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trevasel
Starting Member

1 Posts

Posted - Jan 30 2004 :  12:38:56 PM  Show Profile
Hello Whole Tomato folks. I'm a big fan of Visual Assist and recommend it to all of my friends. Prior to this, I used Workspace Whiz which has one feature I really miss -- good file opening.

First off, they have two different file opens. The first opens any file in your project and the second any file reachable through the standard include directories or (I think) project directories. This one is typically used to open system and windows header files.

In addition, the filtering on their open dialog is a lot easier to use. My suggestion is to allow the Visual Assist file open to take filespecs for file filtering. Something like the following algorithm:

Filter phrase given >> Filespec
foo >> *foo*
fo*o >> *fo*o*
^fo*o >> fo*o*
fo*o$ >> *fo*o
foo.h >> *foo*.h* // notice no * before the h
foo$.h >> *foo.h*
^foo.h >> foo*.h*

So
1. Break the filter phrase on periods
2. For the first segment, change a leading ^ to nothing, leave a leading *, else add a leading *
3. For all segments, change a trailing $ to nothing, leave a trailing *, else add a trailing *
4. Join all segments together and glob all files with the filespec.

Then either:
1. Select the first matching file
2. Sort all matching files to the top of the list
3. Hide all non-matching files

Thanks a million and keep up the good work!

buzzn
Starting Member

1 Posts

Posted - Mar 18 2004 :  01:31:57 AM  Show Profile
Seconded and very energetically. One of the features I use the most in CodeWarrior is "Find and Open File", which btw just adds a checkbox for the system paths to be searched. Another is "Find Definition for" which finds a matching symbol in the bscs.

Even better would be autocompletion for this. Suppose I want to find MyFoo.cpp. As I type "MyF" I'd see a list of MyFoot.cpp, MyFood.cpp, MyFoo.cpp and be able to choose the correct one, or continue typing.

Please oh please add this feature!
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Stephen
Tomato Guru

United Kingdom
781 Posts

Posted - Mar 18 2004 :  04:27:55 AM  Show Profile
I'm not sure I agree this is worth the effort. The FIW in the VA View does everything I need. Specifically, if you type foo, the FIW gives you all files matching *foo*. For me, this list is always short enough that I can find what I need immediately. More complex matching isn't needed.

However, there is a problem that this behaviour of the FIW and SIW isn't obvious. I only found out about it by reading these forums. I don't know what they can do about this though, because Windows users don't read documentation. (I'm a Unix user, but even I don't read documentation when I'm on Windows!).

Stephen Turner
ClickTracks http://www.clicktracks.com/
Winner: ClickZ's Best Web Analytics Tool 2003 & 2004
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19014 Posts

Posted - Mar 18 2004 :  07:35:36 AM  Show Profile
like Stephen, i only discovered this after reading this forum. i have read most of the documentation on VAX, and i still didn't know about this.

the main problem i have with this is when i know two parts of the file name i want, but they aren't together. eg, i want something to do with patient and notes, but i don't know how the other programmers named the files i need.

typing in "patient" gives me several hundred files
typing in "notes" gives me three pages of files

patient*notes being interpreted as *patient*notes* would make my life a lot easier

i am not sure i would use the more complex matches though, since the effort of deciding how to format the search is about the same as sorting through a list of 6 matching items

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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Stephen
Tomato Guru

United Kingdom
781 Posts

Posted - Mar 18 2004 :  07:56:23 AM  Show Profile
Of course, it is all documented at http://www.wholetomato.com/x/products/features/fiw.html. My point was that it's not obvious in the UI that one can do this. But how would you make it obvious? I don't know.

Stephen Turner
ClickTracks http://www.clicktracks.com/
Winner: ClickZ's Best Web Analytics Tool 2003 & 2004
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19014 Posts

Posted - Mar 18 2004 :  08:09:27 AM  Show Profile
i didn't read that page first time around, since i ignored VA View totally when i started using VAX. running at 800*600 on a 15 inch monitor didn't inspire me to keep it open down one side of the IDE.

as for making it more obvious, a helpful tool-tip balloon, similar to the ones in options could explain the filtering.

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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