PICAXE Editor 6 beta

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elanman99

Senior Member
elanman99 said:
I owe you an apology!

When I installed the first beta I looked in the start menu for a new Picaxe Editor entry which I thought would be appended to the bottom of the list. I omitted to look in the Rev Ed folder and in a previous posting I categorically said it had not made any entries.

Now I know better. will do the install now.

Ian
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I'm getting used to PE6 and learning my way around it. I use XP (in legacy mode) and the ribbons etc do take a bit of getting used to, however one thing that bugs me is the 'category' headings that appear at the bottom of the Ribbon, for example, in the Picaxe tab,

[Purchase] [Tools] [Calibrate] [Syntax] [Download]

seem totally superfluous! they add considerably to the width (height really) of the ribbon and take up valuable screen pixels and bring nothing to the party.

On all of the tabs in the current version of PE6 there is lots of horizontal free space within the ribbon to spread out the icons and if necessary add a little text to the icon title (if its needed) to make them self explanatory.

If there is a wish list for PE6 then that is where this post should be, but I did not spot it.

Ian
 
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westaust55

Moderator
elanman99 said:
If there is a wish list for PE6 then that is where this post should be, but I did not spot it.

Ian
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Back at post 1 Technical wrote:
If you find any issues please do email them to us (rather than clog up the forum) at support @ picaxe . com so that we can then raise a proper ticket - thanks!
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I guess "issues" can be both bugs reports and recommendations.
 
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elanman99

Senior Member
Technical said:
That's just 'ribbon styling'. Word, Excel etc. are all the same.
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Oh, that depresses me. Nothing to do with RevEd just the thought that MS put styling over ergonomics. I cannot see the logic of putting the group title underneath the items either. Its almost as if its done for the sake of it, like the (now accepted) not using capital letters. Our teachers would turn in their graves.

Ian
 
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nick12ab

Senior Member
elanman99 said:
I cannot see the logic of putting the group title underneath the items either. Its almost as if its done for the sake of it
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It's done because in some groups it would not be clear what the buttons there are for without the header.

For example, the Changes group on the Review tab in Microsoft Word has buttons that say Accept, Reject, Previous and Next. Would you know what they were for without the header. More importantly, can a user new to computers understand what the buttons do (not just the ones in this group) when they're trying a demo of Windows in a shop?

PICAXE Editor 6 has better examples of the need for headers, such as all the groups on the simulate tab. That check button isn't a spell checker - would you know that without the Syntax header? Would a KS3 student know that? However once you know what they are for then there's no reason to keep the headers so there is justification for an option to remove them.

If the ribbon takes up too much space then you can use the Minimize the ribbon button at the right of the ribbon.
 
Hemi345

Hemi345

Senior Member
nick12ab said:
If the ribbon takes up too much space then you can use the Minimize the ribbon button at the right of the ribbon.
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That's what I did. Then customized the QAT with the Syntax Check and Program icons. Even though they're tiny icons, at least they're only one click away.
 
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nick12ab

Senior Member
Hemi345 said:
That's what I did. Then customized the QAT with the Syntax Check and Program icons. Even though they're tiny icons, at least they're only one click away.
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If you want a toolbar with large icons and no ribbon then open the PICAXE Editor Options and on the Editor tab at the very top of the list of options there is the Legacy Menu/Toolbars Style option which may be appropriate for you.
 
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elanman99

Senior Member
nick12ab said:
It's done because in some groups it would not be clear what the buttons there are for without the header.

For example, the Changes group on the Review tab in Microsoft Word has buttons that say Accept, Reject, Previous and Next. Would you know what they were for without the header. More importantly, can a user new to computers understand what the buttons do (not just the ones in this group) when they're trying a demo of Windows in a shop?

PICAXE Editor 6 has better examples of the need for headers, such as all the groups on the simulate tab. That check button isn't a spell checker - would you know that without the Syntax header? Would a KS3 student know that? However once you know what they are for then there's no reason to keep the headers so there is justification for an option to remove them.

If the ribbon takes up too much space then you can use the Minimize the ribbon button at the right of the ribbon.
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I do actually agree with you that button and icon labelling is a good, my point was that the way it laid out is wasteful of screen space. Titles on groups of functions make sense too but the ribbon height 'could' be reduced by about one third on say, the Picaxe tab which on the beta version at least it is just blank space. I initially thought the ribbon height adjusted itself to fit its contents but I now think its a fixed size. The PE5 programme is the only application I have used which incorporates a ribbon (I'm behind the times software wise) so I accept that I only have a very narrow viewpoint.

Re 'Minimise' the ribbon.... a more accurate description would be 'Hide' I think.

Ian
 
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nick12ab

Senior Member
elanman99 said:
I do actually agree with you that button and icon labelling is a good, my point was that the way it laid out is wasteful of screen space. Titles on groups of functions make sense too but the ribbon height 'could' be reduced by about one third on say, the Picaxe tab which on the beta version at least it is just blank space. I initially thought the ribbon height adjusted itself to fit its contents but I now think its a fixed size.
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This also applies to Microsoft Office.

elanman99 said:
The PE5 programme is the only application I have used which incorporates a ribbon (I'm behind the times software wise) so I accept that I only have a very narrow viewpoint.
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There is an option in PICAXE Editor 6 to turn off the ribbon and use proper toolbars instead.

elanman99 said:
Re 'Minimise' the ribbon.... a more accurate description would be 'Hide' I think.
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'Minimize the ribbon' is the term used on the tooltip that appears when you mouse over the button that does this in PICAXE Editor and in many Microsoft applications. I believe Microsoft changed it to 'Collapse the ribbon' in Office 2013.
 
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jims

Senior Member
I don't have enough room in my computer to download this Beta version. Hence I can't check if the Beta level Wizard for setting the TOD clock has been updated to set the time in the DS3231 module as well as the DS1307. If not included in the Wizard code, at least to have it documented. Comment #10 in thread '$1.65rtci2c" speaks of this for the existing released level of the PE.
 
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nick12ab

Senior Member
jims said:
I don't have enough room in my computer to download this Beta version. Hence I can't check if the Beta level Wizard for setting the TOD clock has been updated to set the time in the DS3231 module as well as the DS1307. If not included in the Wizard code, at least to have it documented. Comment #10 in thread '$1.65rtci2c" speaks of this for the existing released level of the PE.
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The new RTC Time Setting Wizard has the option to set the time in a DS3231/DS3232.
 
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BillyGreen1973

Senior Member
In the simulation window you can choose an image for your project or use a chip pinout. I see the option to choose images of modules or experimenter boards, but not an option to add my own image. I'm trying to add an image of the Axe401 shieldbase under the 28X2 option as its missing. Can someone point me in the right direction please
 
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Technical

Technical

Technical Support
Staff member
BillyGreen1973 said:
In the simulation window you can choose an image for your project or use a chip pinout. I see the option to choose images of modules or experimenter boards, but not an option to add my own image. I'm trying to add an image of the Axe401 shieldbase under the 28X2 option as its missing. Can someone point me in the right direction please
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To do this you need to overlay the photo/image with interactive 'nodes' ie the position of the inputs/outputs that change colour when simulating. A wizard to do this will be available in a later release.
However the AXE401 should really be there anyway, so we'll open a ticket to get that one added.
 
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elanman99

Senior Member
Technical said:
Upgrade to 6.0.5.5 ...
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In a heartbeat!

Seriously, I was not expecting any changes in that area after you pointed out MS Word etc. I looked a screendump of Word and much prefer the old systems of menus (but not those silly ones that change from day to day).

I am really impressed with the amount of information and the openness of RevEd and especially the 'Technical' support, thanks. Now off to control panel....

Ian
 
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elanman99

Senior Member
Thank You Technical

I never for one moment thought that would add a feature based on the rantings of a lone user! Either it was requested by others, or you felt sorry for me, or hopefully because it made sense.

When I look at a programme for the first time one of the first things I do is look at 'tools, options' etc to see how configurable it is. I like to be able to tweak things to my preferences. On a scale of 1 to 10 the new editor is at the top and its still only a beta.

More power to you elbow.

Ian
 
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oracacle

Senior Member
Not really a problem, jsut some odd behaviour which i wondered if any one else has gotten,

I went back to an older project to make some changes (using a 28x1) so started by creating a a new workspace and adding all the test and prototype programs, kinda a bit of lag which wasn't and issue (more than 10 programs of various sizes).

however i went back to (by opening a saved workspace from workspace explorer) working on my current project (28x2) and when i did a syntax check i was told that dirsb wasnt regonised, changed the chip type to something else and back again and all was fine, seemed to happen in both directions either going to coming from each project.

doesnt seem to happen if i close the entire program before opening up the different workspace, nor does there seem to be an issue with 2 instances running at the same time with a different project in each.

like i said this isnt really an issue as it only alt+f4 and a quck navigation to the new files but something may not have been noticed or was un-intended
 
Technical

Technical

Technical Support
Staff member
Not sure what you mean by map? The workspace file tree for a project is just an 'index' of files associated with that project, so you can add or take away files as you wish by using the the + and - icons at the top of the tree on the File tab. A single file can also be indexed to by multiple workspaces if desired.
 
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Hendriks

Member
After copying all the files of a project (PDF's and BAS files) to another location on the harddisk, double clicking a PDF in the workspace gives an error: "unable to find the document".

Is there a trick to update the workspace to point to the new location?
 
Technical

Technical

Technical Support
Staff member
The workspace saves the full path to each file, so you will need to remove the old links and then add new ones.
You can also drag multiple files direct from Windows Explorer straight into the workspace tree to speed up the process of adding multiple new files.

You could also manually edit the contents of the .wsp file in Notepad or similar using the replace function.
 
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oracacle

Senior Member
Sorry to dig up a bit of an old thread, but wasnt sure if any one else was having these issue, opened my work space from a netwrok drive on my server, made a few little changes to the code before attempting to downloading the new programme,

as you can see from the screen shot after opening the work space the setting indicate that the 28x2 is selected but the system think i am using a 20x2. the issue is resolved by selecting another chip and then reselecting the 28x2
 

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