Tuesday, August 06, 2013

KawigiEdit 2.3.0

Yep, it seems like I am sliding the maintainer slippery slope.

The major changes in this version of KawigiEdit were caused because I wanted to try the idea of using an external editor to code TopCoder stuff. KawigiEdit is good as an editor - definitely much better than the vanilla editor. But jEdit has a lot of features. Let us face it, the "Code Editor" problem is a problem that has already been solved and a minor project like KawigiEdit can't compete with other editors in that area.

So , move to FileEdit / moj, etc ? Not really. The thing is that although KawigiEdit can't beat external editors, the TopCoder integration is something that KawigiEdit does wonderfully. As an editorial writer / problem setter that really, really likes c++, I need a plugin that works with Java, c++ and python. Language support is definitely a deal-breaker. Having to install and use multiple plugins - one for each language would be quite terrible.

Kawigi is great at generating tester code. The resulting file compiles and run. The tester code is removed before you send it to TC. And that includes all 5 languages. Not only that, but you can easily edit/add the test cases it uses. And temporarily disable some without deleting them.

Another super ultra convenience is that it saves independent files for anything you code in topcoder. I have a giantic directory full of old solutions I can use for reference. I actually have this directory synced with a private dropbox folder, just in case my computer explodes during a SRM, I can take my laptop and keep on working...

So, the point is that nothing really beats KawigiEdit as a plugin for vexorian's use. So I tried to give it a try as a bridge between topcoder and jEdit . It worked ok (And I even managed to add a jEdit macro that calls my separate terminal window tester just like KawigiEdit did). But I found some issues. There is specially too much cluelessness as to what is the editor doing. Is it using your code or its own? Why isn't it loading your code? Etc. Overall I had to make many additions, including a log window. The log window is also very useful when I am editing KawigiEdit, I can use it to show debugging messages :). I fixed some other things related to syncing with an external editor.

So, there it is. If you want to try it out, go to its topcoder forums thread.

As usual, my personal mod for KawigiEdit has been updated too. Refer to the old blog post to find it. Actually, it has been changed. Now it dose not have the compile tab. Only the output tab. Any exit code error in running compile/run commands will be reported there.

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