TextPad 4.6 as an external tool in VS.NET

[Ben Voris]

I'm trying to configure TextPad 4.6 as an external tool in Visual Studio .NET and have run into a stumbling block trying to get TextPad to position the file to a line number.

I've configured the tool as shown below. There is no spaces between the second quote and the opening parenthesis before the dollar-sign. VS.NET requires the leading dollar-sign and the balanced parethesis.

Arguments: -m "$(ItemPath)"($(CurLine))
Initial directory: $(ItemDir)

If, in VS.NET, I happen to have my cursor on line 105 and run the TextPad external tool, TextPad starts and raises two dialogs. There are, in order:

OK to create 'c:\initial-dir\105)'
OK to create 'c:\initial-dir\('

The item (file) is not opened.

If I check the box "Prompt for arguments" and replace (($CurLine)) with (105), TextPad opens the item and jumps to the line number.

If I change Arguments to eliminate (($CurLine)), then the item is opened in TextPad at line 1.

Has anyone made this work?

[Jens Hollmann]

I have VS Studio 6.0 and have set up TextPad as

Arguments: $(FileName)$(FileExt)($(CurLine))
Initial Dir: $(FileDir)

Maybe you should try with different VS variables. This works fine for me.

Regards

Jens

[Ben Voris]

Thanks for the hint; it lead to solving my problem. The variables I was using were not the problem. The problem was the quotes around the filename. Even though my filenames sometimes include spaces, the quotes seem to cause a problem. FWIW, I used the quotes because their use is in the TextPad help.

Now my Arguments are: -m $(ItemPath)($(CurLine))

Again, thanks.