[Gambas-user] IDE Operatiuon questn - suggestions part 2

[John Anderson]

On 5/22/2021 7:24 AM, Benoît Minisini wrote:
> Le 22/05/2021 à 05:52, John Anderson a écrit :
>> On Gambas IDE itself:
>>
>> A)  One thing I noticed as a newer user that's used to VB6 / Qt IDE 
>> world:  On the properties browser on right hand window: Those Gambas 
>> properties aren't actually changed until you hit return or tab away 
>> on that property, or use the spin up/down for that property.  For 
>> instance if I have an object selected on a form, and I go to 
>> properties and change some property X...I see the property is 
>> displaying the new value, and in my mind that property has a new 
>> value.  Then I hit RUN:  That property reverts to old value.  You 
>> have to change the property value THEN hit Return, or tab to another 
>> property or use that focused property's spin up/down button BEFORE 
>> attempting to compile or run the program. You have to be a bit 
>> careful there to change properties then test in the correct order, 
>> otherwise you'll swear you changed a property but really the change 
>> was discarded.  It would be neat if the new property value could be 
>> applied as the cursor leaves the property pane, or before any Save / 
>> Compile / Make is executed.
>
> It's just a bug. But apparently it does not bother a lot of people... 
> I will fix it.
>
>>
>> B)  On VB6 and other IDE's, when you're in the code editor there is a 
>> way to go to "Last Position" which we use a lot.  In other words you 
>> can alt-click on the code editor, hit "Last Position" and your cursor 
>> moves to whatever previous line you were editing (and previous file 
>> tab as appropriate). Usually you can back up at least 10 code 
>> positions or so before it wraps back to where you started.   Is there 
>> a way to do that in Gambas?
>
> The F2 key on a symbol sends you to the definition of the symbol.
>
> The SHIFT-F2 key sends you back to the previous position.
>
> You have the two back and forward buttons on the top-right of the IDE 
> too. Beware, they are still sometimes buggy.
>
>>
>> C) On VB6, you can have the code editor display just ONE single 
>> procedure at a time, and that makes it easier to scroll around a very 
>> long procedure.  I'm poking around in the code preferences section, 
>> and I can see how to add procedure folding & separators, but I was 
>> hoping to see a way to display just one procedure at a time in the 
>> IDE.  Declaration section is treated as one procedure.   You can 
>> still jump around to various procedures and events with the procedure 
>> list selector as you have now.  Is there a way to do that in Gambas IDE?
>
> No.
>
>>
>> I'm asking because we're looking at re-writing a large-ish VB6 
>> project (80k active code lines), and contained therein we've got some 
>> single procedures many hundred code lines long, not counting 
>> comments.  I'm evaluating Gambas to see if it's up to the task.
>
> I don't see how displaying only the procedure can help with the fact 
> that it is too big.
>
>>
>> D) I really dream about Gambas being able to Pause on Error, change a 
>> line of code if possible (or temporarily ignore a line of code to 
>> escape a fatal error), then have it continue.  That was a big plus in 
>> VB6 even though it could lead to problems if you weren't careful.   
>> The problem with a machine-control software development test that 
>> just stops in the middle of a run - maybe you run into a "Array Index 
>> Out of Bounds" problem - the machine will just e-stop where it's at 
>> and you have to re-initialize the whole system before you can test 
>> the new code change.  That can take a while on a complex peice of 
>> equipment, maybe 15 or 30 minutes or more.  We try to design 
>> everything to minimize that problem, but being able to work around a 
>> fatal error to at least get to a section of code that can shut 
>> everything down "gracefully" is a real time-saver.  Yeah I 
>> know...Try...Catch... That works great when it's there, but sometimes 
>> the best laid plans....
>
> That feature needs too much development time and complexity for the 
> benefit it brings.
>
> Regards,
>
Thanks Benoît!  Indeed Shift F2 and the forward / back buttons are a bit 
"buggy".

On long procedures if you want to scroll up and down - the scroller 
control will move thru a lot of code in a hurry, and you wind up going 
past the top or bottom of the function you're working on. Using the 
arrow keys is too slow to scroll across vast regions up and down, and 
the side scroller is harder to use on really long files.  Think big.

I could put each function in separate module files I guess but in our 
case we'd wind up with 600+ module files for one of our state machine 
sequencers.  It's much easier just to be looking at one procedure at a 
time in the code editor window.

"That feature needs too much development time and complexity for the 
benefit it brings. " I agree,and Welcome to my reality.   The benefits 
of "pause, edit and continue" are -enormous- if you can somehow get past 
a single fatal error, and limp home to a graceful exit routine.  I'll 
try not to need that too much with Gambas - I know that would be complex.

Thanks again for your efforts!

-John