Questions from A New User

[shaker]

I have been using SlickEdit (SE) to create Visual C++ programs for about a month now under Windows XP. I have only skimmed the surface of SE. Finally, I have decided to improve my SE skill level and would like to ask some beginner questions, starting with:

1. Is there a book available to get started with SE?

2. If I have three cpp files displayed on the editor screen, I would like to only see the classes in these (and not classes in the whole application). Is there a way to do this? 

3. I am not at all happy with the way my screens are set up now --I have two docked windows (Program and Classes), a space where source file windows "float", and References and Output windows pinned. Would love to receive suggestions on windows setup.

Thanks.

Shaker

[Dennis]

No solutions for (1) and (2), but for (3) I'll answer this one with a request to all the SlickEditers out there to post screen shots of how you like to arrange your toolbars and editor windows.

[shaker]

Dennis,

My questions were not exactly well phrased but thanks for a very helpful reply, especially considering the fact that it is coming from a Slick Edit employee 

Shaker

[Dave_Sinkula]

3) I'll answer this one with a request to all the SlickEditers out there to post screen shots of how you like to arrange your toolbars and editor windows.

My setup:

[Graeme]

Heh, nice looking vertical toolbar Dave.  I sometimes pick the toolbar buttons to have according to their colours coz nice looking colours matter more to me than functionality 

To shaker : regarding a book - have you seen the pdf's in the slick installation docs folder.  The SlickEdit_v11_User_Guide.pdf is the same as the help within slickedit - it doesn't have the hyper linking in the .chm help but it's all one big "book".  Unfortunately the index comes up fully expanded in acrobat 7 (on my system anyway) and there's no way to collapse everything quickly (and acrobat doesn't remember the last state when next open the file either).  I would suggest starting from the beginning in there (or the help file) - expecially "common options" and "user interface" - these are near the start.  Especially don't miss the stuff in user interface on the "command line".  You can easily skip over stuff in the help that you don't think you need to use start with.  Under "Edit", "Managing files", "Filemanager" you'll find the file manager described  - it's somewhat unique but powerful when you need it.

Regarding toolbars and layout - I have everything docked and not pinned except for a toolbar I've created myself.  I have shortcut keys bound to search and defs toolbars so I can pop them up from the keyboard anytime, quickly, and close them from the keyboard too - the command macros for these you can see in the key bindings dialog - they all start with "toggle" - toggle-defs etc.  That reminds me - there's a ton of useful command macros in the key bindings dialog that you probably won't notice unless you go through them all one by one  - e.g. edit-associated-file  - swaps between header and cpp/c in c/c++ code.

BTW - the getting-started pdf file in the docs folder is not really about getting started in the way that you might think (just to pre-empt your disappointment... )  - but reading through the help from the beginning is a good way to learn IMO - also, monitor the messages on this forum and you'll learn lots.

Graeme

[Dennis]

Shaker,

I didn't mean to ignore your questions, I just don't have an easy answer for either one.  The PDF's Graeme mentioned are helpful.

As for the tagging issue, I do have one suggestion.  You can set class filters in the class browser, for example "CPInitializer|CPExpression|CPForStatement" to restrict the class browser to just those classes.  This isn't a real dynamic solution, but it's workable.  We have thought about maintaining a sort of "working set" tag file of all your open buffers, the only problem is the potential redundancy, and potential inconsistency, since some tag lookups might start failing or succeeding based on what files you have open (for example, a file that is outside of your workspace).

As for toolbar layout, I have to say, I'm pretty fond of the defaults, except that I move References to dock underneath the Defs tool window.

[greggman]

I'm sure how to layout your windows is practically a religious matter but my preference is to try to use the mouse as little as possible and as far as I know slickedit is one of the few editors that makes this possible.

I'm not sure if I'll remember all the options but if you want to give it a try...

In the General Options on the General tab I have "maximixe first windows" checked and "one file per window" unchecked.

Then, if there are any windows open I maximize one.

Then I have the following key assignments

Alt-left = window-left
Alt-right = window-right
Alt-up = window-above
Alt-down = window-below
F1 = zoom-window
F3 = create-tile
F4 = delete-tile
Alt-B = list-buffers (I forget what the CUA key for that is. Ctrl-Shift-B?)
Alt-E = edit (I forget what the CUA key for that is)
Alt-N = next-buffer
Alt-P = prev-buffer

Now it works more like emacs or brief.  If I want a second window I press F3 and then a cursor key in the direction I want the window split and it splits the window. To move from window to window I can use the Alt-cursor keys. To delete a window I go to one you want to keep, press F4 and press a cursor key in the direction I want the current window to expand. In other words it's going to delete the window in the direction of the cursor.

F1 is there for when I just want to toggle between one window and many or for when I just want to go back to 1 window and start spliting again.

Alt-B lets me switch to any file I have loaded. and Alt-N and Alt-P let me cycle through all my files.

Alt-E lets me load a file into the current window

As for me I also have command-line-prompting checked so I don't get a dialog for search or replace or even for selecting a file to load but that's probably a little much for most people.