dynamic execution

I started to implement dynamic script execution in Tide. A main feature and advantage of dynamic languages is that you can execute code fragments on the fly with a special console and interact with the interpreter a runtime.
Tide now has such a console integrated and commands can be evaluated there in. Next thing will be to give this console the environment of edited scripts, so that the programmer can interact with his scripts/programs directly.. e.g. to try out new things, query variables and objects for debugging or other nice things that you never get with compiled languages.

Still very energizing to do this. It took me less than one day yesterday to implement the console and to integrate it. Ok, it can be enhanced further (as it always can…) but it is already very stable and usable.
Well, now the weather gets better – so I will stop playing on Tide for today and get out…

It’s winter

There is a good way to keep the snow- and cold injured depressions / bad mood at a minimum: It is winter, and it will be winter further on. It is not spring yet – and this is the way it is.

Does it help already ;-)?

Tloona progress

It is very energizing to work on Tide. I do this only in boring moments in my spare time (of which there are many with the weather we have at the moment ;-) – and it is always surprising and fun to see how fast I make progress and get things done.
Code completion is at a very good stage now and already sooo helpful. I have code completion for variables (on typing the $ sign) and commands (on typing either :: or <Control-space>). Next thing to do is to bring in procedures that the developer has created in the script(s) and propose ensemble subcommands. A more complicated task, that is still open, is to have code completion for Itcl objects. This is tricky because with Tcl’s dynamic type system there is no way to find out the type of an object during editing. I think I will implement the real time code execution first and then try to get the object information from running code…
Still, I use Tide already to work on a project at work – and this is fine

Funny copycats

It is funny how other technologies, like Mono, try to gain some of the simplicity and power of Tcl/Tk’s GUI development facilities. You browse through some sites and see screenshots like this.

I bet, in reality it crashes after the third mouse click and leaves you alone and gone with the work you invested in the last two hours. The Mono people do a great job – really – but they should focus more on polish and stability. I have had only bad experiences with MonoDevelop so far.