Is this the way VFP 9.0 should behave ? 1

[titoneon]

Hi Guys and Gals,
Well you know i am starting to experiment with 9.0 and for example, when i type a command in the command window i am getting dots in between commands (ie, Modify.comm.filename), is this new ? or do i need to get into any settings to avoid those dots in between "Modify and comm"
Thanks
Ernesto

 

[Olaf Doschke]

No, this is not normal. What are you typing, and when do you get dots?

What's new since VP7 is intellisense, if you type MODI and the space, FY is automatically added. Commands are autocompleted, but dots are not added. In reverse, if you type _screen and then the dot, you get a dropdown combobox with _screen properties and methods and events to choose from, but you can continue typing.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[titoneon]

Hi Olaf,
When i type in the command window in vfp 5.0 OR 6.0 "SET DEFAULT TO" is equal to "SET DEFAULT TO" but inmmediatly when i type "SET and a press the space bar then dot comes in and then i keep typing and the commands works, for example the right way should be "modify command whateverfilename" but here when i type the same i got "modify.command.whateverfilename", i don't know why, but yes if i type _screen and then a dot yes i get a dropdown combobox with _screen properties but i don't know that behavior , i am wondering if it is any setting under Tools and Options Maybe ?
Thanks

 

[titoneon]

Olaf,
Also i forgot to say that when i am typing code while creating a prg file each word while typing gets underlined, after i finished the whole word then is not underlined.
Ernesto

 

[Olaf Doschke]

I already said this is called intellisense.

But it's not normal it adds dots.

What font are you using? Is it perhaps the fault of the font you see dots, but indeed it's spaces? Intellisense does not add dots where they don't belong.
If you right click inside the command window and then choose "properties" from the context menu, does the property dialog show the font "Courier New"?

Bye, Olaf.

 

[Olaf Doschke]

One more question: Is the dot really a dot? Is it a very fine dot in middle height? Then you most probably only have "Display White Space" checked. Again, call the properties window by right clicking in the command window and choosing "properties" in the context menu. In the dialog in the upper right quarter "Appearance" there is a checkbox labelled "Diplay White Space". Simply uncheck that, if you don't want that white space.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[titoneon]

Olaf,
After unchecking the "Diplay White Space", now everything is fine or at least the way i used to
Thanks
Ernesto

 

[Olaf Doschke]

Ok, fine. The white space dots are really a matter of taste.

And by the way, underlining happens, when a line is incomplete or would not compile. Once VFP would be able to compile, the underline effect vanishes. This feature is called background compile. In Tools->Options in the Editor tab you can choose between underline, red inversion, gray or none to highlight that in different ways. I prefer the default underline, as gray is not readable good and red inversion isn't my taste. While you're in that tab of the options dialog, one thing you should change from defaults in regard to code syntax highlighting is about the color of string literals: In the "Syntax color settings", choose Area: "Strings" and then in Foreground the color red. That also makes it very clear, if a string literal is missing a closing delimiter. And in code you open the string literals re clearly locatable.

Both intellisense and background compile are incredibly useful.

Intellisense: I know you know what you need to type, in the first few days or even weeks I always stumbled upon the double TO TO, when you type "SET ORDER TO" and after ORDER intellisense already has added the TO. But you get used to this and it saves a lot of typing and mistyping.

Background Compile: That also obviously is the advantage of background compile, you can see when something is wrong, if you have a type, missing bracket or string delimiter or whatever. Though compilable doesn't guarantee error free code, it's at least not syntactically wrong.

You'll appreciate this later.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[titoneon]

Olaf,
Thanks a lot for that bunch of Info. you gave me, that is a very nice push cause otherwise i will have to discovery myself and will take a lot of work to figure out and time wich is what we don't have, actually with all this help from you and the others, you are speeding up my learning curve, thanks again to all of you, i am trying to figure out something else but if i am not able i will get back.
Ernesto.
Note: some day i will dare to write i am a programmer