Mel Editor - Maxya Or Mel Studio Pro?

[berk0080]

I am an architecture student who is relatively new to MEL. I would like to purchase an MEL editor. I have been looking at either Maxya or MEL studio pro. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[joojaa]

QUOTE(berk0080 @ 04/11/09, 10:42 AM) [snapback]305503[/snapback]
I am an architecture student who is relatively new to MEL. I would like to purchase an MEL editor.

Why would you pay for a editor? I mean its ok to buy a editor when your spending 30% of you time in it but if your still just learning then it doent really make a difference.

The worrld is FULL of very good free editors.

[berk0080]

In the months to come, I will be spending most of my time in MEL and would like a fully functional editor. I think I have narrowed it down to Maxya and MEL studio Pro. Any advice?

[kurianos3d]

I dont think so you need to buy now ..

what i think you can use notepad++ and syntax file for N++ , and use mapy too

Here is the links

http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
http://www.highendnet.com/downloads/tools/...tepad-5275.html

http://www.highendnet.com/downloads/tools/.../mapy-5054.html

[joojaa]

Yes, i agree i mean a good ide is important but neither Maxya or MEL studio Pro really make you life THAT much easier. I mean you can use eclipse which is by the way the second best ide FOR ANYTHING ive ever used or emacs tahts the 3rd best one ive ever seen. Or for a lightweight oen that deos all you ever need use scite.

In essence for a beginner they have some lustre but the free ones beat them every single time and don't have any worse mel/python/maya integration than ANY other editor. Maya can read sockets so any editor will do.

Its not really good idea to have the editor running inside maya either because you WILL crash maya developing, and having the editor external talking trough codecs saves you form a lot of problems.

[cyberika]

I'm using jEdit and for me it's perfect. This text editor have almost all tools that I need and it's free.

[gmask]

I was thinking of getting Maxya. It has really good interaction with maya that goes far beyond script highlighting. Plus it's very portable.. and doesn't require an installer if you need to move around to different computers alot.

I haven't been using it but this frien dof mine that demo'd it to me made a pretty good case for how it does make your life easier or at least it makes it easier to read your work by being able to collapse functions and clcik on a variable and see what it's contents are.

[joojaa]

QUOTE(gmask @ 04/11/09, 06:26 PM) [snapback]305532[/snapback]
or at least it makes it easier to read your work by being able to collapse functions and clcik on a variable and see what it's contents are.

Yes but i have that same feature in jedit, scite, emacs and eclipse for free. Theese are not magically hard things to get your editor to do.

QUOTE
and doesn't require an installer if you need to move around to different computers alot.

most editors will not need to be installed.

Anyway i think they are ok just nothing i would pay for. Tried, used dindt imporve my workflow ended with less tools i allready had.

[gmask]

Can any of those tell you the contents of a variable in your script?

[joojaa]

QUOTE(gmask @ 04/13/09, 07:50 PM) [snapback]305639[/snapback]
Can any of those tell you the contents of a variable in your script?

If the variable isn't out of scope, yes in all of them. I have some tools in place so that i can even set breakpoints and step per line in eclipse and watch variables just like i would debug most other programming languages.*

Most editors are very extensible so just as long as you can communicate with maya trough ports its relatively easy to spit commands that can do anything you could do in maya inside the editor. So yes i can also just select on function and my editor jumps to the file that function is located in and jumps to the line where the definition starts. I can expand short flags to long and vice versa, have command and flag completion etc etc.

*im trying to get this working closer to the metal so i could start to distribute this.

[gmask]

yeah maybe I'll just write my own editor

[joojaa]

I wouldnt its very hard. But extending the one editor of your choice is a must. If you never expand it then your uisng a too complex editor for you or your just under using your editor.

I mean querrying the value in scite is 1 line of mel pasted in quotes in one fo scites main editor setup files. For emacs evan easier, even tough luisp is a bit weird to learn. Eclipse was a bit of a bitch at first here but even it did this easily.

Point is you all have to know mel so doing this functionality should be piece of cake to most of you. But yes one has allways the option to buy solutions form others.

[gmask]

QUOTE(Joojaa @ 04/13/09, 10:22 AM) [snapback]305652[/snapback]
I wouldnt its very hard. But extending the one oditor of your choice is a must. If you never extand it then your uisng a too complex editor for you.

why is it a must if you can buy one that does what I want it to.. I had a simple question about which of those have those features.

[joojaa]

And i said all of them.

QUOTE
why is it a must if you can buy one that does what I want it to..

Because eventually you will have one that it doesnt have. Theres nothing bad in buying im just not so keen on paying for stuff that takes me less than 10 minutes to implement in any editor. Sending data trough sockets is after all the easest thing in the world.

I mean its NOT rocket science its just sending a eval to maya. Thing is if you buy this feature and never try to do it yourslf then whan you need another feature your that much furter away form implementing it, becase you never bothered to look at the scripting engine of your scripting editor.

Its a bit like why learn mel!? After all you can buy all the scripts youd ever need. Right.

[gmask]

QUOTE(Joojaa @ 04/13/09, 10:55 AM) [snapback]305654[/snapback]
I mean its NOT rocket science its just sending a eval to maya.

okay then how about some step by step instructions

[joojaa]

Open socket (in maya end open up local command port on startup, maya does this nowdays by default)

send "print $variableName" over the socket

read the return
close socket

output stuff to your editor. individual code depends on the editor in question. If your editor can not do this consider downloading something like putty it can do so. Wich means all the editor needs is rudimentary commandline support to accomplish any of this.

[gmask]

QUOTE(Joojaa @ 04/13/09, 11:12 AM) [snapback]305657[/snapback]
Open socket (in maya end open up local command port on startup, maya does this nowdays by default)

send "print $variableName" over the socket

read the return
close socket

output stuff to your editor. individual code depends on the editor in question. If your editor can not do this consider downloading something like putty it can do so. Wich means all the editor needs is rudimentary commandline support to accomplish any of this.

I was more interested in how you'd do in a particular package.. sounds pretty messy.. and if I recall in Maxya you just click on the variable in the editor and the contents are displayed as part of the GUI.. I kind of doubt from what you're describing it'd be seamless... and that was what seemed to be nice about Maxya. It wasn't a matter of could you do it for free but how easy to use is it.

[joojaa]

Like i said that depends entirey on the editor. Most editors enable you to make rmb menus just like you would in nay other application and make it as seamless as any builtin function. because MOST editors are meant for extending.

What editor would you like a demo on? Its not like we are talking of all editors working the same way.

Anwyay yes its a bit work up front, because most of you wont have the commandline framework i have in place but stil (for example a vanilla maya doent have a socket talket by default). You can get it as seamless as you want. Rmb menu no problem

But as i said theese functions arent rocket science. (just take a look on the mapy integration on to scite it does all one needs as basis changing it to have a menuitem for compile and go, now setting a new commend to thsi file si no magic esentially a few lines of code)

Heres basic mapy:

http://www.highendnet.com/downloads/tools/...pting/5054.html

[gmask]

ugh.. so I'm trying to get the jedit mel syntax highlighting and maya plugin to work on linux.. whatta apita