Draw a vertical line between matching braces

[rowbearto]

Notepad++ is able to draw a vertical line between matching braces, as shown in the below screenshot. It is very helpful.

It would be great if SE could also do this.

[WilliamLeara]

I'd like brace indentation guidelines --  faint dotted lines that match up vertically between each open/close brace.  VisualStudio, Notepad++, and UltraEdit all have this.  It's the only thing I miss in SlickEdit!

[Dennis]

You might want to try enabling the Selective-Display bracketing that was added in SlickEdit 2015.

    Tools > Options > Appearance > General > Selective Display

    Document > C/C++ Options > View > Create file outline > Statement level.

We plan to do the indentation guides more dynamically in a future release, but this works quite well at the moment.

[rowbearto]

Thanks Dennis. I tried this and it is certainly an improvement. But I think it would be nicer if the vertical lines would be shown in the same column as the vertical braces instead of stacking them up to the left of the screen (or give the option to choose where to put the vertical lines).

[davehohl]

I agree with rowbearto. It would look much better if the lines were in the same column as the braces.

[rowbearto]

Just a reminder about this feature request. It would be very handy. I see this feature in multiple other IDEs.

[jwiede]

+1 another vote for "inline" vertical lines showing brace scope (not just gutter lines).

[Graeme]

How about just color coding the background of the curly braces like HighlightParens does for parentheses.  Easier to spot than tracking vertical lines and works better when the range of lines is not all visible on the screen.

What does "selective display line color" do?  For me it doesn't change the color of the vertical lines.

[rowbearto]

I'd prefer the vertical lines. Especially when the scope is too big to see on the screen and the matching curly braces are off screen.

[Graeme]

oh, ok, how about both colored vertical lines and colored background and a configuration option to select which. 

Also if the range of the block means it can't all be shown on one screen then a command to hide / unhide lines in the middle of the block  - or maybe a command that progressively hides/unhides more and more lines.

[mako]

Also if the range of the block means it can't all be shown on one screen then a command to hide / unhide lines in the middle of the block  - or maybe a command that progressively hides/unhides more and more lines.

The command hide-code-block will collapse the block that the cursor is in.


I think having an option to draw the vertical line connecting block start and end at the indentation level of the surrounding block would be much more useful than the current behavior of stacking them all up as far left as possible. As it is now, because my C++ code uses multi-level deep namespaces, the vertical lines are more of a distraction than an aid.