Cleaning old History in UltraEdit/UEStudio

[rhapdog]

I am donating a new tool to the UltraEdit community.

There have been a number of times that I wanted to clear my search and replace history without clearing my file history with UltraEdit (well, UEStudio, actually). This just isn't possible. If you clear one thing, you clear everything.

So I am introducing a small program that will give you more control, and I am sending a copy to IDM Support in hopes that this functionality can be included in future versions.

Introducing
UltraEdit History Cleaner, version 1.0.

This program works with UltraEdit and UEStudio. If you need for it to work with UE Portable, just place it in the same path as UE Portable, and it should work fine.

Download

This program gives you more control over exactly what history for UltraEdit is cleared. By default, when you use the configuration option to clear UltraEdit's History, it cleans all of the following:
Recent Files
Recent Projects/Workspace
Last used DOS commands
Line Change Indicator Information
Hidden Lines in files
Bookmarks
Find in File History
UE Compare History
Find Hex History
Find History
Replace History

This program will give you total control, and allow you to remove just one or all of these items.

[Mofi]

You missed the file code page history stored in group [File Code Page].

Open any file, use View - Set Code Page, select a different code page for the active file and exit UE/UES to get this group in the INI file.

[jorrasdk]

Hi rhapdog - Kudos! - I find myself going into the UE ini file using notepad every now when my work shifts to new focus and clear out old search/replace history, bookmarks, hidden lines - keeping recent projects/files and "find in file" (as not to loose patterns/file path). Your program makes that a breeze.

I will write to IDM to support your suggestion. Thanks!

[rhapdog]

Wow! This is being better received than I thought!

Sure am glad I'm not alone in being the one who opened the INI file to manually clear only certain things in the past.

You missed the file code page history stored in group [File Code Page].

Open any file, use View - Set Code Page, select a different code page for the active file and exit UE/UES to get this group in the INI file.

Ah... thanks. I didn't know that was one, as I have never needed to change a file code page.

I will make a revision to the program this week, and add File Code Page to the history clearing capability. Is that all that I have missed?

[jorrasdk]

Some input:
One "nice to have" thing spring to mind : A count of how many history lines each group have ? (so as to evaluate if it is time or worth to clear history)

And one design issue: There are a lot of "clear" buttons - maybe the buttons on top and bottom together with checkmarks is sufficient for all combinations ?

And maybe a warning if an instance of UE/US is running as this could conflict with updates to the ini file I guess ?

[rhapdog]

While those are some good suggestions, and I had actually originally planned to implement this program as a tabbed feature of a future version of UE Companion and have all those features available, the idea behind this is a simple layout to give IDM some ideas on how to make minor changes to their program to incorporate this into a future version.

The reason it didn't come out in UE Companion, is because I have "stopped production" so to speak on UE Companion, and will be releasing a new version, where the only change is the license agreement and the build number. I will be including the source code in the new version, with permission to take the source code and do whatever you want to with it. I am "abandoning" efforts on UE Companion at this time and am looking for IDM to pick up the reigns on the project by taking my source code and converting it to implement into UE or as a stand-alone product of their own, which they have expressed a desire for.

I will be doing the same with this program... Hopefully by the end of the week, when I've got everything as I want it to be, I plan to include a license agreement and source code for it to allow whomever to do whatever. That may make it easier for IDM to implement.

The reason I put the "Clear" buttons for each line item was just for a quick way to clear a single item. For example, if someone only wanted to clear the File History and nothing else, they could, instead of clicking to clear all checkmarks, then clicking to mark File History, then clicking to clear selected, they could just clear it with one click. Odd perhaps, but I'm all about reducing the number of clicks it takes to do a task. Should the buttons be changed to a square button with an icon and tool tip instead of the text "Clear"? Perhaps, but as I stated, this is a "quicky" program to give IDM some incentive to do the same within their UE product line.

I will, however, consider adding the code to check if UE is running, since I already have the routines for that which I can copy from UE Companion.

[Mofi]

Is that all that I have missed?

That's a question difficult to answer as I have not tested your tool up to now nor have I ever tried to find out before what UltraEdit remembers which I don't use.

What you might haved missed are:

[DOS Dir]
[LastFileStreams]
[Recent Solutions]
[Win Execute]
[Win Dir]

[Recent Solutions] is an UEStudio only history. [LastFileStreams] remembers ADS Streams which can be entered on Save As. A quick test just made pointed out that both histories are not deleted by UE/UES when using Clear History button.

Further there are following entries in the INI files remembering just a last string:

[Find/Replace]
FindString=
ReplaceString=

[Project]
LastProject=

[Settings]
Last Active Document=
Last File=
Last Project Dir=
LastBBList=
LastSolution=

[UserCustomization]
Last Backup Directory=
Last Restore Archive=

LastBBList= is perhaps a UEStudio only entry as I found it only in uestudio.ini. I don't know what this entry stores.

LastSolution= automatically clears when closing UEStudio with no solution opened.

Further I found in EXE of UE/UES the strings Last AddFiles Directory and LastComment which might remember also "last string". But I don't know anything about them.

[rhapdog]

It handles [DOS Dir] (at the same time as [DOS Execute]), but does not handle [Win Execute] and [Win Dir].

It also does not handle [Recent Solutions] or [LastFileStreams].

As far as the INI entries that "remember just a last string", I made a conscious effort to exclude those. Flipped a coin to decide, or something like that.

I have already updated the program to handle the [File Code Page], but have not yet uploaded it, as I am waiting to see if I decide to do other changes, like adding a check to make sure UE isn't running first.