RE: [9fans] source code as data not text

["Richard Elberger" <richelbe@richelberger.com>]

>and while i'm not entirely clear on what exactly lac was refering 
>to, can you
>deny the usefulness of being able to "grep ^foo(" in code, or 
>suggest that a
>databasse system would make that easier somehow? again, as noted earlier,
>db-based source code systems are another failure to use the little-tools
>model appropriatly.

select .. from .. where ..

What's the difference?  The only difference I see is every time you grep you do an fopen/fclose.  With databases, information can even be cached, and can perhaps be "smarter" through cross-referencing.  While this is a generalization on a massive scale, I think it is comparable.

>
>and as dan points out, SCCS/CVS style stuff is not what's at issue here.
>

But it is -- editing, checking in/out, collaborating, etc.  To just have another editor is short-sighted.  Imo, Rational Software almost has it 100% right -- they have process, tools, and repositories integrated with 3rd party products.  They just don't have the full-blown integration/collaboration that's needed.  

>//In fact, you'd be surprised how many big software companies are already
>//moving that way...
>
>much to my dismay, i believe you. but then, i'm often suprised how many big
>companies are doing _lots_ of things i consider stupid. PeopleSoft, anyone?

But people still buy their software ... why?  Perhaps to the customers it adds value.  In any case, internal process is different than how products realize the customer's need.  Maybe your comment is about internal-Peoplesoft, which I know nothing about...

>
>the most involved syntax highlighting i find useful is 
>paren/bracket/quote/&c
>matching. i could imagine an editor that did that well (acounting for the
>language-specific escapes and such) being quite nice. more than 
>that i've not
>found useful, and it's distracting and damaging to people who're learning.
>and what acme's got now is good 95 times out of 100.
>-α.
>
>

In your particular case... acme still tires me out. When using Inferno, I use that plain-text editor instead of acme -- with the syntax highlighting for limbo.  I think it's nice to have the option.  I just wish there was a nicely integrated source management system so I wouldn't have to worry.

-- rich