LOGIN | REGISTER NOW | SUBSCRIBE
 
 
News on Monday
more>>
SharePoint Tech Report
more>>


   

 
 
Download Current Issue
ISSUE 7/1/2009 PDF

Need Back Issues?
DOWNLOAD HERE

Receive the print Edition?


 
Is the mystery Borland suitor Serena?
Borland software is considering an offer from another company after a preliminary deal with MicroFocus. Is Serena the new company?
06/30/2009 01:55 PM EST

Windows 7 - An eBayer's dream product?
Windows 7 pre-orders can make people money on eBay.
06/29/2009 03:48 PM EST

Know thine cloud provider
Cloud computing require companies to understand compliance and regulation. Third parties will play a big role in regulated industries.
06/29/2009 02:58 PM EST

 

Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conf.
7/13/2009 to 7/16/2009
New Orleans
Microsoft

OSCON (Open Source Convention)
7/20/2009 to 7/24/2009
San Jose
O'Reilly Media

XBRL Technology Workshop & Summit
7/28/2009 to 7/30/2009
Santa Clara
XBRL US

ACM SIGGRAPH
8/3/2009 to 8/7/2009
New Orleans
ACM SIGGRAPH

OpenSource World (formerly LinuxWorld)
8/12/2009 to 8/13/2009
San Francisco
IDG World Expo


 
print Printable version 
Most Read Latest News Blog Resources
Kapow automates website data retrieval
Kapow Technology's Web Data Server 7.0 can be used to create modules that navigate through...

COBOL’s future lies in the clouds
After 50 years of use in businesses, COBOL is still lingering around mainframes. But the s...

Oracle's Fusion 11g lays groundwork for ERP platform
Fusion's components are standards-based and integrated, but some abilities are lost if non...

Digg!  Digg
Reddit  Reddit
Slashdot  Slashdot
Share on facebook  Facebook
Share on Twitter  Twitter

ActiveState Activates Komodo 4.0


By Alex Handy
January 15, 2007 — 
Who knew Mozilla could be an IDE? Komodo 4.0, an integrated development environment from ActiveState, will be ready for prime time before the end of this month. The Mozilla-based software will bring new client-side capabilities to what has traditionally been a server-focused development environment, and also adds new debugging capabilities for JavaScript coders.

The Komodo IDE was last updated late in 2005. Since then, according to the company, the IDE’s user base has asked for a laundry list of new features. Chief among these was a new path toward testable PHP applications. Eric Promislow, a senior developer of Komodo, said that prior to version 4.0, PHP code was difficult to test and manage.

“PHP has a complicated .ini file, so we’ve worked on making that easier to deal with,” he said.

Ruby on Rails was also a key target for the updated Komodo IDE. “One of the major problems we solved is that a lot of developers use template files that contain HTML markup and embedded code. We built a subsystem that lets people define the languages. We’re shipping with eight different formats,” said Promislow, adding that those eight formats include Ruby mixed with HTML and Python mixed with HTML, also known as Django.

“Komodo is aware of which part of the file [developers are] editing. You get code completion, you get tag completion, and you get the auto indenting. Up to this point, most developers have preferred to use something like Vim, because these editors don’t do anything,” said Promislow. He added that the Komodo team did its best to keep features from getting in developers’ way, thus hoping to lure programmers away from command-line editors.

DYNAMIC WEB
That philosophy extends to IDE’s new AJAX and DOM tooling. Komodo 4.0 adds a DOM inspector and AJAX debugging tools that can be used with active server connections. Promislow said that Komodo can jump in between a server and its client, and inject code dynamically before it arrives at its destination. This helps developers who are testing or experimenting with layouts, he said.

“You can be in the middle of debugging JavaScript, and you can drop to the interactive shell and drop AJAX code in there dynamically,” said Promislow. “You can change an image or add a paragraph interactively, rather than making a change in the editor.”

For future releases, extensibility will play a key role, said Matt Herdon, product manager for Komodo. He said that because Komodo is based on Mozilla, and is very similar to Firefox in architecture, the IDE can be extended in the same manner as the browser. With version 4.0, ActiveState has exposed this extensibility to third-party developers for the first time.

The US$295 Komodo 4.0 will run under Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. While previous versions of the IDE have run under Solaris, Komodo 4.0 will not be brought to that operating system, said Herndon, due to lack of interest from customers.


Share this link: http://www.sdtimes.com/link/30035
 

Add comment


Name*
Email*  
Country     


  • Comment
  • Preview
Loading