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New Slick code editor; Linux drawing programmers from Windows, not Unix

• By Stephen Swoyer
• 03/20/2003

A Slick New Code Editor

SlickEdit Inc. this week announced version 8.0 of Visual SlickEdit, a revamped version of its cross-platform code editor for software developers.

Visual SlickEdit 8.0 supports C, C++, C#, Java, Verilog, Visual Basic .NET, SAS, XML and Unicode, and boasts new flexibility to support directory based projects, auto updated distributed tagging and Secure FTP (SFTP), in addition to Section 508 accessibility for blind and vision impaired developers.

In addition, Visual SlickEdit v8.0 offers enhanced support for common developer tools. For example, the company says that its editor provides users of Borland’s JBuilder development environment with editing, debugging, and building capabilities—including the automatic setup of build and compile commands. Visual SlickEdit 8.0 also ships with a new native Java debugger that features an Edit and Run capability and exceptions toolbar.

Finally, Visual SlickEdit 8.0 supports several new GNU C and C++ debugger features, including remote debugging, suspend, and a memory toolbar, in addition to new support for using Apache Jakarta Ant for doing builds. Developers who use the Concurrent Versions System (CVS) version control system can exploit SlickEdit 8.0’s graphical user interface to perform many tasks that were previously accomplished via a command line.

Visual SlickEdit 8.0 is available on Windows platforms immediately, with availability on Linux, Solaris SPARC, AIX, HP-UX and IRIX to follow in April.

Linux Attracts Windows Developers

Linux may be stealing share from entrenched Unix systems in the enterprise, but when it comes to development expertise, it’s siphoning programming talent away from Windows and not Unix.

That’s the upshot of research from Evans Data Corp., which conducted a recent survey of Linux developers. According to Evans Data, 52 percent of developers reported coming to Linux from Windows environments, as distinct from the 30 percent who reported prior experience with some form of Unix.

Evans Data also found that while most Linux developers—61 percent—agreed that compilers are of critical performance, 25 percent believed that the compilers currently available for Linux are either adequate or need work.

In addition, although 56 percent of Linux programmers indicated that 64-bit architectures are important development platforms for their companies, most acknowledged that they still use 32-bit architectures.

Although there’s a perception in the marketplace that Linux is locked in a death struggle with Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating environments, a recent report from the Goldman Sachs Group projected that Linux’ encroachment into the data center would come at the expense of Sun Microsystems Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP), and other vendors—such as IBM Corp.—that have traditionally marketed high-end Unix solutions.