Perfect IDE

My perfect IDE/text editor has the following features:

  • Java support. And extensible to support other languages. Preferably has existing libs/files for Perl, C#, Ruby, Python, PHP, ASP/VBScript.
  • Runs on Windows. Preferably cross platform for when (if) I make a jump to Linux or OS X as my main platform, and for when I am dabbling in those platforms.
  • Brilliant regex support.
  • Code completion. Intellisense (as in Visual Studio) where it understands the object model and supplies only methods of an object (for example) that exist on that object.
  • Unlimited undo.
  • Fast. Starts fast and stays fast when running.

To me that doesn’t look an unachievable list but my prime candidates all fall short:

Ultraedit doesn’t have the IDE-defining capability of understanding what the text files it is working on mean, therefore it cannot do Intellisense.

JEdit is too slow and Intellisense support is patchy and from a third party.

Visual Studio is just about there but only supports .NET languages.

IntelliJ IDEA is great, if very large/slow. But it only does Java.

My only hopes are Emacs (which doesn’t feel like a Windows application when running on Windows) and Eclipse (which at least aspires to supporting many languages though it is slow and uninituitive). I will investigate both of these further.

Basically I want Ultraedit (or any other really good text editor) with Intellisense. Or failing that Visual Studio/IntelliJ IDEA with support for all languages. Any suggestions?

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Published:
2005.05.06
Category:
Programming