KDevelop 5.3 Released With Better C++, Python & PHP Support

[phoronix]

Phoronix: KDevelop 5.3 Released With Better C++, Python & PHP Support

KDevelop 5.3 is out today as the first major release to this KDE integrated development environment in about one year...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=KDevelop-5.3-Released

[grigi]

KDevelop is a surprisingly decent IDE for Python. I'm using it more and more in place of PyCharm Pro.
Sure it is missing many features, but it has the core features one really needs:
Good code-completion, ability to follow calls and called-by, showing built-in documentation, good linting.

Performance is stellar, that is how I got onto it at first, when my notebook died last year, I got a loan core2 notebook, and PyCharm was just too demanding for that. I tried many options, and ended up on KDevelop, as it really got the basics right, and ran really well on that decade old notebook.

It now just needs good support for web-tech, like HTML/CSS/JS, and then I really wouldn't need to use PyCharm anymore.

[zanny]

It now just needs good support for web-tech, like HTML/CSS/JS, and then I really wouldn't need to use PyCharm anymore.

I agree its the best Python IDE I've ever used because its core competencies are so solid. Everything else I do fine with a browser and terminal and KDevelop is smart enough to build the latter in directly.

I don't think it would be a good idea for KDev to invest in web tech though. There is so much work involved in making a live editor with write / render / test functionality that is pretty far off from how C++ and even Python projects build and are developed. QtCreator is much closer in the sense that it has all the integrations to make developing QML GUI apps in place to function as a webdev environment and it already does support HTML and such in its editor.

Just even starting to think about the amount of novel code required makes me a bit dizzy.

What I am hopeful for is an eventual revival of one of the several attempts at Rust support. Right now I'm using vscode which while functional does not have nearly as nice syntax highlighting as the engine Kdev uses and it comes with the usual annoyances of being an Electron app - using insane amounts of memory, not integrating well into the desktop, etc. Rust is much closer to the core C++ competency KDevelop has and the only real missing piece I feel is how awful it is try to integrate any KDE tech and Rust. Having a JSON manifest to build bindings in real time is neat technology but no fun to try to actually program for, and all the other bridge crates in the Rust world (I'm thinking qml and qmlrs) are dead projects.

[grigi]

I agree its the best Python IDE I've ever used because its core competencies are so solid. Everything else I do fine with a browser and terminal and KDevelop is smart enough to build the latter in directly.

I don't think it would be a good idea for KDev to invest in web tech though. There is so much work involved in making a live editor with write / render / test functionality that is pretty far off from how C++ and even Python projects build and are developed. QtCreator is much closer in the sense that it has all the integrations to make developing QML GUI apps in place to function as a webdev environment and it already does support HTML and such in its editor.

Just even starting to think about the amount of novel code required makes me a bit dizzy.

What I am hopeful for is an eventual revival of one of the several attempts at Rust support. Right now I'm using vscode which while functional does not have nearly as nice syntax highlighting as the engine Kdev uses and it comes with the usual annoyances of being an Electron app - using insane amounts of memory, not integrating well into the desktop, etc. Rust is much closer to the core C++ competency KDevelop has and the only real missing piece I feel is how awful it is try to integrate any KDE tech and Rust. Having a JSON manifest to build bindings in real time is neat technology but no fun to try to actually program for, and all the other bridge crates in the Rust world (I'm thinking qml and qmlrs) are dead projects.

You have a valid point.
What I meant by web tech is having more than just syntax highlightng support for HTML/CSS/JS.
It is decent as a text editor as it has that automatic auto-completion from Kate that automatically matches verbs, but is missing things such as knowing what the DOM looks like, and CSS verbs. So, not a complete web dev platform (there are many, many options for that), just so that I can get by editing the occasional CSS/JS file.

I would not say KDevelop is the BEST Python IDE, PyCharm Pro still will that, but it is much better than Atom/VSCode. (And yes, Electron apps are remarkably terrible at resource utilisation)

About Rust, I have only played with it a bit, and ran into the dev editor issue straight away. And that is probably a problem of adoption. I really do like the safe-code-first approach versus the lets-be-cool approach that a lot of modern languages have. The syntax does get ugly super quickly, which makes my Python experience freak out a bit.