bracket closing tool

la_kal

in Library and Tool Development • 3 months ago

Hi,

because I like the simplicity of the PDE, but it is missing some important features (like auto closing brackets, code completion, ...), I decided to write a small tool for faster code editing.

Right now the tool just closes open brackets while you type them (and wraps them around selected text):

The tool is still beta and I have a few questions:

· Can I check if the tool is already running?

If I activate the tool a second time, it adds an additional closing bracket, like { } }

· Is there a way to auto-load a tool?

In the future I would like to add multi selection support like in sublime text:

Right now I just insert the String into the textarea, without a real caret or a selection.

Is it possible to extend the textarea class to handle multiple selections? Has somebody a clue how to solve this?

I hope you find it useful.

Any feedback is much appreciated.

Here is the tool:

http://larskaltenbach.de/code/speedTool/

And here you can find the source code:

https://bitbucket.org/lakal/speed-tool/src

Replies(6)

datguy

Re: bracket closing tool

3 months ago

Nice work!

· Can I check if the tool is already running?

All you should need to do is add a boolean variable to your SpeedTool class. Default it to false, and check the value in your run() method. If it's true, don't do anything. If it's false, execute the code you have there now and set the boolean to true.

· Is there a way to auto-load a tool?

I don't think there is. If you read Tool-Basics, it implies that the init() method will be called when the editor window opens. But as I mention in my GitHub issue, it doesn't work that way. I'm not sure which is wrong - the documentation or the implementation.

la_kal

Re: bracket closing tool

3 months ago

All you should need to do is add a boolean variable to your SpeedTool class.

Thank you! I updated the tool and that solved the issue :-)

But as I mention in my GitHub issue , it doesn't work that way.

I get the same behavior... and somehow it makes sense that the tool is only initialized when it's needed/selected. Nonetheless it would be nice to be able to execute code before the tool is selected..

datguy

Re: bracket closing tool

3 months ago

After poking around in the code (check out my latest comment on GitHub), I'd like to revise my suggestion.

Based on the way tools are currently initialized and run, I would remove the extra boolean and move any code you want to run just once into your init() method. Processing already has a variable to see if the tool is intialized, and only calls the init() method if it has not done so already. There is no way for the tool to execute code automatically when the editor window is opened.

la_kal

Re: bracket closing tool

3 months ago

Thank you for clarification and your effort!

Processing already has a variable to see if the tool is intialized

Are you talking about the inited variable in the addTools function ? Would it make sense to move this boolean somewhere, where Tools can see if they are initialized?

For now I will rely on the boolean, because I like the short feedback (println) if the tool is already initialized.

Hopefully we get the possibility to autoload a tool someday :-)

datguy

Re: bracket closing tool

3 months ago

Are you talking about the inited variable in the addTools function ? Would it make sense to move this boolean somewhere, where Tools can see if they are initialized?

Yes, that's the variable I was talking about. I can understand the value of making the variable accessible to the tool, but the only way I can think to do it would be to put it into an abstract class and require tool developers to extend that class instead of implementing the Tool interface.

I see no harm in keeping the variable...

jobleonard

Re: bracket closing tool

16 days ago

Thank you for this tool!

Quick feedback: I think it would be great if pressing backspace after typing in an opening bracket (in other words, to undo a typo) would delete both the opening and closing bracket. Right now if I open and immediately delete a bracket, a hanging ")" or "}" remains.

I'm not sure if this would be desired behaviour in all situations, but in the one above I think it's appropriate.