Re[2]: Re[2]: [Columba-users] external editor?

[Peter K. <pe...@ka...>]

Hi Frederik,

Gruesse in die Quadrate-Stadt :-)

> Columba chooses the text editor you customized in your Windows
> installation. So, this seems to be Notepad for you currently.

Yes, I have notepad (or metapad which I renamed and copied over notepad)
defined as the standard editor, but I'd like to use another editor (Gvim
in my case) instead of Notepad.

Maybe you don't know that it's not easy possible to change the "standard"
editor in Windows 2000 or XP to another editor like notepad. You have to
rename the editor to "notepad.exe", find all copies in hidden folders and
delete them in the right order, so that the system protection can not
restore the editor. Then you can copy the new editor renamed to
"notepad.exe" to the right location. Unfortunatelly there's no editor
variable in Windows. Even if it would be easier to change the default
editor I still would not Emacs, jedit or gvim to be my default editor
which pops up for every small editing task, just because metapad (a tiny
but great  notepad replacement) starts without a delay. So beside the
main problem that the external editor doesn's seem to work at all in
Columba I would vote for a preferences file or setting where one can
specify the external editor for Columba.

> When changing this to gvim Columba will use this, too.

Is there no way to specify which editor to load? I also would need to
call the editor with some arguments, so that syntax highlighting for
e-mail is invoked and things like that.

> I've tested the feature on Linux and it works for me.

I got an response from a fellow user who also told that the feature works
under Linux.

> When saving the text and closing the editor, you can see the text in
> the composer's editor.

No, that's the problem. Only the string "EXTERNAL EDITOR" shows up in the
composer window.

> So, I guess its a windows-only bug.

Yes, it seems like one. I didn't had the chance to test on the Mac. If
you like I can try it there too. I can imagine that there the problem
also will exist, because on OS X the default editor uses RTF instead of
plain ASCII...

Last not least let me say a big THANK YOU for your great work. I really
like Columba and the ideas you put into it. vfolders are a splendid idea.
The main thing which still keeps me from switching is the not working
external editor. I hope the final release will fulfill this wish from me
:-)

All the best
Peter