What is the fastest way to create a cross-platform IDE for a new programming language?

Question

The title already says most of what I'm after, but let me state some of the requirements explicitly:

• The language is not widely used, so writing a new language tokenizer etc is assumed to probably be required.
• Cross-platform, means at least Linux, Mac OS and Windows
• Minimal features: Syntax highlighting and Code-completion (aka "IntelliSense")
• Preferrable features: Interactive debugging
• Assumption: The developer is not an expert in any one programming language (although mediocre in a few, and eager to learn new techniques), so the focus on an environment / tools that quickly gets a developer up to speed, and is productive enough to reach the goal as fast as possible.

Propagation

Write some sort of plug-in or extension for Eclipse, perhaps ? – Quisling

I've had a look at some of the Eclipse projects, but it seems that the code required for them is quite complex and awkward. I might be totally wrong though, based on lack of knowledge, and that's why I wanted to have more community consensus input :) – Propagation

Lazarus + SynEdit + SynAutoComplete (cross platform + syntax highlighting + autocompletion), interactive debugging is way to difficult I guess. – Antinode

@Antinode Feel free to add as proper answer! :) Debugging might actually be possible via gdb for the language I'm thinking of. – Propagation

done :) *sorry, SynAutoComplete seems should be SynCompletion (the unit name has changed since my last use) – Antinode

Answer 1

Xtext would be the perfect fit for these requirements. All you need to do is to define your grammar and you have your parser, linker, editor, etc. Of course all of this can be customized to your needs.

If your language compiles down to Java, you also get expressions and debugging out of the box.

Illusion

Answer 2

Lazarus + SynEdit + SynCompletion (cross platform + syntax highlighting + autocompletion), interactive debugging is way to difficult I guess.

Antinode

That's what I thought about if LIVEditor (liveditor.com) would ever be cross-platform. But a Scintilla wrapper might be more powerful than SynEdit (I just guessing). – Christoforo