[Python-Dev] Building on Windows (was Re: A "new" kind of leak)

[Tim Peters]

[Neil Schemenauer]
> Source Insight?

Yup, that's it.

> I tried it out yesterday.  It looks pretty cool.  If they ported it to
> Linux (Qt?) I would consider spending the $250 for it.

It's Win32+Intel only.  All evidence to date suggests it's a one-man shop,
and I'm pretty sure the founder answered the phone to take my order for 2.0
originally, and again a year later when I bought the 3.0 upgrade.  Ordering
over the web is a New Feature (and about time, if the founder really was
answering the phone!).

> Unfortunately it crashes under the latest version of Wine.

I have a cure:  upgrade to Windows <wink>.

> I'm going to have to look at cscope one of these days.

It sounds similar in building a database of C symbols, but much less
dynamic.  SI keeps the database up to date by magic, via background threads
that reparse your code while you're editing, and notice when, e.g., a CVS
update changes any files in the project.  Lots of info is also displayed "by
magic".  For example, if the cursor happens to be on or in the token "ulong"
while I'm editing obmalloc.c, the Context Window automatically displays
ulong's definition (plus surrounding lines).  The Relation Window also
automatically displays a navigation tree showing all uses of ulong in the
project.  I found this very distracting at first, but now I don't want to
work without it.  For example, if I'm looking at frameobject.h, simply
putting the cursor on f_restricted shows me immediately it's used only twice
in the project, and gives me a clickable tree to display those uses in the
Context Window (all while leaving the main edit window alone).

It can get pretty silly, though.  For example, you can tell the Relation
WIndow (BTW, you can create any number of those) to display functions called
by the current function (or functions calling the current function) only if
the percentage of its lines containing control-flow operators is between 37%
and 89%.  I'd rather Ray spent his time making the editor scriptable via
Python, or even doing something commercially worthless like a Linux port
<wink>.

would-that-it-were-open-source-ly y'rs  - tim