Regarding the vlide (lack of), I actually find the rich command line error output in BricsCAD perfectly adequate for debugging.
With a bit of tweaking, I found UltraEdit (as recommended by Torsten Moses) much nicer than vlide and well worth the price.
I now find I prefer programming with Ultraedit/BricsCAD, rather than with AutoCAD vlide. I then port to AutoCAD rather than vice versa.
I'm a big fan of the vle- functions too. Excellent support too, I've made the odd suggested enhancement/feature which has been implemented.