Developer > WebSphere

Split Edit and Tab Stops

I must say it’s been an adventurous first half of 2008. My wife just reminded me that I’ve been on the road to trade shows and speaking or training engagements once a month for a week at a time since January. It wouldn't be so bad for the wife but she had to stay home with our four kids, who range in age from newborn to 7 – oh, and my 3-year-old was being potty trained. Makes a guy wish he could be in two places at once, which leads me to my first WebSphere Development Studio Client (WDSC) tip.

Split Edit

Wouldn't it be great if you could be in two places at once in your source code so you didn't have to page or scroll up and down incessantly? In SEU, we’re able to have one member open for edit and another in the same session open for browse in split-screen mode. IBM took WDSC a step further by letting us split an open-source member into multiple editable panes. And not only are all panes editable but when you type in one, it instantaneously shows up in the other. This is very cool!

Figure 1 shows an example of having a single source member open for edit in two panes. To use the multiple editor pane, use the Ctrl+2 key combination in an open member. By default, it’ll split the panes vertical but if that doesn't suit your needs, you can also opt to split horizontally by right-clicking and selecting View>Vertical/Horizontal Split.

I’ve found that opening multiple panes this way can take up a lot of screen real estate so I usually double-click on the tab so the editable panes fill the entire screen for ease of viewing.

One last crazy note: I’ve been referring to “multiple panes” because you can most definitely open more than two of the same source member and, in fact, can open up to five panes. Now, I haven't ever used more than three, but I’m sure some day, while in the depths of a large source member, I’ll find a use for five panes.

Stop That Tabbing

I must change a few things in each new WDSC workspace or install otherwise it simply drives me so mad I declare allegiance to Microsoft – and we all know that’s heresy. One is the tab stops feature. I should first note that I’m much more efficient with the source sequence area's block commands, and anything that keeps me from getting there quickly must be eliminated. In SEU, you could simply hit the Tab key once and it would take you to the sequence number area, but with WDSC there’s a feature allowing multiple tab stops at certain points on a single line for each specification. I prefer to be returned to the very beginning of the line when I press “Tab” versus being sent to a tab stop somewhere on the current line. To alter the tab stops for RPG editing, go to Window>Preferences>Remote Systems>Remote Systems LPEX Editor>ILE RPG.

As you scroll down the window, you’ll notice an area called “User defined tabs” as shown in Figure 2. Ensure the check box is selected and then begin the process of removing the caret marks (i.e., ^ or Shift+6) for each of the specification lines in the drop-down box. Also make sure to change the “And every” setting to zero to remove that style of tab stop.

Finally, it’s important to know that a simple press of the tab key won’t get you to the sequence number area at this point. You must instead do a Shift+Tab twice to get the same effect we have today in SEU. If you only press the Tab key, it will take you to just right of the sequence number area. If you find that pressing Shift+Tab still incrementally moves your cursor across the screen versus taking you to the sequence number area, then you’ll want to revisit the tab menu and ensure you’ve removed all tab stops. I mention this because I usually forget one or two (e.g., the P-spec).

That's all for this round. Stay tuned for many more tips.