Review of featured applications

[Robert Ancell]

On 26/03/10 14:05, Shane Fagan wrote:
>> - Remove Eclipse
>>     - Huge download
>>     - Only supports Java out of the box
>>     - The Eclipse brand is strong enough that it doesn't need promoting
>>      
> Im going to go out on the limb and suggest we replace it with
> Monodevelop it supports mono,java,python,vala....etc although require
> the user to install the support for each language.
>    
My review of all the supplied IDEs showed MonoDevelop to appear to be 
the easiest to use, but:
- I've never used an IDE for any significant period of time
- I didn't use any of the proposed IDEs to do more that write a hello 
world program.

We need to consider what sort of user clicks on featured applications 
and which users would benefit from the suggested IDE.
My experience of IDE users is:
  - They're generally passionate users who have a preferred IDE (much 
like text editors for non-IDE programmers).  So by suggesting an IDE 
we're targeting people who haven't already chosen an IDE.
  - IDEs tend be a part of a developer package.  If we suggest 
MonoDevelop will users link well to documentation and the developer 
community?  Or will it just be a fancy text editor/compiler?

Saying it in a simpler way:
- Will an IDE encourage people to learn programming?
- Will opportunistic developers be able to use it to complete their 
desired project?
- Will experienced developers find the suggested IDE helpful or will 
they already use their existing IDE/do the research themselves?