Tuesday, September 26, 2006
3 Editing Tricks
Today I have 3 tricks to improve editing with IL (InnerLoop).
Column Selection
I normally use vi and never learned any way to select columns of text and cut, copy, or insert them. Eventually I learned how to do it with emacs using rectangle command like Ctrl-x r k to kill a rectangle, etc. With InnerLoop it took me some time to figure out how to it. I first tried to switch to emacs key bindings and go back to the keystrokes I knew, but they didn't work. I then found out the secret is to select the text with the right mouse button instead of the left. Using the right mouse button selects a rectangle and you can easily cut or copy it using the buttons at the top. I never would have guessed it.
Tab to Align Code
IL has the ability to correctly indent your code by using the Tab key. I think it's called "smart tab". Say you restructure some code and some lines are now indented too much. Instead of using delete to pull them back to the left you can hit tab and IL will do this for you and set the indenting to the correct amount. I guess the tab is not really a tab in this case since text may move left or right.
Edit Toolbar
One of the toolbars that is not automatically displayed is called "edit". There are two pairs of buttons on this toolbar that are useful to adjust the indent of the code. They are the ones with the orange boxes and blue arrows. If a block of text is selected they will move the code either right or left 1 level of indentation or just 1 space at a time (for fine tuning). There are many times when blocks of code must slide right or left and this is a great way to do it. Turn on this toolbar using View -> Toolbars -> Edit and give it a try.
Today I have 3 tricks to improve editing with IL (InnerLoop).
Column Selection
I normally use vi and never learned any way to select columns of text and cut, copy, or insert them. Eventually I learned how to do it with emacs using rectangle command like Ctrl-x r k to kill a rectangle, etc. With InnerLoop it took me some time to figure out how to it. I first tried to switch to emacs key bindings and go back to the keystrokes I knew, but they didn't work. I then found out the secret is to select the text with the right mouse button instead of the left. Using the right mouse button selects a rectangle and you can easily cut or copy it using the buttons at the top. I never would have guessed it.
Tab to Align Code
IL has the ability to correctly indent your code by using the Tab key. I think it's called "smart tab". Say you restructure some code and some lines are now indented too much. Instead of using delete to pull them back to the left you can hit tab and IL will do this for you and set the indenting to the correct amount. I guess the tab is not really a tab in this case since text may move left or right.
Edit Toolbar
One of the toolbars that is not automatically displayed is called "edit". There are two pairs of buttons on this toolbar that are useful to adjust the indent of the code. They are the ones with the orange boxes and blue arrows. If a block of text is selected they will move the code either right or left 1 level of indentation or just 1 space at a time (for fine tuning). There are many times when blocks of code must slide right or left and this is a great way to do it. Turn on this toolbar using View -> Toolbars -> Edit and give it a try.
# posted by Jason Andrews @ 11:14 PM 
