On Smalltalk IDEs (Squeak, VisualWorks, etc), how can you navigate away from a message's code you're working on to inspect another? - ide

In every IDE I've tried so far, if I'm partway through writing a message and need to look at the code of another, the browser asks me if I want to save. But if I say I do want to save, it actually tries to compile/syntax check the code, and refuses to perform the save if it does not pass. The only way to view the source of another message seems to be to say "no" to save and have everything wiped. How can I look at another class incidentally, or save code I am partway through working on that might not build right now?


Smalltalk is a multi-browser system. You'll need to have lots of different browsers open. Smalltalk is opinionated. The system browser (Nautilus) doesn't make it easy to view long methods, steering you towards writing short ones. It doesn't make it easy to have non-compiling code in a method, to steer you towards making small changes.
Experimental/prototypical code you might want to have in a Workspace/Playground. That can save to disk.
We are aware that it is an issue for people new to Smalltalk. We tried some fixes, they were a lot worse.


For now there is no easy way to do that. The two easiest opting are
Make the current method syntactically correct and save it.
Open another browser. If you want to see a class or method that is in your current code, you can cmd+click it or use "browse it", "implementors of", shortcuts that will open another window.
Also in pharo you can use GTSpotter to quickly find what you are looking for and preview its source code


When you say "this seems like a pretty huge thing to be missing,
and it could be gotten around by just having the option to use
a regular editor" I'm afraid you've entirely missed the point.
Understandable, though -- happens to us all.
Or did. Perhaps it was long ago, but we
were all there.
You might be thinking about the task in terms of
scrolling a giant text up and down to find what
you want. Scroll up -- read a little -- scroll back --
and continue making your changes.
And when you say " I can't imagine any circumstance
where it is OK, in pursuit of any agenda, to throw away
the coder's work against their will "
you are spot on correct, of course.
Imagine -- scrolling around, making dozens of little changes,
and before you've saved them -- poof -- they're all thrown away --
a mistake, perhaps, but completely against your will.
That would be awful. We're agreed.
(In fact, the editor I'm using to type this
is like that -- I can scroll around the whole thing,
making little improvements, all over, but it could
all go --poof-- and disappear, All of it.
Fairly common occurrence, when editing the web.
)
So let's try another run through that same task.
You get one little teensy, DUMB AS A POST editor,
where you can only see one thing at a time.
And now you just want to scroll somewhere else,
for a moment, and come right back.
Which actually means that
you are attempting to look up a second method,
while already changing a first method
(which would require the browser toforget the
context of the first method, and move to the second).
The browser does not know how long you will be away
from this context. You might go chaining along from
place to place, stop and read an email, take a call,
and go to lunch.
So, the browser cautions
"Hey - want to save this first?"
as if to say:
"
Hey - I can't imagine any circumstance where it is OK,
in pursuit of any agenda, to throw away the coder's work
against their will.
So listen up, coder.
You want to save this first?
"
But you can't save it.
You must first look something up.
Conundrum.
Ah-ha! There is a list of methods in that other pane.
One of them is highlighted.
Not those -- that one.
Double click that one.
The one you're already in.
As if to say
" Thanks. Good catch.
Yes, I know - can't though.
I need to change contexts.
You stay right here.
And give me another context
to go wandering about in.
please.
"
Soon, I expect, they'll start actually talking.

Related

Actionaz validation

I work on a program, which involves lot of clicking. To prove if everything works fine, i have to write tests in Actionaz. Mostly i use clicks, text and tabs. Problem occured, because i need to validate test is done okay, without looking the screen.
I know what i have to do, i just dont know how to do it. So example: i have to add a new client, with adding all information. I designed Actionaz where to click and what to enter. If there will be changes made in the program, Actionaz will keep clicking same spot, but this time, test may not be succesful. How to make Actionaz read, what is the correct outcome? (And notify me, that test wasnt succesful.)
Im sorry, if im not understood correctly, but i really cant find answers about my problem online elsewhere.

Intelij extract method keeps trying to replace duplicate method signatures - please stop

Intellij has a really neat feature, that lets me seamlessly extract a block of code into its own method. I can then give this method a nice, descriptive name and move on with life.
However, intellij also tries to find other blocks of code that are similar, and then tries to perusade me that I should also refactor them too, to use this new method its made. And then, when I hit the oddly-named "cancel" button (which implies the whole operation is cancelled, but it's not, it just stops asking about any remaining blocks), it leaves me looking at whatever the block of code it last asked me about.
I really don't like this feature. Here's why: If I'm say comparing two ints - the naming of the code block will depend on the context of those two ints, but intellij will find any comparison between two ints anywhere in that file, and then insist that this is also a candidate for extraction.
Most times it is not, and to make it worse, when I ask intellij to stop it, in a fit of pique, leaves me wherever the last comparison was, so now I have to navigate back to where I was working.
How do I tell intellij just to extract exactly what I selected, and do nothing else?

Please follow/vote/comment the issue created for this usability problem at YouTrack:
https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-233201

What exactly happens when you press the "play" button in Unity?

As soon as you hit "Play" what happens in the background of the software? The code is already compiled and ready at this point. So when I press "Play" the code gets executed. What other things occur along with this?
I have this question as an assignment and would really like to know. Thanks. :)

Actually everything is loaded by script. This graph explains the process. Also the links below can be useful for you to understand all the background process.
Execution Order of Event Functions
Overview: Script compilation

Asking what happens when you press Play is like asking Coke to reveal the drink recipe. This is what they sell. You got that as assignment, fact is you can say anything and your teacher would lie to tell you wrong, since he does not know either (except if he works for a company that bought the source code of the engine).
What you can say, is that the OpenGl/DirectX API is initialised, registration of all event to the OS like Input, application data and so on, then all the Engine functioning, registering of the needed classes in memory, init of the physics, parsing of the opening scene YAML file, creation of the content and placement in space, for each item, if a MonoBehaviour, registration of all callbacks, all the debug code related to profiler and stack tracing, crash reports and many more...
Those are the obvious ones and I cannot have any clue of what is going on without using a tool to decompose the code. Problem, it is against the EULA and then illegal.

How to implement an NSTextView that performs on-the-fly markup to RTF conversions

I'm trying to build an NSTextView that can take "marked up" input that is automatically translated into beautiful RTF-style text while the user types.
The idea is to let the user enter text in "plain text" format, but to "beautify" it on the spot, e.g.
H1 A quick list:
* first item
* second item
would be translated into a first line with a header font, followed by a bulleted list.
I have found plenty of potential ways of doing this, but the Text System is incredibly complicated (with reason) and I don't want to start "cooking my own" if there is already something suitable built-in. BTW I would be happy with a Snow Leopard only API.
The first thing I thought of was "data detectors", but I can't find a public API for doing this.
Having reached the end of the road with that, I turned to the new "Text Input Sources API". This does all kinds of things, but the "data-driven input methods" section of the WWDC 2006 presentation "Take Charge of the Text Input" seems interesting in my context. Beyond that single presentation slide however nothing seems to exist anywhere, so it's a bit of a dead end again.
Finally, I had a look at the NSSpellChecker class which is also supposed to offer completion features and automatic corrections.. but I'm not sure how this could be re-purposed for my requirements either.
At the moment, I'm tempted to just re-parse the entire NSTextStorage manually and make the changes myself when the user stops typing.. but I'm sure there are cleverer heads around this forum..
Any advice or pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Neither data detectors nor the spell checker are appropriate for this task. Assuming you're just looking for a way to pass the input to a parser/formatter you already have, interfacing with the text system isn't too difficult. You're on the right track with handling the editing to NSTextStorage.
Along those lines, there's no need to re-parse the entire thing when the user stops. The text system sends you the modified range and gives you the opportunity to act on those changes (and even reject them out of hand). Since all changes funnel through this (typing, pasting, dropping...), this is the point where you want to intercede.
Because you're dealing with headings and bulleted lists, I'd get the enclosing paragraph of the modified range. This gives you a nice, round unit of work that is easily discovered and perfectly fits what you're trying to accomplish.
Good luck!

Why use Intellij, or what to do during the evaluation

I downloaded IntelliJ IDEA and started with the 30 day evaluation.
Now I'm just wondering, why should I use IntelliJ for plain old java developement (so no Hibernate, JSP, etc)? It doesn't look that different from eclipse or NetBeans, so I hope some IntelliJ guru can give some examples of things IntelliJ can do to justify investing the money in it. I'm trying to use the evaluation to it's fullest and don't want to miss an important feature.
A list of things possible in IntelliJ but not in eclipse is already available, but I'm more interested in the daily workflow than some obscure features that will be used twice a month.

I've been using IntelliJ for about 5 years now (since version 4.5) and I also read through most of the Manning book "IntelliJ in Action" and I still wouldn't consider myself a guru on it. In fact, I also wanted to do "plain old Java development" with it, and honestly I have to say that it's quite good at that. Like the other answers, I can only say that there's a definite edge in it's helpfulness that really puts it over the top. We use Eclipse here at work also, and while I don't have as much experience, I can tell you that there are definitely a lot of basic things lacking in it. I put in some serious time and effort to learn Eclipse, looking up how to do the everyday sorts of things I take for granted in IntelliJ, and they're mostly not there or very poorly implemented. The refactoring stuff is definitely the thing that helps a lot.
Aside from the refactoring, I think there are just a ton of small touches that really make this helpful. I think an example might help clarify...
Try this:
Create a new, empty class. Move the cursor inside the braces and do psvm and hit Ctrl-J - this expands the "psvm" into "public static void main(String[] args)". There's a whole list of commonly-used idioms that this shortcut will handle (and it's configurable, too). Inside the main code block, enter this code:
public static void main(String[] args) {
int x = 1000;
sout
}
At the end of "sout", do Ctrl-J again - you'll see another popup that let's you choose from some different expansions, but in general this expands to "System.out.println("")" and helpfully puts the cursor between the double-quotes (it's small touches like this that really make it shine, I think. Compare with Visual Studio's "IntelliSense" - a total crock if you ask me).
Anyway, backspace over the first double-quote - notice it deletes the matching double-quote? It does the same thing with braces and brackets, too. I think there are a few corner cases where I prefer it doesn't do this, but the large majority of the time it helps a lot. Back to the code editing: just type x so the code now looks like this:
public static void main(String[] args) {
int x = 1000;
// add a few blank lines here too - the need for
// this will be obvious a little later
System.out.println(x);
}
Now, move the cursor over to the declaration of x, and do Shift-F6 - this is the refactoring in-place dialog (I dunno what to call it, so I just made that up). The name "x" gets a colored box around it, and you can start typing a new name for it - as you type, all uses of that name get dynamically updated too. Another neat touch I really like.
Try this: put a really long line comment somewhere, like so:
// this is a really long comment blah blah blah i love to hear myself talking hahaha
Now say you decide the comment is too long, so you move the cursor to the middle of it somewhere and hit Enter. IntelliJ will put the remaining portion of the comment with a "// " prepended - it "knows" this is a continuation of the previous comment, so it comments it for you. Another neat touch.
// this is a really long comment blah
// blah blah i love to hear myself talking hahaha
Another big bonus I like about IntelliJ compared to Eclipse is that it's much less intrusive - I really hated how Eclipse would manage to get popups on top of popups, and mouse focus would be somewhere but keyboard focus is stuck on something underneath, etc. I think it's possible to work in such a way that these sorts of things don't happen, but it annoyed me immensely in the first place. That reminds me, in IntelliJ if you move the mouse cursor over the package or file navigator in the left pane, that panel gets the mouse focus automatically, so I got accustomed to using the mouse wheel immediately to look around. In Eclipse? You mouse over, but focus stayed on the editing pane, so you have to CLICK with the mouse to transfer focus, and then be able to use the mouse wheel to look around. Like I said, it's a lot of small touches like that which help with productivity.
As you code around, pay attention to the left gutter bar for red "light bulb" type symbols on the current line - this is IntelliJ telling you there are possible things it can do. Use Alt-Enter to bring up a small in-place dialog box, and it will tell you what it can take care of automatically. Say you type in a method definition named "getFoo()" and there's no foo member - it will offer to create it for you. Or if you're using a class and call a non-existing method on it like getFoo() - it will offer to create a getter and a member, or a regular method. It's just plain helpful.
Overall, I'd say small touches are not what IntelliJ gurus will really want to talk about, but I really appreciate how these sorts of things are just "well done". They take care of small details so you don't have to spend so much mental runtime checking your own syntax. I think of it as a butler helping me out with my coding - it takes care of small chores for me so I don't have to. Batman has his Alfred, and I have my IntelliJ. All the settings are excruciatingly laid out for you to modify if you like, but it just seems like the defaults are all geared toward improving your productivity, instead of bothering you all the time with really mundane decisions (especially those which you would almost always make the same choice anyway).
There are some definite drawbacks to IntelliJ - the price is a bit high, and it's quite large that it can take a while to load up on a large project. I'm lucky in that my company pays for the license as well as a very nice workstation so it loads up reasonably quick, but your mileage will vary.

I have a day job where I use Eclipse (because that's all that is permitted). I also have my own company where I "moonlight" doing contract work and use IntelliJ.
I would say their feature sets are about the same. Pretty much the same refactorings, same code assists, same style of use, etc. Eclipse arguably has better plug-ins, and probably many more, than IntelliJ. IntelliJ just "knows" things right out of the box like Spring and Hibernate, and these things are better integrated than Eclipse plug-ins of similar functionality.
The reason I choose to use IntelliJ when allowed (personally purchased and upgraded several times) is that everything it does just feels cleaner. Its hard to put my finger on it, but the exact same functionality in IntelliJ feels more streamlined and easier to use than in Eclipse - enough that I would pay for it even though there is a full-featured free IDE available.
So, the activities you should do to decide are this: use IntelliJ everyday for all your development tasks for 30 days. Push through the curve of learning new shortcuts and ways of searching, refactoring, etc. and I suspect you will prefer it. If not, Eclipse is still there for you.

I've just moved back to Eclipse after 2 years with Intellij (due to a client's preferences).
I'm finding Eclipse to be less helpful. I know that's a nebulous term, but Intellij's feedback was clearer, the UI gave me better information on what was going on, the automatic building seemed more seamless. The project setup/configuration seems more intuitive.
This is perhaps subjective, but sometimes that's why you prefer one over the over. It just feels that little bit slicker, that little bit friendlier...
(I don't think the VIM plugin for Intellij is better, but that's another story!)

2weiji: use Tab instead of Ctrl+J :-) It's much handy :-))
sout then Tab
psvm then Tab
iter then Tab
etc... :o)

Why use IntelliJ? Because I find it more consistent in it's user interface and more polished. It allows you to keep your hands on the keyboard longer, rather than switching back and forth between keyboard and mouse. As other people have said, it's the little things that add up.
I found the user-intentions functionality a huge time-saver, and the way it reviews the code and suggests optimizations and corrects bad practices. That I can hit Alt-Enter in a lot of contexts and the IDE is able to figure out and insert what should be there. Pesky things like type declarations, optimizing an old-style for-loop to use the new JDK-5 type of loop, removing redundant value assignments or unused variables.
Being able to first type in the usage of a method that doesn't exist, and then hitting a key combination and having the IDE write out the bare structure of the method - huge timesaver. It makes for a better workflow for me, because it allows you to first think about how you'll be using a method, what it looks like when you read it in context.
Refactoring support - this was the big selling point when I first started using it in 2003, and I think it still leads the way (but I hear Netbeans is also pretty good now)
Highly recommend that you have a look at the IntelliJ KeyMap Reference.
Have a look at this discussion for often-used shortcuts: What are the most useful Intellij IDEA keyboard shortcuts?

I'm not an IntelliJ IDEA guru but what the fanboys usually like about IntelliJ are the great refactoring and code assist features. They often claim this product is far superior to its competitor from this point of view.
Personally, I'm a partisan of the following principle: use the IDE with which you feel the most productive, not the one somebody else prefer.