means, right?) and there weren't
help files or examples to bring me up to speed. 
Are you referring to the Tools interface, or something else? Again, anything you tell us will help us bring UNA to the point where you *will* want to use it.
 I'll keep checking on developments. If I were working on a collaborative
project I'd spend more time evaluating it. But for now I'll stick with my text
editor and batch files.
Sure, I understand. Now not to torment you, :-) but you're missing out on some really cool features, like incremental search (hold down spacebar and type -- caret will jump to the first occurrence of the text), a single search & replace interface that does everything (supports instantaneous searches across hundreds of files, find in current file/selection/open files/whole project, and of course regular expressions), seamless version control (whatever you do in UNA is mirrored in the version control system), source snippets (type main and hit Ctrl + I, and see what happens), auto-complete, block editing, beautiful D syntax highlighting (including nested comments), and lots more goodies. Regards, John
Sep 10 2008
prev sibling parent reply Jussi Jumppanen <jussij zeusedit.com> writes:
Paul D. Anderson Wrote:

 But for now I'll stick with my text editor and batch files.
FWIW if you develop on the Windows platform there is always Zeus: http://www.prowiki.org/wiki4d/wiki.cgi?EditorSupport/ZeusForWindows It does standard editor things like code folding and syntax highlighting, but it also has a few more IDE like features. The next version will also add code folding for the second D language comment block /+ +/ (i.e. it already does /* */). Jussi Jumppanen Author: Zeus for Windows IDE
Sep 11 2008
next sibling parent "Saaa" <empty needmail.com> writes:
Just thought I'd give you an free/better option:
poseidon
http://www.dsource.org/projects/poseidon/wiki/Screenshots

Although I'm thinking about UNA.
I'll send you my experiences when I try it out.. It looks great.


"Jussi Jumppanen" <jussij zeusedit.com> wrote in message 
news:gacbt1$16dh$1 digitalmars.com...
 Paul D. Anderson Wrote:

 But for now I'll stick with my text editor and batch files.
FWIW if you develop on the Windows platform there is always Zeus: http://www.prowiki.org/wiki4d/wiki.cgi?EditorSupport/ZeusForWindows It does standard editor things like code folding and syntax highlighting, but it also has a few more IDE like features. The next version will also add code folding for the second D language comment block /+ +/ (i.e. it already does /* */). Jussi Jumppanen Author: Zeus for Windows IDE
Sep 11 2008
prev sibling next sibling parent reply Rayne <DiscipleRayne gmail.com> writes:
Jussi Jumppanen Wrote:

 Paul D. Anderson Wrote:
 
 But for now I'll stick with my text editor and batch files.
FWIW if you develop on the Windows platform there is always Zeus: http://www.prowiki.org/wiki4d/wiki.cgi?EditorSupport/ZeusForWindows It does standard editor things like code folding and syntax highlighting, but it also has a few more IDE like features. The next version will also add code folding for the second D language comment block /+ +/ (i.e. it already does /* */). Jussi Jumppanen Author: Zeus for Windows IDE
Unless your editor is the new inovation or some shit, I'm not paying 69 bucks for an editor, poseidon works just fine.
Sep 11 2008
parent Sergey Gromov <snake.scaly gmail.com> writes:
Rayne <DiscipleRayne gmail.com> wrote:
 Unless your editor is the new inovation or some shit, I'm not paying 69 
 bucks for an editor, poseidon works just fine.
Poseidon seems to be unable to open a stand-alone file for editing. I'd post a ticket but I still cannot figure out how to post anything on dsource.org.
Sep 12 2008
prev sibling parent Ary Borenszweig <ary esperanto.org.ar> writes:
Jussi Jumppanen a écrit :
 Paul D. Anderson Wrote:
 
 But for now I'll stick with my text editor and batch files.
FWIW if you develop on the Windows platform there is always Zeus: http://www.prowiki.org/wiki4d/wiki.cgi?EditorSupport/ZeusForWindows
And, of course, now I have to mention it, there's Descent: http://www.dsource.org/projects/descent which is free, platform independent and works quite well. I wasn't going to mention it, but the phrase "Now UNA has the best D syntax highlighting there is" bothers me just a little, because Descent also does syntax highlighting for nested comments and all kind of strings (except for multiline heredoc, I'm working on it). Not only that, but it also does semantic highlighting, showing you in different colors classes, structs, templates, typedefs, aliases, abstract classes and method invocations, and more... So I really don't see why "UNA hast the best D syntax highlighting there is". I don't have anything against UNA, but... a little truth or research doesn't hurt.
Sep 12 2008
prev sibling parent reply Jacob Carlborg <doobnet gmail.com> writes:
Rayne wrote:
 bearophile Wrote:
 
 John A. De Goes:
 including any tool conforming to the GNU error/warning message
 formatting guidelines.
 (D does not conform to such guidelines but we've supported it separately.)
I think D was developed mostly on Windows, so maybe it conforms to error/warning message formatting guidelines of Windows. Anyway, D2 isn't set in stone, so especially if those GNU guidelines are better D may change in such regard. Bye, bearophile
UNA's D tools are so hard to figure out to use I just gave up on it.
I have to agree with Rayne. I've tried UNA 1.1 on osx and the only thing that worked was compiling and showing errors when it compiled. I don't know if it was because it failed to download CTAG but almost nothing worked. No "Live" Syntax Checking for D, no syntax highlighting, no code/autocompletion. And when I wanted to change the file encoding to UTF-8 (I assume it has support for it) I couldn't because the "pop up menu" was to tall to fit on the screen, it didn't shrink and added scrolls arrows as it should on osx. BTW add default configurations for GDC and DSSS also.
Sep 11 2008
parent reply John A. De Goes <john.withoutspam. n-brain.net> writes:
Jacob Carlborg Wrote:
 I have to agree with Rayne. I've tried UNA 1.1 on osx and the only thing 
 that worked was compiling and showing errors when it compiled. I don't 
 know if it was because it failed to download CTAG but almost nothing 
 worked. No "Live" Syntax Checking for D, 
To get live syntax checking, you need to change the default compile tool (or one of your own creation) to work "On Change", and the Tool Output to, "Highlight Errors/Warnings ONLY".
 no syntax highlighting, 
Now UNA has the best D syntax highlighting there is. It recognizes all literals and variables in strings, among other things. What was the extension of the file you were editing? Currently we use 'd' to identify D source code files.
 no code/autocompletion. And when I wanted to change the file encoding to 
 UTF-8 (I assume it has support for it) I couldn't because the "pop up 
 menu" was to tall to fit on the screen, it didn't shrink and added 
 scrolls arrows as it should on osx.
Sounds like a problem with Swing. What's your default resolution?
 BTW add default configurations for GDC and DSSS also.
Thanks, I'll add it to the todo for the next micro release. Regards, John
Sep 11 2008
parent Jacob Carlborg <doobnet gmail.com> writes:
John A. De Goes wrote:
 Jacob Carlborg Wrote:
 I have to agree with Rayne. I've tried UNA 1.1 on osx and the only thing 
 that worked was compiling and showing errors when it compiled. I don't 
 know if it was because it failed to download CTAG but almost nothing 
 worked. No "Live" Syntax Checking for D, 
To get live syntax checking, you need to change the default compile tool (or one of your own creation) to work "On Change", and the Tool Output to, "Highlight Errors/Warnings ONLY".
 no syntax highlighting, 
Now UNA has the best D syntax highlighting there is. It recognizes all literals and variables in strings, among other things. What was the extension of the file you were editing? Currently we use 'd' to identify D source code files.
After downloading UNA again and reinstalled it a couple of times (at first I couldn't access the tools configuration) the syntax highlighting and "live" syntax checking worked.
 
 no code/autocompletion. And when I wanted to change the file encoding to 
 UTF-8 (I assume it has support for it) I couldn't because the "pop up 
 menu" was to tall to fit on the screen, it didn't shrink and added 
 scrolls arrows as it should on osx.
Sounds like a problem with Swing. What's your default resolution?
1280x1024
 
 BTW add default configurations for GDC and DSSS also.
Thanks, I'll add it to the todo for the next micro release. Regards, John
I tried a hello world application and at first I got a little impressed that it marked functions I hadn't imported yet as errors but that quickly changed when I opened a larger file (almost 3500 lines) and it didn't work. I never figured out how code/autocompletion worked, I think I got into the mode, it said "one match", but never understood how to insert the function name. There are so many more features in descent and it's working, so for now I don't think UNA has a chance against descent. I don't expect you to rebuild UNA or something like that but for future java projects/products I think you should have a look at SWT (http://www.eclipse.org/swt/) which uses the native OS functions/methods to draw its controls. And here are the same in D, http://www.dsource.org/projects/dwt
Sep 13 2008
prev sibling next sibling parent reply Rayne <DiscipleRayne gmail.com> writes:
John A. De Goes Wrote:

 Jacob Carlborg Wrote:
 I have to agree with Rayne. I've tried UNA 1.1 on osx and the only thing 
 that worked was compiling and showing errors when it compiled. I don't 
 know if it was because it failed to download CTAG but almost nothing 
 worked. No "Live" Syntax Checking for D, 
To get live syntax checking, you need to change the default compile tool (or one of your own creation) to work "On Change", and the Tool Output to, "Highlight Errors/Warnings ONLY".
 no syntax highlighting, 
Now UNA has the best D syntax highlighting there is. It recognizes all literals and variables in strings, among other things. What was the extension of the file you were editing? Currently we use 'd' to identify D source code files.
 no code/autocompletion. And when I wanted to change the file encoding to 
 UTF-8 (I assume it has support for it) I couldn't because the "pop up 
 menu" was to tall to fit on the screen, it didn't shrink and added 
 scrolls arrows as it should on osx.
Sounds like a problem with Swing. What's your default resolution?
 BTW add default configurations for GDC and DSSS also.
Thanks, I'll add it to the todo for the next micro release. Regards, John
No offense this program has very good potential, just tone it down a bit man, your so focused on features your ruining this things user-friendlyness, I mean I can't even figure out where the output of the compiled program is, nor can I figure out how to change where it goes, I mean I may just be an idiot but I've never had this many problems with an IDE before.
Sep 11 2008
parent Don <nospam nospam.com.au> writes:
Rayne wrote:
 John A. De Goes Wrote:
 
 Jacob Carlborg Wrote:
 I have to agree with Rayne. I've tried UNA 1.1 on osx and the only thing 
 that worked was compiling and showing errors when it compiled. I don't 
 know if it was because it failed to download CTAG but almost nothing 
 worked. No "Live" Syntax Checking for D, 
To get live syntax checking, you need to change the default compile tool (or one of your own creation) to work "On Change", and the Tool Output to, "Highlight Errors/Warnings ONLY".
 no syntax highlighting, 
Now UNA has the best D syntax highlighting there is. It recognizes all literals and variables in strings, among other things. What was the extension of the file you were editing? Currently we use 'd' to identify D source code files.
 no code/autocompletion. And when I wanted to change the file encoding to 
 UTF-8 (I assume it has support for it) I couldn't because the "pop up 
 menu" was to tall to fit on the screen, it didn't shrink and added 
 scrolls arrows as it should on osx.
Sounds like a problem with Swing. What's your default resolution?
 BTW add default configurations for GDC and DSSS also.
Thanks, I'll add it to the todo for the next micro release. Regards, John
No offense this program has very good potential, just tone it down a bit man, your so focused on features your ruining this things user-friendlyness, I mean I can't even figure out where the output of the compiled program is, nor can I figure out how to change where it goes, I mean I may just be an idiot but I've never had this many problems with an IDE before.
I agree. After 3 minutes of playing around, I STILL couldn't work out how to create a "hello world" program. At that point I gave up and uninstalled. This program is by far the most user-hostile IDE I've ever seen. You really need to improve that.
Sep 12 2008
prev sibling parent reply Jussi Jumppanen <jussij zeusedit.com> writes:
Rayne Wrote:

 Unless your editor is the new inovation or some shit
It costs absolutely nothing to see for your self: http://www.zeusedit.com/z300/ze32v396q.zip Cheers Jussi
Sep 11 2008
parent reply Rayne <DiscipleRayne gmail.com> writes:
Jussi Jumppanen Wrote:

 Rayne Wrote:
 
 Unless your editor is the new inovation or some shit
It costs absolutely nothing to see for your self: http://www.zeusedit.com/z300/ze32v396q.zip Cheers Jussi
I tried it, I don't like teasers.
Sep 11 2008
parent reply "Bill Baxter" <wbaxter gmail.com> writes:
On Fri, Sep 12, 2008 at 2:06 PM, Rayne <DiscipleRayne gmail.com> wrote:
 Jussi Jumppanen Wrote:

 Rayne Wrote:

 Unless your editor is the new inovation or some shit
It costs absolutely nothing to see for your self: http://www.zeusedit.com/z300/ze32v396q.zip Cheers Jussi
I tried it, I don't like teasers.
I've never tried Zeus because I'm perfectly happy with Emacs. But if you do programming all day every day for a living, $69 for something makes your job even slightly easier is worth it. Especially if that $69 buys you some influence in getting features you need implemented or bugs fixed. Unless you're a student. Then I'm totally with you. You probably don't have $69 to burn. There's a bug (or rather a C-specific assumption) in Emacs CC-mode that causes trouble for indenting static if's in D. I can't get the fix prioritized because I'm not a customer of the person who implemented it, I'm just another lowly free software user. And he doesn't care about D. So that means I had to figure out how the guts of CC-mode work myself, spending way more than $69 worth of my time to try to fix it. I have a fix now that works fine if you edit CC-mode sources, but the maintainer said it wasn't general enough a fix so he didn't want to use it. That's fine, but I don't have time to figure out the CC-mode guts well enough to turn it into a general fix. --bb
Sep 11 2008
parent reply Rayne <DiscipleRayne gmail.com> writes:
Bill Baxter Wrote:

 On Fri, Sep 12, 2008 at 2:06 PM, Rayne <DiscipleRayne gmail.com> wrote:
 Jussi Jumppanen Wrote:

 Rayne Wrote:

 Unless your editor is the new inovation or some shit
It costs absolutely nothing to see for your self: http://www.zeusedit.com/z300/ze32v396q.zip Cheers Jussi
I tried it, I don't like teasers.
I've never tried Zeus because I'm perfectly happy with Emacs. But if you do programming all day every day for a living, $69 for something makes your job even slightly easier is worth it. Especially if that $69 buys you some influence in getting features you need implemented or bugs fixed. Unless you're a student. Then I'm totally with you. You probably don't have $69 to burn. There's a bug (or rather a C-specific assumption) in Emacs CC-mode that causes trouble for indenting static if's in D. I can't get the fix prioritized because I'm not a customer of the person who implemented it, I'm just another lowly free software user. And he doesn't care about D. So that means I had to figure out how the guts of CC-mode work myself, spending way more than $69 worth of my time to try to fix it. I have a fix now that works fine if you edit CC-mode sources, but the maintainer said it wasn't general enough a fix so he didn't want to use it. That's fine, but I don't have time to figure out the CC-mode guts well enough to turn it into a general fix. --bb
I am a student, And No I don't have the cash to burn, but thats not even the point I really don't see what makes it worth the cash.
Sep 11 2008
parent "Bill Baxter" <wbaxter gmail.com> writes:
On Fri, Sep 12, 2008 at 3:21 PM, Rayne <DiscipleRayne gmail.com> wrote:
 I am a student, And No I don't have the cash to burn, but thats not even the
point I really don't see what makes it worth the cash.
Heh, I've never really paid much attention to all of Jussi's self-promoting messages here, but dangit, you've actually managed to get me curious enough to download the trial version just so I can see what's in it that he thinks is worth $69 in this era where you can get two dozen different editors completely free. --bb
Sep 11 2008