[wp-hackers] Different background colors for different code blocks to help keep organized code

[Eric Andrew lewis]

I’ve found Netbeans on Mavericks to be a beachball party (https://netbeans.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=237301).  

--  
Eric Andrew lewis
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On Tuesday, December 3, 2013 at 10:32 AM, Jeremy Clarke wrote:

> One thing to keep in mind is that IDEs like PHPStorm/NetBeans/Aptana are
> all super-powerful, but it's very easy to fail to take advantage of that
> power. They've all got hundreds of features, some of which you need to
> ignore (to maintain your sanity) and others that you need to seek out to
> take advantage of.
>  
> In terms of your original question I think you're probably on the wrong
> track looking for "highlighting" of code blocks. Instead you should make
> sure that you're making full use of the following features in whatever IDE
> you choose:
>  
> - "Go to declaration" which will let you select a function/method and
> jump to it's definition.
> - "Find usages" which will search out all uses of a
> function/method/variable.
> - "Code folding" which will let you collapse sections of a document so
> that the parts you're working on are closer together. (NetBeans and
> probably others also have a "Collapse All/Expand All" feature that folds
> the entire document, a great way to get a bird's-eye view of your code.
>  
> FWIW making your code easy to navigate isn't just about tools, sometimes
> you also need to re-organize your code to make it easier to work with. If
> most of your code is contained in monolithic functions that handle input,
> query the DB and output HTML then the "Go to declaration" feature of an IDE
> will still take you to an unmanageable mess. Having your program logic
> broken up into small, focused bits of code will make it easier to find what
> you need whether you're using the scroll wheel, a basic search tool or a
> full suite of IDE tools.
>  
> I did a WordCamp talk about using IDEs (NetBeans as example) a couple years
> ago, might be worth checking out:
>  
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sWllWP3NKM
>  
>  
> P.S. On choosing an IDE: I've used NetBeans for a long time and find it
> extremely useful, but it's been buggier than usual lately, especially the
> latest release (7.4). Performance-wise it's been shockingly up-and-down
> over the years, usually bouncing back from the points where it got really
> laggy. That said I usually have it running on a fairly-powerful MacBook, so
> if you've got a budget rig you'll probably have a different experience.
> PHPStorm seems like the obvious choice as a commercial alternative, I would
> switch if I wasn't so comfortable with my NetBeans setup.
>  
> --  
> Jeremy Clarke • jeremyclarke.org (http://jeremyclarke.org)
> Code and Design • globalvoicesonline.org (http://globalvoicesonline.org)
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