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Topic: Limitations of Syntax Coloring (Read 3147 times) |
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tsh73
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Re: Limitations of Syntax Coloring
« Reply #29 on: Sep 24th, 2016, 4:15pm » |
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Quote:| Probably Alt+Shift is a poor choice of hotkey |
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It's default Windows language switching hotkey.
That mean bigger part of Russia and what not uses it on daily basis, at least since Windows 3x.
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Richard Russell
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Re: Limitations of Syntax Coloring
« Reply #30 on: Sep 24th, 2016, 9:19pm » |
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on Sep 24th, 2016, 4:15pm, tsh73 wrote:| It's default Windows language switching hotkey. |
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There's clearly an anomaly in Microsoft having used the same key combination as both a language-switching hotkey and as a modifier for some Rich Edit keyboard shortcuts. It's exactly the sort of thing they are usually careful to avoid.
I see that (from Windows 8 onwards anyway) you can use Windows+Space as a hotkey to bring up the language-selection menu, so I wonder if that might be a workaround for your issue. On this PC Windows+Space allows me to switch between a UK and US keyboard layout.
Richard.
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Richard Russell
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Re: Limitations of Syntax Coloring
« Reply #31 on: Sep 25th, 2016, 12:45pm » |
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on Sep 24th, 2016, 08:47am, Richard Russell wrote:| something strange is happening here (Windows 10 laptop) because if I press and release Alt - rather than using Alt+letter as a menu shortcut - it seems to freeze the LBB IDE. |
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I've now had a chance to check this on other machines and the problem seems to be specific to this Windows 10 laptop. I've tested it on Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and a desktop Windows 10 PC and in every case pressing-and-releasing Alt works normally. So it doesn't seem likely that whatever is causing this problem is related to the Alt+Shift hotkey issue.
It has nevertheless been interesting to discover the keyboard shortcuts built into the Rich Edit control, a few of which could be genuinely useful in LBB. For example you can enter any character by typing its hexadecimal code value and then pressing Alt+X, so to enter a capital eth character you can type 00D0 followed by Alt+X giving Ð
Richard.
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tsh73
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Re: Limitations of Syntax Coloring
« Reply #32 on: Sep 25th, 2016, 2:20pm » |
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Hello Richard
it happens that I have previous versions of LBB saved on a harddisk
so I can check.
So: Sintax coloring with richtextbox appeared in version 3.0
Versions 3.0, 3.01,3.02,3.03 - language switching with Alt-Shift works
Versions 3.04,3.05,3.06 - language switching with Alt-Shift no more work.
So it is something introduced in version 3.4.
May be this?
Quote:IDE enhancements:
The IDE now incorporates a combobox in which are listed all the branch labels, SUBs and FUNCTIONs in the currently loaded program. Selecting one of these causes the editor to jump directly to the appropriate program line. You can choose whether to sort the list alphabetically or in the order in which the items appear in the program. |
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| « Last Edit: Sep 25th, 2016, 2:20pm by tsh73 » |
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Richard Russell
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Re: Limitations of Syntax Coloring
« Reply #33 on: Sep 25th, 2016, 3:44pm » |
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on Sep 25th, 2016, 2:20pm, tsh73 wrote:| So it is something introduced in version 3.4. |
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Well, the first thing to say is that Alt+Shift works here in LBB 3.06: If I press that key combination the language indicator in the Taskbar switches between 'ENG' and 'ENG US'. So whatever the problem is, it is not universal.
The change in v3.04 that affected your system was probably running the Rich Edit control in a separate thread in order to improve the support for Unicode, particularly the entry of complex script languages like Arabic. Up to version 3.03 the control was run in the same thread as the rest of the IDE.
As you will appreciate, I would not want to reverse that change - users who need support for Arabic (like SarmedNafi) would not be happy! Running the Rich Edit control in a separate thread also improves performance with multi-core CPUs. In any case there is no good reason why it should affect hotkeys.
So all things considered, and especially given that Alt+Shift works perfectly here in LBB 3.06, I am not contemplating making any changes.
Richard.
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Richard Russell
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Re: Limitations of Syntax Coloring
« Reply #34 on: Sep 25th, 2016, 4:02pm » |
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on Sep 25th, 2016, 3:44pm, Richard Russell wrote:| Well, the first thing to say is that Alt+Shift works here in LBB 3.06 |
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Just checked it on my other machines: the Alt+Shift language switching is working perfectly in LBB 3.06 with Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.
Richard.
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tsh73
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Re: Limitations of Syntax Coloring
« Reply #35 on: Sep 25th, 2016, 5:20pm » |
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Checked on another my machine and another virtual one, LBB 3.06.
Alt-shift works.
So it dosn't work only with my main home pc.
Ah well. I could live with it.
EDIT
and on my job PC it does't work as well.
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| « Last Edit: Sep 26th, 2016, 06:19am by tsh73 » |
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CryptoMan
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Re: Limitations of Syntax Coloring
« Reply #36 on: Sep 26th, 2016, 2:49pm » |
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Fixedsys Excelsior works fine with Turkish.
Thanks.
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CryptoMan
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Re: Limitations of Syntax Coloring
« Reply #37 on: Sep 26th, 2016, 2:51pm » |
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Alt-Shift works properly with Turkish Keyboard Windows 10.
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Richard Russell
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Re: Limitations of Syntax Coloring
« Reply #38 on: Sep 26th, 2016, 3:40pm » |
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on Sep 25th, 2016, 5:20pm, tsh73 wrote:| Ah well. I could live with it. |
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Nevertheless the inconsistent behaviour is strange and annoying. Even though I keep several different PCs here, with different versions of Windows and different setups in other respects (a better test than using VirtualBox IMHO), I still can't hope to check every possible configuration.
It's evidently not just an LBB problem either; if you Google for 'Alt+Shift not working' there are many hits. You can change the hotkey (in Windows 10 it's under 'Control Panel... Clock, Language and Region... Language... Advanced settings... Switching input methods... Change language bar hot keys') so it's possible an alternative key combination might work more reliably.
Richard.
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bluatigro
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Re: Limitations of Syntax Coloring
« Reply #39 on: Sep 30th, 2016, 12:42pm » |
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i wood like to have numbers a differend color
then the other stuf
and array's and function's too
explanation :
i have a eye-problem and have
difecultys whit 1's,l's and I's
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Richard Russell
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Re: Limitations of Syntax Coloring
« Reply #40 on: Sep 30th, 2016, 2:51pm » |
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on Sep 30th, 2016, 12:42pm, bluatigro wrote:| I wood like to have numbers a differend color |
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Parsing numbers accurately is tricky, since there are so many different formats (leading minus sign, decimal point, exponent etc.). LBB's syntax coloring uses simple rules that can't easily be extended to numbers.
Quote:| i have a eye-problem and have difecultys whit 1's,l's and I's |
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Unfortunately coloring numbers differently won't always solve this problem. Consider these two variable names:
Code:
The first is ba followed by the number eleven and the second is the word ball but they are almost identical, even to somebody with good eyesight! Because neither of them is a number they would not be colored differently even if LBB supported that feature, and they are not colored differently either in LB 4 or in Liberty BASIC Workshop.
So you could try using LBW (it interfaces very nicely with LBB; there are instructions here) but syntax coloring is not a complete solution to the problem.
Richard.
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net2014
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Re: Limitations of Syntax Coloring
« Reply #41 on: Dec 13th, 2017, 2:41pm » |
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Although I have been using LBB for quite a long time now, I have only just discovered that the syntax colouring problem manifests itself in the same way when LBB is run with linux/wine. My language setting is English-UK and many fonts tried. My programs do not contain any foreign characters. Whether that helps or not I don't know, but I am not expecting a solution - I can live without colouring as I obviously have done for some time! Just thought I would add to the gathered knowledge. 
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Richard Russell
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Re: Limitations of Syntax Coloring
« Reply #42 on: Dec 13th, 2017, 5:24pm » |
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on Dec 13th, 2017, 2:41pm, net2014 wrote:| I have only just discovered that the syntax colouring problem manifests itself in the same way when LBB is run with linux/wine. |
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You refer to "the syntax colouring problem" as if it is something well-known and common, but the 'problem' discussed in the earlier posts of this thread manifests only in very rare circumstances, as I have explained. I should perhaps delete those posts in which the issue was misunderstood and misrepresented.
To reiterate, it occurs only when Windows performs a 'font substitution', which can happen when your program contains a character that is not available in the currently selected font. You can often avoid it altogether by selecting a font with a wide coverage of Unicode glyphs (don't choose 'FixedSys' which is particularly poor in this respect; note the reference to 'FixedSys Excelsior' as a possible alternative).
There is nothing I can do about the rare occasions when it does misbehave, because the Rich Edit control does not notify the host program that a font substitution has taken place.
Syntax coloring works perfectly for me, and for most other users as far as I know.
Richard.
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