A long while back (May 2003), I opened a case asking for a feature, where in the editor one could highlight a block of code and by clicking a button, cause the code to be commented out or if already commented, uncomment. For example:

It would be nice to be able to highlight a block of code and click a button to
comment the code. As in Powerbuilder. For example.

JOIN AS_ASSGN_FOR IN KDSASSGN TO RF_REFER_ID IN KDSREFER AS A.
JOIN AS_UNIT IN KDSASSGN TO UN_UNITID IN KDSUNIT AS B.
-*
TABLE FILE KDSASSGN
PRINT UN_UNITID
BY RF_REFER_ID
BY AS_BEGDT
IF AS_ASSGNCAT EQ 297
IF AS_RSPCATTY EQ 1851
IF AS_BEGDT LT &CURRBOM
IF RF_REFER_DT LT &CURRBOM
IF RF_REFER_DT GE &BEGFY
ON TABLE SET ALL ON
ON TABLE HOLD
END

Highlight the IF statments and click a button and they are commented out. Also,
if the highlighted code is already commented out, uncomment the code.

JOIN AS_ASSGN_FOR IN KDSASSGN TO RF_REFER_ID IN KDSREFER AS A.
JOIN AS_UNIT IN KDSASSGN TO UN_UNITID IN KDSUNIT AS B.
-*
TABLE FILE KDSASSGN
PRINT UN_UNITID
BY RF_REFER_ID
BY AS_BEGDT
-* IF AS_ASSGNCAT EQ 297
-* IF AS_RSPCATTY EQ 1851
-* IF AS_BEGDT LT &CURRBOM
-* IF RF_REFER_DT LT &CURRBOM
-* IF RF_REFER_DT GE &BEGFY
ON TABLE SET ALL ON
ON TABLE HOLD
END

My request was denied and the case was closed because I was the only request. I was just wondering if anyone else thought this would be useful. I think it would be very useful for testing, especially for those of us that almost never use the gui tool.

john, isn't it just staggering that they actually say to customers "your request was denied", the rudeness just staggers me. Of course its a good idea, i don't use the GUI, but no matter, its a good idea.

definitely a good idea

You should reopen your case.

I logged a case that was basically the same idea. For what it's worth, my case # is 22932512 if you want to reference it.

I'll spare you the entire text of my case because I tried to "make my case" for the enhancement -- but here is the "meat" of my request:

Request 1:  Most IDEs & languages that I've worked with have the ability to
 comment out an entire block of code using a character sequence to start the
 comment block and another to stop the comment block.
 For example:  /* COMMENTS GO HERE */
 
 Request 2:  Along similar lines, a lot of IDEs also provide a shortcut key or
 menu item that you can use to comment out text that you have highlighted.  In
 other words, if you have 10 lines of code that you want to comment, you could
 highlight those 10 lines, type the shortcut key (or click the menu item) and it
 would put a "-*" in front of all 10 of those lines.  The IDEs also have an
 "uncomment" function so that the same 10 lines would have the "-*" removed if it
 existed.

FYI: I opened my case back on Oct 20th after months of frustration and it's still in "IBI Researching" status at the moment.

Trav, when did you open your case? I opened mine back in May-2003, they didn't say no until Aug-2006. Original problem # was 81481084.

We just got Premimum Support, I'm going to reopen the case and refer to this topic showing there are others that would like this feature.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jgelona,

I concur, this would save a significant amount of development and testing time for developers.

The only thing I can see that IB might throw at it is their alledged intent to "encourage" developers to use the GUI.

Use the GUI? Sorry, not in my lifetime

If Kerry has her ears on (Well Hi Kerry, how you keeping? ) then please mention to the PM as I am sure this would be a very popular NFR.

Thanks

T

Hi all,

Your comments and suggestions are very important to us. I have forwarded this topic to our internal people (Tony - yes, I am here ). If I hear more from them, I will definitely keep everyone updated.

Again, to submit a New Feature Request (NFR), you will be required to open a case with Information Builders' Customer Support Services. The phone number is 1-800-736-6130, or you can go through InfoResponse.

Thanks again for everyone's input. We look forward to hearing more ideas, suggestion, comments, etc.

Cheers,

Kerry

Yes, this would be a very helpful feature.

This would be a huge time saver and it's a great idea!

Coincidentally, not long after I posted my case # above, I got a call from Maryann at support regarding that case. Basically she was just following-up with me to see if I had any questions or anything and I told her this discussion had been risen and not be surprised if she saw more cases logged. She mentioned she'd probably get online here and look at the discussion and see if she could answer any questions as well.

Anyway, it is getting some visibility -- but I would encourage you all to log an NFR with support if you think it would help you.

Comment button:
Excellent idea and I hope they use it. My experience has been that with every upgrade I end up using the GUI less and the text edit more.

"...but I would encourage you all to log an NFR with support if you think it would help you."

After I re-opened the NFR, the rep that called me back not only thought it was a great idea, that is what he recommended.

great idea, but doesn't the Dev Studio strip out any and all comments (or move them around) if you open it in the report painter? sounds like a potential for disaster if you're not careful.

(by the way, i've never understood why whatever parser they have for the reportpainter can't be programmed to leave commented out lines where they are, and just skip over them)

quote:

but doesn't the Dev Studio strip out any and all comments (or move them around) if you open it in the report painter?

Which is yet another reason why I almost never use the gui tools.

You could always switch to VAX FOCUS because I do remember that the TED editor in that product had that feature.

You might be able to do this as a regular expression in the change facility of the editor ie something like (.*)\n changes to -\\1\n for the selection.

Apologies - the regex search in Dev Studio does not actually work.

It should work as the ordinary search when no special regex characters are included but doesn't.

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that we are reviewing this request and we plan on making it available in our next release: 761.
This enhancement will be available while using the stand-alone Text Editor, Text View of Procedure Viewer and while viewing Source code from Report Painter.
As noted by Dan, due to the Report Painter limitation where comment lines after a TABLE request get moved to top of file, it is not recommended to use this enhancement while in the Report Painter Source tab. If this is accidentally performed the developer can Undo edits to revert to earlier state.
Movement of commented lines within a TABLE section is caused by a limitation of the current Report Painter parser which we plan to redesign in an upcoming release.

Regards,
Dimitri

Sweet. Our 7.6. testing has been going pretty well so far - so that would be a nice tweak.