I’ll be honest… I really don’t have an answer for you. I like the relatively simple and uncluttered appearance of a standalone text editor; however, most IDEs do have modes that look like that. I guess it’s just a matter of BBEdit/TextWrangler being what I’ve used for a long time now.

If I’m working on a project, I use an IDE (Xcode usually — my non-Mozilla work is pretty much all Mac code), although I’ve installed Komodo and a couple of others to look at, I’ve not had time to do so yet). But when I’m writing docs, which is what I usually do, it’s often easier to just “bbedit idlfilenamehere” from Terminal and start reading.

(Apparently you did, I have received your message.)

(fine print: I’m a Komodo developer)

What for you makes the difference between IDE and “standalone text editor”? Is it things like speed of starting up and memory footprint or is it a feeling that an IDE might dictate project/solution/perspective usage, debugging infrastructure, code generation, locked in build system, “stuff” that gets in the way?

My usage of Komodo tends to be mainly as just a (good) text editor and a lot of effort is made in Komodo to keep it very usable that way (open a file and start editing — all the rest is just sugar). I’d like to understand whether some concept of what “IDE” implies colors your impression of Komodo.

Yes, please — I could sure use the help from an expert at writing these things. Being at Mozilla, open source has particular appeal to me, so that’d be a great way to go (not to mention it’d make a nice example for others).

I’d be happy to help with the IDL module. I could either get you started, provide guidance, do the whole thing and send you the code, or we could do it as an open-source project hosted at the site of your choice. Or I could buzz off and mind my own business, if that’s your preference.

Send me an email if you’d like my involvement.

Personal preference thing, I guess.

Komodo is a good piece of software, but when I’m just doing edits and viewing of individual files, I generally prefer a standalone text editor instead of a full-fledged IDE.

I really recommend TextMate! Seems like there’s actually an IDL bundle available (http://macromates.com/wiki/Bundles/IDL). It’s not shipped by default, so one has to download it and install it.