1. Discussion - text editor features

Now that RedyCode 0.9.0 has been released, i think the next thing i want to focus on is improving the text editor productivity.

  • What specific features do you use frequently in a text editor while writing code?
  • What hotkeys do you use the most?
  • Do you use hotkeys all the time to avoid moving your hand from the keyboard to the mouse?
  • What hotkeys do you use to accelerate selecting and editing? For example, selecting a word, move to next/previous word, jump to line, surround selection with quotes, brackets, parentheses, etc.
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2. Re: Discussion - text editor features

ryanj said...

What specific features do you use frequently in a text editor while writing code?

Notepad++ is pretty much the who's who of nifty text editor features:

  • Document map
  • Function list
  • Multi-editing
  • Column mode editing
  • Code auto-complete
  • User-defined languages
  • Split/rotate view
  • Extended search/replace (\n, \r, \t, \0, \x, ...)
  • Regular expression search/replace

I really like Notepad++ but of course it's a Windows app and I struggle to find a good cross-platform editor with these features.

ryanj said...

What hotkeys do you use the most?

Um, all of them? blink

File menu

Ctrl+N New
Ctrl+O Open
Ctrl+S Save
Ctrl+Alt+S Save as
Ctrl+Shift+S Save all
Ctrl+W Close
Ctrl+PgUp Prev tab
Ctrl+PgDn Next tab

Edit menu

Ctrl+X Cut
Ctrl+C Copy
Ctrl+V Paste
Ctrl+A Select all
Ctrl+X Undo
Ctrl+Y Redo
Ctrl+G Go to line
Ctrl+K Comment line
Ctrl+L Delete line
Ctrl+U Lower case
Ctrl+Shift+U Upper case
Ctrl+Shift+Up Move line up
Ctrl+Shift+Down Move line down
Alt+Shift+Arrow Block selection

Search menu

Ctrl+F Find
Ctrl+H Replace
F3 Find next
Shift+F3 Find prev
Ctrl+Shift+F Find in files

I'm sure there are more but I use these every day.

ryanj said...

Do you use hotkeys all the time to avoid moving your hand from the keyboard to the mouse?

Absolutely. I operate this way in as many applications as I can. I hate having to move my hands.

ryanj said...

What hotkeys do you use to accelerate selecting and editing? For example, selecting a word, move to next/previous word, jump to line, surround selection with quotes, brackets, parentheses, etc.

L/R Navigate character
Ctrl+L/R Navigate word
Shift+L/R Select character
Ctrl+Shift+L/R Select word
Ctrl+G Go to line

I don't use any of the others you mentioned.

-Greg

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3. Re: Discussion - text editor features

Thanks for the detailed response, Greg. I will work on adding exactly what you posted, and hotkeys will be customizable, by the way. I totally forgot about making selected text uppercase, lowercase, or capitalized.

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4. Re: Discussion - text editor features

ryanj said...

Now that RedyCode 0.9.0 has been released, i think the next thing i want to focus on is improving the text editor productivity.

  • What specific features do you use frequently in a text editor while writing code? []

from easy to less easy not necessarily in order of importance:

  • shift insert to paste, control insert to copy, shift delete to cut
  • SciTE has a variety of good double and triple click behaviour
  • double click at the edge of a word also selects white space on that side
  • triple click select the whole line
  • copy with nothing selected copies current line
  • surround with various quotes, brackets or copy buffer items
  • swap the item in the copy buffer at the point it was copied with the location and current cut item.
  • control scrollwheel to increase/decrease font size
  • scrollwheel click or double click to close tab
  • scrollwheel click or double click on keyword to open its definition file
  • scrollwheel click on empty tab bar will open a new file maybe with a dialog to select file type or pick from a menu later
  • right click context menu could have choice of help or its definition include file
  • regex search & replace. multiline input of regex and replacement text
  • jump to ex.err line
  • drag & drop selected text and control drag & drop to clone selected text
  • multiple undo/redo
  • macro record, playback and edit
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