I'm updating some legacy code, because of my unfamiliarity to it, Its very difficult to find structures, especially if I step away for a week for other projects.
To alleviate this problem I've gone back to my old-school roots and started adding ascii text-art as comments above sections of code, using this tool:
http://patorjk.com/software/taag/#p=display&h=3&v=1&f=Big%20Money-ne&t=Reveal%0ACheck
This allows me to see via my MiniMap the titles of functions or sections of code I might need to come back to
The Thought then occured.. well surely someone else has this problem, and since VSCode seems to be written by the community, maybe someone has already written a plugin that would search the code for function titles (like Javadocs?) and display the title in a readable size?
If not, would it be easily coded? i.e. is the minimap just a very shrunk down copy(not easy) or is it structured and can be parsed and tweaked?
As long as your language plugin supports it, you can use cmd + shift + o to go to function definition.
All functions should also be listed in the Side Bar under "Outline"
Related
I support an old (late 90s) Domino DB that has a growing number of Mac users. In some docs, layout regions become grayed out once you click anywhere in the doc even though it's still editable, i.e. if the cursor was in a text field and you type something blindly and save it, it will be there when you reopen the doc. It doesn't happen in all docs and I have found no pattern.
Any Domino designers seen any behavior like this? I don't this there is anything too weird in the code; onBlur or onChange used in some cases - that sort of thing. Nothing too complicated really. Thanks!
Layout regions are a nightmare to maintain: there can be objects with differing hide-when formulas stacked on top of each other that might be causing this. I suggest making a copy you can work in without worry: inspect each object fully (keeping notes) then delete. Keep drilling down until you hopefully hit an object that matches your grey-out. If you don't find one, then it could be a bug as posted by Richard Schwartz. As Richard and D.Bugger suggest, perhaps it's time to rebuild the functionality without using a layout region: layout regions never worked with a web browser.
I'm working on a document-editing application using CKEditor, where the user can open multiple documents side-by-side in a pair of editor instances.
Most of the time, the user will be editing two different documents, but it's also possible that the two editor instances might contain different views of the same document. That makes things tricky, since I'd like to changes in one editor instance to be immediately reflected in the other instance.
Without hacking the CKEditor core, is something like that possible?
If not, would it be possible to write a plugin that would provide that kind of functionality?
What about if I was willing to get into the core code and hack around a bit? How difficult would it be?
This is a very similar case to a collaborative editing like Google Docs allows. The only differences are that you won't need to synchronize this via network and that it's very unlikely (if not impossible) that the same documents will be modified by two users at the same time. This makes things simpler... a little bit.
A year ago me and my colleague (we are both CKEditor core devs) took part in Node.JS Knockout and our plan was to create a collaborative editor based on CKEditor. It was only 48h, so the result is not impressive, but it worked. The source code is here.
The main problem you'll have is applying changes from editor A to editor B without breaking a caret position in editor B. Basically, you cannot just take data from editor A and set them in editor B, because everything in editor B will be reset including scroll position and caret. Unless this is not a problem, but I assume it is.
So you would need to:
either find a nice algorithm for extracting changes (like diff, but working on a DOM tree, not an HTML string) made in editor A and an algorithm to apply them to editor B (and this is what we implemented on Node.JS Knockout),
or find a way to guess caret position after resetting data in editor B; for example you can remember the caret context in editor B before setting data and try to find it in data that will be loaded.
Both ways are doable, but the first way will give better results if you'll implement it well. However, if your you don't know enough about DOM and contenteditable, then this task may overwhelm you. In this case I would advise to block possibility of opening one document twice.
I just recently realized that Visual Studio offers the ability to split the code view into 2 sections (top and bottom). Now, having played with it a bit, if you make changes in one, it affects the other. My question is, what is the purpose of this? How do people use it?
In case you're unaware of this, one way of splitting the code view is by moving this slider circled in the picture:
Code Review
I occasionally use it to view a method that is called from another method during a code review. For instance, if I am code reviewing method A, and it calls B, and I want to see A and B at the same time, I will pull that down, and scroll one to B, and leave the other at A.
private void A()
{
// code here
B();
}
// other methods here that push B out of the viewable area.
private void B()
{
// code here
}
Pro Tip
Another way to flip back and forth with just the keyboard, although you wouldn't see both methods at the same time, is to hit F12 on the call to B within A, which is a shortcut to "Go To Definition", and then hitting Ctrl+-, which is a shortcut for "Navigate Backwards", which brings you back to where your cursor was previously. I frequently use Ctrl + Shift + - to navigate forwards, and Ctrl + - to navigate backwards.
Trivia
This extra viewing pane isn't exclusive to Visual Studio. You will notice Sql Server Management Studio, MS Word, and MS Outlook have the same functionality. I presume many other apps do too.
Viewing Multiple Functions, Classes, or anything can be viewed.. whenever you want to see multiple things at a time, this split view can be useful.
I have yet to find a need for this option in professional development. If your code has grown big enough and you need this feature, chances are that refactoring would be better instead. Always use OOP to make sure you spend as little time navigating or remembering your code as possible.
Considering the above, I can see a potential for it in large projects with lots of unorganized old code, which you inherited from previous developers. Examples include one big Sub main, spanning thousands lines of code, procedural approach in development etc.
This feature truly shines in single document projects, such as in Word. Or multi-document projects where splitting into smaller files/classes is not always possible, such as in SQL Mgmt Studio.
I'm new to developing on the Mac and am looking to implement an interface similar to Spotlight's - the main part which seems to be an expanding table/grid view.
I was wondering if there is a component Apple provides for creating something like this or is available open source else where.
Of course if not I'll just try and work something out myself but it's always worth checking!
Thanks for your help in advance.
New Answer (December, 2015)
These days I'd go with a vertical stack view ( NSStackView ).
You can use its hiding priorities to guarantee the number of results you show will fit (it'll hide those it can't). Note, it doesn't reuse views like a table view reuses cell views, so it's only appropriate for a limited number of "results" in your case, especially since it doesn't make sense to add a bunch of subviews that'll never appear. I'd go so far as to say outright you shouldn't use it for lists of things you intend to scroll (in this case, go with a table view).
The priority setting can be used to make sure your assumption of what should be "enough" results doesn't cause ugly layout issues by letting the stack view "sacrifice" the last few.
You can even emulate Spotlight's "Spotlight Preferences" entry (or a "show all" option) by adding it last and setting its priority to required (1000) so it always stays put even if result entries above it are hidden due to lack of space.
Lately all my UI designs for 10.11 (and beyond) have been making heavy use of them. I keep finding new ways to simplify my layouts with them. Given how lightweight they are, they should be your go-to solution first unless you need something more complex (Apple engineers stated in WWDC videos they're intended to be used in this way).
Old 2011 Answer
This is private Apple API. I don't know of any open-source initiatives that mimic it off-hand.
Were I trying to do it, I might use an NSTableView with no enclosing scroll view, no headers, two columns, right-justified lighter-colored text in the left column, the easily-googled image/text cell in the right column, with vertical grid lines turned on. The container view would observe the table view for frame changes and resize/reposition accordingly.
Adding: It might be a good idea also to see if the right/left justified text (or even the position of the columns) is different in languages with different sweep paths. Example: Arabic and Hebrew are read right-to-left. Better to adapt than to say "who cares" (he says flippantly while knowing full well his own apps have problems with this sort of thing :-)). You can test this by making sure such languages are installed on your computer, then switching between them and testing out Spotlight. Changing languages shouldn't pose an issue since the language switching UI doesn't rely on reading a foreign language. :-)
Babylon dictionary and a couple of other dictionaries allow to click on any word in any windows program
and automatically recognize the word under the cursor, and at once open the dictionary window while searching for that word in installed dictionaries.
You can on the other hand open your dictionary, type in your word and press Enter, the result will be the same.
There's a Delphi form, containing a text label, for example with the word "Automaton".
My question is:
How to send a word from my Delphi application right into the dictionary window, as if you typed it manually and pressed Enter?
The best solution is to send some message through the Windows mechanism, but if it is too complicated, there's another solution, and so the second answer: as I described, we need to model a [Ctrl+left mouse] click on a form where this word is displayed on a form [ a visual label on the screen of my Delphi application], to be exact, on some central pixel of this label.
Could you kindly give an advice how to do one thing or another in Delphi ?
** edit:
The problem with AppActivate is this: Babylon dict has a daemon part that seats in the tray.
In the task manager a real window where the text should be input also is named 'Babylon'.
So AppActivate('Babylon') tries to bring to front the non-visual part of the application.
Do you have any suggestion how to determine the windows handle or something of a real visual part of the application? In the task manager, I repeat both visual and non-visual parts are named 'Babylon'.
I cannot offer an answer so much as some insight and advice...
There are certain applications which "intercept" keyboard and mouse instructions, and essentially "nullify" them if they are being immitated by software. Generally-speaking, you'd only see this in proper AntiVirus software such as Kaspersky by design... however:
The way some (not many, but some) programs hook keyboard and mouse inputs, as a side-effect, behave the same way. If you have attempted all of the advice given as comments above, and cannot get Babylon to trigger an action as a result, it is likely Babylon behaves as I have described.
If what I suspect is true, then the method you are attempting is simply not possible (at least, not using any simple Pascal code on its own... ASM might be able to do it but that's beyond my knowledge).
A better solution may be to do a little research to see if any of the following options are available to you:
1) Does Babylon have a Pipeline or API you can use to interface your application(s) with it?
2) Is the particular functionality you require of Babylon accessible through one (or more) DLL files distributed as part of Babylon?
3) Is there an alternative to using Babylon for your needs?
I know it's not an answer as such (certainly not one you'd want to hear), but it may point you in a better direction.