Folder views as well as document views

crater · Post by **crater** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 11:13 am

I use TextPad now primarily for creating web applications using PHP. Up to now they have been fairly simple apps and I can cope with TextPads limitations.

What I do need though is to be able to open a "project". This will typically be a folder containing all the application files for a given web application, including any sub folders. A filter could be added to an Open dialog to prevent non-text files being included.

I see an earlier post "Tree views" which would probably achieve the desired effect as a "project view".

IMHO TextPad is still the best general purpose code editor out there.

Bob Hansen · Post by **Bob Hansen** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 4:47 am

Check out Workspaces.

You will be able to open many files in many folders and save them as a Workspace. Opening that Workspace will open all those same files at the same time, retaining many file status tools, such as bookmarks, etc.

When you are done be sure to Save Workspace to again include all of the open files.

crater · Post by **crater** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 8:45 am

Sure, I know about workspaces, and for many uses they're OK.

But it isn't really suitable for complex projects. Take this example...

You have files for a software project organized thus...

Code: Select all

Foo (folder)
 |
 -- do_something.php
 |
 -- classes (folder)
     |
     -- interface.data_access.php
     |
     -- app (folder)
     |   |
     |   -- class.thing.php
     |
     -- data_access (folder)
         |
         -- access (folder)
         |   |
         |   -- class.query1.php
         | 
         -- mysql (folder)
         |   |
         |   -- class.query1.php
         |
         -- oracle (folder)
         |   |
         |   -- class.query1.php
         |
         -- sqlserver (folder)
             |
             -- class.query1.php

... in the list box if you open all those files you see...

class.query1.php
class.query1.php
class.query1.php
class.query1.php
do_something.php
interface.data_access.php

Not really helpful, is it?

A tree view would separate the files by folder - and with a tree view, nodes can be collapsed so that you only see the files you actually need.

If necassary, why not have a version of Textpad called Textpad Pro (or some such) that folks who need these extra bells and whistles can upgrade to for a nominal fee?

ben_josephs · Post by **ben_josephs** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 10:02 am

crater · Post by **crater** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 10:48 am

OK.

How do I scroll the list horizontally - all I can see is the folder names unless I lose nearly half the width of the editor window.
I would also like to be able to collapse specific folders?
Surely anyway you look at it, a treeview is better than a list for multiple files in a hierarchy.

Could there not be choice of either, selectable in the Preferences?

crater · Post by **crater** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 10:51 am

Amendment to last post.

I've got the horizontal scroll bar, but it didn't appear until I'd closed and re-opened TextPad (?)