Rob Rohan Interview

Posted by Mark Drew on code on September 22, 2004

Tagged under cfeclipse,webdev

Since my last post with regards to the release of CFEclipse V 1.1.16 I thought I would post an interview with the main guy behind the project Rob Rohan.

Mark Drew: What is CFEclipse? Rob Rohan: CFEclipse is a plug-in for the Eclipse IDE that provides CFML support to Eclipse. In addition to code insight and syntax highlighting, CFEclipse adds CFML specific tools to Eclipse such as CFML outlining, CFC method outline, and CFML problem reporting. It also adds some cool tools that improve development / spelunking time and some can work with other plug-ins - like Snippets for example.

MD: How did you get involved in the project? RR: I started it.

MD: What were you doing before this/what is your background? RR: I don’t really have a before project per se - I have a lot of active projects that get worked on in slices as time / interest allows. Some open source developers have just one project, and some have many projects going all the time - their pay job often being one of them; I fall into the later category. <p>As for my background I am a freelance hacker hailing from the Bay Area. I mostly code in Java, or C++, but turn to ColdFusion for web applications. I have been coding for about 8 years for profit, and for about 18 years for fun (apple][e woot woot). </p><p>(For the corporate types: hacker as in the “computer enthusiast” sense not the media’s criminal, steal-your-credit-card, sense) </p><p>MD: Why Eclipse as the IDE? RR: At the time I was running Linux as my workstation and Net Beans as my Java IDE. Net Beans was pissing me off so I took the plunge, tried Eclipse, liked it, and switched all my Java projects to Eclipse. Around that time I got a couple contracts to do some ColdFusion work, so I started looking for either an Eclipse plug-in or a IDE that would run on Linux. I didn’t find much, and wound up using JEdit for my ColdFusion development. </p><p>JEdit is cool, but it lacks a few niceties that I wanted in a ColdFusion environment. I started to write a better ColdFusion plug-in for JEdit, but then it dawned on me that I could just do it in Eclipse and then I’d only need the one IDE (plus Eclipse is faster). So, taking the long way around, I went with Eclipse because it’s faster, has better Java tools, and works well on Linux (and on Mac which I now use for my workstation). </p>

MD: What are the best bits? RR: In my mind Oliver's behind-the-scenes parser is the coolest. Without it the Outlines and filtering wouldn't be possible. Nor the right-click open-file. In fact, most of the cool stuff the plug-in can do is because of the parser (I call it the Tupman Parser, but I think I am the only one who calls it that) In a close second is the Snippets. Spike took that hap hazard area by the horns and made something very very cool out of it. I use the snippet view with most of the plug-ins I use. Aside from those the help features are nice. Spike's and Mark's F1, the hover help, and the return types in code insight all come in helpful on a daily basis.

MD: What is coming up next? RR: Oliver will be the man for that one, but I think we are focusing on UML integration, better dictionary and user customizing tools, and the every present bug fixes.

MD: Will it support fusebox/MachII? RR: I am of the opinion that fusebox and MachII should be separate plug-ins. After all you can use Fusebox in PHP, and not everyone who uses ColdFusion cares about frameworks anyway. Oliver will have the final say as to weather framework support is built into the CFEclipse core.

As an aside, I have been toying around with a fusebox3 plug-in, and I know Spike is working on some MachII tools - so we'll see.

MD: What is your favorite editor apart from eclipse? RR: Oh so many... JEdit has a special place in my heart as I used the editor component in the Treebeard XSLT IDE and my on-line Java editor. On Windows servers I am forced to deal with, I stick on Notepad2. For Mac OSX I like SubEthaEdit for random file editing. On anything Unix when I need to edit a system file I use vi, and to write any applications (where I have no GUI or Eclipse is not installed) I default to Emacs.

MD: Which other plugins do you use? RR:

And I am playing with C# a bit so... http://www.improve-technologies.com/alpha/esharp/

MD: Would you use non open source plugins? RR: I do now. However, I only use free plug-ins at present.

MD: What attracts you to the open source movement/ideology? RR: I have been an open source freak since I first booted Linux back in like '97 (man, I am old in Metaverse time). Open source is awesome for many reasons, but the one that stands out the most in my mind is the fact that the project is the main focus. What makes the project useful and cool. Not money, not "how do we increase the bottom line", not how can we get the best RO f'ing I. It's what do developers want, what solves the problem at hand, we (developers, hackers, actual computers users) control what happens and where the project goes.

Tt's not what we are given, or told to do or use, it's what we can make - limited only by our imagination and time.

Wozniak once said in a speech that innovation is dead in the computer industry. For the most part, from a corporate perspective, I think he is right. For example, Microsoft spent millions to add useless features to Office just so they would have something to sell. The core of Office, the parts people actually use, is the same as it was in Microsoft Works. The corporate types almost never come up with something new. They steal or buy other people's ideas, but they rarely come up with something new and cool.

Open source is where technology is innovative. Its where ideas are praised and implemented. Open source is where everyone has equal share - truly equal share - in projects. Its where you can see the code, see what's really going on, learn from it, adapt, or fix it. If you are in computers for the money or the shiny bobbles, Open Source probably doesn't make much sense to you; much like a musician who plays free doesn't make sense. However, if you are a hacker, a programmer who loves your craft, you already know why it's cool and probably do it already :)

::End Dissertation::

MD: How do you compare to He3? RR: I haven't used it - nor will I; so I can not comment on the differences between it and CFEclipse for daily ColdFusion coding. However, I can say that it is trying to brand and create a product to sell whereas the CFEclipse project is contributing to the open source developer and ColdFusion communities (not that they are mutually exclusive).

MD: Who to give feedback/donations to? RR: Feedback can go to one of the lists, to any of us directly, or to the bug list. We try to handle all requests in an expeditious nature, and we do pretty well I think. As for donations, I'd never thought of that... I'll pass that to Oliver (though my Swiss bank number is ... :-D)

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