On Mon, Mar 27, 2017 at 5:18 PM, Buck Calabro <kc2hiz@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 3/27/2017 4:47 PM, Tools/400 wrote:
Does RDi (9.5.1) provide functions and shortcuts for
indenting/unindenting selected source lines?
Yes!
It may seem a bit clunky but I got used to it.
It seems a little odd to me that this isn't one of the core,
streamlined, unclunky functions of a programmer's editor. And odd that
any experienced user would even have to ask their peers on a mailing
list if it exists.
That wasn't meant as a knock on the user.
First, select the lines to indent/outdent with Ctrl-L, not with the
normal Windows stream selection keys.
Sorry, I didn't understand that sentence. It's probably because I
don't have or use RDi; I imagine it should have made sense to most
readers of this list. To my way of thinking, Windows doesn't so much
have stream selection "keys" as it has one stream selection key, which
is Shift. (Fine, there are two of them, so you could say the keys are
LShift and RShift.) The other keys that could be involved in selection
are anything that moves the cursor (arrow keys, PgUp, PgDn, Home, and
End), but their function is orthogonal to and not necessary for
selection. For that matter, you don't even really *need* Shift since
you could select entirely with the mouse. But if keyboard keys are
involved, the one that matters is Shift.
So now I'm struggling to understand how it is that Ctrl+L could be
used in place of Shift. Especially since Ctrl+L is either a two-handed
or right-handed operation for a home-row typist, making simultaneous
use of the cursor-positioning keys (or right-handed mouse)
astoundingly awkward. I guess the least crazy option would have to be
use the left hand on RCtrl and L, then the right hand for cursor
movement. (Wow, you are working my long-dormant pianist fingering
synapses here.)
Everything in that previous paragraph is pretty ludicrous, which
leaves the most sensible possibility that Ctrl+L (and release) is kind
of a "set marker" function. OK, but then:
I usually Ctrl-L the top line,
then Shift-Cursor Down to inclusively select lines. Although Cursor
Down to the bottom then Ctrl-L will also include all those lines too.
I'm just so used to Shift-Cursor to select that it's automatic.
So, what does "Ctrl-L the top line" mean? Does pressing that key combo
mark the whole line? When you do it, does the whole line get
highlighted, or is the marker specifically just at the cursor? And
then what's this about "Cursor Down to the bottom and then Ctrl-L"? So
is it that you set one marker, move the cursor, and set another
marker? Then any lines that contain either marker or are between the
two markers comprise the indentation selection?
But then you can "Shift-Cursor Down"... *instead*? So... once one
marker is set, holding down Shift creates a second marker which
follows around the cursor as you move it? In other words, an
alternative is to set just the one marker (via Ctrl+L), then use the
normal Windows selection process, which in this case will be an
indentation selection rather than a regular selection? Or perhaps it
will be both an indentation selection *and* a regular selection?
Oy.
Then:
To indent: Alt-F8
To outdent: Alt-F7
Wow. You have to go to the trouble of making some kind of *special*
selection, not just a regular selection, and then these are not simply
Tab and Shift+Tab, respectively? Are they at least easily rebindable
to Tab and Shift+Tab, or would one have to resort to AutoHotkey for
this?
To remove the selection, Alt-U
While the indentation selection is active, can you make a regular
selection somewhere else and do regular operations on that selection?
This whole indentation selection thing... is this something that was
implemented specifically for RDi, or is this how it's done in Eclipse?
I would be surprised if it's an Eclipse thing, but then I would also
be surprised that RDi should have to have its own way to do this.
John Y.
midrange.com
