Some of the Limitation in RDI are due to Punch-card columns.
If you convert you code over to iProject, and remove the Punch-Card Sequence & date columns. You can indent freely like other "Normal" programming languages that don't have the Punch-Card format..
Then you can open with Text editor, instead of LPEX. And then use normal indent with selection and tab key. Although, you won't get your syntax checking, since that is designed for lpex.
The only reason indenting code is hard in RDI is because of the Punch-cards invented in the 19th Century. But used widely staring the mid-20th Century starting the 1940's or earlier.
Probably also why we still have the QWERTY keyboard, instead of the Dvorak keyboard.
Punch-card freedom "**free" has now been out for over 3-years! Yeah! <Big Smile>
I have gotten quite use the Alt+L(Line-Select) and the Alt-F8(Shift Selection Right) & Alt+F7(Shift Selection Left). Took a little while to get use, but works GREAT! Don't forget the Alt+U(Unselect) too!
You can see those options by right clicking on your source: > Selected. And there you will see the Alt+F8=Shift selection right & Alt+F7=Shift Selection Left.
Quite of the few RDI newbies I work with hate to "START" with shortcut keys. So I have to show them the shortcut menu first. And then they have a way to lookup shortcuts keys, if they forget them.
Try Ctrl+Shift+L to see a list of shortcut keys in RDI!
-Ken Killian-
-----Original Message-----
From: WDSCI-L [mailto:wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Buck Calabro
Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2017 11:29 AM
To: wdsci-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [WDSCI-L] Shortcuts Indent/Unindent
On 3/27/2017 6:55 PM, John Yeung wrote:
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.
I apologise for being unable to be both clear and concise. I can often get one, but it seems to be at the expense of the other.
I deliberately used the phrase 'seem a bit clunky' because many people seem to have a mental bobble when trying to use RDi. In particular, they expect RDi to act like Word, or some other Windows app. RDi is not Word with an accent; it is its own unique, individual thing.
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.
RDi has several ways to select text. One is stream selection, which is quite similar to Windows apps like Word. You hold down Shift and move the cursor around and the text is selected as a stream of bytes, including line endings, tabs, etc. You can, if you like, select a few characters from any part of a line, or select a chunk of bytes that covers many thousands of lines, with partial selection of the first and last lines.
Another is Line selection, where the selector (for lack of better
vocabulary) chooses entire lines. You can't choose a part of a line; it's one or more entire lines.
Another is Block selection, where you essentially choose a rectangular slice of text that disregards line endings, tabs, etc. I find myself using this to create a data structure out of fixed-format Factor 2 specifications, for example. I can copy just the rectangular block of field names and paste that into dcl-ds specs.
The point of 'seems clunky' is that if one wants to indent /lines/ one must select /lines/ not a random-ish stream of bytes.
So, what does "Ctrl-L the top line" mean? Does pressing that key combo
mark the whole line?
As Michael noted, I meant Alt-L, and yes it selects the entire line. I can either Shift + down to extend the selection to include additional entire lines, or I can move (by any means) to the bottom line and press Alt-L and RDi will select all of the entire lines inclusive of the two on which I pressed Alt-L.
indentation selection rather than a regular selection? Or perhaps it
will be both an indentation selection *and* a regular selection?
Oy.
There's no 'indentation selection' - it's Line Selection. And it can be used for anything; copy/paste/cut - and unique to Line Selection, In/Outdent.
Wow. You have to go to the trouble of making some kind of *special*
selection, not just a regular selection,
Line Selection /is/ a regular selection.
and then these are not simply
Tab and Shift+Tab, respectively?
Correct.
Are they at least easily rebindable
to Tab and Shift+Tab,
No.
or would one have to resort to AutoHotkey for this?
Tab has so many different uses in any editor I can't imagine how I'd use AHK 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?
No. Again, Line Selection /is/ a regular selection.
This whole indentation selection thing... is this something that was
implemented specifically for RDi, or is this how it's done in Eclipse?
Javascript uses Ctrl-I to indent.
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.
RDi isn't greenfield; it's got a past. I may be the only person on this list who used Code/400 on OS/2 but at least my muscle memory appreciates the continuity.
If you were an Emacs-er on a Vim mailing list, you'd probably have as many wonderments as you have on this one. Don't get me wrong - that's cool! I've had several of my 'inertia (always did it like that)'
assumptions pleasantly discarded due to the questions on this list, so I appreciate that very much.
I'm a tad surprised though that an SEU user didn't suggest the RRnn block command. Which work fine in RDi and always have. :-)
--
--buck
Try wiki.midrange.com!
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