BLIde and Project Studio Highlighting Question

BlitzMax Forums/BlitzMax Programming/BLIde and Project Studio Highlighting Question

QuickSilva(Posted 2008) [#1]
BLIde and and Project Studio are both really good IDEs but one thing that I think that they could both use is the ability to highlight user made functions, types and methods\functions within these types.

For example,

Type TPLayer
X:Int
Y:Int

Method Move()
End Method

Function Create()
End Function
End Type

When using this type shouldn`t TPlayer,X,Y,Move,Create all be highlighted later when used?

Also TImage,TGadget and many others are also not highlighted which is strange in my view. (Although Project Studio does highlight them.)

Am I missing something that allows this or do they simply not have this feature?

IDEal uses this really well I just wish that these two IDEs would do the same as otherwise they are both outstanding products.

I would also like to say a really big well done to the author of BLIde. I recently tried it again and have to say that despite not being too keen on it the first time it now really has improved tenfold. You and the author of Project Studio (also really great!) are doing great things for us BMax users so a big thankyou for that.

These are only minor niggles but maybe you would both consider adding these features as I`m sure that other people would appreciate them too.

Jason.

(BTW, is there a way to automatically close the output window in BLIde after running your code as it is the first window that has focus after running my program and I have to manually click on my code window again to select it, again nothing major just a little annoying.)


GfK(Posted 2008) [#2]
They don't highlight in PS and aren't meant to. Quite sure they don't in Visual Studio either, which is what PS is 'inspired' by. Personally I wouldn't want it any other way (except maybe optional).

In your example, Move() and Create() would appear in intellisense. (If you don't like intellisense, switch it on and get used to it. It can save you loads of typing).

Can't really offer an opinion of any worth on BLIde as I haven't used it for about 18 months now.

[edit] I tell a lie. I looked at BLIde again maybe six months ago and couldn't make head nor tail of how it handles projects - something which is very straightforward in PS.


ziggy(Posted 2008) [#3]
Dynamic hilighting is something I will not add to BLIde, as it forces a complete project reparsing on every identifier definition. You can imagine wich performance hit this can introduce if you change a single line of code in, as instance, the wx module. So This won't be added to BLIde unless the whole core engine of BLIde changes drastically, and this is something I don't expect to happen in months or even years... (I'm doing some small tests on the WPF framework, but I don't even know if them will see the light of day anytime.)


QuickSilva(Posted 2008) [#4]
That`s OK. I just wanted to ask if it was possible. I realized that there is probably a good reason why it wasn`t already in there.

Like I said, both IDEs are still great regardless. I`m just nitpicking :)

Jason.


Matthew Smith(Posted 2008) [#5]
QuickSilva,

As Ziggy said the preformance hit it way to much for the highlighter to take. GFK and I did some testing originally around this but it was way to slow, plus for me confusing as most items end up being colored anyway.


QuickSilva(Posted 2008) [#6]
Hi Matt, thanks for the response. I`ll take this opportunity to ask how the Pro version is coming along, are we any closer to release?

I`ve been using the latest update for a while now and I`m itching to try the Pro version. Please tell me it`s not far off now :)

Jason.

(Also is there a way to move the folder that is saved to My Documents to another location as I would rather place it somewhere else. If not would you consider adding this feature?)


QuickSilva(Posted 2008) [#7]
BTW, the only reason that I asked for this feature is because I find the fact that some tpyes are highlighted, for example TPixmap, whilst others are not, TImage and user made types to name just a few examples. I find this very strange to look at personally and would prefer either all to be highlighted or all to be un-highlighted.

Am I alone in this? Maybe it`s just me but I would rather have a consistent look if it were my choice. Like I said, it just looks strange to me, a kind of clash of two different styles.

Jason.


ziggy(Posted 2008) [#8]
On BLIde you can turn on a 'complete modules hilighting' to solve this. This option is on the preferences dialog.


Matthew Smith(Posted 2008) [#9]
QuickSilva,

Hopefully a release soon - work/family issues have been preventing me from
finalising some stuff.

The MyDocuments stuff is planned to be movable, I just haven't implemented that part just yet - will try and get it into the release.

The highlighting is very tricky as the base highlighting list is based on bbDoc tags - if they don't have any Rem tags, you don't see thing highlighted - TImage as you pointed out. PS scans the entire structure seperately to try and provide all items.


QuickSilva(Posted 2008) [#10]
Ziggy:
Thanks for the tip, just what I was looking for :)

Matt:
One other thing that I forgot to mention was that the output window keeps popping up when I run my program even if I set it to hide mode. In other words, I set it to hide, which works as expected, but then, when I press F5 it pops back up and I have to manually reselect hide if I want it to go.

Can this be fixed or am I missing something obvious?

Jason.