[OT] Atom Text Editor for Script Editiing - First Impressions

[Kay C Lan]

On Sat, Sep 5, 2015 at 2:06 AM, J. Landman Gay <jacque at hyperactivesw.com>
wrote:



> On 9/4/2015 2:08 AM, Kay C Lan wrote:
>
>> 6) boilerplates
>>      I can type in switch and a little popup will come up
>>
>
> >3) more script space, less wasted space

For this one at least, you can adjust the bottom pane to any height that's
> convenient. I change it frequently depending on what I need to see.
>

I do too, and I'm very thankful for that ability, what I guess I'd like is
for the IDE to read my mind ;-) or at least just remember some basic
defaults. When I start typing in the Script field, I must be Editing a
script so I'd like the "Errors Pane" to come to the fore and automatically
reduce to two lines - as I've never seen an error that requires more than
two lines. I Save VERY frequently (even when I know my script is in a state
that will produce an error) so the most likely thing that is going to
happen is a compilation error needs to be displayed so I have the Editor
field as large as possible and the Error pane ready to go. When I 'use' my
stack and we hit  a breakpoint, clearly I must be in Debugging mode, in
which case my preferences are I only want to see a half dozen lines above
and below the breakpoint, I want to see the Variables so I'd like the
Variable pane to be shown - if there are few variables then show me them
all and the rest of the area can be script, if there are a LOT of Variables
and it's not possible to display every single one of them at least expand
the pane up to the point where my preferred minimum dozen lines of script
are left displayed.

I appreciate that for some this would be completely annoying but by the
same token I think many would appreciate if those 5 panes (Errors,
Documentation,Variables, Breakpoints, Search Results) had a Preference for
Manual (Exactly the same as now) or Automatic and if you selected Automatic
you could list the minimum number of lines to be displayed in the Script
Editing field respective to each pane, so clicking on the Variables pane
would automatically adjust it's size to display as many Variables as
possible but not so as to reduce the displayed number of lines of your
script below your minimum, and changing to the Breakpoints pane would again
automatically adjust the size of the pane.


> Boilerplate is pretty easily added yourself by use of a frontscript....
> Maybe with enough interest, the frontscript idea could be generalized to
> allow every scripter to add their own boilerplate options, and it could be
> shipped with LC.


Yes, and I think I made mention of this with reference to another item,
it's not that I don't know that I can implement this in LC, it's the fact
that my TE makes it so much easier. The idea of a community driven effort
is a good one.

And this all boils down to the crux of the issue - I'm bone lazy! ALL the
points that I mention I could script into the IDE for my own personalised
perfection of Script Editing and Debugging; that is the beauty of LC. But
instead of spending the time doing that I find the tool that gets me 95% of
what I want in 1% of the time and I go with that. I just don't have the
time to script all of that when I can double click on my TE Icon and all
those features are available in the blink of an eye.

And for any List Lurkers out there, please do not get me wrong. I will
happily live without these features in LC's Script Editor because the
reason I use LC is not because of it's script editor. The reason I use LC
is because I NEED it to help me work with reams and reams of disparate data
and LC is the ONLY language that clicks with my brain and allows me to do
far more than I could every have hoped for. For the very minor quibbles I
have with the SE, it is NEVER going to stop me coming back to LC time and
time again to throw together quick and dirty utilities to solve the most
obscure and obtuse problem of the moment, or continuing to improve, modify
and extend a multi-stack behemoth I use weekly in my work that has just
snowballed from something I started about 15 years ago - probably even
longer if I really looked into.