Posted by Andrew DeFaria on 11/02/47 11:30

Jerry Stuckle wrote:

> Andrew DeFaria wrote:
>
>> Jerry Stuckle wrote:
>>
>>> With Windows help files, you don't NEED an IDE! And BTW - this is a
>>> PHP newsgroup, not a Java newsgroup.
>>
>> But you do need Windows! ;-)
>>
>> With a web page (and a search engine - of which there are many) you
>> can do it anywhere, from any machine.
>
> So? What does that have to do with the original topic - whether an
> IDE is better than a text editor or not?

It makes more of a team player when working on large projects with many
people. IDEs make you think of your your own little environment, which
then becomes specialized and only work in one very specific situation.

> But to respond to your comment. HTML help is fine - but do you have a
> search engine which can search all the web pages?

Actually yes I do. HtDig will indeed to that.

> I know there are some out there - but the free ones which will run on
> an intranet aren't that great a quality, while the good quality ones
> are expensive.

Well then you've never set one up and used it. Granted any search engine
is only as good as the quality of the stuff it searches...

> Yes, there are some Unix projects out there. And there are developers
> who use Unix. I use Unix, also. But virtually all of my development
> is done on Windows with a NFS mount from the Linux machine. It's then
> an easy job to make the project. And although I don't do much Unix
> programming, I don't think I've seen ANY projects which don't have
> Windows on the majority of the desktops.

Who ever said majority?!? You did - not I. I merely stated that there
may be some people who are not on Windows.

As for free Windows web search engines
http://www.google.com/search?q=free+windows+web+search+engines&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official

And as long as you already have Unix and are already accessing it,
surely you can put your docs there and use the Unix web server and HtDig
to provide documentation for all - instead of alienating those simply
because they didn't choose your chosen desktop - Windows. (BTW My chosen
desktop is Windows too! But I bear in mind others, am cognizant and
relatively fluent in Unix/Linux and I have seen the light and utility in
not locking people into one OS over the other).

> But I'm sure there are some - and the Windows help files don't work
> there. But they work for every project in which I've been involved.

Shows your lack of foresight! Hey it works for me, and everybody done my
isle so who cares. There are reasons why it's bad to lock yourself into
a proprietary OS and proprietary formats and good to embrace open
standards. Just look at the web! It works for Windows, Unix, Linux, Mac,
and a host of other OSes, all relatively the same.
--
A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

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