Zeus IDE

Posted: **Sun Dec 10, 2006 3:27 pm**

I'm evaluating Zeus as a replacement to CodeWright for our organization.
Before we commit to Zeus (which is the best low cost editor I looked at so far), I'd like to get some feedback on some missing/broken features of Zeus. They are listed in order of importance from top to bottom.
1. Column mode - edit multiple lines at once a-la UltraEdit.
2. Diff between buffers, not files.
3. Direct access to external diff application.
4. Set font for printing.
5. Tab dragging (I know there are workaround kludges).
6. Outline templates (regex) a-la CodeWright.
2. Full help - several HELP buttons lead to the index page.

None of these issues (with the exception of #1) is a major issue...

Amit

Posted: **Sun Dec 10, 2006 10:45 pm**

1. Column mode - edit multiple lines at once a-la UltraEdit.
2. Diff between buffers, not files.

Unfortunately these features are not currently provided by Zeus

3. Direct access to external diff application.

Using the Options, Editor Options menu, in the Miscellaneous section there is an option to define an external difference command. With this command line can defined you can run the external difference from the Zeus File Difference dialog using the View External button.

You could also run the difference using a macro for example, something like this:

Code: Select all

function key_macro()

  -- get the file details
  local file1 = get_global_string("FILE1_DIFFERENCE", true)
  local file2 = get_global_string("FILE2_DIFFERENCE", true)

  -- ask for a user for a command line
  file1, file2 = user_input("File #1:", file1, "File #2:", file2, "File Difference")

  if (string.len(file1) == 0) and (string.len(file2) == 0) then
      message("Operation cancelled by user.")
      return 1
  end

  -- save the details for next time
  set_global_string("FILE1_DIFFERENCE", file1, true)
  set_global_string("FILE2_DIFFERENCE", file2, true)

  -- setup command control falgs (see the Zeus Macro help for details)
  local flags = 2+4+32

  -- use the xDiff.exe found in the Zeus directory
  local dir = macro_tag("$zd")

  -- the diff command
  cmd = "xDiff.exe " .. file1 .. " " .. file2

--debug_enable();
--debug_output(cmd);

  -- run diffeence command
  system(cmd, dir, flags)
end

key_macro() -- run the macro

4. Set font for printing.

Use the Option, Editor Options menu, Fonts section and select the Printer from the list of Display Views.

5. Tab dragging (I know there are workaround kludges).

At present that is all there is

6. Outline templates (regex) a-la CodeWright.

I am not familiar with this feature. The Zeus regexp is based on the Unix/Perl engine.

2. Full help - several HELP buttons lead to the index page.

The Zeus help files need lots of work

Regards Jussi Jumppanen

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2006 6:25 am**

Thanks for the quick response

1. Column mode - edit multiple lines at once a-la UltraEdit.

Are there plans to add this functionality? I'd say this comes high on many user's requests.

6. Outline templates (regex) a-la CodeWright.

Outline mode allows the user to see all functions/procedures/macros or whatever (similar to the class browser) in a separate pane, and of course jumps to the right spot upon a click. It differs from the class browser in that it's general - the user can define what makes a function (or any other item) using regex and the editor scans the current file for these.

Amit

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2006 11:21 pm**

Are there plans to add this functionality? I'd say this comes high on many user's requests.

This feature is on the Zeus todo list, but as this list is very long, I'm not sure exactly when this feature will make it's way into Zeus

Outline mode allows the user to see all functions/procedures/macros or whatever (similar to the class browser) in a separate pane, and of course jumps to the right spot upon a click. It differs from the class browser in that it's general - the user can define what makes a function (or any other item) using regex and the editor scans the current file for these.

The View, Function List menu does exactly this. It will search the current file for the Function regular expression defined in the General section of the Options, Document Types menu

Cheer Jussi

Posted: **Sat Dec 16, 2006 4:40 pm**

The View, Function List menu does exactly this. It will search the current file for the Function regular expression defined in the General section of the Options, Document Types menu

Great! what do the other regex entries on the General page do?

Amit

Posted: **Sun Dec 17, 2006 10:18 pm**

what do the other regex entries on the General page do?

These are used by the Zeus compiler features to identify the line number and filename from a given line of text.

Zeus has internal defaults for all three of these regexp's and they seem to handle most languages/compilers, so in general these regexp's can be left blank.

Cheers Jussi

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