Building OpenKomodo on Mac OSX

Posted by tom June 22nd, 2008

So, how to build OpenKomodo on Mac OSX.

Prerequisites

Download ActivePython 2.5.2.2 from here and install it, it’s a free download. Also get MacPorts and make sure you have it setup.

Step 1 – Getting the source

Getting the source is easy: svn co http://svn.openkomodo.com/repos/openkomodo/trunk openkomodo

Step 2 – Building Mozilla

If you don’t have a ~/.cvspass, just touch one, otherwise you’re in or a lot of warnings. The do cd openkomodo/mozilla and give a python build.py configure -k 4.4 --moz-src=cvs:1.8 --release --no-strip --shared --tools. This should generate a config.py. Then do a python build.py distclean all

Step 3 – Building Komodo

First issue an export PATH=`pwd`/util/black:$PATH and then do bk configure, bk build

Step 4 – Running Komodo

bk run

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Remote file editing

Posted by tom June 21st, 2008

Recently I need to do a lot of remote file editing (again). I really want to use TextMate, together with ExpanDrive, but using source-control-management together with mounting a remote volume is a caching-nightmare. TextMate won’t see any differences (technically there aren’t any – because ExpanDrive isn’t seeing them) and swapping windows between Safari/Firefox and TextMate is so terribly slow (TextMate check’s the project-tree for changes) that it just isn’t funny anymore.

This is becoming so impractical that I started to look for alternatives, which are also multi-platform. Anyway lately I find TextMate development slowing down, perhaps not rightfully so – but it is a one-man show, where as ViM or Emacs have a whole community behind them (as it’s open source).

What about ViM?

ViM has a relatively steep learning curve, but doable – but I found quite a few issues or problems. Navigating/editing multiple files with ViM is another story, I just can’t get my head around the Project plugin – nor does it really work well for remote file systems.

Or Emacs?

I’ve always said that Emacs isn’t an editor, it’s an operating system – which for me was a reason to not have a look at it at first. But then again, why not? For Mac there’s Aquamacs Emacs, which is a Mac OSX version of Emacs. That together with ECB – the Emacs Code Browser and TRAMP – Transparant remote file access – you get a very TextMate like experience. A quick demo shows that it can do a lot of things. Oh and you get LISP – well … Emacs LISP

Here’s a screenshot:

Or Komodo IDE / Edit?

First I’ve tried Komodo Edit, which is a fine editor, you can edit remote files, but it doesn’t have a code explorer or built-in source-control. Komodo IDE has both, but source-control does not work for remote files, so no use for me (yet). I think once it would have remote file source-control it would be a fine editor.

So in the meantime I might as well use Komodo Edit. Okay and now here’s something very interesting: ActiveState and Mozilla, jointly started the OpenKomodo project. They’re set out to create an open source (integrated) development environment. As you probably know Komodo is built using Mozilla XUL technology. So most of the coding is done in XML/XUL, JavaScript and C/C++.

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Lua & Io

Posted by tom June 10th, 2008

Recently I’ve (re)discovered Lua (‘LOO-AH’ if you’re English or ‘LOE-AAH’ – if you’re Dutch) and Io.

First – Lua is a neat little language, which can be embedded very well, but can also be used as a standalone language. It has a VM, you can compile your code and it has a very small footprint.

It’s also used more frequently than you would think, of course in games (WoW, SimCity) but also in Adobe Lightroom. LEGO Mindstorms NXT can also use Lua as firmware (pbLua) and will then run the interpreter off of a console.

Second – Io is another neat little language, which can be embedded as well. Also Io has a VM, for which you can compile your code.

As far as I am aware it’s less used than Lua, but perhaps that’ll change?

Anyway, both languages interest me, so from now on I will also write something about Lua & Io here once in a while.

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rails.vim - Rails & Vim

Posted by tom June 2nd, 2008

Just came across a good tutorial on rails.vim

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