Mark all/finding within marked lines
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 5:16 pm
I find Mark All to be powerful, but also very limited. Since it's a search, it's really a "mark some" as it should be, but there's only one way to mark. If I could pick a color for marking, then marking everything from search A and then from search B would give me a better idea of what I found.
That leaves the issue of what to do with lines that would be marked multiple times, but there are lots of ways of implementing that too. For example, a check box to indicate whether to re-mark something already marked would be workable, albeit not a complete solution. Being able to specify shapes additionally might help, especially if it had a check box too. Proportional colors or striping might work or be totally confusing and I wouldn't be able to judge without seeing it, but the point is that there are many possible ways this could be approached, and it could add a lot of power.
Not changing the marking scheme at all, but adding a check box to FIND that could limit the scope to marked lines only, could also go a long way. For example, a common request is to find functions, methods, etc. If a line I'm looking at has a method call, it's currently easy to find the next occurrence. Limiting it to marked lines could take me to the method itself.
That leaves the issue of what to do with lines that would be marked multiple times, but there are lots of ways of implementing that too. For example, a check box to indicate whether to re-mark something already marked would be workable, albeit not a complete solution. Being able to specify shapes additionally might help, especially if it had a check box too. Proportional colors or striping might work or be totally confusing and I wouldn't be able to judge without seeing it, but the point is that there are many possible ways this could be approached, and it could add a lot of power.
Not changing the marking scheme at all, but adding a check box to FIND that could limit the scope to marked lines only, could also go a long way. For example, a common request is to find functions, methods, etc. If a line I'm looking at has a method call, it's currently easy to find the next occurrence. Limiting it to marked lines could take me to the method itself.