How do you maximize productivity when writing filepro code in a 24x80?

[Brian K. White]

On 8/26/2016 2:01 AM, Stanley - stanlyn.com via Filepro-list wrote:
> Hi,
>
>
>
> Just wondering how I can interact with filepro's 24x80 fixed screen
> environment where I can only see  6 logic lines at any one time.  This is
> really becoming a problem when writing complicated code.  For the past 18
> years, I've grown accustomed to using large monitors and being able to see
> 70-100 lines at once and being able to copy and paste blocks of code.
>
>
>
> Thanks to Anzio, I am able to copy and paste segments of code, but only a
> line at a time.  I also wished Anzio respected the traditional crtl-c and
> ctrl-v commands instead of only the right-click menu copy/paste commands.
>
>
>
> In the old days with an env variable ascii  turned on, I used Scripsit to
> edit the raw prc.tables.  I really don't want to deal with all the embedded
> colons.  Hard to quickly read and check its syntax.
>
>
>
> Also note that my filepro is running on SCO instead of Windows, where I
> imagine the prc could be easily opened in something as simple as notepad.
>
>
>
> THE QUESTION IS.  How are you doing developing in filepro?  I'm sure most of
> you are developing on multi large screen monitors with each running in 1920
> mode.  I'm just trying to be more productive in the filepro ide and
> struggling is an understatement.

In theory it could be done, but as far as I know no one has managed much 
in that way yet.

You can open the prc files in vi or any editor you like of course 
(assuming ABE=ascii).

And I once made vim syntax highlighting files for vim and cooledit 
(midnight commander), and the coloring helped *slightly* by making the 
LABEL : IF : THEN sections all different background colors from each 
other, or by making the colons outlandishly ridiculously different from 
anything else so the really stood out at a glance.

I tried to make vim display each line of prc as 2 lines on-screen, 
greenbar fashion, to make a more space-compact version of the cabe 
display, YET also have vim still retain a correct idea of what line in 
the file it's actually editing when you edit something on-screen. I 
never could get it, but I still believe the syntax language is actually 
powerful enough to define something that strange, just it requires a vim 
syntax expert, which there's probably about 4 of those in the world, who 
are all probably vim authors! In fact, I bet it's even theoretically 
possible to get it to hide the real colons from the display, but write 
them in the file, and display ^a as colon in the display, and write a ^a 
in the file for a typed colon.

Next you still have to load the file in cabe to tokenize it.

I think Bob Stockler used to have vim macros to invoke cabe from within 
vim to syntax check and tokenize the table you were editing, while 
staying in vim. I never got that fancy myself. Bob is no longer with us, 
but JPR may have his stuff available for ftp download.

My old vim and cooledit files are here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20050218041341/http://www.aljex.com/fp/vim/
http://web.archive.org/web/20090107003131/http://www.aljex.com/fp/mcedit/
Also: 
http://mailman.celestial.com/pipermail/filepro-list/2014-May/030816.html

Barry Wiseman might have something to offer actually. I think he follows 
this list, but not closely. If he doesn't react to this in the next day 
or so I'll ask him.

-- 
bkw