Thursday, June 26, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008    
When I get into some lengthy classes (namely perhaps a document class), I have specific methods in relation to other classes or functionality. I usually try to group them inline in the class (one after the other). After a while I end up with blocks of code specific to something... and sometimes I need to spread some public methods down @ the bottom where I usually keep all my public methods, just for style reasons (and ease of location).

It would be nice to somehow group these methods so I could easily expand & collapse sets of methods with a single click. What I mean here is folding triggers.

This would require another Panel in FlashDevelop. By default it would be empty.

Right-click on a folding marker, and you could Create And Add To Nesting Set, or Add To Nesting Set, or Remove From Nesting Set.

The panel would show the labels you give the sets and perhaps optionally the methods contained in it (a tree mb). You could simply use a check box to the left of the Set title in the panel to expand/collapse the Set easily. The panel would allow you to rename the set labels, etc.

I think this would be a big time saver. Thoughts?


4 Comments:

Blogger Philippe said...
 

“Hi man, there is a somewhat hidden FlashDevelop feature that may be of interest for you:

Enclose some code like this:

//{
This code can be folded
//}

Or better:

//{region The region name
This code can be folded and a new "Regions" information appear in the Outline panel!
//}”
 
Anonymous Campbell said...
 

“Although it pains me to say it sometimes, Visual Studio( the latest incarnation too) is in my opinion one of the best Development IDE's out there. Thats not to say it doesnt have its down falls where other IDE's do better.

Basically in VS you define #region Your comments, #endRegion, and the IDE builds the tree of expandable areas and remembers if they are open (yes tree as they can be inside other regions). Then the panel you mention just picks up the text in the "Your comments" text :)”
 
Blogger e.dolecki said...
 

“Thats cool for sure, but it doesn't address multiple regions of code that are related... hence having many :mini-regions: all hooked up to a single region checkbox in a panel. It would rock... and if someone else opened my class, they wouldn't get the consolidation... it would be saved someplace within my local FD. Like bookmarks.”
 
Blogger Philippe said...
 

“Your idea is still a bit abstract. Maybe start a discussion in the forum / storyboard would help to imagine it in use.”
 
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