Minimap or CodeOverview

[andre]

Does UltraEdit have a Minimap like Sublime Text?

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1344566/editors-with-minimap-like-sublime-text

[Mofi]

No, as this "feature" is in my point of view and in some other power users not really useful. It is more a promotional gimmick than a really useful feature. The text in the minimap is too small to be readable, especially when active file contains several hundreds of code lines.

UltraEdit has the function list view listing all functions and highlighting always the name of the function within the caret is set. The function list view can be a flat list or a hierarchical list (tree). The function list view can display the functions alphabetically sorted or as present in the active file. Regular expressions for finding strings of interest displayed in the function list view can be defined by the user to customize the information shown in function list view. So it is possible to use it also for other useful data than function names. It is even possible to see a list of all functions of a project.

UEStudio has even more features for common programming languages like C/C++/C# or PHP. It has additionally a classviewer and some more IDE specific features.

All those features are for programmers more useful than the graphical scroll bar named minimap.

[rhapdog]

The minimap is mainly a gimmick designed to get graphic designers interested in their product, as a minimap is more applicable to graphics work. It actually takes up valuable space on the screen when working with a text file, however, since it is, as Mofi pointed out, useless on a file that would have to page down more than 3 times to reach the end.

I have numerous projects with files over 100,000 lines, with some over a million lines of code. Therefore, the minimap would be as welcome to me as a Water Buffalo in my bathtub.

On the other side of the coin, however, if all my text files were small enough to make the minimap readable, then it would just be too easy to hit page-down/page-up to get to the code I would need, and the minimap would still be useless, as the code would be small enough I could remember where everything is.

[GrantSalvona]

I use the MetalScroll extension for VisualStudio and actually it's very useful.

As well as showing the overall structure of the file it adds a line change marker down the left hand side of the map and shows breakpoint placement markers down the right hand side. Hovering over the mini map shows a quick preview of the text under the thumb area.

This functionality is very helpful when you've changed a constant definition at the top of a file, added an attribute to the bottom and changed some functions in the middle. The change markers let you very quickly navigate to the parts of the file you've edited, which I find helps enormously when working with large text files.

I personally would like to see something like MetalScroll added to UltraEdit.

[rhapdog]

If you feel such a feature to be useful to you, you should submit it to IDM as a feature request, as these forums are not regularly monitored by IDM and are user-to-user forums.

I, personally, do not feel I would benefit from it.

Change markers and navigating changed lines are already a part of UltraEdit/UEStudio.

Using my widescreen monitor and UE in split-pane mode to see multiple parts of the same file at the same time, I find it more useful to have the actual sized text on my left for reviewing that top-of-file that I've been editing, while still viewing and editing the middle of a file in the next pane. I can view up to 4 panes side by side without loss of text width using UE in my dual-monitor set up, which means I don't have to look at a thumbnail preview that I wouldn't understand or that might lead me to the wrong section of code. 2 panes on a single monitor with plenty of room left over, which is more than enough for most tasks. I don't need a small preview to help me to jump back and forth between sections I'm editing, as I can have them all open at once in multiple tabs and/or panes.

If you're taking up a project to fix the code of someone else, that preview structure might be completely meaningless to you.

I suppose it's all about being used to working a certain way. I believe my way using the power of UltraEdit is more efficient. If I need to locate a constant I've changed quickly, I can easily view/navigate changed lines without the need for a MetalScroll.