SlickEdit® 2017:22.0.2 Last revised/verified: 2018-02-27 née Visual SlickEdit, is a visual editor for Java (and dozens of other languages) that tidies source code. It was originally developed by MicroEdge, now named SlickEdit Inc. I use the older version 6.0c with supports only 8-bit text files. . Presumably it has improved considerably since my version. It is available for Windows, Linux Mac OS (Operating System) X, AIX (Advanced Interactive eXecutive), HP-UX, Solaris SPARC, Solaris x86 and as a plug-in for Eclipse. Originally, I did not keep up with upgrades for financial reasons, but now I am looking around for a new editor, one ideally I can program in Java not SlickC and that handles UTF-8 files. Most editors are so slow, compared with SlickEdit, I may stay with it. They now offer upgrades, but do not post prices.
I like it. The support people are utterly amazing. I send in feature requests and they send me back SlickC™ code to implement the feature as a macro. I just wish it were cheaper so more people would enjoy it. It is worth far more than in the time it will save you. Even though it is a very full featured editor, it comes up quickly. You can edit hundreds of files at once and hardly notice any slowdown. I use it to prepare all the HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) on this site and used it to write all my Java and assembler code. I am now doing most of my Java work with Eclipse though. I still drop back to it for small projects since it is so much quicker.
Take a 15-day free trial to see for yourself. That is not long enough to properly learn and fall in love with it, but it will give you a taste. It is so quick compared to other tools. I wish the macro Language were Java rather a proprietary C-like language. It takes took long to learn yet another language.
Features | Backup |
Customising | Batch Operations |
Adding Custom Icons to Toolbars | 2012 Version |
SlickC Macro Language | Summary |
Spell Check | Links |
Make sure you regularly back up the binary file vslick/vslick.sta. It contains your complete configuration. If it goes, all your tools bars go too.
One of the features I use most often is DIFF to compare two versions of a file. Sometimes it will not let you close. Use Alt-Esc to find the separate DIFF window and close that.
I prefer to cut and paste, doing the editing of the file list string in the editor. Here is the one I use:
You will probably want to configure tab to space conversion and trailing blank suppression while you are there.
The command you associate with your new custom icon is whatever you would type on the command line at the bottom of the screen, not a bit of SlickC code, e.g. you would fill in edit C:\env\todo.txt rather than edit('C:\env\todo.txt') or insert-java-main rather than insert_java_main() .
A good place to find a the names of built-in commands you can use on the command line is in Tools ⇒ Configuration ⇒ Key Bindings even if you don’t want to bind a key. Not all SlickC functions work on the command line.
The toolbars are locked from inadvertent changes except when the View ToolBars dialog is active. Then you can rearrange the icons, or drag them off the tool bar to remove them.
The Message is just the tooltip text.
In version 6, you create your own bitmap icons as *.bmp files and use them just like the built-in ones on toolbars. Use grey 192,192,192 as your background. BMP (Bitmap) files don’t have a formal transparent background the way *.gifs do. Make them all 23x21. Make sure you have backup copies of the bitmaps outside the vslick\bitmaps directory which you may lose on reinstall. Also make a record of the bitmap names, command and tooltip text so you can reconstruct it if you lose the menu bar.
In version 11, you can also use *.ico files for your icons.
Here is a little script you can save in a *.e file, then load to create a new command called cdm which changes the directory then brings up the open file dialog box on that directory. To install the command, load the *.e file, with load macro and it will stay installed forever, (or at least until you unload it.) You can then create an associated icon on the toolbar for one click open. You can define several such commands in a single *.e file.
SlickC macro language uses some very strange language constructs and odd terminology. defmain and batch macro refer to a type of nameless procedure. All you can do is load it and execute it once. Usually it defines the values for many configuration constants. procedure is much like a Java method, except that it usually takes a variable number of parameters and the types of the parameters are deduced dynamically by the procedure. command is a procedure that can be bound to a keystroke, with rules about the contexts in which it is valid to call it.
Macros you create by recording keystrokes are stored in vslick/macros/vusrmacs.e. They generate compilable SlickC code.
Here is a simple macro to generate the boilerplate for a Java main method:
#include slick.sh
/**
* Define conditions under which the insert_java_main
* command will work.
*
* @param cmdui
* @param target_wid
* @param command
* @return enabled or disabled.
*/
int _OnUpdate_insert_java_main(CMDUI cmdui,int target_wid,_str command)
{
if ( !target_wid || !target_wid._isEditorCtl()) {
return(MF_GRAYED);
}
return((target_wid.p_extension=='java')?MF_ENABLED:MF_GRAYED);
}
/**
* Generate a java main method by typing insert_java_main on the command line.
* Command can also be hooked to a button, or to a keystroke.
*
* @return
*/
_command insert_java_main()
name_info(','VSARG2_MARK|VSARG2_REQUIRES_EDITORCTL)
{
if ( p_extension!='java' ) {
// Check to see if we are in java mode. If not, exit
message( nls( 'Command not allowed while not in java mode' ) );
return('');
}
insert_line( '/**' );
insert_line( ' * test harness’ );
insert_line( ' *' );
insert_line( ' * @param args not used' );
insert_line( ' */' );
insert_line( 'public static void main ( String[] args )' );
insert_line( ' {' );
insert_line( ' }' );
}
Files you might want to back up include:
Before you backup, clear out junk in X:\vslick\$slk.? (abandoned spill files) and X:\vslick\backup\*.* (previous versions of files edited)
Now that free IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) and editors can handle multiple languages and do many of the things than SlickEdit can and things it cannot like single step trace and now that hardware can make even the slowest code run acceptably well, the niche for SlickEdit is narrowing. At some point it will have to reduce prices to compete.
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