SCI Companion V3 - alpha build notes/bugs/feature requests

[doomlazer]

New version works. Thanks, Kawa!

[Kawa]

I'm not sure what was up with that. Outdated code perhaps?

[snobes]

Confirmed working in SCICompanion 3.2.4.0. The issue must be elsewhere. Thanks for checking!

Howdy. I'm new to the forum. But this post caught my attention. doomlazer, where are you getting SCICompanion 3.2.4.0? I'm at 3.0.1.7 from this site: http://scicompanion.com/download/

Is there another location of downloadable zips of SCICompanion? Thanks

[Kawa]

Is there another location of downloadable zips of SCICompanion? Thanks

Link's in my signature as always.

Meaning you can get the latest SCI Companion from here: https://helmet.kafuka.org/sci/

[Kawa]

Update: we have nightly builds now so you can get the latest version from here instead: https://github.com/Kawa-oneechan/SCICompanion/releases

[doomlazer]

Feature request:

I'd love it if I could select multiple lines of code, then right click and have an option to shift everything one tab right or left.

[Kawa]

But you already can? Just select the block and press Tab or Shift-Tab.

[AGKorson]

I think he's asking for a context menu option. Some people like to use keyboard shortcuts, some people prefer mouse/menu commands. Some like toobars.

A good UI offers multiple options.

(Full disclosure - I don't use SCI Companion, so I have no idea if it already includes indenting options on context menu or not.)

[Kawa]

I acknowledge the difference, but would counter that Visual Studio 2015, TextPad, and just for fun Word 2010 don't offer such options in their context menus. What the first two do have is increase/decrease line indent items in their Edit menus, and TextPad even has Ctrl-<> listed as alternatives to Tab/Shift-Tab. Seems a bit weird to have both.

Another thing to consider is that the Edit menu in SCI Companion works for almost every resource editor that has selection support. Indenting lines would need to be available only for the script editor, and does not feature what's in the script editor's context menu. This may be specifically because Edit applies to all. (I'll also note that "Select All" is grayed out in the script editor, but Ctrl-A works fine.)

A good UI would have context menu items be a subset of the main menu items. SCI Companion's script editor's context menu has unique items. And given it's an MFC project I'm in no hurry to correct that.

[doomlazer]

eh, I don't need a context menu option. I'm just an idiot who's been doing it manually line by line for two years. Thanks for the tip.

[AGKorson]

Visual Studio 2015, TextPad, and just for fun Word 2010 don't offer such options in their context menus.

A good UI offers multiple options.

Another thing to consider is that the Edit menu in SCI Companion works for almost every resource editor that has selection support. Indenting lines would need to be available only for the script editor, and does not feature what's in the script editor's context menu. This may be specifically because Edit applies to all. (I'll also note that "Select All" is grayed out in the script editor, but Ctrl-A works fine.)

A good UI would have context menu items be a subset of the main menu items. SCI Companion's script editor's context menu has unique items. And given it's an MFC project I'm in no hurry to correct that.

I don't know much about MFC, but I'm surprised that it's that difficult to create context menus that are not actually context-sensitive. I.e. that change depending on what window/control you click on and what the state of the program is when you click. That's what I did in WinAGI. (pretty easy to do in VB6!)

[AGKorson]

I should also point out that WinAGI actually DOES NOT include indent/outdent as context menu options either - I thought it did, but then realized I never actually added it. It's been at the bottom of the 'TODO' list for a very long time.

So I guess this is still true:

A good UI offers multiple options.

Maybe I'll add it in the next update...

[Kawa]

Just... implying that Visual Studio has a bad UI is just funny to me. As one does. 😸
Word? Sure, plenty hate for the ribbon to go around but that's not even near to the point and the indent/outdent buttons are literally right there front and off-center.

(Correction on that by the way: turns out Word does show 'em on right click. Just not quite in the context menu itself but in the mini toolbar above it.)

[AGKorson]

If I've given you something to laugh about, that's a good thing. The world needs more laughter.


You're welcome.

[Collector]

Some people like to use keyboard shortcuts, some people prefer mouse/menu commands. Some like toobars.

A good UI offers multiple options.

Agree 100%.

Since I am not a C++ programmer I can only imagine how difficult working with MFC is. In C# context menus are extremely easy to have multiple different menus as well as modifying a single menu as needed on the fly. That said, there are a couple of features from MFC that I wish were in .NET winforms, like being able to undock a toolbar and have it be free floating.