Michael,
You may have meant to reply off-list, but it went to the list anyway.
Which is actually fine with me.
On Mon, Mar 27, 2017 at 9:10 PM, <MichaelQuigley@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I don't know but it seems to me a little disingenuous to talk about the
editor being lacking when you don't use it. I generally read your posts
and think, "Sure, it's his prerogative to choose not to use RDi--as much
as I find it priceless and indispensable to my productivity."
I am not trying to trash RDi. I have never told anyone "hey, RDi
sucks, don't use it". I have never even said "hey, RDi is nice, but
not worth the price". (I have been among those who have said it can
seem expensive for what you get in comparison to the tools out there
for Windows or open-source development. This doesn't negate the fact
that I think RDi is worth the price.) I actually am completely in
support of folks using RDi, and if it is being offered by their
employer or if they are willing to pay for it themselves, then it's
pretty much a no-brainer to use it. While it's true I have not been a
vocal cheerleader for it on these lists, I don't feel I've been a
vocal detractor either. And despite not being an RDi user myself, I
have made sincere attempts to work with a couple of RDi users to
improve their RDi experience.
The LPEX editor has
many options for selection. It used to be (and may well still be) the most
reliable selection method is what is known as block selection. Then there
are many functions designed to operate on a block of code. you select a
block and then select a block action. Other selection methods are
available, but they generally don't enable the block actions.
OK, that is the clearest response I've gotten on that front. I think I
understand the design decisions that went into having a separate block
selection mode. I am not even sure I would have decided differently
had I been responsible for the inception of LPEX. But from where I'm
sitting today, I disagree with those decisions.
Alt+F7 and Alt+F8, shift left and right respectively. (I believe this has
it origins on IBM mainframe systems where F7 was a back key and F8 was a
forward key. I don't know that this is absolutely the reason, but being
having been exposed to it decades ago, it makes the key combination
logical to me.)
I am confident you are correct. The F7 and F8 thing is still
relatively prevalent in the green-screen IBM i interface. Again, I
understand why they were chosen. I definitely would not have chosen
them myself.
Have you ever downloaded the free trial and set your mind to give RDi and
honest try? It does take time to learn as it is different than SEU. But
once learned, most people never want to go back.
I have downloaded the free trial. It took forever. I tried to install
it. It didn't go well. I don't know what you consider an "honest" try,
but I did not have the level of determination that was required to
even install RDi, let alone give it a thorough evaluation, let alone
actually *learn* it. Maybe this is not fair to RDi. All I can say is,
plenty of other software *is* easy enough to install that I have no
trouble installing it, and some of that software has won me over even
with ridiculously little exposure. (PyCharm is a great example.)
I actually appreciate the return on investment of learning time at
least as much as anyone else. I did take the time to get decent at vi
(not even vim) in my undergraduate days. No way would I ever design an
editor that way myself, but after I got used to it, it sure was fast.
For what it's worth, MiWorkplace does use Tab and Shift+Tab to block indent.
John Y.
midrange.com
