Author Topic: Does SlickEdit 2007 support code folding?  (Read 11183 times)

sofakng

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Does SlickEdit 2007 support code folding?
« on: May 06, 2007, 04:11:46 AM »
I'm trying to find a Windows Notepad replacement and I found SlickEdit 2007.

Does it support code folding?  I've downloaded the trial and I can't seem to figure it out...

Also, how does SlickEdit compare to UltraEdit?  (or even vim/emacs)  It seems like my top choice right now is UltraEdit so I'm mostly wondering about the differences between SlickEdit and that.

EDIT: My company mostly uses custom-written tools that use simple text-based files so that would be my primary use of the editor.  We also might start using ASP.NET/C# so support for that is definitely a plus.

The text-files for our custom-tools look like this:

[SPECS]
ENABLE_OPTION=TRUE
STOREDPROC=sp_myproc
LIST=HELLOLIST
[END SPECS]

[HELLOLIST_LIST_HTML]
  -- HTML GOES INSIDE HERE
[END HELLOLIST_LIST_HTML]

Ideally I'd like an editor to support syntax highlighting (of the above type of code), code completion, and anything else.  Of course I'd have to write custom templates (for the highlighting, etc), but I first need the editor to support creating such a strange format... :)

I'd also like the editor to support multi-content files like the above.  (eg. HTML inside of my "Custom Tool File" format)
« Last Edit: May 06, 2007, 04:18:05 AM by sofakng »

Ding Zhaojie

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Re: Does SlickEdit 2007 support code folding?
« Reply #1 on: May 06, 2007, 07:32:33 AM »
Slickedit does not support code folding but supports selective display (looks like code folding but it is static and supports preprocessor directives).

I don't think Slickedit could be a "Windows Notepad replacement". Just like a Formula 1 could not replace your car :).

To found a editor suit for replacing Windows Notepad and having code folding feature, you can try:
- EmEditor
- EditPlus
- PsPad(Free)
- Scite(Open Source)
- jEdit(Open Source)
- Notepad++(Open Source)

Or you can even try Microsoft Visual Studio Express, it is free and suit for developing ASP.Net/C#.

sofakng

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Re: Does SlickEdit 2007 support code folding?
« Reply #2 on: May 06, 2007, 05:02:43 PM »
Sorry, I'm just trying to figure out what SlickEdit offers over other editors...

If I don't plan to edit C#, ASP.NET, C, C++, or Java, what features does SlickEdit have over other editors?

I really like Visual Studio and will use that for the languages it supports, but I need a good text editor for day-to-day text editting as well as editting text files for our custom tools.  (eg. that's what I would use SlickEdit for)

jbhurst

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Re: Does SlickEdit 2007 support code folding?
« Reply #3 on: May 06, 2007, 09:38:01 PM »
While I wouldn't characterize SlickEdit as a "Notepad replacement" either, I would say that it is very good for general-purpose text editing. Sure, it's designed for and aimed at programmers. But you'll be hard put to find a better text editor for general text editing jobs on your system.

Some of the general-purpose features I enjoy with SlickEdit are:

  - Very fast to open, navigate and edit, even with very large files.
  - Advanced editing features, such as locked selections, block (i.e. column) editing mode.
  - Powerful search and replace.
  - Fully programmable, easy to program.

Regards

John Hurst

StephenW

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Re: Does SlickEdit 2007 support code folding?
« Reply #4 on: May 07, 2007, 01:04:44 AM »
John forgot to mention Projects and Workspaces.  Apart from the projects I have for software development I have a number of projects for general text editing:

    Cisco 827 ADSL router config files
    Firewall config files
    DNS server config files
    FTP/HTTP/email server config files
    OS/2 box config files
    Windows box config files
    Linux/MythTV based PVR box config files
    "Misc" project for random files I felt the need to edit

The great joy is that you can switch between these projects very rapidly, and combine them into workspaces when you want to access several projects at once.  All the related files are in the appropriate project, so you do not have to hunt around the various directories they are scattered over.  My Misc project does not normally have any files in its project setup, but just remembers whatever files it was last editing.  Since I am a command line user, I open SlickEdit (from the Ctrl-Alt-V hotkey I keep it on), change to the Misc workspace, and then I can go to one of my 4NT command prompts and use the "vs" command from there to get files into SlickEdit.  Now that I have all that set up, I could never live without it.

Another really nice feature for general text editing is soft wrap - over long lines get wrapped to make them visible, but are marked at the end so you know what is wrapped and what has a proper end-of-line.

Lisa

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Re: Does SlickEdit 2007 support code folding?
« Reply #5 on: May 07, 2007, 01:57:16 PM »
I use SlickEdit for text, HTML and XML editing, and couldn't live without the automatic formatting (Document > XML/HTML Formatting) for wrapping my lines nice and neat, DIFFzilla (Tools > File Difference) for comparing changes in my files, and Surround With for automatically surrounding text with tags. I also love how everything is command-driven and you can bind any command to a key sequence. I bind everything I use frequently (that isn't bound already), like Surround With (I bind it to Ctrl+W). Makes me much more efficient! There are tons of cool little features in SlickEdit that Notepad doesn't have, and I could never go back.

If you are checking out SlickEdit, read through the items in the Cool Features popup, that comes up automatically when you first start the editor. It contains descriptions of the features I mentioned and more. The Formula 1 analogy is very fitting!

-Lisa

emerkel

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Re: Does SlickEdit 2007 support code folding?
« Reply #6 on: May 07, 2007, 06:44:37 PM »
Coming from an almost purely Microsoft Visual Studios background, being a devoted user of UltraEdit and being new to SlickEdit, here is what little I can offer to the conversation.

I do mostly c#, perl, ruby/rails, t-sql, kixtart and other batch programming and have been able to do all of it nicely in UltraEdit. 

If you want a lot of flexibility in being able to edit many different kinds of files, with code folding, projects/workspaces, for little cost, I would highly recommend UltraEdit and if you get it bundled with UltraCompare you have most of what you want (I think) and have saved money over SlickEdit.

However,

Even with their recently introduced JavaScript support, UltraEdit will never compete in the flexibility and customizability of SlickEdit, but that comes at a price both in dollars and the time it will take to learn all that Slick offers and how to take advantage of it, because the feature set is so broad and deep, that is a lot more learning than you will have to do with UltraEdit.  I am still getting my feet wet and want to make SlickEdit my primary editor for non-Microsoft stuff.  When they get their ruby act together more I will not be tempted as much to even look at another editor for anything else.

I hope this helps, I can tell you that either way, you will be getting a great tool.

Eddie
« Last Edit: May 07, 2007, 06:46:31 PM by emerkel »

mark

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Re: Does SlickEdit 2007 support code folding?
« Reply #7 on: May 11, 2007, 11:20:05 PM »
As John mentioned, it has selective display. Use this with the plusminus command bound to a key and it rocks.

Quick solution to original problem.

View->Selective Display. Ensure Search Text button is selected. Enter ^\[ in text box. Check Regular Expression, Reset selective display and you should only see lines that start with [. If you have plusminus assigned to a key, you can use that to expand the lines to show the details.

Cheers
Mark