in reply to Komodo 5.1 versus the others.

I started out using an early version of Komodo 4 and, despite random crashes and hangs (especially during debugging) I found it a very useful tool. I was especially pleased that they had a heavy discount for a 'personal' version (1/10 the price of the pro version) and ended us buying a personal edition at home and a pro edition at work. In fact that price structure made up for many of the bugs, crashes and hangs.

However with version 5 they dropped the personal edition and bumped the price of the pro version - I was not happy and resisted upgrading to 5 for several years, despite they had fixed a bug I'd submitted against 4 in 5. I've now upgraded to 5 and it does have a lot of nice new stuff and is a lot more stable than the 4 series was. But I'm still pissed off that they don't offer the personal edition any more, to the extent that I no longer evangalize for Komodo - are you listening ActiveState?

True laziness is hard work

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Re^2: Komodo 5.1 versus the others.
by Burak (Chaplain) on Aug 13, 2009 at 09:36 UTC
    The real problem is: Komodo does not have a rival IMHO. Once you try it, you never look back :) Eclipse is clumsier and uglier than Komodo the last time I checked. Maybe Padre can rival it at some point, but it's just a baby now. And I agreee about the 4x series, it was crashing a lot. I feel comfortable in Komodo but it's way too expensive and no discounts for even open source project licensing (for example). At least they offer Komodo Edit for free though...
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      Once you try it, you never look back :)

      Proper verb-age is "Once I try it, I never look back"

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Re^2: Komodo 5.1 versus the others.
by Herkum (Parson) on Aug 14, 2009 at 14:17 UTC

    I started out using an early version of Komodo 4 and, despite random crashes and hangs

    That was because your were late to the game, you should have bought version 3.1 like I did! :) 3.1 was pretty stable for me.

    As for the upgrading to the Pro edition, $300, for my personal use? What am I getting, bug fixes for older editions, GRRR, extended support for PHP and Python, why would I want that? Those were the two big things I have seen added to Komodo and neither of them represented a $300 value to me.

    And if I am going to get any more value of it besides it being a syntax checking application, I would need to add short-cuts using the toolbox( shortcuts for commands to run against the current code). If I have to extend functionality myself, why would I pay someone for that?

    Komodo is $100 editor, and nothing more, until is starts looking and acting like a true IDE(like Visual Studio), I ain't gonna spend a dime more for it.

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      I use Visual Studio heavily at work and Komodo somewhat, which reflects the balance between the amount of C++ and the amount of Perl I develop. In most ways Komodo is at least as good as an integrated debugger as VS - better than VS2009 in fact where MS have broken fundamental stuff such as breakpoints!

      For the stuff I do at work and where the productivity boost justifies the cost the price of the pro version is not a disincentive. For the Perl programming that I do at home, for which there is no remuneration and the productivity boost is less relevant, the cost of the pro version of Komodo is a complete blocker. The 'personal edition' that was available for Komodo 3.x was great for a my home use and I was responsible for the purchase of three copies - 2 x pro for work and personal for home.

      Stability is a good reason to upgrade actually. 5.1 is much more stable, especially during debugging, than 3.x was. It was exactly that issues that drove me to upgrading at work. Actually, now I think about it, it was 3.x I was using. Komodo changed their price structure going to 4 and pissed me off to the extent I held off until well into the 5.x life cycle before upgrading.

      True laziness is hard work
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        When I refer to VS being better than Komodo, I mean that the overall experience is better. For example, to configure language-specific syntax highlighting is a chore. Configuring more complicated parts of the application are not intuitive and basically cuts out the overall utility of the application(example, the web server configuration environment). I am trying to do Perl development, not be a Komodo Application Specialist.

        Another issue I have with Komodo is the application is building my applications. In VS, you are working on a 'Project' and so when you go to build it, it knows where everything is and how to run unit tests and gives compile time warnings for everything and which file it is a problem When you build it.

        I would love for Komodo to create a standard CPAN distribution that I can install and 'build' as a project instead of just linking to all the files. I can create shortcuts to run individual commands, but when I using an IDE but that is what the IDE is supposed to do for you.

        Another problem I have with Komodo is that is not just a Perl IDE, but PHP, and Python (and probalbly some other stuff as well) as well. While I understand it is trying to broaden its customer base, it does not really shine in comparison with IDE's that are floating around. At best it is just a mediocre experience. It is better than a text editor, but not a drastic change.

        I am not a big fan of Microsoft's products, but I just cow-eyed when I see all the stuff that VS has to offer. I think Perl's popularity as a commercial language would drastically pick up if there was a VS-like application for Perl. I mean VS and Microsoft stuff is so popular not because it is a superior product, but because any idiot can turn out something in a few months of time and it does not look like crap. The backend maybe cluster-f**k but since when did most businesses bother looking at the backend code.

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