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 Edit multiple lines at once
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znakeeye
Tomato Guru

379 Posts

Posted - Dec 18 2007 :  5:34:44 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I can't believe that VS 2008 still doesn't support this! Have you tried UltraEdit? Press Alt+C and you get a "column mode" where you can type at multiple lines at once. Incredibly useful if you want to write multiple lines with similar text (defines etc).

Do you think this could be accomplished with VAX?

sl@sh
Tomato Guru

Switzerland
204 Posts

Posted - Dec 19 2007 :  04:16:08 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Interesting - I never thought of this feature as a means to actually enter meaningful text. I just thought it a helpful ability to shift blocks by inserting spaces, or mark and copy blocks of text with both horizontal and vertical limits.

That said, even if multiline edit cannot be easily implemented, would it be possible for VA to somehow let the user mark a range of lines and columns for the purpose of cutting/copying and inserting?

Or as an alternative to multiline edit, how about 'pushing' a section in one line down to a number of lines below, by inserting that text into the lower lines at the same position?
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znakeeye
Tomato Guru

379 Posts

Posted - Dec 19 2007 :  08:45:34 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
sl@sh, in UltraEdit you can:

1) Copy some text
2) Press Alt+C and select where you want to paste
3) Ctrl+V. The text is copied to all lines. Magic! :)

This feature is especially useful for enums and defines where parts of the names tend to be identical.
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19024 Posts

Posted - Dec 19 2007 :  10:07:26 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
How does UltraEdit handle proportional fonts? Personally I use a fixed width font for my code, but not everyone does.

I like this idea, and what you are describing sounds very useful. I am just trying to think through how to break this. The more "fragile" the feature, the harder it is to implement correctly.

I am also wondering about things like copying a string 8 characters long, but then selecting a block only 3 characters wide, several lines deep, and doing your paste.

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

379 Posts

Posted - Dec 19 2007 :  6:17:08 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Actually, what I said to sl@sh is not true. In UltraEdit a copied string "text" will only be pasted on one line, even though you have several selected. Perhaps you could extend Ctrl+Shift+V to do multi-line pastes when in "column mode"?

Regarding the font, I don't think it can be changed to non-fixed size.
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19024 Posts

Posted - Dec 20 2007 :  11:28:32 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Personally, when I want to update a group of similar lines, e.g. emum items, I select the lines and just use the IDE's find and replace feature on the selected lines, which seems to do the same thing you are talking about here.

I have used VIM's ability to select a rectangle of text before, but I only ever used it to delete a block of text. I never did work out how to use this feature for more powerful editing.

Proportional fonts, and word wrapped lines are both worrying edge cases here.

I don't want to just say "no" to this idea, but I am wondering how best to try and made it work.

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