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Use of external editor with A5 Xbasic?

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    Use of external editor with A5 Xbasic?

    I would like to be able to use an external editor to create, edit and test my A5 Xbasic scripts. Why? Any software developer who has written a lot of scripts in any other language will know the answer to this question. Some of the reasons include: code folding and collapsing, automatic code formating, bookmarks and generally a very much broader range of features than is available in the A5 code editor. Oh, almost forgot. The ability to create libraries of re-usable code and functions and recall these easily is another big reason.

    The external code editor I am planning to use is Ultra Edit (maybe Ultra Studio) but SciTe (free) is another option too.

    Has anyone experience or suggestions for setting up an external editor for use with A5 XBasic? I am not so much concerned about the syntax highlighting dictionary I must create (which for A5 Xbasic will be larger than any other language I know of) but how to interface the external editor with A5 for the purpose of syntax checking and running A5 Xbasic scripts from the editor. I have not been able to find this aspect documented.

    Having said all this, if anyone has already created an A5 Xbasic syntax file for use with an external editor, I would be interested to hear from them. For me to build one from scratch could be a several day exercise.

    Comments and helpful suggestions welcome.

    #2
    Brett,

    The ability to create libraries of re-usable code and functions and recall these easily is another big reason.
    Alpha already has this feature built in, its called the xbasic code library.

    I can't offer any assistance on a external editor interface, but Alpha will allow you to import and export code as a text file if that might be helpful.

    Scott

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by brett s
      Some of the reasons include: code folding and collapsing, automatic code formating, bookmarks and generally a very much broader range of features than is available in the A5 code editor. Oh, almost forgot. The ability to create libraries of re-usable code and functions and recall these easily is another big reason.
      Of these, the only thing the A5 editor does not have is code folding and collapsing.

      but how to interface the external editor with A5 for the purpose of syntax checking and running A5 Xbasic scripts from the editor. I have not been able to find this aspect documented.
      There is no way to interface with A5 from an external editor.
      Aaron Brown
      Alpha Software Development Team

      Comment


        #4
        Bookmarks too? I have never been able to find them.

        That's a shame about not providing an interface for an external editor. You are missing an opportunity here.

        Comment


          #5
          You create a bookmark by putting in a special comment that looks like this

          '//My Bookmark

          Then to go to the bookmark, press Ctrl-G, select bookmarks from the list box, then select your bookmark from the dropdown box. You can also use the script navigator (the little globe with two arrows on the toolbar) to jump from function to function.

          In V7, the statusbar has some added script navigation features, as well.



          Originally posted by brett s
          Bookmarks too? I have never been able to find them.

          That's a shame about not providing an interface for an external editor. You are missing an opportunity here.
          Aaron Brown
          Alpha Software Development Team

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by brett s
            I would like to be able to use an external editor to create, edit and test my A5 Xbasic scripts. Why? Any software developer who has written a lot of scripts in any other language will know the answer to this question. Some of the reasons include: code folding and collapsing, automatic code formating, bookmarks and generally a very much broader range of features than is available in the A5 code editor. Oh, almost forgot. The ability to create libraries of re-usable code and functions and recall these easily is another big reason.

            The external code editor I am planning to use is Ultra Edit (maybe Ultra Studio) but SciTe (free) is another option too.

            Has anyone experience or suggestions for setting up an external editor for use with A5 XBasic? I am not so much concerned about the syntax highlighting dictionary I must create (which for A5 Xbasic will be larger than any other language I know of) but how to interface the external editor with A5 for the purpose of syntax checking and running A5 Xbasic scripts from the editor. I have not been able to find this aspect documented.

            Having said all this, if anyone has already created an A5 Xbasic syntax file for use with an external editor, I would be interested to hear from them. For me to build one from scratch could be a several day exercise.

            Comments and helpful suggestions welcome.
            Yes, it is true that a dedicated editor will offer more editing features, but coding in an external editor (no matter how good it was), and not having the auto-complete features in the Xbasic editor seems (to me at least), like a slow form of torture.

            Comment


              #7
              I don't suppose there's a capability in the Code Editor to get two views of the same script is there, either by splitting the window or having a second window open at the same time?

              I haven't found it yet if there is and it would be very helpful to not have to keep scrolling up and down when cross referencing different parts of a script.

              Thanks,
              Trevor

              Comment


                #8
                I think it's a matter of personal choice as to whether or not someone prefers to use an external editor to that of the A5 in-built one. I for one would prefer to have a choice as I am sure others out there would too. The feature set within the A5 editor is not nearly as comprehensive as those features offered in many of the external editors.

                The main additions needed to use an external editor are twofold. Firstly is the need to be able to submit Xbasic code from the external editor to A5 for syntax checking and/or running. Secondly is the need for the output from the A5 syntax check/run to be able to be captured by the editor and/or viewed so that errors can be checked and corrected, ready to repeat the cycle again. And it would be nice to be able to do this without the need to have a copy of A5 active and running in the background continuously.

                I am more than happy to act as a guinea pig to test it all out.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by Selwyn Rabins
                  Yes, it is true that a dedicated editor will offer more editing features, but coding in an external editor (no matter how good it was), and not having the auto-complete features in the Xbasic editor seems (to me at least), like a slow form of torture.
                  Auto-complete is not a problem. For example in UltraEdit the keywords from the syntax highlighting and function lists are automatically shown in the auto-complete list. The hard bit is building the syntax highlighting and function lists which, for Alpha Five, is as big as anything I know of. But I have already started work on this.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    You don't have to do much work to get a list of all functions and their prototypes.

                    Just go to the interactive wndow and type:

                    ?functions_get("*","*")

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by Selwyn Rabins
                      You don't have to do much work to get a list of all functions and their prototypes.

                      Just go to the interactive wndow and type:

                      ?functions_get("*","*")
                      Wow, thanks Selwyn. That has saved me a truck load of work. :)

                      Comment


                        #12
                        I just got through testing out PrimalScript but didn't do a complete Alpha syntax in it--it's not quite as ready as it should be.

                        I'd be interested in knowing if you make this workable. I'd hate to add any extra steps to the development process.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by Blake
                          I just got through testing out PrimalScript but didn't do a complete Alpha syntax in it--it's not quite as ready as it should be.

                          I'd be interested in knowing if you make this workable. I'd hate to add any extra steps to the development process.
                          I am going to set up a syntax file for Alpha Five for use with UltraEdit. That's all just for the moment. But others are welcome to do the same for other editors too.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Hello Aaron,

                            >>You create a bookmark by putting in a special comment<<

                            I didn't know we could do this. Neat.

                            But it doesn't appear to work for me. When I create one of these special bookmark comments, it shows up in the GoTo list, but when I select it and press the GoTo button it always jumps to the last line of the script.

                            Thanks,
                            Jim

                            Comment


                              #15
                              it worked fine for me.
                              are you sure that you entered the bookmark as

                              '//bookmarkname

                              Comment

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