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macjohnmcc
New Member
USA
6 Posts |
 Posted - May 18 2009 : 7:12:52 PM
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I would love to be able to open a file by typing it's name and have the product show me close matches the files that match what I've typed so far. And I'd like it to search the include paths and perhaps historically encountered paths as well for the matching file. It would be great to be looking to open stdlib.h and be able to type "stdlib" and press enter (if there is a single hit) and have it open up the file without navigating folders. I think that is one of the single biggest time wastes still left unturned by Visual Assist X.
Much like your existing open file in solution function. From time to time I do have to open files that are not part of my solution and that are part of an SDK.
Love the product! |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
19021 Posts |
Posted - May 18 2009 : 7:51:16 PM
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Personally when I need to do this I just add a #include line, get the file name from the #include listbox and then use alt-g.
Not as fast, but it works quite well. It helps that I very rarely want to open files that are not in my solution 
How often do you need to do this?
Does the IDE know about these SDK's? If you just go:
#include <sdk_foo.h>
will the IDE find this file in the SDK? I am wondering if VA would know where to find the files you are interested in. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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Lio
Senior Member
25 Posts |
Posted - May 18 2009 : 7:59:25 PM
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We have our project broken up into 2 solutions:
1 which changes less often (but does change regularly) but isn't modified by most of the coders, so is kept apart and built into .lib files.
The second is the solution which is modified a lot more often and by everybody.
It would be great to be able to tell VAX to parse that solution for open file (as well as class data and variables).
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macjohnmcc
New Member
USA
6 Posts |
Posted - May 18 2009 : 9:11:51 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by feline
Personally when I need to do this I just add a #include line, get the file name from the #include listbox and then use alt-g.
Not as fast, but it works quite well. It helps that I very rarely want to open files that are not in my solution
How often do you need to do this?
Does the IDE know about these SDK's? If you just go:
#include <sdk_foo.h>
will the IDE find this file in the SDK? I am wondering if VA would know where to find the files you are interested in.
It's not always a matter of wanting to open a file that I'm going to want to include anyway. Sometimes I need to open a file just to check something (ie perhaps another project someone is asking me to look at a file related to). I like your work around but would prefer a quick and easy way to easily open the file without having to do the search for the file when computers are so much better at that.
#include that automatically shows the headers is amazing. The ability to force an include to resolve types and defines is amazing. This would be not quite as amazing but might save me at least as much messing around.
I have nothing bad to say about this product. But I do find that the more magical it seems the more those things that still feel old and unnecessary stand out like a sore thumb. |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
19021 Posts |
Posted - May 19 2009 : 5:26:33 PM
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Lio, in your situation I would add the projects from the second solution, that makes the lib files - to the main solution and tell the compiler not to build that project or projects.
Since the files are part of the solution VA will tell you all about them, but they won't be compiled. Simply having VA tell you about more files might be no use at all, since VA may have no easy way of finding the files that make up this lib solution.
macjohnmcc it is very good to hear that you are so pleased with VA In support I normally meet the users who have problems
I see the appeal to this feature, I am just wondering how to define / find these other files. Would any file that is directly accessible via the solutions additional include directories and stable include directories work? Or are you needing / wanting to search for files anywhere in entire directory trees? |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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Lio
Senior Member
25 Posts |
Posted - May 19 2009 : 8:12:55 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by feline
Lio, in your situation I would add the projects from the second solution, that makes the lib files - to the main solution and tell the compiler not to build that project or projects.
Since the files are part of the solution VA will tell you all about them, but they won't be compiled. Simply having VA tell you about more files might be no use at all, since VA may have no easy way of finding the files that make up this lib solution.
macjohnmcc it is very good to hear that you are so pleased with VA In support I normally meet the users who have problems
I see the appeal to this feature, I am just wondering how to define / find these other files. Would any file that is directly accessible via the solutions additional include directories and stable include directories work? Or are you needing / wanting to search for files anywhere in entire directory trees?
And what would happen if that solution needed to include another solution (which we do have), now any time any of those solution files change you need to update all the other solution files.
PS Don't get me wrong, I find VAX very helpful, but this feature would make it even better.
Thankyou. |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
19021 Posts |
Posted - May 20 2009 : 11:04:22 AM
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Consider this "worst case" situation. Solution 1 might be in the directory "C:\\solution1" while solution 2 might be in the directory "E:\\other_development\\solution2"
In general how can "open files" find the files you want? You probably do not want VA to scan every local and network drive it can find for code files, that might take rather a long time to run, and produce a lot of irrelevant files.
I am willing to put in a feature request for some form of "list other files" feature, but I want a good definition of "other files" first This is why I suggested combining the two solutions together in the IDE. It is not always an option, but it works for some people. It was worth mentioning in case it helped. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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wlater
Senior Member
USA
35 Posts |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
19021 Posts |
Posted - May 20 2009 : 6:24:56 PM
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From the description this does the same basic job as VA's Open File dialog. Both only list files that are already part of the solution.
http://www.wholetomato.com/products/features/fis.asp
If you want to find a file that is not part of the solution then where do we start looking for it? |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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wlater
Senior Member
USA
35 Posts |
Posted - May 20 2009 : 7:18:13 PM
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So it does! I had never actually used that part of VA before. 
Looks like I have a redundant add-in now. |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
19021 Posts |
Posted - May 21 2009 : 11:21:07 AM
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You might find this interesting: http://docs.wholetomato.com?W194
VA has quite a few features, working out how best to explain and demonstrate them is something we are still working on |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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Lio
Senior Member
25 Posts |
Posted - May 21 2009 : 8:18:15 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by feline
Consider this "worst case" situation. Solution 1 might be in the directory "C:\\solution1" while solution 2 might be in the directory "E:\\other_development\\solution2"
In general how can "open files" find the files you want? You probably do not want VA to scan every local and network drive it can find for code files, that might take rather a long time to run, and produce a lot of irrelevant files.
I am willing to put in a feature request for some form of "list other files" feature, but I want a good definition of "other files" first This is why I suggested combining the two solutions together in the IDE. It is not always an option, but it works for some people. It was worth mentioning in case it helped.
Why not give an interface that allows the user to specify? My point is I want to be able to tell VAX that these are the files I want, not necessarily have it try to work it out on its own.
I know there are a number of developers at my studio that have moved from VAX to another tool because of this very feature. The other tool allows you to specify extra files/folders using various methods, including:
- Specify a solution file
- Specify a project file
- Specify a path (including wildcards and globbing for full specifications - http://www.codeproject.com/file/FileGlob.asp)
I'm sure many people would use this feature if it was added. For my own use the first method above would be the best followed by the 3rd (I would probably use both if it was available).
Thankyou in advance.
Lio. |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
19021 Posts |
Posted - May 22 2009 : 2:38:28 PM
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This might be a silly question, but what is the real world difference between adding the second solution / project to your main solution and telling the compiler to ignore it, and simply telling a plugin to load and monitor this second solution?
You should not have to do any extra maintenance, since you still update / use the two solutions separately. You have just told the IDE to open two of them at once when opening you main solution. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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Lio
Senior Member
25 Posts |
Posted - May 25 2009 : 12:58:55 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by feline
This might be a silly question, but what is the real world difference between adding the second solution / project to your main solution and telling the compiler to ignore it, and simply telling a plugin to load and monitor this second solution?
You should not have to do any extra maintenance, since you still update / use the two solutions separately. You have just told the IDE to open two of them at once when opening you main solution.
If you add an existing solution to a solution it goes and adds any current projects in that solution to your current one. Any future changes are not reflected unless you manually update it.
Lio. |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
19021 Posts |
Posted - May 26 2009 : 4:06:34 PM
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Which IDE are you using?
I have just done the following test. Using VS2005 I started with a simple test solution with only one project in it. In Solution Explorer I then right clicked on the solution (root node) and used "Add -> Existing Project..."
I then selected a small test *.VCPROJ file from a different solution.
Close and reload the IDE, this second project has been added to the solution, and its files are show in Solution Explorer.
I then closed the IDE again and loaded the main, standard parent solution for this added project. I added two new files, one .h and one .cpp to this project. Save the changes.
Close IDE, load IDE and load the test solution. The modification to the added project shows up instantly and correctly.
I am not even seeing an option to add an existing *.SLN to this solution, only the option to add various types of project.
Have I misunderstood and just tested the wrong thing? |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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Lio
Senior Member
25 Posts |
Posted - May 26 2009 : 8:11:20 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by feline
Which IDE are you using?
I have just done the following test. Using VS2005 I started with a simple test solution with only one project in it. In Solution Explorer I then right clicked on the solution (root node) and used "Add -> Existing Project..."
I then selected a small test *.VCPROJ file from a different solution.
Close and reload the IDE, this second project has been added to the solution, and its files are show in Solution Explorer.
I then closed the IDE again and loaded the main, standard parent solution for this added project. I added two new files, one .h and one .cpp to this project. Save the changes.
Close IDE, load IDE and load the test solution. The modification to the added project shows up instantly and correctly.
I am not even seeing an option to add an existing *.SLN to this solution, only the option to add various types of project.
Have I misunderstood and just tested the wrong thing?
I'm using VS2005.
I wasn't saying changes to the project aren't kept, I'm saying changes to the solution aren't (so if new projects are added, or projects removed).
I do the same as what you did but add a .sln file to the current solution. After selecting "Add -> Existing Project..." a 'find window' pops up with 'File Type' defaulting to 'All Project Files', change the drop down to "Solution Files (*.sln).
Lio
PS Thanks for taking the time to test this yourself. |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
19021 Posts |
Posted - May 27 2009 : 6:48:40 PM
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How often do you add or remove projects from this second solution? I was under the impression the solution does not change that often. If the list of projects is fairly stable adding the projects directly and then excluding them from the build might work well for you.
Have you considered just opening a second IDE and loading this second solution in it? You can then search for the files in the second IDE directly, since they are part of the open solution. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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Lio
Senior Member
25 Posts |
Posted - May 27 2009 : 9:09:51 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by feline
How often do you add or remove projects from this second solution? I was under the impression the solution does not change that often. If the list of projects is fairly stable adding the projects directly and then excluding them from the build might work well for you.
Have you considered just opening a second IDE and loading this second solution in it? You can then search for the files in the second IDE directly, since they are part of the open solution.
Its not just the open file in solution that I want, I want it to recognise all the symbols and goto definition to work etc... There are obviously workarounds to do everything by opening another IDE, however 'we' would like to have it all simpler by just having it 'work'.
Thanks.
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
19021 Posts |
Posted - May 28 2009 : 12:28:27 PM
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If you want VA to parse the files as if they are part of your solution then the best answer is to add them to your solution. Then you will have all of these benefits, all VA features should "just work" with these files.
You could add the files to your stable include directories, but this is likely to cause problems if / when you actually edit this second solution, since VA does not expect you to be actively editing files in your stable include directories. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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macjohnmcc
New Member
USA
6 Posts |
Posted - May 28 2009 : 1:23:54 PM
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In my case (original poster) I don't have other projects to add that would solve the problem.
The Windows SDK, C Runtime, third party libraries are not projects I can include just headers and libraries I can utilize.
Since Visual Assist X can find symbols defined in these header files I assume it must know about the names of the files as well and could provide me a quick open dialog that would resolve the names from this list of headers that Visual Assist X knows about and let me pick from it. I am not asking for something more than that where your code can find a header I don't even include in any of my project files. |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
19021 Posts |
Posted - May 29 2009 : 11:30:34 AM
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macjohnmcc we are actually looking to add a dialog that does just this. I don't have an exact time scale, but one of our developers is looking at this as their next project:
case=1029
As you say, VA already knows about these files, and if you add a #include line for the file you can use alt-g to open it. Its not ideal, but it does work for now. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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Topic |
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Better File Open
