My UltraEdit 2007 Wish List

[pallaire]

Hello all,

This is my wish list for UltraEdit, I am currently using 12.20+1, and I did not see how to do those things :

1) Hotkey for Output pane stepping
Do as Visual Studio (F4) to step through lines in the output pane, jump to the file/line if it contains a full path. Like when you do a search in files or search in project.

2) Be able to force a new Instance of UEdit.
I know we can set a Multi Instance option, but its not the same!

I would like to be able to open a project in a new instance of UEdit, to have multiple project opened at once... this we already have. The difference would be the way we open files from explorer, it would continue to work like the single instance mode : double-click or context-menu opening from explorer would open that file in the last instance of UEdit, (not in a new instance).

3) Syntax Highlighting Management
The syntax highlighting works great, but the management is a pain. It would be great to have a file for each color theme:
-it would be faster to setup 10 languages to use the same theme
-share theme between user
-website with theme gallery
...
You could get inspiration from VIM model of color theme.

4) SVN integration
SVN is alot superior than CVS, it is more and more used, it would be time to integrate it to UEdit.

5) Stopping on _ when using CTRL-LEFT or CTRL-RIGHT
It would be nice to have an option to toggle if we should stop or not at every underscore when using CTRL-LEFT or CTRL-RIGHT, when programming underscore are not word boundaries.

NOTE: I sent also this post to : support@idmcomp.com

[kmumme]

Interestingly enough, double-clicking with the mouse will select a word with underscores in it...

I'll second your item #5!

5) Stopping on _ when using CTRL-LEFT or CTRL-RIGHT

It would be nice to have an option to toggle if we should stop or not at every underscore when using CTRL-LEFT or CTRL-RIGHT, when programming underscore are not word boundaries.

If there is an existing parameter/setting that enables or disables keyboard word selection stopping on an underscore, it would be nice if someone could point it out.

Thanks!

[Mofi]

1) Hot key for Output pane stepping

That would be really useful. In the meantime you can use the tool written by ellebaek - see Find in Files -- Increase Edit Window Functionality.

2) Be able to force a new Instance of UEdit.

Yes, I use also project specific INI files. And because of that I must have enabled Allow multiple instances also for the standard uedit32.ini which I use for normal text editing. Currently every file open uses a new instance of UE or I drag and drop the files to standard UE when I also have 1 or more of my projects open. Well, since I use UEStudio for my projects with multiple instances, I could (and will maybe soon) use UltraEdit with Allow multiple instances not enabled for normal editing. See also Open file in New UE Window for not perfect workarounds. But a command line option to open a new instance of UE or UES although Allow multiple instances is not specified in the INI would be really great.

3) Syntax Highlighting Management

Well, that could be already realized by yourself if you write an UE macro or a real Windows GUI application which asks the user to select a file which contains all the syntax highlighting definitions of a language and specify which language (1-20) should use this theme. All the syntax highlighting settings are stored in the INI at [Language x Colors] and so can be easily replaced. Of course, if a user uses the registry, an UltraEdit macro could not do the job. Then a really programed application is needed which also supports registry modification. I personally have years ago configured a color theme and copied it to all 20 languages in all my UltraEdit and UEStudio INI files. So I don't need anymore such a tool.

4) SVN integration

I don't miss it, because I simply use WinRar for version backups of my one developer projects. I rarely must compare files of different versions. But I understand your wish.

5) Stopping on _ when using CTRL-LEFT or CTRL-RIGHT
It would be nice to have an option to toggle if we should stop or not at every underscore when using CTRL-LEFT or CTRL-RIGHT, when programming underscore are not word boundaries.

I would prefer a configuration option to use the Left delimiters for Ctrl+Dbl Click and Right delimiters for Ctrl+Dbl Click settings at Editor - Delimiters also for CTRL+LEFT or CTRL+RIGHT.

To kmumme: I think, above answers also your question.

[kmumme]

Thanks Mofi! I like your suggestion.

[ch_tx]

I requested the hot key for output stepping a few years ago. Never hurts to keep asking!

I would also like to have a changed/added line indicator/color for the gutter.

[kmumme]

V13.00 fixed the "keyboard selection stops at '_' character" issue! Thank You!

[samej71]

My own little wishlist:

I'd like to see support for more than one end of line comment designation. For example: in perl, the # character signals that the rest of the line is a comment. I use a few variations on that, similar to functionality present in Eclipse, MS Visual Studio .Net, and MultiEdit. Each end of line comment would get it's own font/color styling.

I use comments like:

######################## major topic break (black on bright yellow)

## something important, but not as important as the major topic break (black on pale yellow)

# (light gray on white) used for commenting out
# lines of code that are no longer in use, but not quite ready
# to staiaght-out delete. They are visually weak as not to
# muck up the normally-colored code

#_# TODO (white on bright red) critical elements still needing to
#_# completed, so they are an intense color to stand out

Having distinct color settings makes the important divisional comments really stand out, and it makes it easy to spot things left to do when scrolling through lines of code.

Ideally it'd be nice to get a list of "TODOs" in a window pane, similar to Eclipse and Visual Studio, but just allowing multiple EOL comments with syntaxes would be more than enough for me.

I've emailed support twice over the past few years about supporting multiple end-of-line comments with optionally distinct font/color styles but I've received replies that essentially say it falls in the "never gonna happen" category

With each new release, though, I anxiously check the change history to see if maybe they changed their minds.

--James

[Inray]

My own wishes:

Less UTF-8 bugs: UE still has so many issues with non-Latin utf8 docs.

Better performance: UE perform much slower than the monster SlickEdit.

SSH terminal: It never worked correctly for me. So my wish is simple, fix it or drop it making UE smaller and faster.

I could list a huge wishlist though nothing is more critical for me than the above three.

Regards

[Jurriaan]

V13.00 fixed the "keyboard selection stops at '_' character" issue! Thank You!

Hmm not what I call fixing. I agree with Mofi that this should be solved in the same way as Ctrl+Dbl Click in the configuration. I for one use the underscore a lot during programming giving variables the same startname, just changing the last part and I used the stop-on-underscore to do that.

[Mofi]

V13.00 fixed the "keyboard selection stops at '_' character" issue!

This was not a fix. It is now a configuration option at Configuration - Editor Display - Cursor/Caret Type - Underscore is word break for Ctrl left/right arrow which is by default not set after upgrade to v13+.

A fully customizeable handling like Ctrl+Dbl click would be better, but better than nothing.

[TheDude]

2) Be able to force a new Instance of UEdit.
I know we can set a Multi Instance option, but it's not the same!

Any further developments on this? I would really like this feature also!

[Bego]

This can be done in the menu:
Advanced, Open new instance of UE.

Did you mean this ?

[Mofi]

Yes, it is possible to open a new instance of UltraEdit within an already running instance as Bego has written without changing the multiple instances setting.

There are also new command line parameters /fni (force new instance) and /foi (force old instance) which can be used for example to open UltraEdit project file always in a new instance - requires that /fni is on the command line of the open command for files with extension prj.

And v14.10 has a further useful option. Here is the help about this setting/feature:

Files selected in Explorer will open in a new single instance
If this option is selected, and multiple files are selected at once in Windows Explorer, and UltraEdit is selected from the context menu, all selected files will be opened in a single new instance. If this option is not selected, each file selected may be opened in a separate instance.

[Mofi]

1) Hotkey for Output pane stepping
Do as Visual Studio (F4) to step through lines in the output pane, jump to the file/line if it contains a full path. Like when you do a search in files or search in project.

That's possible since UltraEdit v15.00 with the keys Ctrl+Shift+UP ARROW and Ctrl+Shift+DOWN ARROW or other keys depending on which keys are assigned to the commands OutPreviousMessage and OutNextMessage in the key mapping configuration dialog.