Is Komodo a dead-end

Discussions
1

Hi

Some years ago I used Komodo and recently I wanted to give it at try again, I even bought a license, but…

Over the last 8-10 days I have seen so many small things that does not really work.

Komodo is at version 9, so ‘simple’ things like skins and color schemes should be rock solid, but its not Example - I have a ‘dark’ skin so the Editor part is dark, but the ‘Project sidebar’ and ‘Toolbox sidebar’ is still light colors and totally different.

PHP condeintel work sometimes and komodo does not support major PHP frameworks

The number of add-ons are very limited

Does not know that it is running in multi monitor setup e.g. I have Komodo on my ‘Left’ screen, but all dialog opens on the right screen, in other words they do not open relative to the IDE but relative to one screen

It’s very difficult to make your own API catalog to improve the codeintel - or at least the documentation on how to make it work is hidden

looking at http://komodoide.com/testimonials/ one gets the impression that Komodo is really good, but hey… most of the statements is 2-3-4 years old

What is the purpose of the ‘Console’, i would assume that it was for fast executing 'console/command line/ functions in the current directory or project directory… No
A side note: I actually just went to: http://docs.komodoide.com/manual/Console-Pane to get some more details, but again, a dead end

I really hope that I’m wrong and that someone can prove me wrong so i do not feel that Komodo is a waste of time and money.

2

You’re confusing with skins and color schemes - skins affects everything but not the editor area, color schemes affect only editor area and nothing more. If you want to configure colors of your side panes and other things - install TabulaRasa skin, it allows to change colors of panes and icons.

What frameworks? It’s hard to support most of frameworks because of their dynamic structure (SPL autoloading, namespace replacements, etc.). You can create a simple helper. For Laravel there’s the “laravel-ide-helper” repository: GitHub - barryvdh/laravel-ide-helper: IDE Helper for Laravel and I believe there are IDE helpers for most popular frameworks.

I don’t follow your idea here. How number of add-ons affects “dead-end” status of any application? In IDE there are a lot of features out of the box and the only one add-on I regularly install is Emmet because of its Expand Abbreviation feature.

That’s a bug and it’s filed here:

That’s right, Komodo devs still working on the documentation :wink:

For this there’s Commando Shell scope.
Console pane is useful for add-on developers.

3

Well… if it confusing, then maybe it should be made easier for stupid users like me - For me, Color Schemes and Skins are very related, do not see why there need to be two different approaches

On purpose I did not mention any Frameworks, but I for one started to use Laravel and that is not supported, nor is Symfony, YII, Zend etc.

I do know it’s hard to support, but that is why we pay you guys to make it work :smile:

The Laravel-ide-helper does not work properly, not even simple plain PHP works properly in Komodo!

What Laravel-ide-helper is doing is creating one big file with all the class and function names, call it _ide-helper, and even with that one in the root of you directory, Komodo does not work.

In the project preference there is an option to specify directories that Komodo should scan, so even if I specify the root of any framework, or even ALL folder in my project, it still does not work.

It has absolutely nothing to do with autoloading - If Komodo is asked to scan ALL directories, then it should be ‘easy’ to jump to ‘MyClass’, even with autoloading.

Other editors like SublimeText, PHPStorm, Code Lobster etc. can make it work why not Komodo ?

well… If nobody is creating add-ons, it could indicate that there is no interest in doing so, and if there is no interest, then the product will die
I actually just tried to install Emmet and got the following: ‘The package is not compatible with your version of Komodo. Abort installation?’ - to me that indicates that the author of this package has abandon Komodo

Yes, but it is still not fixed, even if it is 8-9 months sinces it was reported - and there have been 1-2 releases in between

And they were also woking on this 3-4 years ago :smile:

If I had the possibility to add the .cix file to improve the Laravel support I would be happy to work on that, but it’s impossible to figure out how to create the file without any documentation.

I need to gigure out what that is and how it works

And that is the majority of the users ??

4

I just watched this: Komodo IDE By ActiveState - One IDE for All Your Languages - again, old… 9.1 and the CTRL-SHIFT-O gives me the Commando screen, but the shell scope is not available, at least not in 9.3.2

5

I don’t know what’s going on with PHP in your Komodo installation, it works fine for me. If you don’t mind - create a topic in Support category and I’ll try to help you.

I think that Skin and Color Scheme is two different things, because Skins can change a lot of things in Komodo UI and make it look very different than default, so it should not be merged into one setting. But I agree that the skin should adapt itself using color scheme colors. I think it will be implemented in Komodo 10 and it should be implemented in TabulaRasa. If I’ll find a time I’m gonna update TabulaRasa and add the feature.

For example I don’t have any ideas how I can extend Komodo with add-ons, it has all features I want. (except for one). You can suggest what do you want to see and maybe someone from the community will create an add-on :wink:
I’m working on an add-on btw which will add the feature I’m missing.

I’ve asked the author of add-on to update it but he’s very busy for now, he’ll update it later. You can still install this add-on, the functionality works fine.

You can bump the issue and describe it a bit more to make it more important.

Documentation is not that important as fixing issues, but they are doing their best. Also they moved documentation to docs.komodoide.com and now everyone can contribute to the documentation :smiley:

There’s a screencast for that: Komodo IDE By ActiveState - One IDE for All Your Languages
It’s like in-line bash terminal with some helpers for some tools.

In case you have something broken in Komodo you can fix it via this tool, it allows to edit some hidden preferences and do other things.

6

There were no serious changes in Commando between minor versions (9.1 and 9.3)
There’s an icon in left top of the Commando window where you can pick a category.

Pasted image490×556 32.8 KB

Also you can set up a keybinding for opening Commando with Shell scope.

7

Yes I found it - turns out that I had to ‘esc’ back as I was in the ‘Package’ section - so that is one point for Komode :smile:

8

You guys had quite a discussion already, I’ll trust Defman has answered the bulk of your questions properly :slight_smile: I’ll just address a few individually, let me know if after that you still have unanswered questions/concerns.

Komodo uses your platforms UI, the color scheme only changes the colors of the editor components and so called “HUD” elements. Note that in Komodo 10 we’ll be introducing new functionality which would let you customize colors for both the UI and the editor, and “link” them.

We’ll be introducing PSR-4 support in Komodo 10, which should address this concern for most modern PHP frameworks. As a workaround for now you could use an IDE helper such as GitHub - barryvdh/laravel-ide-helper: IDE Helper for Laravel

This is determined by your window manager (ie. your platform), with a few exceptions. Komodo “usually” does not dictate where a window/dialog opens. Please consider filing a bug if you feel there is some disconnect here that should be resolved from our end.

CodeIntel is a very complex system due to the very topic it’s about. However it would definitely make sense that we try and document some of the simpler/basic aspects of this. I’ll make an internal note of this.

This is mainly due to us not doing a good job maintaining this page rather than there being a lack of feedback. I’ll forward this concern to marketing since it is definitely a valid concern.

It is intended for developers who wish to work on Komodo itself, or for simple direct feedback when you are working on Userscripts. I think the documentation page you linked to explains this fairly well, I’m sorry it isn’t for what you want it to be for. For executing command line functions have a look at the Shell Scope.

I think the main thing is that you are confusing a Console with a terminal emulator. The two are not the same.

If the question is “Is Komodo a dead-end” then I’d say yes, you are wrong. Komodo has been around for over a decade and is still going strong. It is actively maintained and Komodo 10 is going to be a huge milestone.

That said, if your question is essentially “is it for me?” then I certainly hope the answer is yes, but at the end of the day that’s for you to decide.

9

My window manager… Komodo is the only app on my computer that behaves like this, so I’m tempted to say that it is Komodo.

Maybe I was unclear, so let me give some more details

I have 2 monitors, actually 1 and my laptop monitor, - left monitor is a extrnal screen, and right monitor is my laptop, I have komodo running on my left monitor, now when e.g. i run a command, then the dialog shows up on my right monitor, not on my left monitor where Komodo is running - it happens for all ‘dialogs’ the first time I open one, same for e.g ‘compare files’

If I use NotePad++, ultraEdit, Sublime Tetxt etc. all it’s dialogs opens relativly to the application, so I do not think it is my window manager.

There is already one bug on the subject, 8-9 months old so the ‘attention’ to this type of bugs is not that high

Welll it depends how you look at it: Console - Wikipedia
Actually supports my understanding in some way :slight_smile: :smile:

[quote=“nathanr, post:8, topic:2502”]
If the question is “Is Komodo a dead-end” then I’d say yes, you are wrong. Komodo has been around for over a decade and is still going strong.[/quote]

I know it has been around for a decade… I have just been looking in my archives and found out that I actually have a komodo 3 licenes - so I am actually comming back to Komodo to see if it coulde be my IDE of choice for PHP and maybe Android development

And the fact that Komodo is almost 10 years old, make it even worse that basic things like skins and color schemes is so unstable and can ‘screw’ up the app so easy.

in fact if i look at the log file (C:\Users\XXX\AppData\Local\ActiveState\KomodoIDE\9.3\pystderr.log) there is 8500+ lines after just 5 hours of use - Agreed, the majority is INFO and only 3-4 is Exceptions

I hope we will see something very soon - if you need beta-tester, please count me in

Well… as it is now… I’m really trying hard to make it work and I will see V10 before I give up

10

Those discussions actually makes my English a bit better, that’s why I like to talk in such topics :blush:

11

Could you provide a link to this bug?

I do not see this issue myself, it may be something that only occurs with certain platforms / desktop managers.

Well sure, technically a terminal is a type of console, but a console is not necessarily a terminal :slight_smile:

The skin functionality has undergone a lot of changes as of late, which is why you’re seeing issues with it. Something that will also happen with applications that have been around for so long is that certain components get significant overhauls from time to time, which may bring with it some instability. That’s what you’re seeing in regards to skins and is something that will be more polished out in future releases.

Yeah Komodo logging is a bit more verbose then it ought to be, but better too much than too little.

Keep an eye on our blog and twitter, we’ll be announcing the beta when it’s ready :smile:

12

He’s talking about this:

But it’s better to file a separate bug, I think.

13

Keep an eye out on http://downloads.activestate.com/Komodo/nightly/komodoide/ for betas. I tend to run the latest beta 99% of the time, and with rare exceptions it’s stable.

14

Thanks for the tip… I just don’t think it is updated… My version is 9.3.2.88191 form 10th of december 2015 and the latest online is 9.3.2.88190 from 7th of december 2015

15

It will be updated once the first nightly come.

16

They tend to follow a pattern of: periods of radio silence (which is to say, few updates) when can be interminably long, followed by a steady, regular pattern of beta releases. Right now they’re in radio silence. Sometimes that means big features on the horizon, sometimes that means nothing but polish (that needs little beta testing).

At any rate, I’ve been running betas nearly 100% of the time for as long as that url has been active, I assure you it’ll get busy eventually.

17

@neurobashing has it right :slight_smile: At the moment we’re very busy at work on Komodo 10, the beta will likely be due in about a month (don’t quote me on that) and will be very significant.

18

In my opinion Komodo has really gone downhill. I have been using it for three years and it regularily crashes now days. for a full year you could not drag and drop without “double dropping”. But it crashes for me at least once a day.

19

for me that is not a good sign. Komodo keeps adding functionality I dont need, and inserts bugs into formerly solid base code. I dread new “major” releases. Komodo 10! Yikes!

20

We want to be an IDE of the future as much as we are an IDE of the past/present. Part of that is evolving your product.

I do not agree that our codebase was more solid in the past than it is now. This just isn’t true. Which is not to say you (as in you, specifically, not “you” as in our general user) aren’t running into more bugs, but that’s correlation - not causation. I’m not trying to say that your problems aren’t valid, not at all. I have no doubt that when you say Komodo has become less stable for you that you are right to feel that way. But there are different reasons for this, none of which can be generalized to Komodo’s codebase being less solid than it used to be. It is by far more solid now than it has ever been.

All that said, I hope you’ve reported your issues on our bug tracker, so that we can further improve the stability of our product.