Another BASIC Editor

[Iambian]

There are three reasons why I wanted to put this here:
1. I have not posted a new topic in this part of the forum, and I wanted to try it out.
2. I don't want to clutter up the "Project Ideas" with something I may never do. I'm just throwing an idea.
3. I figure that I might get a better response from here. One that's more objective, and brutally honest.
3 and a half: I never really figured out what's appropriate to post in this part of the forum. I mean, it's available, yet...

Anyway.

I'm thinking about wasting 16K for an app that will essentially be a two-panel TI-BASIC editor. The display will be in small fonts so you can see more stuff. Depending on the display settings, it'll display both variable-width font (for fullscreen) and fixed-width (longer characters will just be cut off). The second panel will be separated by a vertical line and also partially displayable on the right-hand side. The right panel will be used for the common TI-OS menus, other programs, and even a clipboard (implying that there will be a copy/cut/paste feature). You will be able to switch between a full 16 column mode and a fullscreen mode for either "window". There may also be an undo feature.

The main question is: Would YOU waste 16K on your calculator for something like this?

Depending on the response, I might try to pull a project like this one off. Otherwise... I guess I could try working on something else.

[Super Speler]

Yes and no, it really depends on what features you make available and how well you make it. For something like this it may be a good idea to use the GUI routines from DCS.

Other ideas:
-Very simple grayscale syntax highlighting
-Make normally unavailable character's available.

Also, why 16k, do you mean to make it an app?

[DarkerLine]

I'd be very happy with an alternative Basic editor (especially with grayscale highlighting) but I wouldn't use the second panel - the screen on a calculator is already too small. The clipboard feature, however, would be very useful.

I'd also be very interested in seeing:

• A search feature
  
• Quickly skipping to the top/bottom of the program
  
• Switching word wrap on and off (when off, you'd get to scroll left/right)
  
• A way to "follow" a Goto or Menu command to the label.
  

[alexrudd]

I'd use it, although I haven't been programming much basic lately.

[kalan_vod]

I agree with DarkerLine, basically a debugger would be a plus (following lbls/break points).

[spandiv]

One feature that I like that SourceCoder has is it keeps track of the conditionals and loops, so you know if you have the correct number of End commands. The one thing I would change to make it better is that when you scroll over the beginning of the loop or conditional, the matching End command is highlighted and jumped to for easy viewing.

For inspiration, I think you should check out Johan Cohen's Advanced Text Editor, which is made for the TI-86. If you could incorporate some of the ideas from that program into your application, that would be awesome.

[DarkerLine]

The alternative keyboard description from the review looks cool - 2nd toggles letters vs. symbols, while Alpha toggles uppercase and lowercase. Its usefulness would be more limited on the 83+, which uses tokens more directly than the 86 (you don't type in sin( with the letters s, i, and n), however it would still be neat.

[Iambian]

Thanks for your replies, but I'm afraid that I won't be working on this project for a long while. I've got an on-calc assembler and an update to a game to work on. This is on top of summer college-related material that I've got to do.

Please try to understand my situation...

[luby]

Well, I would probably use this, if it came to exist. I would like the pasteboard and the menus. A speedy Goto would also be nice. If you get the time, this would be a very nice project.

[kermmartian]

Glad to hear people are getting some use out of my projects.

[netham45]

hmm, this doesn't look like it would be a waste. I think it sounds cool.