[Dev-C++] Pair highlighting, suggestion for improvements

[Anders B. <And...@te...>]

Yes, the pair highlighting feature does kind of work... I admit I did 
not test it so carefully before complaining, but it is still, in my 
opinion, not ideal the way it is now.

First of all, why do I need to press <- when it would be simpler to just 
highlight the ( when I type the )? Ok, if I type ( then ) I need to use 
<- to fill in the contents of the (), but if I type ( then a+b then ) I 
don't.

Second, if I pass through my code with the cursor, it highlights all 
pairs, and it becomes impossible to see which is which.

Third, although the highlighting immediately disappears if I type 
something, it does not disappear when just passing through the code 
using the cursor keys, until I select a region or it goes off screen due 
to PgUp or something.

All these issues would be solved and the feature of matching pairs 
improved if a simpler procedure was implemented:

Just highlight the matching {[( when the corresponding )]} is pressed 
(or passed over with the cursor) and then remove the highlight 
immediately once the next key is pressed, whether this next key is 
alpha-numeric of navigational (arrows, home, end).

Finally, maybe one could improve the colors of the pair highlight? I use 
the Borland color scheme, and the pairs display as white text on white 
background... Would be nice if it is was included in the syntax color 
preferences, so one to change it.

/Anders Blom




David Matthews wrote:
> That's what the current one does.  If you scroll past a bracket, it
> highlights the matching one.  If you type one, you press '<-' and it will
> highlight the matching one.
> 
> At 07:22 PM 16/04/2003 +0200, Anders Blom wrote:
> 
>>3)
>>
>>It would be REALLY useful to have pair matching of () [] {} on the fly. 
>>The present "match pairs" feature is, in my humble opinion, not very 
>>useful (or I don't understand how to use it, but it seems it just marks 
>>pairs as I move past them with the cursor using the arrow keys).
>>
>>What is needed is a good way to check that I have as many ( as ) and so 
>>on. The simplest way would be that every time a } ] or ) is typed, the 
>>editor shows (prefereably by color-flashing) the corresponding ([{ for a 
>>while (until another key is pressed, I guess).
>>
>>Most other coding editors (Rhide, Emacs, Winedt, fte) have this feature, 
>>and I think it is virtually essential.
>>
>>/Anders Blom