Visual Studio Macro equivalent in SE?

[davejames]

Hi All,

I am a brand spankin new user to SE.

My main job at work is technical instruction so I provide customer training for new users on our equipment.  My particular products have been using Visual Studio for the C++ IDE.  I've recently been tasked to develop a class on a new product that uses SE for its IDE; hence the following situation/question...

I've been facilitating my classes by using the VS macro feature and a library of macro files, that when run, auto-insert blocks of C++ code alleviating a lot of tedious typing by the students.

My primary question is:  does SE have an equivalent macro feature as in VS?

If so, can you point me to a reference on how to use it?

Thanks very much,

davejames

[mgweeks]

Sure, there is a very extensive macro programming language. There is the Macro menu which lists several options. In your case, for inserting boiler-plate you can just select record macro, type the text, stop recording and save the macro by name. Then just have the students press <esc> followed by the name of the macro. Look in the help contents under "Slick-C Macro Programming Guide".

[hs2]

Another promising way: Use the 'Code Template' feature.
Available since Slick v11.

HS2

[alex]

The aliases feature (tools->options->aliases) might also be useful; it can also take parameter arguments for the blocks of code you need to insert.

[davejames]

mgweeks, hs2, alex...

Thank you for the tips, I'll check them out.

Another question:  the "record macro" feature sounds interesting.  Is there a way that I can define my "boilerplate" offline and then insert it so I'm not attempting to actually record my keystrokes.

Thanks,

DJ

[hs2]

'Recording a macro' means recording a sequence of commands and replay / save for later use ...
E.g. <start record>'Search <expression> -> Delete <hit> -> Insert blank line' etc.<stop record>
Single keystrokes which are not bound to a command are not recorded.

Here is an example how 'Slick-C Macro Programming' looks like (this example seems close to your needs):
http://www.slickedit.com/content/view/26/80/

BTW: The 'template' feature is also capable to do more than simply inserting text.

That's the good thing w/ Slick - there is always more than 1 way to go

HS2

[davejames]

To All that responded,

I can call this thread closed as I've figured out how to insert lines of code into an edit session.  The "_insert_text" and "get_string" commands fill the bill quite nicely!

Regards,

DJ