development environments WAS: from lightweight languages to heavyweights

... and while we're on the subject of development environments, I  
must say that VAJava was very nice.  It got almost all the basics right:

* Fully integrated version control (Although I seem to remember that  
it didn't quite have the full ENVY feature set)
* Dynamic language execution (via the Scrapbook or Workbook or whatever)
* Contextual navigation (show senders, implementers, etc)
* Incremental compilation with visible (but unobtrusive) error  
notification/management

Of course, it got the first three from Smalltalk, but the fourth was  
novel and not something I've seen in any other development  
environment.  I haven't looked at Eclipse since it first came out, so  
I don't know how much of this it carried forward.

Full Disclosure: While I loved VAJava, I always got lots of pushback  
whenever I tried to get other Java coders to use it instead of other  
environments.  YMMV

david

On Nov 15, 2005, at 3:09 PM, Avi Bryant wrote:

> In that vein, though, I don't think it's much of a stretch to see  
> Eclipse as a rewrite of VAJ from Smalltalk to Java.  Assuming you  
> count Smalltalk as lightweight (and if CL counts, it certainly does).
>
> Avi
>
>
>