ZeroBrane Studio Lua IDE v0.50 is out

[paulclinger]

I've been using ZB for a couple of days. I figured that I should give it a second look.
Well, color me impressed. I knew that the general functionality of it was great but it has by far been the better editor for Lua. I kinda have to make it my default editor now. Kudos, it is a nice piece of software.

That's great to hear; thank you!

> 1st - That "Clean UI" is really close to what I'm using here - not a fan of the toolbar with the icons and would love to be able to turn it off. Looking forward to a release that allows that.

yes, that's coming shortly. You will be able to turn the toolbar, the statusbar, and possibly the menubar off (although there are some challenger with the menubar to make shortcuts still work). One complication with the toolbar is that I'd like to make it a bit more dynamic and to show it when the script is being run or debugged. So, with the current plan, even if you turn it off, it will pop back up when the debugging is started; or would you like to turn it off completely?

I've check in several changes that we discussed earlier. I also added settings for different folding types; for example, you will be able to set "arrow" type, which will show fold markers as those are usually seen on OSX. Will push those later today as I complete the testing on all supported platforms.

> 2nd - Is it possible to wrap lines in the output? I've attached it to the right side so I can view more of my code while still getting the output for any errors and debugging. Messages tend to get a bit long though and I find myself scrolling around.

Yes, try "ide:GetOutput():SetWrapMode(wxstc.wxSTC_WRAP_WORD)" from the console. I'm thinking about enabling it by default or possible adding a configuration setting.

> 3rd - Something that would be a killer feature would be showing code hints when inputting function arguments. Brackets introduced that for javascript:

Yes, that looks nice, although it requires two things: be able to display the tooltip (it's already there) and to figure out parameters from custom functions (it's not there yet, but is planned). You do mean this for user functions, right?

> 4th - (Ok, I lied) Really happy with my current configs. Only one thing bugs me - The bright, white edge lines when something is folded. Is it possible to change this color? I tried the styles.fold options but they don't affect it.

This color seems to always match the default color, so it will be the same as the text foreground color. You can slightly change the appearance and disable it completely. For example, try "ide:GetEditor():SetFoldFlags(16)" to set one line or "ide:GetEditor():SetFoldFlags(0)" to disable them completely. "ide:GetEditor():SetFoldFlags(20)" will set it back to the default. I'll probably set it to one line by default and add a setting for those who want to disable them completely.

[OttoRobba]

>> You will be able to turn the toolbar, the statusbar, and possibly the menubar off (although there are some challenger with the menubar to make shortcuts still work). One complication with the toolbar is that I'd like to make it a bit more dynamic and to show it when the script is being run or debugged. So, with the current plan, even if you turn it off, it will pop back up when the debugging is started; or would you like to turn it off completely?

I honestly don't mind if toolbar only shows up when running/debugging the script - those are about the only times when I might use it, honestly. I'm guessing for regular users this is true as well? Maybe the actions that pertain to it (pause, stop, play, etc...) could dynamically show in the output/debugger.
Disabling the statusbar would be really nice, I don't think I have used it at all yet. I actually forgot it was there but I wouldn't mind getting the space back.
The menubar is tricky - I think having the option to disable it is great, so long as it is easy to re-enable and one can still access options.What if it became a cog menu of sorts, in the same row and the files tabs?


>>I've check in several changes that we discussed earlier. I also added settings for different folding types; for example, you will be able to set "arrow" type, which will show fold markers as those are usually seen on OSX. Will push those later today as I complete the testing on all supported platforms.
Arrow types, definitely gonna try those

>>Yes, try "ide:GetOutput():SetWrapMode(wxstc.wxSTC_WRAP_WORD)" from the console. I'm thinking about enabling it by default or possible adding a configuration setting.
That is awesome, thanks
I think it makes sense to enable it by default if I'm not the only one requesting it. A thing that would make it awesome would be zebra lines in the output, just to better separate each line.

>>Yes, that looks nice, although it requires two things: be able to display the tooltip (it's already there) and to figure out parameters from custom functions (it's not there yet, but is planned). You do mean this for user functions, right?
Aye, for user functions. For instance, if I create:

Code: Select all

self.setPosition = function(newX, newY) self.x, self.y = newX, newY end

When I type whatever.setPosition(
It would automatically show the "newX, newY" tooltip.

>>This color seems to always match the default color, so it will be the same as the text foreground color. You can slightly change the appearance and disable it completely. For example, try "ide:GetEditor():SetFoldFlags(16)" to set one line or "ide:GetEditor():SetFoldFlags(0)" to disable them completely. "ide:GetEditor():SetFoldFlags(20)" will set it back to the default. I'll probably set it to one line by default and add a setting for those who want to disable them completely.

That is awesome, thanks! I disabled them completely, looks a *lot* cleaner now. Having an option for it would be pretty great
Thanks for all the work and congrats on the software o/

[paulclinger]

I honestly don't mind if toolbar only shows up when running/debugging the script - those are about the only times when I might use it, honestly. I'm guessing for regular users this is true as well? Maybe the actions that pertain to it (pause, stop, play, etc...) could dynamically show in the output/debugger.
Disabling the statusbar would be really nice, I don't think I have used it at all yet. I actually forgot it was there but I wouldn't mind getting the space back.
The menubar is tricky - I think having the option to disable it is great, so long as it is easy to re-enable and one can still access options.What if it became a cog menu of sorts, in the same row and the files tabs?

Right; that's the plan for all three; I plan to do the status/toolbar first (in few days). I probably won't be able to make a gear/cog menu button, but I'm thinking about reusing the tab dropdown for that (although there are still few challenges that require wxwidgets upgrade). Most likely it will come together with the enhanced theming support, which also depends on some new functionality in wxlua/wxwidgets.

> Arrow types, definitely gonna try those

I pushed a bunch of changes; if you use the latest version from github, you can now try "editor.foldtype = 'arrow'".

> That is awesome, thanks
> I think it makes sense to enable it by default if I'm not the only one requesting it. A thing that would make it awesome would be zebra lines in the output, just to better separate each line.

Right; this is the default now. Zebra lines are a bit problematic; I'll see if I come across an easy enough way to do that, but it's too much work for little benefit based on my cursory look.

> Aye, for user functions. For instance, if I create: self.setPosition = function(newX, newY) self.x, self.y = newX, newY end
> When I type whatever.setPosition(
> It would automatically show the "newX, newY" tooltip.

yes, that's planned, but not in the coming version.

> That is awesome, thanks! I disabled them completely, looks a *lot* cleaner now. Having an option for it would be pretty great

To do this in the latest version, you can use "editor.foldflags = 0"

> Thanks for all the work and congrats on the software o/

Thank you; let me know if you have any other suggestions...

BTW, all the UI-related updates are posted to this ticket: https://github.com/pkulchenko/ZeroBrane ... issues/305; you may watch it for updates if you are on github. I'll be also updating this thread periodically, but probably not as frequently as the ticket.

Paul.

[paulclinger]

@OttoRobba, @drakmaniso, pushed more UI changes (repository). Statusbar and toolbar can now be turned off and the toolbar will re-appear during debugging. All the changes will be saved between restarts. Filetree changes are still being worked on, but with the recent styling/font/size/color changes should already be easier on the eyes .

@drakmaniso, I haven't forgotten about auto-complete suggestions and testing on archLinux, but haven't had a chance to get to those yet...

Paul.

[OttoRobba]

Tested it, me gusta

Things I've noticed:
The circle fold flag seems a bit off, the line cuts into the circle. The arrow could be a tiny bit smaller (or not as wide).

Really like the improvements!

[paulclinger]

The circle fold flag seems a bit off, the line cuts into the circle. The arrow could be a tiny bit smaller (or not as wide).

I noticed the first thing as well, but it's not likely to change as all these markers are drawn by Scintilla and can't be configured. It may also be system dependent as the marker images don't show these issues. You can probably create your own marker using pixmap or rgba images, but I haven't tried that yet.

> Really like the improvements!

Glad to hear; more changes are coming..

[MadByte]

Is it possible to let ZBS save your files automatically with a time interval we can set somewhere ? I want to use ZBS with an hotswaping library and would like to let ZBS save like every 2 - 3 seconds while the game is running + only when something has changed.

[paulclinger]

Is it possible to let ZBS save your files automatically with a time interval we can set somewhere ? I want to use ZBS with an hotswaping library and would like to let ZBS save like every 2 - 3 seconds while the game is running + only when something has changed.

MadByte, you don't want to use "Save" shortcut or add one for "Save All"?

Yes, it should be quite doable. Do you only need the saves to happen while debugging? I may need to add one/two API calls for that, but everything else should be quite simple with a plugin. Let me know and I may be able to add it today.

[MadByte]

I don't want to save manually while live debugging my game, I want to see the changes immediately when changing a variable or a function
And yes, only needed while debugging.

btw, thanks for being so much community orientated! Really appreciate it.

[paulclinger]

I don't want to save manually while live debugging my game, I want to see the changes immediately when changing a variable or a function And yes, only needed while debugging.

There is one more complication though; you probably only want to save changes when they are valid, right? Because if 2s interval falls on you typing something you may be in the middle of a statement and this may break your live code (depending on how it's implemented). Do you want to check if the code can be compiled first? This is going to be a bit more complex that just saving it...

> btw, thanks for being so much community orientated! Really appreciate it.

I like getting feedback, so it goes both ways . thank you.