in reply to Free Perl IDE for a begginer

Hi,
since you are writing about your troubles with programming at all,
this is not what you've asked for, but I'll try to explain how I program in short..
I prefer to write my scripts with vi.
It's very powerful, and you'll be able to edit you scripts much faster than with the common ide's. (it also has indentation, of course)

I'm very seldom using a debugger,
if there are troubles, I normally just insert some print statements instead, both to just show me in which line the execution is as well as to print some expression's values.

You can look through the output very fast if the script is running, instead of having to watch some variables at the right time.

I guess it's also a matter of the structure of thinking:
I need to think about what WILL happen at runtime - and if there are troubles, what will happen at the next runtime and where to insert some print statements.

If you are used to a debugger, you will most likely just fire your script and watch some expressions, which show you then what HAS happened.
Instead of having to think in the whole context, you are able to look at separated parts.
This way there is no need to have the whole script's structure in your mind, instead you are able to change the separated parts to finally do what you want.

Programming is a kind of riddle to me, which is pure fun to solve.
And I guess this has something to do with how you think while programming, using a debugger always prevented me from thinking enough.

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Re^2: Free Perl IDE for a begginer
by karpatov (Beadle) on Jan 12, 2008 at 14:16 UTC
    Thanks for reply. In fact I used print(variable) system in R (before I found Sci-views), but I was always craving for the possiblity to have a graphical interface allowing to follow values of selected variables line by line - usually the error was caused by some problem well before the line causing program crashed. So having IDE with this capabilities would be nice.

    There is no danger that I would become a programming expert enjoying the beauty of the solutions. Too late for me. For me it will be always a mean to get the things done. Is the code ugly? Is it slower than necessary? I don`t care, it works and I can use the output for solving the relevant biology. Are there some general programming tips for the Seekers Of The Way Of The Lowest Resistance like me :-)?

    karpatov
[reply]
      I'm no expert.
      I just have fun with programming..

      But, ugly code is awful.
      And definitely not the way of the lowest resitance.

      Why ?
      I believe you can do fast and simple hacks - which will work and do what you want.
      But, if you e.g. instead of writing some functions, modules, .. , just hack a script with a few hundred lines without a structure at all, it will work now - but it's extremely hard to maintain such a thing.

      So instead of thinking about a concept - which needs some time -, and having the experience that it's possible to materialize your thoughts in a program, you just hack it down. And if there are needed changes in the script (as always), the script will get uglier and uglier - until you don't know anymore at all what the heck is happening in your program. Which is quite frustrating, time expensive, and you'll need a debugger(.-)).

      On the other hand I've always made the experience that some thoughts about the structure before starting to code pay out.
      It's a great feeling to me to find solutions - and you'll be able to change your scripts with much less work.

      So I'd like to propose structured and well thought solutions - Although perhaps this could seem like unneccessary work

      Have fun :-)
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