Templates OR Includes?

[oldefoxx]

I went to extra effort to get Templates mapped out. I now know that if you make any Templates, they end up in %APPDATA%\PureBasic\Templates.prefs, packed in there in C notation (\n). The code window for them is small, and you cannot use Ctrl-key combos as part of the edit of them. You depend on the right mouse button.

I also located and downloaded the PureBasic Standard Template Library and copied it into \PureBasic. These are actually Include (.PBI) files, so I've been looking them over. Handsome stuff. And of an Include nature rather than something small to go along with the idea of a Template. They have multiple Procedures in them, so when you bring them up in the IDE, you get a list of the included Procedures by name.

I would say there is a place for both types. Perhaps a Template file to get you started, then one or more Include files to add to what you are doing.

I realize that the IDE supports whole Projects, and that each file brought up becomes a new tab, a part of that
project. I work with tabs in other applications, such as FireFox or Opera, and the thing about tabs is that they
don't get much said as to their labels. Vertical tabs or lists can have more characters and spell it out better.
And vertically, there is more room for them. But that is just a personal observation.

I'm thinking of something that might be a cross of how Include and Templates are handled. The idea is maybe a
way to search the contents of .PBI files for certain terms or parts of terms, then show a verticle list of the
.PBI file name and the full Procedure Name so that you can see what is out there and which Include file it is
declared in. You might also then want to search .PB files to find which ones contain which .PBI references,
or give the search code a term or part of a search term to locate both a ,PB and .PBI file that makes use of that term.

See, I am always on the hunt for coding examples specific to some task or approach that I have in mind. I figure there is always someone better at this than I am, and I am nearly always proved right. It's just a question of how quickly I can narrow down the search field, or how much time I forfeit in trying to do so.

[oldefoxx]

Oh, and in speaking of declaring Procedures, I know that PureBasic already recognizes a lot of the ones in the system DLLs, and that you have a list of the ones it recognizes in APIFunctionListing.txt under \PureBasic\Compilers. Looking at the list though, I see many that do not have the () after the name. I guess I will have to
study a different list of such functions to find out how other langages see them. For instance, are these significant because they are Subs, were the parens just not added, or what? Not a big deal at the onset. You probably need other documentation to find out what any of these do and what they return anyway, plus the nature of the calling parameters.

[Josh]

Oh I love your blogs oldefoxx. Three topics about templates within two days. Three topics with wishy washy. Really useful i find you explanation, that the ide shows one tab for each opened file. Wow, i would say, this are really great news.

Ey oldefox, maybe i have a good idea for you. Could you write a blog of using mouse? Best with one topic in each section of the board.

[oldefoxx]

Glad you found some amusement. As to the tabs, I was also comparint the legends that are possible with vertical
tabs, but I ended up including more detail for those that are not comfortable (yet) with the IDE and its manner of
having several files opened at once.

Three separate posts on the same topic? In part. The objectives were different each time.