Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!synaptx!glenn
From: glenn@synaptx.Synaptics.Com (Glenn Gribble)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: C++ Development Environments
Message-ID: <477@synaptx.Synaptics.Com>
Date: 28 Nov 89 18:25:37 GMT
References: <1142@godot.radonc.unc.edu>
Reply-To: glenn@synaptics.com (Glenn Gribble)
Organization: Synaptics Inc., San Jose, CA
Lines: 40

In article <1142@godot.radonc.unc.edu>
	thorn@godot.radonc.unc.edu (Jesse Thorn) writes:
>In particular, I was wondering if there 
>are any graphics-oriented tools that display class hierarchies and 
>provide a "point-and-click" interface to class and method editors. 
>
>Anyone care to comment on ParcPlace's ObjectWorks?

For reference, our main C++ project is a 40k line simulation environment
that is worked on by 3 people concurrently.  We use SCCS and weird
makefiles to make everything go.  For browsing, we use GNU emacs and
some weird tag file things.

I looked at ObjectWorks about one month ago.  We decided not to get it.

Good Points:
  Based on 2.0.
  Source level debugger.
  Nice looking browser.

Bad Points:
  The user interface is entirely mouse-driven.
    There are few missing features in the debugger that are available
    in the underlying debugger, but are not available because there
    is no mouse way of accessing them.
    I prefer to use command-line interfaces in many cases.  It is not
    always more efficient to select a variable name from a scrolling
    list.
  ObjectWorks is a single-user enviroment.
    To compile stuff in ObjectWorks, you need to "import" the source
    files from the outside world.  ObjectWorks computes its own
    dependencies, so existing makefiles are ignored.  It does not
    seem to work with SCCS.

If I was the only person working on a project, or if I had to maintain
a project (especially if written by someone else), I would consider
ObjectWorks for purchase.  I think ObjectWorks may also be a good way
to get familiar with an existing project.
-- 
Glenn Gribble	 	glenn@synaptics.com 	uunet!synaptx!glenn