Hi! Very, very nice editor. I am considering switching from Textpad. I really like the fact that you can organize files in a treeview.

Here are some suggestions and requests, in order of preference:

** An option for opening files in the treeview via a single OR double click - like TextPad does it.
** When I use TextPad, I often use the arrow keys to go line by line and replace characters in different rows but in the same columns. It would be nice if, after making changes to a line, the cursor jumped back to the original column that the cursor was on in the original line.
* After a curly bracket, when pressing enter, the cursor could jump 4 (or a user-defined # of) spaces ahead to begin indentation.
* Load (or at least the option to) all files in the project at startup.
* The ability to drag and drop (thereby add) files into the project treeview from an Explorer-type file list.
* The ability to dock the function list.
* An option to hide the tabs at the top.
* The ability to right-click on a folder in the treeview and add a new directory or file. Also the ability to right-click on the root of the treeview and add a new folder.
* A way when organizing files to more easily move files up and down. This could be done with Move Up/Move Down buttons, and/or by using placeholder lines (like when moving items in the Start Menu).
* Make the menu toolbar (File, Edit, Search, ...) a little taller so that it looks and feels like MS Office.
* The function list/selector does not work with PHP (so it seems).

I really look forward to future releases! I will definitely use Twistpad and recommend it if it continues and does not die (or at least has some updates like I mentioned above). I myself would even be willing to pay extra for those features. Do you think any of those could happen?

BTW, what did you use for the text control - Scintilla? And what did you use to make it - MS Visual C++, C#, WTL, ...?

Hi, Thanks for your comments, glad you are enjoying Twistpad.

Regarding your suggestions:



Nice. will be done



Twistpad keeps the longest line the cursor was when using the cursor keys, can you explain a bit better?
in the mean time I will install the Textpad trial to see if I can see what you mean.



I see, it could be done, however this seems too much programming language specific, in this case C/Java and I would like Twistpad to keep a more generic approach to all the common tasks.

However I could make something more generic for this, but not only for curly bracket, any suggestions are most welcome.



Nice one, Will be done.



All this are good suggestions, and There are plans to improve the project management dialog.
This suggestions will be considered for next version.



This was done at some point, but due to the generic (via regular expressions) way of parsing, performance was an issue and was decided to implement as an dialog. There are no plans to change this at the moment.



This can be done already, Menu -> View -> uncheck Switch Bar



The toolbars are modeled after Office XP (Low Color Icon mode) and 2003 (High Color icons) but they already are taller then the one's in office



No, it just show's sections from HTML.
you can open the file PHP.SDF located in the sub-folder "Syntax" of Twistpad and edit Functions key in the ::Header:: Section with a regular expression to show just PHP functions, let me know if you need help with that.



Thanks, as you can see some are already scheduled for the next version. Thank you very much for taking your time and posting here!



Twistpad is written in Delphi 7 as a native win32 executable. The control is a modified version of a popular Delphi component.

Thanks again,

André Santos
Carthago Software Support
http://www.carthagosoft.net

Thanks for the reply, Sorry I've taken so long to get back with you.

You're right, I was wrong about the height of the menubar. It's not the height, it's the left and right padding of the menu items. I'd say each item should have a little more padding on both the left and right.

Is the theme you used for the toolbars and such available with the Delphi package, or did you have to develop that yourself? And is it available for C++? It's VERY, very nice.

I hope you don't mind - here are a few more suggestions, and don't feel obligated to do these things. These just are things I would do if I were building a program like you are.

*Ctrl+delete ought to delete just the word (exact same as ctrl+backspace deletes a word, but opposite) - and a word with an underscore ought to be treated as a single word rather than multiple words.

*The option to show 1) full path of current file in title bar (in the braces), 2) just the file name, or 3) the virtual directory path (i.e., the directory path relative to the treeview's root), + file name.

*Put asterisks next to files in treeview that have changed and have not been saved. Also, if undo is selected enough times and the file has been edited, the asterisk should go away because it's back to the same state as it was when it was last saved.

*Option to wrap searches - just like cycling through bookmarks.

*When you press F3 to find the next occurrence of a search term, it ought to find the same search term on all pages rather than the last one that was looked for on the current page. It gets confusing if the search item is remembered for each page rather than just being the same.

*The ability to just replace text in selected text (radio buttons on the search and replace dialog, like TextPad).

The option (in the Find dialog) to search for (and replace, too) text in all documents that are in the treeview would be excellent as well.

*An option to trim trailing spaces off lines upon saving (in addition to the existing feature to remove these spaces while editing the file).

*Alt+backspace and alt+shift+backspace often map to undo and redo, respectively. Is it easy to do this?

With this -
After a curly bracket, when pressing enter, the cursor could jump 4 (or a user-defined # of) spaces ahead to begin indentation

Maybe you could have this as an option in the Preferences? Up to you, of course.

With this -
When I use TextPad, I often use the arrow keys to go line by line and replace characters in different rows but in the same columns. It would be nice if, after making changes to a line, the cursor jumped back to the original column that the cursor was on in the original line.

Let me give you an example. Suppose I have the following lines:

line 1 here
line 2 here
line 3 here
line 4 here

If I wanted to replace 1, 2, 3, and 4 with 5, 6, 7, and 8, respectively, in Textpad, I would put the cursor before the number on the first line, press delete, and type the new number. Then when I press down to do the same to the next line, the cursor would jump back to the position it was originally on in the last line BEFORE I pressed delete and started any editing. See the lines below - | represents where the cursor would be right after pressing the down arrow key. It works like this with all types of files - I don't think it's language-specific.

line 5 here
line |6 here
line |7 here
line |8 here

Sorry, a lot of those are nitpick things :-) but I think they would definitely be good. It's often the small thigns that make you look good.

A lot of these suggestions stem from my use of TextPad. I like that program, but they have not updated it for several years now, and it's becoming insufficient for my needs. I'm looking for a total replacement, and TwistPad is my best option.

How difficult would this be to port to Linux, seeing that it's made with Delphi 7 (thought there was a way to do so)?

Thank you!

First, I have to say that it's one of the better text editors I've seen in a long time. I'll pay for it as it is, in the hopes that some of the features that are discussed here will be added.

I'm also an avid Textpad user, and like a lot of the features that Textpad has, so I'm going to see how difficult a switch will be during the next week -- I use textpad almost exclusivly for work, so switching isn't an easy task.

Here's my response to Chads requests, because I'm seconding a few of them:


This one is key for me too. I can't tell you how many times I've used it, it's probably the hardest thing to get used to in switching.


I'd like this too, and it doesn't have to update on the fly.. perhaps a refresh button would solve this? I'm not sure what it's for though if it doesn't work to list functions defined in the file.

Ok, and now for my real requests:
I love the clips that come included, I also like how you can pull up the clip library inline. I just want this to be dockable, and work basically the same way it does now, just in a dockable window.

Requests for future releases:
Block select mode (to select columns of text, instead of rows) -- Same as above, rarely used, but priceless when it's needed.

With those features added I'd be able to switch right off without thinking about it.

Also, I'll be working on a more advanced php syntax def file.. would you be interested in that? Just email me and I'll send it when it's done.

Hi,
Sorry for the delay in answer.



They are third party components for Delphi. Not sure if it has C++Builder support, definitely no Microsoft C++ Compilers support.
Check here



Suggestions are always welcome.
They will all put in the "Todo List" but it does no mean they will be all done



What Twistpad does is the same behaviour as the standard windows memo, Not sure if I will change that.



you mean the title bar of Twistpad window? or the child window/Tab?



will put the asterisks in the treeview, makes sense.
The other one, well, I have to check, since the file has been modified I will have to put some mechanism to know the file is back to it's original state, not as easy as it might look.



Will do.



I think it's the opposite, it's easier to maintain different search terms in each document. I can make an option to be a wide setting



I think it's a good ideia.



This can be done already, in the find in files dialog, check "Search in current opened files"



Will Do.



Teorically this could be set in the customize keyboard, but it seems it does not accept the combination.
Goes into the bug category.



I see, it's the begin/end blocks of the C like languages.
I still found it a bit too specific, As I said, I do not want to get to language specific with Twistpad. Will see.



I'm tempted in implementing this textpad behavior, but only as an option.



No problem, keep them coming!



No plans for porting to linux.
I'm not sure, but Kylix seems quite dead now, and due to a lot of programming issues it would be very difficult.

Thanks a lot for your suggestions,

André Santos
Carthago Software Support
http://www.carthagosoft.net

Hi,



Thanks for your comments.

I'm commenting just parts of your post, since I already replied to Chad on some.



Maybe, but I'm afraid users might find it confusing not to have the list constantly updated. I preferred not to implement it if it would not be a simple and effective solution. I'll look into this.



The PHP Syntax is based on the HTML syntax, which lists header tags. No update was done for the public release, hence no default function support.

Your other suggestions are discussed on your other post.



Don't hesitate to send it !

Thanks

André Santos
Carthago Software Support
http://www.carthagosoft.net