Editor wishlist!

[chris-s]

I'm writing my first large app (> 1000 lines), and you really notice some weak points in the editor. So, who writes it? Is it likely that they will acknowledge any suggestions? Whats the best way to bring any suggestions to their attention?

Probably because I'm use to working with Microsofts' Visual Studio, a few simple points I miss that I think would really enhance the usability...

1) After doing a search and closing the search dialog, it would be great if you could do a 'Find again' by pressing something like the F3 key.

2) It's a shame that the search dialog box is 'modal' as it prevents you doing anything with the source file behind it without closing it. Particularly annoying if you want to repeat the search without the 'F3' support.

3) It would be nice if the 'Find what' text box on the search dialog was a 'drop down combo box' that remembered the last x number of search words

4) It would be great to be able to comment out large blocks of code with just a start and end marker eg /*......*/

5) It would also be useful to be able to make use of 'include files' whereby some code can be put into a separate bas file and be 'included' in at the point indicated at time of compilation

6) An indication in the status bar of the cursor column number

7) Short cut keys for toggling bookmarks and jumping between bookmarks

Other than that, it's FANTASTIC!

Chris

 

[lbenson]

>4) ... to comment out large blocks of code

use #rem and #endrem

There--14% done.

 

[BCJKiwi]

Book Marks and Blocks are available on the EDIT menu but function keys would help a lot.
Bookmarks;
If you select a chunk of code, then while its highlighted, go to the menu and click 'toggle block' a book mark marker is placed at the beginning of the highlighted code. You can then move back and forward to the bookmarks via the menu comamnds.
Blocks;
Not sure how Blocks work. Have found clicking in the line number makes a red mark which makes it easier to find that location again. Don't know what other use it might have as this does not seem to interact with the Block functions.

Have also been looking at editor issues and have tried to find an alternative as;
Annoyed with display differences when posting to the forum - The Forum needs to respect tabs and fonts in the body and inside the code, /code tags. OK I have sorted out how to get this by hard coding spaces but this is very unfriendly as unless you want to work with spaces in your code instead of tabs, you have to convert the code you post with a separate editor.

Have also raised issues with the non-standard behaviour of the simulator here;
http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=8486

Two other really good features in an editor that I miss are;
1. options to split screen to view two (at least) files at the same time (or the same file twice) - OK,OK, I know you can open more than one file and manually fiddle around with the windows but, why not an option (function key/menu option etc) to display the two windows split horizontally, Well I found this feature on the Window menu - Yaaaay!
then the real bonus,
Scan for the differences in the two windows (files).
Very handy for version issues / cutting pasting code between different versions. and from previous programs.

Used NE (Norton Editor) back in the days of DOS and when Peter Norton actually owned Norton and built product you needed and he used himself - before it became a marketing company flogging anything it could regardless of quality or usefulness - excuse the rant.

NE had all the nice things you need in a program editor but it won't run properly in XP (not even as a Win95 program under compatibility mode). NE has trouble with long file names and directory navigation etc. Display is also very rudimentary as well, but it does (did) have all the indent management, window splitting, file compare/differences, sophisticated find/replace, column position etc etc that really make life simpler when programming.

Have searched for equivalents but not yet found one.

The Programing Editor is excellent as far as it goes but could be much better with just a few tweaks.

Agree with 1,2 & 6 above, the others I would not find that much use.

Perhaps a good start would be a comprehensive help file on the use of the Editor and it's functions or have I just missed it wherever it is?

Another good start would be a .ini file you could edit to customise the way it starts. e.g. programs tiled or split screen

 

[Technical]

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions.
1,2,6,7 will be in the next release.
4 is already there - #rem/#endrem!

Blocks use the { and } charcaters to create collapsable code

Double clicking on the line number margin gives a red breakpoint. This is a simulation breakpoint- when code is simulating it will break at this point.

Right clicking and selecting Toggle Breakpoint (CTRL-K) adds a blue bookmark to the margin.

 

[Peter M]

am i missing something

for collapable blocks you say use {and}, I have placed one of these at the start and end of some code... when expanded it shows a box with a minus sign at the top , a line down the left hand edge of the editor window with a slight indent at the bottom... when collapsed it has a plus in the box at the top no line down the edge with an indent at the bottom, but all the code still shown??
should it actually collapse the code so that two seperate parts of the code can be worked on closer together?? ie tempoarily remove/hide the in between code

Win XP SP2
Picaxe Prog edit ver 5.1.7