Does anyone know how to use column mode for editing source code within uVision3 IDE??? I am used to using Jens where I could insert text in a column format defined by the start and stop of the drag of my cursor. I could then right click and insert defined text on all lines simultaneously starting where my cursor orignated to the end of the highlighted segment area in a column format. Can anyone help with this??? I know how to use the Alt key and mouse to highlight text in a column format, but I can find a way to enter text on multiple lines in a column format. This is very annoying.
Alt + drag
http://www.keil.com/support/man/docs/uv4/uv4_ui_seltext.htm
Thank you for the reply, but I am not talking about just selecting text. I want to insert text in a similar format. However, I would like to define the location of the column to start on, then drag to the line where I want to stop at. Then I would like to somehow insert text at this defined location on all lines within the drag highlighted area starting from where the cursor began and stopped.
but I here's what I've been doing as a second-best solution:
have you considered making that "open source"?, you might get a beneficial return
Erik
I do not want to use tools written in coffee, my time is too precious
"Regarding Eclipse: it may not be the best IDE but to me it seems good enough that I wouldn't be too upset if all the embedded vendors standardized on it."
is it possible that others think the Keil IDE, without the column editing feature, is good enough for them too?
maybe that's why they didn't include a column editing feature?
If you really miss it that much, maybe you can talk to Keil to write a special IDE for you. I am sure that as long as you put big enough of a figure in front of them, they will move in your direction.
Keil or I should say Keil ARM does use Eclipse for there DS-5 toolset. Maybe they will move that Eclipse version into the ARM MDK tools in the near future but I doubt that they will change the C51 tools. I don't know that. It's just a thought. Bradford
I have, actually, but I have to find some time to recreate a project from scratch and document the steps so it's actually useful.
Andrew
CodeWright has that feature but, as far as I know, doesn't have a correesponding un-comment feature.
So you still need the column edit (or, at least, column select & delete) for that...
Anything that has a suitable command-line invokation...
"I can hook Jens into uVision in the same manner as proposed for hooking in Code Wright???"
I don't see why not.
A bit sloppy to add a "comment" but not a "uncomment" command. A column-delete command is hard, always removing a fixed number of characters. A uncomment command would be able to check each individual line and don't destroy a line that doesn't start with //. No problem if the block is 10-20 lines, but if it is 500 lines, it can be easy to miss that there is some code in the middle that wasn't commented away, when marking the block.
Yes - unless I've just missed it?
I guess the intention must've been just to make a block of text into a comment - rather than to enable/disable sections of code...?
"Release documentation of Eclipse 3.5 seems to contradict you on that"
Yes - I was out-of-date on that!
Eclipse now even does what the OP was talking about; viz, you make a "column" selection, then whatever you type gets repeated down the entire column.
See:
stackoverflow.com/.../how-do-i-enable-the-column-selection-mode-in-eclipse
help.eclipse.org/.../index.jsp
"you make a 'column' selection, then whatever you type gets repeated down the entire column"
So, having only just discovered this, I must say that I am rapidly coming to find it very useful indeed!
"there isn't sufficient number of people using it to justify its existence in the ide"
As I suggested earlier, maybe people - like me - have just never come across it before?
In which case, once one has used it, one might find oneself saying, "how did I ever manage without this?!"
"As I suggested earlier, maybe people - like me - have just never come across it before?"
sure. but that still doesn't change the fact that no sufficient number of people are using that feature.
"In which case, once one has used it, one might find oneself saying, "how did I ever manage without this?!""
having tried it, one might have flip'd the other way saying "what a useless feature!" I tend to think the mkt (of software developers) has spoken and I hope that the fact that many IDE oems have not included this feature in this offering speaks something about its usefulness to the mass.
again, that doesn't mean the feature isn't useful or cannot be useful. it only says that the feature isn't useful enough to be included in the standard offering now.
that may change, as more people learn about it - as in your case.
Andy: "I must say" Ashley "one might have"
who has a point?
the fact that many IDE oems of course not, if an "IDE oems" were selling the IDE because of the editor, it would be different. I have seen no IDE where the editor did not stink to high heaven. Thus on my taskbar next to Keil (or IAR or ...) you always see CodeWright.
"I have seen no IDE"
but you have certainly seen the datasheet specification on T0's maximum clock rate, haven't you?
:)
Tasking's IDE is CodeWright!!
"Tasking's IDE is CodeWright!!"
that explains their huge market share.
Wow! I am starting to feel bad for even asking my original question. Obviously, there is no column mode feature, and obviously there is no plan to add one. I will just have to develop a work-around by hooking another editor into the uVision IDE to edit code with which I would be better served using the column mode feature that I like so much.
However, what's up with the bookmarks on the uVision IDE? If I use the "go to next bookmark feature" with bookmarks on multiple files within a project, the button will not take me automatically to the next file. Are there settings for bookmarks somewhere that I don't know that control this feature? How can I use the button to automatically go to the next bookmark placed if that bookmark is located in another file that I have open within my project???
"I will just have to develop a work-around by hooking another editor into the uVision IDE to edit code with which I would be better served using the column mode feature that I like so much."
you don't even need to hook in any external editors (you can but you don't have to): just edit your files in your editor and then switch over to the ide to compile.
The IDE detects modified files on disk, so tabbing back to uVision is enough for it to reload changed files in the integrated editor. This is a required feature for an editor to support command-line handling of source code repositories, so most programmers editors do check modified file time stamps.
About bookmarks - it's quite common that developers wants to jump between bookmarks in a single file. Basically a locality of reference. So it's quite common that editors only jump between bookmarks in the current file without caring about what bookmarks you have in other files.
The advantage with this concept is that a developer can have a large number of bookmarks and change from working with one module to starting to work with another module and immediately switching the "open" set of bookmarks to jump between.
Oh, I see. I understand that concept. I am just used to Jens' at this point, so it's taking some time getting used to uVision and it limitations and capabilities. Eventually, I am sure I'll get a rythm going here. I guess I will have to just remember what files I have placed bookmarks in for a particular problem/resolution I am developing. Either that, or manually look through each file I have open to find the location that joggs my memory.
One thing I am missing is a list of all bookmarks, similar to Ctrl-B for breakpoints.
As I described in a post earlier in this thread, the benefit of "hooking" the editor into the uVision IDE when using an external editor is that the IDE can redirect the build results to the editor's build window. That way your editor can parse the errors (click on an error to go to the appropriate statement in the source code).
-Walt
I understand. Thanks Walt!
There is a column-mode feature - it just doesn't do all the things you wanted!
"I am just used to Jens' at this point, so it's taking some time getting used to uVision and it limitations and capabilities"
That is always true when switching to any new tool of any sort.
You get the same when switching between different makes of car - sometimes even between different models of the same make!
Yes Andrew, I do understand that. I was just giving a sense of where I am coming from. Anyhow, I am aware of the alt+drag feature that allows you to highlight and delete in column format of which I am very thankful for mind you. I do appreciate you letting me know though Andrew.
Not just delete - you can also copy, cut, and paste the "columnar" block...
ahh yes, I am also aware of those features that exist within column mode. These are all very helpful features. That's one of the reasons I felt there must also be a mode or option for adding text in a column format, but to my surprise there is not. Oh well, I will just edit the files with which I would like to use column mode to get things done more efficiently within Jens' and update the file and go back to uVision.
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