DXL Syntax: Sublime Text

I have written a DXL package for Sublime Text which I have just released on GitHub.

If you are interested, I recomend getting a beta version of Sublime Text 3. If you are unable to install anything, there is a portable version available.

The easiest way to install the DXL package (and any others you may want) is with Package Control. It will take care of updates for you.

Once you have Package Control installed, press 'Ctrl + Shift + P', type 'Install' and hit Enter. Type'DXL', hit Enter and you are done.

Other Colour Schemes Available

Jump to Dxl Help file keyword with F1.

Jump to Errors with F4.

Jump to functions with F12 (Sublime Text 3 Only).

Jump back with Alt + - (Sublime Text 3 Only).

Optional: At the moment a registry entry for DOORS Error Logging is required for the build system (F7):

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Telelogic\DOORS\9.#\Config

String Value: Value Name: LOGFILE, Value Data: c:\DxlError.log

Only required to run code with F7

Use F7 to run your code.

It will run on an open DOORS client. It will set the last active window as 'current'.

If you have 2+ clients running, open the Dxl Interaction Window of the client you want to target.

Invoke Debug Logging with F6.

I have a few things on the ToDo list, but it's working well enough. One ToDo item is to remove the need for Error logging, but I have less time these days to work on it.  [Anyone know how to Enable/Disable logging without restarting DOORS?]

Any Issues, add them to GitHub or to this thread if you can't do that.

-Adam

Re: DXL Syntax: Sublime Text
Mathias Mamsch - Wed Dec 18 14:31:03 EST 2013

Tried it. Seems to work. However - despite I am excited to see a lightweight editor that is extensible in python I still think without looking to hard at it, that it would require a lot of work to get it to a state where it has a similar functionality like the DXL Editor. And this editor is not free (and the beta version seems to nag from time to time, regarding "unregistered version".

Still I would be willing to contribute, since the DXL Editor will probably be not improved anymore and there is still a lot of functionality missing in there. I am thinking of

• the possibility to store include configurations and automatically start DOORS with the right configuration depending on the project
• the possibility to make an encrypted build from a project
• the possibility to run a script in batch / interactive / interactive batch mode
• possibiltiy for refactorings
• unit test runner
• automatic memory leak checks
• automatic profiling
• automatic code coverage for tests
• automatic project templates (e.g. for a DOORS plugin, etc.)

There is also a lot of features in Eclipse that I would really miss, like "Local History"... So I am kind of split, between diving into eclipse addins programming and going to a completely new editor.

Regards, Mathias

Re: DXL Syntax: Sublime Text
Adamarla - Thu Dec 19 05:07:06 EST 2013

A code editor is a personal preference of course. I've tried:

1. TextPad
2. Scite
3. CrimsonEditor
4. Eclipse
5. SublimeText
6. Probably others

​I tried the DXL Editor too, but never got on with Eclipse. I was alway irritated by how slow Eclipse is.

Yes, Sublime Text is not free - it sometimes nags on save, but not on build (which also saves) so I rarely see the nag screen.

I forgot to mention that there is already some debug/memory leak logging - press F6 (or Ctrl + Shift + P and type 'dxl').

You will recognize the origin of the code ;-)

Regarding your other ideas, I'm not sure I personally would need use those features, with the exception possibly of unit tests for some kind of 'continuous integration' hack. That doesn't mean they shouldn't be added though.

I have never come accross 'Local History' before and a quickly googleing suggests it is a kind of temporary Revision Control feature. Have I been missing out on something, or does GIT have that covered?

I would be happy to have collaborators - feel free to fork the repo and sent pull requests.

-Adam

Re: DXL Syntax: Sublime Text
Mathias Mamsch - Thu Dec 19 05:56:44 EST 2013

I totally agree, that Eclipse is a fat memory hungry performance monster. I would love to have a more lightweight editor.

Regarding the features I listed, I was thinking about an editor that you provide to the community... I thought about DXL beginners, that could very much benefit from a clean project template or companies that do a lot of plugins. And I always found it a pain to make dxl batch files, since launching them in batch mode always forces one to create a .bat file and read the output from somewhere else. And Unit Tests & Code Coverage - well I guess one would first have to create them before integrating them in an editor. I think I will go about the on the DXL Standard Library that I revived on github a little while ago. Then we can see, if it makes sense integrating it in an editor.

Anyway: Local History is a cool feature that saved my @ss a couple of times! Eclipse will by default store the version of a file everytime you save it. So after working for a couple of hours on a file you can recover all 100 saves that you did on that file. A lot of times, where I accidentally destroyed some newly written code (which I did not commit yet) this feature really came to the rescue. But of course that is not a DXL specific plugin for an editor.

Regards, Mathias

Re: DXL Syntax: Sublime Text
Adamarla - Thu Dec 19 06:30:40 EST 2013

Now you mention it, it would be much easier to auto create batch files. I do it rarely, but that means I always forget all the escaping rules and such.

Just checked the 'Package Control' install list and see there is a 'Local History' plugin already. I will have to give it a try.

-Adam

Re: DXL Syntax: Sublime Text
llandale - Fri Dec 20 15:45:18 EST 2013

I'm obviously still in the "Bronze Age"; before the invent of "Package Control" and "Real Time Debugging" and the notion of a short cut that reduces a 4 second chore down to 1 second.

I'm happy with Crimson Editor.  Just for "context" reason's (e.g. current Folder/Project/Module/Object) I find it difficult to send Doors code to run; instead I save the edited file, #include it in the DXL interaction window, and run it.  The output is tolerable and only once in a while do I need to copy-paste it into Notepad to get  a better look at it. 

One very positive accidental feature is I can have 3 install directories and have 3 Crimson Editors running at once; one for DXL, one for the library, and one for the vast number of misc files I always look at.  I also notice it is not "installed" and therefore DogBert in IT hasn't noticed I have it.

I notice Crimson gets confused twice a year vis-a-vis Daylight Savings time changes; and I notice it does terribly when editing large number of files in far-away network locations (VPN from home).  I presume it contually polls all open files ..err.. changes to all open files. 

Since you can modify a script and interpret/run it in seconds; I suggest you don't need wizz-bang modern crutches to debug code.  Add a couple print statements and run it again works great 98% of the time; in fact much faster than trying to real-time debug it.

Could not get over the hump with the eclipse DXL-Editor; trying to easily pair up backets and braces was too hard and I am too dependant on that.

-Louie

[1] OK, so maybe I'm still in the "Emerald Age".

[2] I am NOT "Set in my ways".   lol