LIST - enhancements

[Stephen Howe]

Hi

I guess I am too late for version 12 and this should be elsewhere but I posting in Support just in case someone says, "you can already do that with TCC Version 11".
:D

1. Is it possible to configure TCC so that it considers the left-most column as Column 1? I have quite a few file specifications where fields are mentioned as starting from 1, and it would be nice if there is some kind of key toggle that just means the header displays from 1 (positional) rather than 0-based (offset and C/C++). I can do the mental arithmetic but I would rather not.

2. Left and Right scroll by 8 columns. Can I configure this to be a smaller number (like 1)? The idea is if I know a field starts at position 233 in a text file, I can position it so that it is flush with LIST's left column. I can then press down, up, pgup, pgdn watching the field. If the field is 7 characters in from the left, it is harder to do so.

Cheers

Stephen Howe

 

[Steve Fabian]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Howe" <>
| I guess I am too late for version 12 and this should be elsewhere but I
posting in Support just in case someone says, "you can already do that with
TCC Version 11".
| :D
|
| 1. Is it possible to configure TCC so that it considers the left-most
column as Column 1? I have quite a few file specifications where fields are
mentioned as starting from 1, and it would be nice if there is some kind of
key toggle that just means the header displays from 1 (positional) rather
than 0-based (offset and C/C++). I can do the mental arithmetic but I would
rather not.

Sorry, not available. Virtually all features work with offsets, not
positions. Since one often needs column numbers for some uses, and offsets
for other uses, it would be a nice enhancement to be able to switch
dynamically. Another, similar issue is that one often needs to move the
reference point to a position other than the left margin dynamically, as
when determining the position and width of each field in tabular output
(which you may need to create, or parse, or modify).

| 2. Left and Right scroll by 8 columns. Can I configure this to be a
smaller number (like 1)? The idea is if I know a field starts at position
233 in a text file, I can position it so that it is flush with LIST's left
column. I can then press down, up, pgup, pgdn watching the field. If the
field is 7 characters in from the left, it is harder to do so.

You can change that with the TabStops option or in the OPTION dialog
ADVANCED options tab Tabs entry, valid range 1 .. 32. But shifting the
display left by 232 columns (as your example above would require) would
seemingly take forever when done by hand 1 column at a time. A real
enhancement for your purposes would be the ability to insert "virtual
separators" (horizontal or vertical lines at selected positions in the
display, with the line and column counters passing over them, making the
visual pattern recognition easy even when not at the edge of the display.
Couple this with a dynamic selection of both horizontal tab size (when
looking at imported source code, the indentation levels are not always
obvious, one needs to play with them to see what the originator used) and
explicit dynamic selection of source column to be dislpayed at the left side
of the display area, best done by some kind of "command" mode for display
adjustment.
--
Steve

 

[Stephen Howe]

----- Original Message -----
You can change that with the TabStops option or in the OPTION dialog
ADVANCED options tab Tabs entry, valid range 1 .. 32. But shifting the
display left by 232 columns (as your example above would require) would
seemingly take forever when done by hand 1 column at a time.
Steve

Aaahhh. but I would use Ctrl-Left Arrow and Ctrl-Right Arrow to advance 40 characters.

So Ctrl-Right Arrow 5 times and then Left Arrow a few times back seems good while in LIST.

Thanks Steve

Cheers

Stephen Howe

 

[Stephen Howe]

----- Original Message -----
You can change that with the TabStops option or in the OPTION dialog
ADVANCED options tab Tabs entry, valid range 1 .. 32.
Steve

Steve

I tried this both variations. And neither had any effect on Left/Right Arrow in LIST. It seems fixed at 8 columns adjustment.

Thanks

Stephen Howe

 

[vefatica]

On Fri, 04 Jun 2010 16:35:48 -0400, Stephen Howe <> wrote:

|I tried this both variations. And neither had any effect on Left/Right Arrow in LIST. It seems fixed at 8 columns adjustment.

Mine is set at 4; I get 8. If, in LIST, I press [Tab] I can specify a new tab
width. Whatever I specify, I get 8.
--
- Vince

 

[Charles Dye]

On Fri, 04 Jun 2010 16:35:48 -0400, Stephen Howe <> wrote:

|I tried this both variations. And neither had any effect on Left/Right Arrow in LIST. It seems fixed at 8 columns adjustment.

Mine is set at 4; I get 8. If, in LIST, I press [Tab] I can specify a new tab
width. Whatever I specify, I get 8.
--
- Vince

The TabStops directive, and the little dialog that the Tab key brings up, control the expansion of tab characters in the text file to spaces. They don't have anything to do with horizontal scrolling.

 

[Steve Fabian]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles Dye" <>
| The TabStops directive, and the little dialog that the Tab key brings up,
control the expansion of tab characters in the text file to spaces. They
don't have anything to do with horizontal scrolling.

You are correct, more careful reading of V8 HELP topic "tabstops.htm"
and V11 HELP topic "iniadvaceddlg.htm" verifies that issue. It leaves no
user control on the amount of horizontal scrolling at all. :-(
OTOH the TAB key provides the dynamic change of tab expansion I
mentioned earlier in this thread, a feature I had never discovered. What I
really would like to see is the ability to provide a list of tabstops, as
you could in old typewriters, and is clumsily emulated in MS Word (allows
stops defined by absolute size, regardless of font size).
--
Steve

 

[Charles Dye]

You are correct, more careful reading of V8 HELP topic "tabstops.htm" and V11 HELP topic "iniadvaceddlg.htm" verifies that issue.

I looked it up in ye olde 4DOS/4OS2/4NT manual :-D Still a damn fine and useful piece of documentation, after all these years.

 

[epement]

What I
really would like to see is the ability to provide a list of tabstops, as
you could in old typewriters, and is clumsily emulated in MS Word (allows
stops defined by absolute size, regardless of font size).

If you have no objection to using GNU text tools (available at http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/coreutils.htm ), you might benefit from the expand/unexpand utilities, which expand and compress instances of TABs in a file to a desired size or list of tab stops.

Help menu:

[0]> expand --help
Usage: expand [OPTION]... [FILE]...
Convert tabs in each FILE to spaces, writing to standard output.
With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
  -i, --initial       do not convert tabs after non blanks
  -t, --tabs=NUMBER   have tabs NUMBER characters apart, not 8
  -t, --tabs=LIST     use comma separated list of explicit tab positions
      --help     display this help and exit
      --version  output version information and exit

Report bugs to &lt;bug-coreutils@gnu.org&gt;<bug-coreutils@gnu.org><bug-coreutils@gnu.org>

So you can do something like this:

expand -t 11,19,22,38 yourfile | list /s

I know that it's not a native JP Software solution, but it may meet your needs.
</bug-coreutils@gnu.org></bug-coreutils@gnu.org>