the new editor that is under development by the purebasic team might be the right place to implement such a thing
what i'm thinking about is this:
1. the editor monitors any changes in the source file on the disk, and asks to reload if it changed (think about netscape, dreamweaver etc.)
2. it should be possible to send a message from another application to the ide and vice verse (mainly to pass a line number / selection)
3. now, an external application could be used (launched via a hotkey or so?) to process the source code, for example a dialog designer or something similar
i guess it's already possible with japbe, but i dunno how to pass line numbers / selections etc.
the interesting solution would be a combination of rad vs. classic coding, ie. when in 'rad' mode code is designed by drawing buttons, forms, etc. and when in 'classic' mode you're actually changing the code itself
this may involve 'protecting' sections of the code, ie. blocking them from changes, so the rad component would only be able to change it's own generated code
dunno if the above makes sense, it's still early
