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.
"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.
"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?!"
"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Yes - I was out-of-date on that!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
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...?
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.
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.
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...
have you considered making that "open source"?, you might get a beneficial return
Erik
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
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
"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.
but I here's what I've been doing as a second-best solution:
I do not want to use tools written in coffee, my time is too precious
Now I can do all my editing and building in Eclipse and when it's time to debug I switch over to uVision for debugging. Since the uVision debugger is pretty good I'm not too upset about not having debugging in Eclipse.
Now I can do all my compiling and linking in uVision and when it's time to edit I switch over to CodeWright for editing. I'm not too upset about not having editing in uVision.
Regarding column editing: I've used it in M, Brief, MSVC, Eclipse and Notepad++. When an IDE/editor doesn't support it I sorely miss it. Arguments along the lines of "maybe you're not structuring your code right" are not really acceptable.
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.
Regarding uVision integration: it would be nice to have a better way of plugging editors and other tools into uVision but I here's what I've been doing as a second-best solution:
- Set up a fake CDT project in Eclipse (trivial) - Set up a custom build command file that calls uVision to build the project in the background and pipe the errors back to Eclipse (easy) - Set up an error parser that makes errors and warnings show up in Eclipse's "problems" tab (moderately easy)
Eclipse's SVN and CVS integration is great, by the way. Makes source control so much easier to use.
I can hook anything into uVision then? For example, I can hook Jens into uVision in the same manner as proposed for hooking in Code Wright???
Note that a number of programmers editors have special features for comment away code, so you can do your alternative "b" without any column editing involved.
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