Amiga IDEs

@Tuvok

After years of writing nothing but Arexx scripts, I decided I wanted to try some "real" programming this year. I chose Chris' PortablE, swayed by his argument that its better than C. I've been using Lite-XL for arexx, so I feel comfortable using it to write E source code, although the lack of a menu stymies me. I know "real hackers" love their short-cut keys, but my brain doesn't work like that.

Apart from the difficulty of finding time, it's tough to figure how to do things. The beauty of arexx is that, in itself it doesn't do much, it just tells other applications to do something and works with the result. If you can write a dos command, you can write an arexx script to execute it.

I decided to start with turning an arexx script that I wrote that extracts archives in bulk. I was able to create the gui easy enough (except a menu, can't get that to work), but I really struggle with getting it to do anything else. There's just not enough examples. I might have to switch to C, but I might have the same problem.

Double post

@Tuvok

Quote:

I have no idea which "website" you are referring to. It might be better to message me directly if you have an issue to resolve....

We are always here to help.

Simon

@daveyw

Look here https://cshandley.co.uk/portable/ it has some examples that may help you: https://cshandley.co.uk/portable/examples/

Example 2: SimpleModPlayer.e
https://cshandley.co.uk/portable/examples/SimpleModPlayer.e

Example 6: SimpleCalculator.e
https://cshandley.co.uk/portable/examples/SimpleCalculator.e

"basic code":
-open resources
-create gui
-listen to gui events (loop)
-close gui
-close resources

@jabirulo

Yes, I 've looked at those examples alot, very helpful for building a gui. But as for achieving other things, such as executing a dos function and parsing results, I haven't made any progress.

@walkero

Hi! Thank you for the links! ) I have started reading the information and watched 2 of the videos. The week en will bring some more "free" time with it.

@daveyw

I like ARexx a lot.
There is some package on the Aminet to facilitate to write GUIs with ARexx, RxMUI and MUIRexx. I supposes you used one of them to create the GUI for your Dearchiver. I had tried them some time back, but something didn't work as expected under OS4 and I gave up. Might be that since then it has been fixed in the OS.
Also I do remember there was a compiler for ARexx on Aminet, don't know if it works.

There are a lot of guides on Aminet about ARexx, I have not read them all, maybe you can find the information you are looking for there?.

Also there are some good paperback books one can still find.

M.F. Cowlishaw The Rex Language A Practical Approach to programming
ISBN 0-13-780735-X 01
ISBN 0-13-780651-5
ISBN 0-13-779067-8

Robert P. O'Hara and David Roos Gomberg "Modern programming using Rexx" ISBN 0-13-597329-5

Chris Zamara and Nick Sullivan Using ARexx on the Amiga
ISBN 1-55744-114-6

@Rigo

Hi, I was in the assumption that www.codebench.co.uk was your website. I used the web form in the "Contact" page.

I don't think I saved the message I wrote, but basically I inquired about the price of CodeBench and asked how to purchase it.

Best regards

@daveyw

I will habe a look at Portabl-E, but at the moment I'd like to focus on C. I already ordered the book Trixie suggested (3rd edition), it should arrive tomorrow at the book store.

@Tuvok

Stick with C. Most tutorials and examples concerning Amiga system programming are in C, so you have much more reference available (compared to Amiga-E).

@TuvokQuote:

Firstly, let me extend apologies for the lack of reply to your message. We have had problems with server migration and loss of service, so perhaps it got lost in some of those shenanigans.

Regarding the "commercial" version of CodeBench, while we appreciate all of the enquires we have had, currently we are not committed to a 100% consumer release.

Yes, we all know it has been many years in the making, and most of it has been down to feature-creep, which has been mainly to blame for trying to make it the best product we can produce.

There has been many improvements since the last public release, and the project is by no means dead, despite popular speculation.

We are hoping to get a new release out soon, so stay tuned to the website, and many thanks to you, and all out users out there, who have stuck with us throughout the years.

Simon

@Rigo That is FANTASTIC news. Thanks Simon. So glad it's not dead.

But what do you mean by "not committed to a 100% consumer release" ?

@davec555

That's a traditional English thing called "understatement". It means that it's not going to happen any time soon

Today the "C for dummies" finally arrived. There was some delays. I am waiting for the Dennis Ritchie and Brian Kernighan book.

@trixie thank you! for the suggestion about the book. It has a lot of pages! It's a big book!
Those "...for dummies" books I am used to see are mostly small. haha

I will follow your advice about sticking to "C". Maybe much later on I will have a look at Portable-E.

@Rigo

Thank you for the explanation and for continuing de development.

I hope however that an update will be released soon. My setup is afflicted by some freezes too.

Also there is an issue with a "Dictionary" file, I didn't quite understand what it is for and why it gives the error.
I just was eager to try a hello world program. I will try to figure out about the dictionary and maybe install CodeBench again into a new folder.

I hope You will release a new version soon, and that trixies understatement explanation was just meant as a joke.

@Tuvok

Just my 2pw since I'm not a desperately active developer on OS4, but...

I like codebench, it's nice as it gets you a makefile together quickly, but alas ultimately I find it feels very 90's IDE-like. Kinda how I remember Borland and very early Visual Studio to be.

Most of the time I get a basic Makefile going and then use LiteXL. I like LiteXL. But then I find it very similar to VSCode and while I prefer Jetbrains tools for my professional work (Java EE) I have used VSCode plenty enough for it to be familiar to me.

FWIW, in LiteXL, if you want to do something and don't know how, hit Shift | Ctrl | P and start typing what you want it to do. There's a good chance it will know. For example, want to go fullscreen but don't know how? Shift | Ctrl | P... "fullscreen" and you'll see the command list has been whittled down and you just hit tab and enter. Bingo, fullscreen.

I tend to have LiteXL fullscreen on the next public screen and use to toggle backwards and forwards to a command prompt where I run make, etc. Works well for me. I need to remember how to edit the modifiers back to "command" instead of "control" but I'll remember that at some point, I did it before but it gets overwritten every time you update.

One thing that drives me insane is the editors insistence on being "clever" (really it's dumb!) about tabs versus spaces and how many of each. But I looked it up and it's just crap by design so I doubt it will ever change so I put up with it. It really drives me mad though.