2009Q1 Grant Proposal: Perl debugger integration in Padre, the Perl IDE

Category: Grants

Comments (9)


Adding the debugger to Padre makes the IDE just that much more usable. And a community supported IDE with all the bells and whistles makes perl that much more attractive.
2 thumbs up from me.


Perl has problems attracting new blood, so I think an easy to use debugger would help with that. +1 from me.


Please get this done, even if no grant happens! I've been working on and off with Perl since 1998, and it would help greatly!


A good IDE is an enabling technology.
A good IDE needs a graphical debugger.

This proposal is very important if you like to attract new talent to Perl.

If you think the focus is too narrow (Padre - is it just another Perl Editor Project?) please note that the end result should be easily integrated with other IDEs or editors.


Gabor has a very clear idea of what the perl world needs today to stay relevant without being dependant on a far away christmas aka perl6.

With padre he has shown to have the technical and community skills needed to deliver what he promises.

An integrated debugger is one of the killer features of great IDEs that often do not support perl (e.g. the java Netbeans debugger is great). Adding modern tools to the toolbox of perl programmers is necessary and debugging is an essential part of modern developing.


EPIC with Eclipse have Perl interactive debugging years ago.


Padre is I believe the most serious effort so far to build a perl editing environment in perl. Besides helping beginners learn perl easier, Padre makes it possible for experienced developers to provide a visual interface for their development tools when the command line is not the best or the only option. With on-the-fly syntax checking, PPI integration, outlining and advanced syntax highlighting, Padre has almost all the fundamentals in place, a quality debugger being the notable exception.

Eclipse-based EPIC is a great IDE which I actually use for the majority of my perl coding (my other editor of choice being vim). EPIC, however, suffers from the limitations of its platform - I find Eclipse too confusing for beginner programmers, and too inflexible for developers coming from the vim/emacs world. Furthermore, since EPIC is essentially a Java project, it too difficult for a perl programmer to contribute to it, or to write a plugin for specific functionality he or she needs. Padre fills a major niche in the Perl ecosystem, and its importance is yet to grow.


I don't understand everything but based in the other proyect you have, I agree.


The only problem is the licence wxwidgets use a wxwidgets licence like a gpl.

This way companies that support us are not going to be able to sell all we do.

Is really problematic to know what parts the company can sell about the products they use from us.

I don't recommend it :(

Neither the other project from the same person :(


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