On Feb 13, 6:24 pm, Christopher Barker <[email protected]> wrote:
My apologies for the delay in replying. Somehow I thought that this
group was unavailable yesterday.
Before I start with detailed responses, I'd like to ask that further
discussion happen on the leo-editor group. That way all of Leo's
users will get the benefits of our discussion. They often have ideas
and techniques that never occurred to me.
> ...I couldn't find "swap_mac_keys".
I just checked that this works in the tk gui. My guess is that you
did a word-only search, or a search that did not include headlines.
Here is the typical search sequence:
1. [Optional, when using wrap-around search] Select the tree at which
you want to commence your search. This would have been the @settings
node.
2. Ctrl-f brings up the find panel. Look at the settings. The Alt-
Ctrl bindings correspond to the accelerators (underlines) on the
panel:
Alt-Ctrl-w toggles the whole word setting
Alt-Ctrl-S toggle the wrap around setting, etc.
3. Type the search string in the minibuffer, and hit <return> to start
the search or Shift-Ctrl-R to enter a replacement string, then
<return>
In particular, you want to be sure to search headlines, because
settings are specified in headlines.
> it's nice to know that Mac support is probably
> only as far away as a Mac user willing to help a bit.
Exactly.
> well, at least good indenting
Indenting python has been good for a long time. More below.
> Also assorted shortcuts, I write LaTeX a fair
Leo gives you complete control of shortcuts. Indeed, you can use vim-
like bindings if you like. And you can bind any shortcut to any of
*your own* commands using @button or @command nodes.
For example, try this:
@button Print Hi @key = Alt-6 (the headline)
print 'hi' (the body pane)
You can click the script-button button (or do alt-x
script<tab><return>) to create the script button. (This will be done
automatically for you the next time you load the .leo file) The
@button nodes creates a command called print-hi. So alt-x print-hi
will execute the code.
> a way to run the code, or built it or whatever.
I discussed @command and @button in detail above because they show how
you can create your own special-purpose mechanisms to do *anything you
want*. These scripts can be in one place or scattered over
several .leo files, and they can have whatever key bindings you like.
Ctrl-b runs the Python code in any node. There are many ways to run
code in other processes. If you like, we can start a discussion of
this on the leo-editor site. It should be possible to write a 10-line
Python script that runs just about anything, and putting that script
in a common @command node in myLeoSettings.leo make that script (and
its key binding)
available everywhere.
> Almost no editors get [indenting] right.
Yesterday I fixed a bad bug which apparently disabled auto-indenting
when hard tabs are used. That's now been fixed.
> > Here's what I mean by "right"
> > * The <tab> key means "indent this line as it should be"
> > - if you are at the beginning of a blank the line,
> > it puts the cursor at the right indent level.
I added this feature yesterday. In practice, this case almost never
happens, because Leo auto-indents python properly, increasing the
indentation when a line ends in a colon.
> > if you are in the middle of the line, it indents that line to where
it should be.
I would hate this feature, and with the present indenting scheme it
never seems necessary. I want tabs to produce indentation everywhere.
However, this feature could be supported as a user option. We would
then need (say) an insert-tab command (with binding, of course) to
override the auto-indentation of the entire line.
> > * if the <backspace> key is pressed in the indentation space, it means:
reduce the indentation level by one.
That's what Leo does.
There are several Leo settings that control indentation. A case could
be made for Leo *directives* that control fine details of
indentation. Certainly, this is not needed for Python.
> > Whether an indentation level is a tab or n spaces should be set-able
depending on the type of file and/or personal preference.
It is is settable on a file-by-file basis using @tabwidth. See below.
> > @tabwidth 8 # hard tabs, 8 characters wide.
> > @tabwidth -4 # tab with 4 spaces.
> that looks to be leo-wide.
No. These are Leo *directives* that go in body text (or headlines).
It's good style to put them in the root @file or @thin or @auto or
@shadow node that corresponds to the external file.
Yesterday I added the @int tab_width = -4 *setting*. Nobody noticed
its lack, I think, but there is no harm in adding it.
> what if you want different setting for different kinds of files?
You specify @tabwidth for each file. There is no default for file
extensions. I suppose there could be, but it hardly matters.
> idea of major-modes and minor modes. Major modes, in particular make it
> easy to have the editor behave quite differently depending on what kind
> of file you are editing.
Leo's directives allow you to do this in a natural way.
> > There doesn't seem to be a setting that sets default tab width. It
> > appears hard-code at -4.
Now there is:
@int tab_width = 8 # Use tabs for spacing (shown as 8 spaces)
@int tab_width = -4 # Use four spaces for spacing.
> So what does @tabwidth set?
The tabbing kind of the node and all it's descendants, unless over-
ridden by another @tabwidth in a descendant node.
This doesn't appear to be clearly explained in the introductory
material. I'll fix this soon.
> In the editing window, it's line 21
> when I run it from leo, the error is reported as being at line 24
> when I run it from the command line, it's reported as line 19
This is a consequence of sentinels. But it doesn't really matter what
the actual value is. Do alt-g <Leo's line number> return to go to the
proper line.
> I opened a python file, edited it, saved it, and now I have no idea how
> to get the edited version! It saved a workbook.leo file, but didn't
> touch the python file.
If you created, say, an @auto or @file node, you will save the file on
the file system. Otherwise, your work is in notebook.leo.
> It seems you can't quite use leo as "just a text editor" out of the box.
The new ctrl-O capability just puts a *copy* of the file in a node.
Maybe there should be a command that writes the nodes contents back to
the file from which it came.
We might need a new directive, say @open-path. Ctrl-O would insert
this directive, write-node-to-file would use this directive to write
the file back. But I'm uneasy about this. It's more of a hack than a
feature, and it could cause nasty surprises when moving the .leo file
to another machine.
In short, for quick editing a more typical editor might be more
suitable. I often use scite in such cases.
But Kent's suggestion is really best. For files that you want to edit
more than once (and isn't that really *every* file?), using @auto does
the job more easily than emacs. You can organize your @auto nodes to
make them easily accessible. You could even write a script to create
an @auto node from the node created by Ctrl-O. Etc.
> Still on the fence here.....
You'll be happier once the initial confusions get resolved.
Again, I hope we'll continue this discussion on leo-editor. It
continues to be fruitful and enjoyable.
Edward
