Re: Wolfram Workbench user experiences
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg89049] Re: Wolfram Workbench user experiences
- From: David Bailey <dave at Remove_Thisdbailey.co.uk>
- Date: Sat, 24 May 2008 03:56:37 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <fvegvm$5f6$1@smc.vnet.net> <fvpcun$mlo$1@smc.vnet.net> <g134h2$m2m$1@smc.vnet.net> <g15qr8$pff$1@smc.vnet.net>
Will Robertson wrote: > Hi David, > > I think I've made my opinions known on the m-file editor a couple of > months back. In general, I'm strongly supportive but some changes would > make it much nicer. > > On 2008-05-22 16:10:34 +0930, David Bailey > <dave at Remove_Thisdbailey.co.uk> said: > >> Try opening a .m file in Mathematica. At 6.0 you get a much better >> editor than the WB. It knows about (and therefore displays) lots of >> special symbols, and it finds and colours probable syntax errors. > > But none of those symbols are displayed after saving and reopening the > file. Worst design choice ever. If the symbols aren't able to be saved, > they shouldn't be allowed to be input in that form. > > But considering the m-file is saved in plain text anyway and will most > likely be edited by Mathematica where the symbols will be perfectly > visible, it's just nonsensical to claim that "all plain text all of the > time" is better for authors. > > On the other hand, the syntax colouring is fantastic. Truly useful and > a major point of differentiation with any other text editor. > >> It operates much more like an editor than the notebook editor because i= > t >> does not try to auto-indent. > > And this is a good thing?! The programming editor I used as a child in > the 80s was able to indent code intelligently and it's embarassing to > regress so far. > > Indenting code manually just kills me. > >> Best of all, it lets you create headings and sections - just as you >> would in a notebook - and it hides these away in the .m file as >> Mathematica comments. I prepare all my packages using this part of >> Mathematica. > > This is far and away the m-file editors strong suit. To be able to > collapse a program into subheadings and even add comments mid-block is > absolutely wonderful for code documentation. > > Will > > Which symbols are you referring to - all my symbols display correctly after save and re-load - things lie \[alpha] \[Breve], etc. I guess indenting would be a useful option, but everyone has a different preferred style for indentation. I use a small indentation program of my own that indents Mathematica code in my preferred way, and therefore I don't want the editor to change this. David Bailey http://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk