quote:

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Originally posted by feline

We appreciate the offer, but sadly things are not always this simple. In an ideal world, the code would be as simple as you suggest. But remember different IDE's need to be handled differently. Also, since we are working behind the IDE's back, the same drawing often has to happen in more than one place.

This is before we start considering interaction problems, or breaking something else while making a change. Working around the IDE is not as easy as it seems.

For the registry lines, and the code definition window, are you mainly using this for your own code, or for the Win32 API, or some other 3rd party library? I would have thought you would want these lines if you were looking at the definitions of your own code.

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Originally posted by feline

While we still support VS2008 and earlier, these IDE's are not that widely used these days, and we are currently working to fully support VS2017. So while adding this may well be a small feature, since you are specifically looking for support in VS2008 and earlier, sadly this is unlikely to happen.

These IDE's require a different way of interacting with the editor, compared to VS2010 and above, so adding this in these IDE's would not even automatically provide this in all IDE's. Hopefully the registry key work around is working well enough for you.

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// Old code:
if (vertical_line_checkbox)
    draw_line(..UI parameters..);


// New code:
for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
    if (vertical_line_checkbox[i])
        draw_line(..i's UI parameters..);
}


// You could also do it like this:
if (vertical_line_checkbox1)   draw_line(..UI 1's parameters..);
if (vertical_line_checkbox2)   draw_line(..UI 2's parameters..);
if (vertical_line_checkbox3)   draw_line(..UI 3's parameters..);
if (vertical_line_checkbox4)   draw_line(..UI 4's parameters..);

quote:

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Originally posted by foxmuldr

quote:

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Originally posted by feline
Alternatively, a search of the Visual Studio gallery turned up "Editor Guidelines"
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=PaulHarrington.EditorGuidelines
which seems designed to add exactly what you are looking for.

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Yes. It's pretty much exactly what I'm looking for. It doesn't work for VS2008 and earlier though.

quote:

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feline: "I am not sure how or why this would help."

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94,385 installs in the 2012 and later version.
52,632 installs in the 2010 version.

Seems to be a popular feature. That many installs total would place it on page 2 of the free extensions available.

It doesn't work in VS2008 and before. There is a manual registry workaround:
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/saraford/2004/11/15/guidelines-a-hidden-feature-for-the-visual-studio-editor/

Would still prefer to have this integrated into VAX. You already have logic to draw the one line. How much more difficult to add more?

UPDATE: The manual registry workaround works perfectly in VS2008. I used "RGB(192,192,255) 4, 16, 32, 68" for my files, and it places and highlights them beautifully. In order to get it to work in VS2010 you have to add this manual registry entry AND install the extension. I haven't tried it in VS2003 or earlier yet, or VS2012 or later yet.

UPDATE 2: One downside is these vertical lines show up also in the Code Definition Window, and not just in the editor window.

Best regards,
Rick C. Hodgin

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quote:

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Originally posted by feline
Alternatively, a search of the Visual Studio gallery turned up "Editor Guidelines"
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=PaulHarrington.EditorGuidelines
which seems designed to add exactly what you are looking for.

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quote:

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feline: "I am not sure how or why this would help."

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quote:

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Originally posted by feline

Have you considered using an IDE macro or code formatting tool, to align your code like this, after you have edited it?

In VS2010, under:

Tools menu -> Macros -> Macros IDE...

and look in the VSEditor file, and there is a sub called LineEmUp(), which is designed to do exactly this sort of thing.

You can also use VA Snippets to insert blocks of code that already have the desired formatting alignment, helping.

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quote:

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Originally posted by feline

I am not sure how or why this would help. What are you doing, and working with, that would benefit from this? The single vertical indicator makes sense when you have a maximum line length policy, but this only needs the one indicator.

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    |                |                               |
    |type            |function_name                  |(int param1, int param2, ...);
    |                |                               |

struct SWhatever
{
    |                |                               |
    |type            |name;                          |// Comment
    |                |                               |
};