(n)Wiring your code for success!
Jul 29, 2009
(n)Wiring your code for success!
If you are like me , always on the never-ending quest for tools and ways to improve the way you work , the speed and quality of your code and the easiness in which you are able to produce hard working applications , then you'll certainly enjoy this.
What I'm talking about is nWire by nWire Software!
nWire Software is an Israel based company , founded by Israeli Entrepreneur Zviki Cohen, provides an amazing set of tools to improve the way we work , called nWire.
Basiclly nWire was created for Java developers working in the Eclipse environment but I'm here to talk about their new product , nWire For PHP (YAY!).
What is nWire?
nWire is basically an IDE plugin(Eclipse for Java , Eclipse PDT and Zend Studio 7.0 for PHP) , which creates an easy to operate analyzing environment , it runs during design time so everything you change in your code automatically updates on the fly!
After gathering and analyzing your code thoroughly it provides a navigational point of view for your code , allowing you to see your code in ways you never saw before , understanding your code flow , eliminating problems and allowing you to expand easily while seeing everything from the smallest detail to the big picture.
It is composed of several parts:
The nWire Analyzer , which does the main function of analyzing your code thoroughly and pretty damn fast!
All the changes you make to your code inside and outside of eclipse are analyzed and updated in the relevant view on the fly , all the analyzing operations occur behind the scene allowing you to focus on your code without being delayed.
This enables you to keep your code flowing while enjoying the benefits of nWire.
The nWire Navigator, this is, as I see it , the heart of nWire.
The navigator is a special view (kept updated by the analyzer) elegantly displaying nWire results. It displays all the relations found in the current file you're working on, all associations between variables and classes , all hierarchy relations , interface implementations and more!
The navigator is a multi-column display view allowing you to navigate easily , once you choose a specific class from one column , another column automatically opens next to it displaying information such as where is it referenced , modified , declared , invoked , extended or implemented , You then easily follow to click on an item on the second column such as where is it invoked only to discover another column being opened next it (keeping the old one intact) displaying more information about that specific item , the columns are endless and you can always go back or forward as you wish without experiencing any delay!
The view includes all necessary details regarding each item such as the file and line number and on top of that it is fully synchronized with the editor , each item you choose in the navigator is automatically chosen in the editor and vice-versa.
The nWire Navigator Search , is an addition to the navigator allowing you to search through the results , using wildcards or incremental searches(if a result is found while you are still typing it is automatically marked.
The nWire Visualizer, this is by far the best feature for nWire.
The Visualizer is another view for displaying results but in a more graphical way, it resembles a tree view using node and references but this view is totally dynamic , you can more stuff around as much as you like and in what order you wish, nodes can be expanded and traversed endlessly just like the navigator.
All in all this is an amazing package! needless to say this works mainly on OOP designs where classes are used. nWire is especially useful for understanding large pieces of code , those you get from different sources and even your own.
Should you find yourself stuck in a code , forgetting where did you come from and where you were going just open the navigator or visualizer and see the path and you're good to go!
What is nWire for PHP?
Well , nWire for PHP , is a new addition to nWire , still in public beta but already an amazing tool to be used , featuring everything I detailed earlier, it currently works on the Eclipse PDT 2.1 Platform and the Zend Studio 7.0 which is an amazing tool by itself. don't be alarmed by the beta stage , it's already totally usable and stable, I'm currently enjoying it on my Zend Studio 7.0.
You can see a 4-minute instructional video on nWire to see it in action , here.
To sum up , nWire is highly useful in many cases but I find it especially useful if I'm working on something big and complex , where I get lost in the code at some point , I simply open the visualizer , organize it as I wish and follow the trail and immediately see the big picture.
If you are like me , always on the never-ending quest for tools and ways to improve the way you work , the speed and quality of your code and the easiness in which you are able to produce hard working applications , then you'll certainly enjoy this.
What I'm talking about is nWire by nWire Software!
nWire Software is an Israel based company , founded by Israeli Entrepreneur Zviki Cohen, provides an amazing set of tools to improve the way we work , called nWire.
Basiclly nWire was created for Java developers working in the Eclipse environment but I'm here to talk about their new product , nWire For PHP (YAY!).
What is nWire?
nWire is basically an IDE plugin(Eclipse for Java , Eclipse PDT and Zend Studio 7.0 for PHP) , which creates an easy to operate analyzing environment , it runs during design time so everything you change in your code automatically updates on the fly!
After gathering and analyzing your code thoroughly it provides a navigational point of view for your code , allowing you to see your code in ways you never saw before , understanding your code flow , eliminating problems and allowing you to expand easily while seeing everything from the smallest detail to the big picture.
It is composed of several parts:
The nWire Analyzer , which does the main function of analyzing your code thoroughly and pretty damn fast!
All the changes you make to your code inside and outside of eclipse are analyzed and updated in the relevant view on the fly , all the analyzing operations occur behind the scene allowing you to focus on your code without being delayed.
This enables you to keep your code flowing while enjoying the benefits of nWire.
The nWire Navigator, this is, as I see it , the heart of nWire.
The navigator is a special view (kept updated by the analyzer) elegantly displaying nWire results. It displays all the relations found in the current file you're working on, all associations between variables and classes , all hierarchy relations , interface implementations and more!
The navigator is a multi-column display view allowing you to navigate easily , once you choose a specific class from one column , another column automatically opens next to it displaying information such as where is it referenced , modified , declared , invoked , extended or implemented , You then easily follow to click on an item on the second column such as where is it invoked only to discover another column being opened next it (keeping the old one intact) displaying more information about that specific item , the columns are endless and you can always go back or forward as you wish without experiencing any delay!
The view includes all necessary details regarding each item such as the file and line number and on top of that it is fully synchronized with the editor , each item you choose in the navigator is automatically chosen in the editor and vice-versa.
The nWire Navigator Search , is an addition to the navigator allowing you to search through the results , using wildcards or incremental searches(if a result is found while you are still typing it is automatically marked.
The nWire Visualizer, this is by far the best feature for nWire.
The Visualizer is another view for displaying results but in a more graphical way, it resembles a tree view using node and references but this view is totally dynamic , you can more stuff around as much as you like and in what order you wish, nodes can be expanded and traversed endlessly just like the navigator.
All in all this is an amazing package! needless to say this works mainly on OOP designs where classes are used. nWire is especially useful for understanding large pieces of code , those you get from different sources and even your own.
Should you find yourself stuck in a code , forgetting where did you come from and where you were going just open the navigator or visualizer and see the path and you're good to go!
What is nWire for PHP?
Well , nWire for PHP , is a new addition to nWire , still in public beta but already an amazing tool to be used , featuring everything I detailed earlier, it currently works on the Eclipse PDT 2.1 Platform and the Zend Studio 7.0 which is an amazing tool by itself. don't be alarmed by the beta stage , it's already totally usable and stable, I'm currently enjoying it on my Zend Studio 7.0.
You can see a 4-minute instructional video on nWire to see it in action , here.
To sum up , nWire is highly useful in many cases but I find it especially useful if I'm working on something big and complex , where I get lost in the code at some point , I simply open the visualizer , organize it as I wish and follow the trail and immediately see the big picture.
Comments