Macro playback enhancement
Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2023 4:14 pm
Hello,
I use the macro facility a lot in TextPad often to process and tweak large files.
For instance I might copy and select text within a line; move it around a bit and then move down to the next line.
I then often playback the macro "To end of file" to process all lines.
I've learnt over the years to just leave the macro running and to not touch anything else on Windows i.e. changing focus to another app, clicking within TextPad etc. Mostly the macro playback works great.
Occasionally though you'll get the BEL sound. When you do there will be a bit of corruption in the playback for the current line; but the follow-on macros often continue correctly.
I've often thought that this could be down to missed steps due to repeated macros playbacks occuring too close to each other?
On a large macro processed file it can be tricky to search back and find BEL corrupted lines. If a BEL happens, I try doing the same against the whole file using repeated CTRL+R single macro playbacks instead. If the BEL happens then I'm at least close to the error'd line so can stop quickly, fix the line and continue.
As an enhancement what I'd like is a checkbox added to the Macros->multi-play... dialog that terminates playback if a macro BEL/error occurs.
That way I could correct the line and then continue multi play from that point on.
It would also be great if during a macro playback all external TextPad input is ignored; such as mouse clicks and key presses. It doesn't seem to do this.
Kind Regards
I use the macro facility a lot in TextPad often to process and tweak large files.
For instance I might copy and select text within a line; move it around a bit and then move down to the next line.
I then often playback the macro "To end of file" to process all lines.
I've learnt over the years to just leave the macro running and to not touch anything else on Windows i.e. changing focus to another app, clicking within TextPad etc. Mostly the macro playback works great.
Occasionally though you'll get the BEL sound. When you do there will be a bit of corruption in the playback for the current line; but the follow-on macros often continue correctly.
I've often thought that this could be down to missed steps due to repeated macros playbacks occuring too close to each other?
On a large macro processed file it can be tricky to search back and find BEL corrupted lines. If a BEL happens, I try doing the same against the whole file using repeated CTRL+R single macro playbacks instead. If the BEL happens then I'm at least close to the error'd line so can stop quickly, fix the line and continue.
As an enhancement what I'd like is a checkbox added to the Macros->multi-play... dialog that terminates playback if a macro BEL/error occurs.
That way I could correct the line and then continue multi play from that point on.
It would also be great if during a macro playback all external TextPad input is ignored; such as mouse clicks and key presses. It doesn't seem to do this.
Kind Regards