This is a few days early, but I figured it was time to
announce at least one of my resolutions. My knowledge of
computer hardware is excellent -- I can strip a beige box
down to its casing and piece it back together again while
blindfolded. I need a change of pace, and as a geek with a
computer fetish, the answer was obvious: in the
almost-Millennium, I resolve to beef up my software
development skills.The next step involves figuring out what software
development language I should get to know intimately. I'll
try to make that decision by the end of the week, before it
turns into an excuse to ignore my latest resolution.
Whatever language gets the go-ahead, the
integrated software development environment offered by
Moonshine should be able to help things develop
smoothly.
Moonshine handles just about any software language
available. It owes its vast multilingual capacity to the use
of modules, instead of built-in support for every
conceivable language. Simply select or compile the
appropriate plug-in for the language you wish to use. The
end result is a compact software development environment
that's easy to use and customize.
The source code navigator is the heart of Moonshine,
offering developers sanity and stability for any size
project. You'll get a graphical representation in the form
of a directory tree for your source code, the ability to
define custom right-click menus to launch applications
associated with your files or directories, and a
customizable menu bar. Since Moonshine runs under X Windows,
you get full drag and drop support, too.
Moonshine's editor is refreshingly easy to use -- essential,
considering that some text editors require hours of
instruction to use properly. Perhaps the best feature of the
editor for fumble-fingers like me is the unlimited undo/redo
features. Other editor goodies include text syntax
highlighting, keyboard macro support, and high-octane
keystroke store and replay features.
Finally, the command dialog window offers a bit of
convenience and flexibility for anyone tweaking code. It can
capture the output of your shell commands in a dialog
window, rerun the last command execute, even allow users to
pause or resume a running command when needed. With threaded
execution, Moonshine doesn't even need to wait for a current
shell command to complete before starting a new one. With
all these development toys, I shouldn't have much trouble
keeping next years' resolution.
Linux 
