JavaScript Editor/IDE shootout

[Igor Minar]

Hi guys,

I did a bit of editor/IDE research (part of my never-ending crusade for the almost perfect javascript editor) over the weekend and thought that some of you might be interested in my notes and maybe even pointed out things I missed:

# Kod

I tried to use it a bit but the project is not mature yet... at least not for js development.

it also seems that the author is MIA since February  when he was hired by Facebook.

So as far I'm concerned this project is dead, until I'm proven wrong.

# TextMate 1 & 2

I also looked more into what's happening with TextMate 2 and it too seems to be nowhere to be found even though it was being worked on since 2009.

I really like TM1 and I've been using it daily for the past 2 months but there are some major features that I'm missing (javascript hints, refactoring, split window editor, go to symbol within a project).

Even with https://github.com/subtleGradient/javascript-tools.tmbundle textmate's js support is quite lame.

To be fair these are things I really like about TM1:

- super fast startup

- ability to open a directory/file directly from command line

- the most advanced file lookup (via cmd+t)

It's a great general purpose editor, but not a great js editor.

# Webstorm

I don't know what it is about idea/webstorm but it just doesn't work for me. I was not able to figure out how to do basic stuff like quickly open a file, configure indentation, specify that only src/ and test/ folders contain code that should be used for autocompletion... I'd hope that all this stuff is possible, but I just can't figure it out without spending too much time on it.

One thing that I really liked were horizontal lines displaying code foldings, but I'm afraid that that's not enough for me...

# Eclipse

The ease of setup and startup speed is not as good as TextMate, but otherwise it works reasonably well. as opposed to TextMate, eclipse features editor with split window support!

In many ways Eclipse is just like NetBeans. The editors have almost the same features. There are just two main differences (for me): 1) UIs are different (not better, not worse, just different) 2) netbeans's autocompletion, js hints/error detection and jsdoc support are a lot more advanced than in eclipse

# NetBeans

The javascript editor is definitely the most advanced. The autocompletion, hints, formating, indentation, etc freaking rocks compared to everyone else.

Additional features like split window editor, ability to tail log, advanced refactoring, quick navigation with go to file / go to symbol and more.

The down side, similar to eclipse, is the startup time, but that can be slightly improved by uninstalling unneeded plugins. Also while the main UI looks good, various dialog boxes look awful, but oh well.

Anyway, as you probably guessed, once again I'm going back to using netbeans for my js coding. I'll keep TextMate around for small random edits, but otherwise I'll everything in netbeans.

I'm not quite sure what Oracle's plans for NetBeans are, but right now it is an editor/IDE that works the best for me.

cheers,

Igor

[Vojta Jina]

I have the same problems - still searching for the best tool, but that's a never-ending story.. unless you make your own editor :-D

Now I use eclipse again - it' very similar to NetBeans. Not perfect, but can't find anything better :-D

I think, it's crucial to learn the features that the advanced IDEs (eclipse, netbeans...) offer and spend some time to configure it, find right plugins, etc...

My eclipse is still running... (I only switch the projects) For quick editing random files etc... I use vim...

To be honest, I believe VIM is the best... but you have to learn how to use it :-D, I've seen couple of people to do pretty amazing stuff in Vim...

I only add one link to Komodo, looks good, but I didn't try it...

http://www.activestate.com/komodo-ide

V.

[Igor Minar]

Oh yeah... vim will always have place in my heart. I use it daily, but I'm sure I don't utilize even 50% of all the features it offers.

/i

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[Mårten Dolk]

I love the js editor in NetBeans :-)

Igor, do you have a trick to how to setup/import a project which isn't
a Java project? All the standard project wizards seems to assume Java
using Maven or Ant...

/mårten

2011/8/15 Igor Minar <iim...@gmail.com>:

[Igor Minar]

I just trick it with a maven pom.xml in the root of my project (see below).

It's not ideal because the project view tries hard to list java packages and classes. I hide the file lister and use Go To File/Go To Symbol almost exclusively.

Screenshot of my setup is attached.

/i

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"

  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">

  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

  <groupId>org.angularjs</groupId>

  <artifactId>AngularJS</artifactId>

  <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>

  <packaging>pom</packaging>

  <name>AngularJS</name>

  <build>

    <sourceDirectory>src</sourceDirectory>

    <testSourceDirectory>test</testSourceDirectory>

  </build>

</project>

[Mårten Dolk]

Ok, cool. Thanks!

[Charif Belhaffef]

that's exactly what i need .. (^_^ )

thank's