The REALbasic IDE: Correct Code

When first approached, the REALbasic IDE may seem restrictive to those who have spent their lives writing code in a basic text editor.  The requirement to fill out forms when creating new methods, properties, constants and many other elements of the language may seem to be far less relaxed than more traditional programming.  The benefit, however, is that the IDE actually assists you in properly formatting your code.  Anyone who began programming earlier than the 1990’s will probably admit that they remember spending extra time every now and again just hunting down a compiler bug that would have been immediately solved had the been able to use an IDE like REALbasic.  The editor of REALbasic helps the programmer in writing correct code.

The forms for creating methods, properties, etc. really can be a time saver, but it isn’t the only help the IDE provides.  One of the best ways to produce more correct code is a proper auto-completing code editor.  REALbasic’s is one of the best I have ever used.  While some editors will help you type common keywords and previously-typed words, the REALbasic IDE will provide methods and properties that make sense to the context of the code.  Since the REALbasic IDE knows your code and project structure, the suggestions are often more accurate than some other IDE’s.  I recently used NetBeans IDE for writing Php code, and the auto-completion often just wasn’t able to recognize the context of the code in order to produce a valuable auto-complete suggestion.  Many of the most modern IDE’s are improving their code-completion, but I believe that REALbasic was far beyond the others much earlier.  As the REALbasic IDE improves, I look forward to seeing even more accurate code-completion to help me code much faster.

Building projects quickly is another area that REALbasic excels.  Since the REALbasic IDE is responsible for project structure, code and user interface, an application can be built in record time.  When you launch the REALbasic IDE, you’re started off with a brand new project that is already setup with the basic components that most applications need.  All you have to do is add a button and tell it what to do.  Even when I’m not working on an active project, I have jumped into REALbasic many times to whip up a quick file convertor or some other helpful automation.  Better than most of the “automation” software available, REALbasic can be quickly built to create any helpful tool in a matter of minutes to hours, rather than what could take days.  The rich framework also helps in rapidly creating utility or productivity applications since most of the routine functions are wrapped up into convenient classes and modules.

REALbasic provides more than just an alternative programming environment for new programmers and hobbyists, it provides a rapid application development environment that helps you speed up the process of building valuable applications in record time.  One of the key ways it does this is to help you write correct code quickly in a managed environment called the REALbasic IDE.