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<p>I don't agree that tools help in general, but only in specific
tasks. Dialyzer, Xref, common test, all help in their specific
tasks. In particular, the tools mentioned in this thread would
help other developers to understand some existing code written by
someone else. They probably wouldn't help me to understand my own
code better, although they could probably help me to find more
bugs or to help me restructure the code if I ever needed to.<br>
<br>
Before I can start writing a new program I always start with a pen
and paper, away from the computer. Only once I have everything
"sorted out" in my mind, I start coding using Emacs. It's the
closest you can get to pen and paper. I am comfortable using IDEs
but I don't tend to use them unless required by the task at hand
(e.g. when doing GUI's or when they are better supported than
command line, e.g. XCode, or Visual Studio).<br>
<br>
So, I wouldn't exaggerate the tools, although different people
approach this problem differently. Some people study better
reading a book and some watching video. Some people are better
programmers with an IDE and for some (like me) it's an unnecessary
burden (and overload of my brain). Having said that, the one area
when tools are indispensable and should always be worked on is the
automation of daunting and obvious tasks that I, as a developer,
shouldn't have to do. Running tests is one example. Installing
software, keeping backups, renaming function names in multiple
files, intelligently searching for specific code fragments, etc.
The more of them and the more things they can do automatically for
me the more time I have to write code in Emacs.<br>
<br>
However, many of those tools seem to be intelligent because they
have too many options. A tool works great when it has few options
working 99% of the time with default values, but can be extended
to a great deal when the extra mile is needed. Many tools, often
IDEs, burden users with these unnecessary options. When I need to
rename a function name in all my files and a tool that could do it
for me shows me 100 options, I would rather prefer to do it
manually.<br>
<br>
Greg<br>
</p>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 02/05/2016 12:50, Vlad Dumitrescu
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAA-EFXsWGs1xGxgJg1NkZ8vS1oMg8Ka++Cn7XpddkvBENCMAvQ@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, May 2, 2016 at 1:56 PM, Joe
Armstrong <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:erlang@gmail.com" target="_blank">erlang@gmail.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div id=":mq" class="a3s aXjCH">Virtually all the code I
write is in the form of "micro experiments" -<br>
since I'm not sure what will happen if I do something.
The "big" or<br>
complete program<br>
can be written once all the micro-experiments have been
done.<br>
<br>
When I can't write the code - it is always because I
haven't<br>
understood the problem - this is very frustrating I
*think* I've<br>
understood the problem - yet the fact I can't write the
code is a<br>
clear sign that I have not understood the problem - but
I do not yet<br>
know why.<br>
<br>
Loading the problem into my brain, sleeping, more study,
playing the piano,<br>
a glass of wine, stoking the cat usually solves the
problem (or not).<br>
<br>
IDE's in all their glory help me type the solution to my
problem into<br>
the computer - but they do not help me formulate the
correct problem<br>
in the first place.<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
All true, Joe, we can't know what we don't know and no amount
of the technology we are talking about (i.e. not things that
stimulate the brain's creativity and whatnot) will help with
that. </div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_extra">However, helper tools can help us be
faster and more flexible when writing the micro-experiments,
which means we can try more of them in the same amount of time
and if we have a slightly higher-level view over them maybe we
can easier see new ways to combine them, that would otherwise
get hidden in the boilerplate code. The tools can also help
write a correct final version, too (even if it is just by
eliminating the need to always have to stop typing and ask
"was it keysearch(Key, List) or keysearch(List, Key)?")</div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_extra">Also, most of the developer time is
spent not thinking about new stuff, but
reading/understanding/debugging/improving existing code, and
here tools can help a lot by filtering parts irrelevant for
the current task, or by providing a higher-level view of the
code, or by making it easy to follow the execution of the
code. There was a time when I could run code in my head and I
got most often correct results, but that's not working any
more... </div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_extra">Anyway, even if they are far from
perfect, I think everybody can agree that tools help. I
consider pen and paper as tools too, by the way. I think that
the issue is that everybody has their own thought processes
and need tools that fit those, but we can't create custom
tools for every person.</div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_extra">Going back to a more practical
discussion and considering I am a tool developer, I welcome
all inputs regarding what kind of tools would help you (as in,
all of you) best. I have already started looking at a
prototype for an editor for an application's supervision
structure, as Vance talked about. I probably won't be able to
do everything myself, but it's possible that many people have
tools that they wrote for themselves and use with success -
maybe those can be shared?</div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_extra">best regards,</div>
<div class="gmail_extra">Vlad</div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
</div>
</div>
<br>
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