How can I undo more than a single character in TextMate? - macos

TextMate may be the best editor out there, but is has a big disadvantage: it undoes each character typed instead of grouping characters. This makes a large undo tedious!
Do you now any hacks, plugins or workarounds to fix this issue?

I know the developer's been promising a fix for years now, and it's something the user community complains about a lot. But I don't think I've seen anything more useful than "hold down Cmd-Z to repeat".

This is not exactly what you're asking for but more a work around because as dnord said, this is a fundamental issue with TextMate and won't be fixed until Allen Odegard decides to fix it.
Have you considered trying one of the clipboard managers out there? At least that way you can clip chunks of text and 'undo' them at will.
I use Jumpcut because it's free and does the job.

Just in case anyone doesn't already know this: Shift-Option-Arrow lets you select things word by word.
If you make a habit of selecting whole words before deleting text, you'll save time when you do and when you undo.

Related

Apperance of no-break space character in typing

Using TeXShop to typeset LaTeX, I often come across the error Package inputenc error: Character \u8 not set up for use with LaTeX. That, I have learnt, is due to the fact that, for some reason, some spaces become "no-break space"s (U+00A0), which apparently inputenc doesn't like. So this is NOT a LaTeX question, but just one that was brought up by LaTeX. It might be about TeXShop or about I don't know what, but the LaTeX part is definitely solved. So the question is: why does it turn up? Is it a shortcut I am unaware of (I'm om Mac OS X 10.7.5), a TeXShop specific thing, or something else?
PS I'm not sure if the tag is appropriate. Were I not forced to give at least one, I probably would have given none. LaTeX, as stated above, is definitely NOT an appropriate tag for this question. The one I had put was probably more appropriate. Anyway I'll have a look at the list of popular tags (if I find one) and change the tag to the one that seems most appropriate to me.
As Wikipedia states on this page, Alt+Space on Mac inputs the No-Break Space. In speedy typing, I probably inadvertently press Alt while typing the space, resulting in this problem.

vim advice on getting around

I have been using vim for a few days now and I really like the key bindings and the separate modes. I would really like to be able to be a little more efficient when using the various shortcuts etc.. that it has to offer.
For example I got a vim extension for visual studio and I had this line of code:
SqlCommand sqlcmd = new SqlCommand();
I wanted to get into the braces so I tried 5W, this took me to the first brace, then I pressed 'L' to go in and 'I' to go into insert mode.
I don't feel that I am using it to its potential, does anyone have any suggestions as to a quicker way they would have done that? or suggest things that I can look at to get even more efficient at editing using what vim has to offer, I would be really grateful.
Those two cheat-sheets will get you pretty far:
if your cursor is before the () on that line, you can try pressing:
%i
I think it would be the best way to go there. Of course you could do this as well:
f(a
to the question "how to get more productive"
think about those operations, you thought "complex/not productive" (like the one in your question)
try to find out a better solution by google/vim help/doc
use the new solution in your daily edit
if you cannot find better solution, ask here or other vim community, like vim-use mailing list.

How to edit the original string column in poedit?

Hi I am using poedit editor and i am not able to edit the original string column. I want to edit few words on original string column. Thanks in Advance
(Oh well, I'll answer it here as well, for the benefit of the people who may find this post. But you won't like the answer any more than when I replied to you yesterday, when you asked on the Poedit mailing and in personal email to me.)
Short answer is: you can't. Read the introductory sections of the GNU gettext manual -- it explains the basic concepts of gettext translations very well, from both the programmer's and translator's perspectives, and it's clear you don't understand the concept of gettext.
Really, I mean it: please, please, read at the lest the intro part of the manual. The fine folks from the GNU gettext project put a lot of effort into it and if you've spent 5-10 minutes with it, you wouldn't need to ask this question.
Longer version:
Gettext uses text strings (typically in English) in the source code as translation keys. And it has tools to extract the strings and put them into a PO file. This ensures that only strings that are actually used are translated.
Changing the original string (called msgid -- it really is an ID) makes no sense. You would then have a translation of a string that is never used in the source code and so the translation would be guaranteed to never be used. Way to waste the translator's time, wouldn't it?
Want to "edit a few words"? Edit them in the source code. That's the only way that can ever work with gettext.
What Vaclav is saying is very true. If you change the actual source string, the system won't read it.
In Poedit, simply select the string from the long list that you want to edit then you will see that string in the Source Text at the bottom of the screen. Then in the Translation box, enter your preferred wording. Don't forget to include any variable aswell otherwise your change won't work.
What Vaclav is saying is very false.
You can change it. Open the file with notepad. Ctrl + F the original text that you want to change. Change it, and then save it. Then open the file with po edit again, and you will see the changed text.

can I edit Xcode code completion suggestions?

I love the code completion in Xcode, it saves me a lot of typing work. Also, it confirms my code is probably error-free in real time. However, to me, some code suggestions are disturbing. For example, when I type else after an if-statement, Xcode suggests this:
else {
statement
}
I'd like to change this to just:
else
statement
Because, I quite often just want to use one line of code there, and adding curled brackets goes much faster than removing them. The other annoying thing is the fact that using such a suggestion takes the return key, while a new line does as well. So, if I would want to use my preferred way as shown above, I would first have to press the escape key in order to stop Xcode suggesting it, and then press the return key. Not a real pain, but I think it's unnecessary.
There are some other code suggestions which I would like to change, but I think I have made my point already. Is there a way to change these code suggestions? I know Apple doesn't provide an easy way within Xcode itself, but I'm willing to dive into the finder for the file with suggestions and change it manually. Thanks!
in your example, it would work to add a space after typing else. Doing that removes the brace suggestion and you can just hit enter.

Do you use special comments on bug fixes in your code?

Some of my colleagues use special comments on their bug fixes, for example:
// 2008-09-23 John Doe - bug 12345
// <short description>
Does this make sense?
Do you comment bug fixes in a special way?
Please let me know.
I don't put in comments like that, the source control system already maintains that history and I am already able to log the history of a file.
I do put in comments that describe why something non-obvious is being done though. So if the bug fix makes the code less predictable and clear, then I explain why.
Over time these can accumulate and add clutter. It's better to make the code clear, add any comments for related gotchas that may not be obvious and keep the bug detail in the tracking system and repository.
I tend not to comment in the actual source because it can be difficult to keep up to date.
However I do put linking comments in my source control log and issue tracker. e.g. I might do something like this in Perforce:
[Bug-Id] Problem with xyz dialog.
Moved sizing code to abc and now
initialise later.
Then in my issue tracker I will do something like:
Fixed in changelist 1234.
Moved sizing code to abc and now
initialise later.
Because then a good historic marker is left. Also it makes it easy if you want to know why a particular line of code is a certain way, you can just look at the file history. Once you've found the line of code, you can read my commit comment and clearly see which bug it was for and how I fixed it.
Only if the solution was particularly clever or hard to understand.
I usually add my name, my e-mail address and the date along with a short description of what I changed, That's because as a consultant I often fix other people's code.
// Glenn F. Henriksen (<email#company.no) - 2008-09-23
// <Short description>
That way the code owners, or the people coming in after me, can figure out what happened and they can get in touch with me if they have to.
(yes, unfortunately, more often than not they have no source control... for internal stuff I use TFS tracking)
While this may seem like a good idea at the time, it quickly gets out of hand. Such information can be better captured using a good combination of source control system and bug tracker. Of course, if there's something tricky going on, a comment describing the situation would be helpful in any case, but not the date, name, or bug number.
The code base I'm currently working on at work is something like 20 years old and they seem to have added lots of comments like this years ago. Fortunately, they stopped doing it a few years after they converted everything to CVS in the late 90s. However, such comments are still littered throughout the code and the policy now is "remove them if you're working directly on that code, but otherwise leave them". They're often really hard to follow especially if the same code is added and removed several times (yes, it happens). They also don't contain the date, but contain the bug number which you'd have to go look up in an archaic system to find the date, so nobody does.
Comments like this are why Subversion lets you type a log entry on every commit. That's where you should put this stuff, not in the code.
I do it if the bug fix involves something that's not straightforward, but more often than not if the bugfix requires a long explanation I take it as a sign that the fix wasn't designed well. Occasionally I have to work around a public interface that can't change so this tends to be the source of these kinds of comments, for example:
// <date> [my name] - Bug xxxxx happens when the foo parameter is null, but
// some customers want the behavior. Jump through some hoops to find a default value.
In other cases the source control commit message is what I use to annotate the change.
Whilst I do tend to see some comments on bugs inside the code at work, my personal preference is linking a code commit to one bug. When I say one I really mean one bug. Afterwards you can always look at the changes made and know which bug these were applied to.
That style of commenting is extremely valuable in a multi-developer environment where there is a range of skills and / or business knowledge across the developers (e.g. - everywhere).
To the experienced knowledgable developer the reason for a change may be obvious, but for newer developers that comment will make them think twice and do more investigation before messing with it. It also helps them learn more about how the system works.
Oh, and a note from experience about the "I just put that in the source control system" comments:
If it isn't in the source, it didn't happen.
I can't count the number of times the source history for projects has been lost due to inexperience with the source control software, improper branching models etc. There is
only one place the change history cannot be lost - and that's in the source file.
I usually put it there first, then cut 'n paste the same comment when I check it in.
No I don't, and I hate having graffiti like that litter the code. Bug numbers can be tracked in the commit message to the version control system, and by scripts to push relevant commit messages into the bug tracking system. I do not believe they belong in the source code, where future edits will just confuse things.
Often a comment like that is more confusing, as you don't really have context as to what the original code looked like, or the original bad behavior.
In general, if your bug fix now makes the code run CORRECTLY, just simply leave it without comments. There is no need to comment correct code.
Sometimes the bug fix makes things look odd, or the bug fix is testing for something that is out of the ordinary. Then it might be appropriate to have a comment - usually the comment should refer back to the "bug number" from your bug database. For example, you might have a comment that says "Bug 123 - Account for odd behavior when the user is in 640 by 480 screen resolution".
If you add comments like that after a few years of maintaining the code you will have so many bug fix comments you wouldn't be able to read the code.
But if you change something that look right (but have a subtle bug) into something that is more complicated it's nice to add a short comment explaining what you did, so that the next programmer to maintain this code doesn't change it back because he (or she) thinks you over-complicated things for no good reason.
No. I use subversion and always enter a description of my motivation for committing a change. I typically don't restate the solution in English, instead I summarize the changes made.
I have worked on a number of projects where they put comments in the code when bug fixes were made. Interestingly, and probably not coincidentally, these were projects which either didn't use any sort of source control tool or were mandated to follow this sort of convention by fiat from management.
Quite honestly, I don't really see the value in doing this for most situations. If I want to know what changed, I'll look at the subversion log and the diff.
Just my two cents.
If the code is corrected, the comment is useless and never interesting to anybody - just noise.
If the bug isn't solved, the comment is wrong. Then it makes sense. :) So just leave such comments if you didn't really solved the bug.
To locate ones specific comment we use DKBUGBUG - which means David Kelley's fix and reviewer can easily identity, Ofcourse we will add Date and other VSTS bug tracking number etc along with this.
Don't duplicate meta data that your VCS is going to keep for you. Dates and names should be in the automatically added by the VCS. Ticket numbers, manager/user names that requested the change, etc should be in VCS comments, not the code.
Rather than this:
//$DATE $NAME $TICKET
//useful comment to the next poor soul
I would do this:
//useful comment to the next poor soul
If the code is on a live platform, away from direct access to the source control repository, then I will add comments to highlight the changes made as a part of the fix for a bug on the live system.
Otherwise, no the message that you enter at checkin should contain all the info you need.
cheers,
Rob
When I make bugfixes/enhancements in third party libraries/component I often make some comments. This makes it easier find and move the changes if I need to use a newer version of the library/component.
In my own code I seldom comments bugfixes.
I don't work on multi-person projects, but I sometimes add comments about a certain bug to a unit test.
Remember, there's no such thing as bugs, just insufficient testing.
Since I do as much TDD as possible (everything else is social suicide, because every other method will force you to work endless hours), I seldomly fix bugs.
Most of the time I add special remarks like this one to the code:
// I KNOW this may look strange to you, but I have to use
// this special implementation here - if you don't understand that,
// maybe you are the wrong person for the job.
Sounds harsh, but most people who call themselves "developers" deserve no other remarks.

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