The greatest code editor feature of all time

[Photon]

I'm working on an Assembler code editor for Amiga.

I would like to listen especially to those of you who also code on PC, Mac, Linux etc day in and day out. Language doesn't matter, but try to visualize if your suggestion would work at all for the very line-oriented format of 68K Assembler with its very regular expressions.

I want your most ambitious killer features! And little neat nice touches that you like as well. It could be as simple as "it adds this character if I forget to type it", or something.

Most of all, I would like to have ambitious features that you imagine, and wish were in your best editor!

[alkis]

- Autocompletion
- Syntax highlight
- Minimap on the right
- Auto Ident
- Reident the whole file
- A variety of nice color schemes

[RedskullDC]

- Highlight matching braces
- Indent selected section


Cheers,
Red

[phx]

Modern features are nice, but it should still feel like an Amiga editor. Which means for example:
shift-left = beginning of line
shift-right = end of line
shift-up = page up
shift-down = page down
ctrl-up = start of source
ctrl-down = end of source
It should also use Amiga-C for copy and Amiga-V for paste and not the control key.

Features:
A good search/replace function is frequently needed.
Also a macro function would be nice to record and repeat complex manipulations quickly.

[Asman]

- Folding data/code
- Possibility to jump and back to/from label
- Count cycles on comment

[Photon]

Excellent, keep'em coming

Also, don't hesitate to specify exactly how you would like them to work (context, how the code should look when finished etc). The more picky/choosy you are ("only this way, or your editor is crap") the better!

[Cylon]

- dblclick on label reference jumps to label (and return to origin, if requested)
- split view of src in one window
- split view of two (or more) src in one window, maybe with simultanious scrolling (spotting diffs)
- lvo refs replacing numerical offsets with context menu (right mouse button) (magic menu)
- spell checker for asm syntax (typing mistakes)

[kamelito]

I think that looking at best "PC" editor could help, like Slickedit, Sublime Text, Textmate, Ultra edit.
Kamelito

[hukka]

My wishlist:

- Syntax highlight! (with customizable keywords so I can colorize my macro calls suitably)
- Possibility of easily switching between files in current project (or directory)
- Find in Files (maybe Search&Replace as well)
- A list of labels(/macros/defines/sections) would be neat
- Duplicate/delete line/selection
- Comment/uncomment selection
- Indent/unindent selection

[Thorham]

-IntelliSense for all system includes.
-Fully programmable like FrexxEd on the Amiga through a script system.
-Syntax coloring based on language grammar, not just word highlighting.
-Being able to change the color pen of everything (nothing worse than the drab gray background you find in Amiga text editors).

There are so many good features in existing editors, that you should just take a look at them. There's too many to easily list here.

[Lonewolf10]

Hmmm, I agree with all suggestion so far, but here's one that I think has been missed:

- Bookmarks! (bookmark a specific line to jump to, rather than just the start of the routine)

[Hewitson]

Originally Posted by Thorham

There are so many good features in existing editors, that you should just take a look at them. There's too many to easily list here.

You should definitely take a look at vim. You would be doing very well if your editor was half as easy to use as that is.

[Thorham]

Originally Posted by Hewitson

You should definitely take a look at vim. You would be doing very well if your editor was half as easy to use as that is.

On Windows, Notepad++ suits me fine. On Amiga, Vim doesn't seem very usable. Just tried Vim5 from Aminet. Dat scrolling What's worse it that it runs in a shell window I'll stick to FrexxEd.

[Zetr0]

@Proton

Interesting thread and project =)


Features Required

• Page Colour and Pen/Ink user configurable - some times I prefer a blue background as opposed to white or grey
• Context Highlighting (user configurable)
• Auto Indent (configurable)
• Collapsable Code / Funtions
• Search and Replace
• Line and Section Comment
• Bookmark Code Block / Line Position
• Save / Load mutli-text formats
• User changeable compiler / linker and path
• One button / key press for building
• One button / key press for building and executing
• User changeable output for compiling linking output (Verbose / Limited by Error or None)

Nice to Have Features

• Double Click "Function / Label - Jump" jump from Call instance to Called code
• Variable Counter with initial stack size for each function call
• Variable Watches (this is more debugger than editor)
• Program Stepper ( simulates each line call - again more of a debugger )
• Split View with multiple source pages / cli
• Auto Doc libraries linking - A right click or deliberate mouse hover brings up the auto-doc information for that instruction and or syntax for that call

[Hewitson]

Originally Posted by Thorham

On Windows, Notepad++ suits me fine. On Amiga, Vim doesn't seem very usable. Just tried Vim5 from Aminet. Dat scrolling What's worse it that it runs in a shell window I'll stick to FrexxEd.

I have not tried it on the Amiga, but I can assure you that it is an amazing editor when used on Linux, BSD, or any of the various UNIX derivatives. Probably the most popular editor in the world, actually.

[Thorham]

Originally Posted by Hewitson

I have not tried it on the Amiga, but I can assure you that it is an amazing editor when used on Linux, BSD, or any of the various UNIX derivatives. Probably the most popular editor in the world, actually.

The problem I have with Vim is that it doesn't conform to the standard editor model. This is why I stick to editors like Notepad++. On the Amiga, FrexxEd is great, because it conforms to the standard model, and gives you the programability of Emacs.

[Photon]

Originally Posted by kamelito

I think that looking at best "PC" editor could help, like Slickedit, Sublime Text, Textmate, Ultra edit.
Kamelito

No, that's not the right way at all. I know and use a lot of the features in PC editors of course, and the ones I like best are already in or will be in.

I'm taking suggestions from seasoned (Amiga) assembler programmers, because there might be a feature that I didn't think of, or one that hasn't been done yet which I can't but someone else can imagine.

Simply, you've been coding assembler and needed to do something the editor couldn't, "wish it could have done that".

Features suggested so far are very good, for many of them: we are thinking along the same lines!

[Thorham]

Originally Posted by Photon

Simply, you've been coding assembler and needed to do something the editor couldn't, "wish it could have done that".

Good integration with assemblers and debuggers. Also, a real time mem viewer which can be controlled from the program you're writing through a simple message port. Command line like AsmOne/Pro.

A good auto complete system for OS includes (EVERYTHING), would be nice. That, and full syntax coloring for OS includes.

[modrobert]

- Macro explode / implode function
- Single step debug with actual source code as base
- Smart undo / redo handling using hot keys, "whole line" or "character by character"
- Edit label; "one changes all"
- Optional hints which cleverly teaches us to use the editor (without reading the whole manual first)

[Photon]

Originally Posted by Thorham

Good integration

I'm for a more open approach. How far would an "execute commandline/script from within the editor" take me, you think? With a parameter for the currently edited file that you can pass. You'd add " > CON:" if they don't open their own screens.