Processing 1.0 - Processing Discourse

gummyboy YaBB Newbies Offline Posts: 5	external editor Apr 2^nd, 2008, 7:16pm Can anybody tell me how to use external editor pls? I enabled to use it in preference. and then?

gummyboy YaBB Newbies Offline Posts: 5	Re: external editor Reply #1 - Apr 4^th, 2008, 12:29pm Why no one reply to this question? I've seen this happened before for 'external editor' question. This is because it's too easy? Or no one really using external editor? I'm really curious.... The way 'tab' works in processing editor really bothers me....

V

Re: external editor
Reply #2 - Apr 4^th, 2008, 1:39pm

well i found myself using visual studio to code and processing to compile

yea processing ide sucks, lots of things that seem made in a hurry or werent planned at all, but there seems to be no one complaining and they also dont look like trying to change it.

maybe eclipse would work for you.

the thing is having 2 ide to compile something like processing. not acceptable. but hey, they idea is to help ppl coming from artistic fields and visual arts, which means they have no coding rules or even background shortcuts, preferences from other IDE's.

truly, i think this should a subject to take seriously.

Victor Martins | www.pixelnerve.com/v

eskimoblood Senior Member Offline Posts: 341	Re: external editor Reply #3 - Apr 4^th, 2008, 2:38pm There is a good tutorial how to use processing with eclipse: http://www.mostpixelsever.com/tutorial/eclipse
	Andreas Köberle {eskimoblood}

mgs

Re: external editor
Reply #4 - Apr 6^th, 2008, 5:19am

V wrote on Apr 4^th, 2008, 1:39pm:

well i found myself using visual studio to code and processing to compile

yea processing ide sucks, lots of things that seem made in a hurry or werent planned at all, but there seems to be no one complaining and they also dont look like trying to change it.

maybe eclipse would work for you.

the thing is having 2 ide to compile something like processing. not acceptable. but hey, they idea is to help ppl coming from artistic fields and visual arts, which means they have no coding rules or even background shortcuts, preferences from other IDE's.

truly, i think this should a subject to take seriously.

It's also too expensive. ; )

i use textmate with processing. there's a processing tmbundle you grab from subversion. the java libraries work great too. it feels a lot liter than eclipse to me. i love textmate though.

i happen to love the processing ide for what it is. it does what it's supposed to. i think it it's nice to have a really slim editor/compiler. especially for people just learning to experiment with computation. It always reminds me of BASIC in editor.exe. i've never minded cutting and pasting from textmate and then tweaking in the processing ide though.

it's pretty cool it comes with any IDE at all though.

.mgs

V

Re: external editor
Reply #5 - Apr 6^th, 2008, 1:02pm

yea true, for someone wanting to experiment with computation. i still find it weird to teach people creating projects in processing and having them to not organize their code because its such a boring thing to use the TAB, when you quit the IDE and havent saved your project it asks you to save. you think its all good and when u get back, it actually did not save a thing. that will make ppl feel good.

also moving around in different files (yes, if you want organization you will not code in one big big file) makes you use the mouse to click on a file on the other side of your monitor or its not even showing and you have to click in the arrow and find your file.. those are all things that are a pain in the ass for any programmer. begginer or not.

there is still some things to fix if they want this IDE to be what it should be, but thats just me.

Victor Martins | www.pixelnerve.com/v

dek

Re: external editor
Reply #6 - Apr 6^th, 2008, 6:59pm

V wrote on Apr 4^th, 2008, 1:39pm:

yea processing ide sucks, lots of things that seem made in a hurry or werent planned at all, but there seems to be no one complaining and they also dont look like trying to change it.

It's really difficult to satisfy the needs of beginners and experts with the same piece of software.

Take web page creation. There's a ton of editors out there, for the expert programmer who writes every single line of code by hand, right down to the "I-just-want-to-have-a-fun-homepage"-people who will be more than happy to use a WYSIWYG-editor to do the work for them. Obviously the latter isn't an option for the experts, because it's far to limiting.

I've seen so many people being "afraid" of programming, because they're overwhelmed by the strange syntax, "nullPointerExceptions", "OOPs" and the like. What Processing does really well, is cut away everything that's not necessary FOR BEGINNERS, and wrap it up into the simple IDE.
A newbie wants to download Processing, write a few lines of code and press the 'run' button and when he sees the code draw what was intended, he'll be happy as a salmon and thus be motivated to try out more.

If you put the same guy in front of Eclipse, he's far more likely to give up on his programming adventure, just because the application is far less accessible. He certainly won't care if all the functionality does indeed facilitate programming, because at a beginning level, he won't even know what all the options do.

If you scare away a noob from Processing by making it more complex, there's no alternatives to turn to, and it's a loss to the programming community.
If a pro coder finds the functionality of Processing to limited, he can always switch to more complex IDEs.

Aside from minor revisions I'm strongly in favor of keeping Processing as simple and beginner-friendly as possible.

How to format code for discourse | eightohnine

V

Re: external editor
Reply #7 - Apr 6^th, 2008, 7:28pm

dek, you are right on the begginer talk.
that isnt the issue. there are couple of things that should be fixed and its not any expert thing. it will make things alot easier for beginners aswell, and should put them to know more about how other ides work too.

my main problems when using processing ide is jumping from file to file. i always need to pick the mouse and search a list of files for the one i need. that is damn annoying.
CTRL+ALT+arrow keys isnt that good solution to browse the files. it just moves around one to the other. what if i want to goto the 6th file i have in my project.

yea i understand its good for beginners that put all code in one single messy file. they should be encouraged to do that and the ide is in no way iniating any begginner to how complex ide do work.

everyone that writes 10 lines someday will be writing 1000, 5000 or more. and then you should know what im talking about.
i believe it's a good thing for every one.

Victor Martins | www.pixelnerve.com/v

gummyboy

Re: external editor
Reply #8 - Apr 7^th, 2008, 8:51am

http://www.mostpixelsever.com/tutorial/eclipse
wow I have to work like that to use external editor.
that complicated....I'm kind of beginner.

then why is there simple check box for external editor in the preference
if it's not so simple?
It looks like all you have to do is just to check the box in the preference to use external editor.

I tried that. checked the box and all I have after that is I can't write anything in the processing text edit window.

I think I have to stick with default editor......><

eskimoblood

Re: external editor
Reply #9 - Apr 7^th, 2008, 9:10am

Eclipse isn't just an editor, but an IDE with features like autosuggest, autocomplete, it shows your error by typing, you can search the whole project and many more. Clear this aren't feature if you writing an 20 line sketch, but if come to the place where your sketch have 5 classes it's more handy to use an IDE.
To use a simple Texteditore like Textmate or TextWrangler you only need to check the box in the preference.

Andreas Köberle {eskimoblood}

icecube

Re: external editor
Reply #10 - Jan 1^st, 2010, 3:30pm

... but how to use the external editor AND run a Processing script ?

The only way I found till now is:
* not to check the "external editor" box in the preferences
* write the script in the external editor (TextWrangler in my case)
* copy and paste the script in a new Processing editor window
* run it

The only reason I want to use an external editor is a visual one.
Thanks in advance

jp

Re: external editor
Reply #11 - Jan 1^st, 2010, 8:16pm

In TextWrangler, select scripts (scroll icon)>Open Script Editor. Enter the following script in script editor:

Code:

tell application "Processing"
	activate
end tell
tell application "System Events"
	tell process "Processing"
		tell menu bar 1
			tell menu bar item "Sketch"
				tell menu "Sketch"
					click menu item "Run"
				end tell
			end tell
		end tell
	end tell
end tell

Save and place the script file in ~/Library/Application\ Support/TextWrangler/Scripts

It should appear in the scripts menu. You can set a keyboard shortcut through Windows>Palettes>Scripts

Let me know if you have any trouble.

jp

PhiLho

Re: external editor
Reply #12 - Jan 2^nd, 2010, 3:04am

Basically, icecube, I do the same (only for large files), except I don't copy/paste code, I just go to the Open icon in the PDE (the up arrow) and select the sketch in the list (even if it is already open): it updates the content of the window to the latest version.

I wish PDE has a mean to detect changes (eg. date change) automatically, like most editors do, and propose to reload the script. Or, at least, it would be nice if it had a Reload current sketch button.
I also have a silly issue: I have a folder named QuickExperiments with lot of very little sketches, testing forum stuff for example. The menu is now so long that I cannot reach the lower part of the list! I never liked nested menus (beside the shallowest levels) anyway, a less volatile scrollable list would be more useful.

icecube

Re: external editor
Reply #13 - Jan 3^rd, 2010, 2:02pm

Quote:

Save and place the script file in ~/Library/Application\ Support/TextWrangler/Scripts

It should appear in the scripts menu. You can set a keyboard shortcut through Windows>Palettes>Scripts

Let me know if you have any trouble.

jp

Hi jp, thanks so much for this script.
Well, it would almost work, would it be that... I get a system events error.
Here is what I have done:

1- copy the script in the script editor.
I didn't checked any option, didn't try to compile, etc.
Just saved as "processing.scpt" to the app. support folder to TextWrangler, as you told me.

2- checked that the script appear in TextWrangler -> OK

3- write a script in TextWrangler and click on "processing.scpt from the script menu -> Processing starts up

4- I get following error:
* a scripting error has occurred
* system events got an error: "***"

and the sketch window doesn't appear.

"***" means, I can not read it, I'm on a japanese system, there is a problem in the message encoding (I assume....)

so...
what should I do ?

Thanks again.

icecube

Re: external editor
Reply #14 - Jan 3^rd, 2010, 2:05pm

[quote author=724A4B6E4A4D220 link=1207156611/12#12 date=1262430276]
Basically, icecube, I do the same (only for large files), except I don't copy/paste code, I just go to the Open icon in the PDE (the up arrow) and select the sketch in the list (even if it is already open): it updates the content of the window to the latest version.

Thanks PhiLho,

it works better than what I was doing.
Still... it is not very ergonomic, for such a repetitive action than running a script in progress...

Anyway, thank for the help.