C/AL code editor

Guybrush_Threepwood

I took a short overview about this thread. the navision IDE is not as bad as it seems to be. although, I miss some features even the crapiest and loveless coded source-code editor have - like syntax high-lighting or (partial) usefull error warnings (that does NOT mean that navison error warnings are useless at all).

on the other side, the navison IDE is pretty integrated in the whole navision. you don´t need to switch between editor an navision, because the editor IS part of navision. there is even no need to save your object to run it.
what i think the developers should integrate is the syntax highlighting, so that you can see with one simple look which code-snippet belongs to an other. i can´t really understand why a feature like this, that is nearly standard in 99,9% of actual available developing tools is not integrated in navision. it would make development and bug-hunting a little bit easier.

p.s.:
at least you don´t need to love it - you just have to work with it :-)

p.p.s.:
the search function IS crap #-o

kine

i can´t really understand why a feature like this, that is nearly standard in 99,9% of actual available developing tools is not integrated in navision.

Because Navision IDE is not "actual available" - it is IDE few long year old without facelifting... :-)

abartonicek

It's not that bad, I'm new to Navision but I'm already used to it!
Could be better but...
I miss something like: jump to function (from C/L Globals->Functions), I hate all that scrolling...

Guybrush_Threepwood

kine wrote:

Because Navision IDE is not "actual available" - it is IDE few long year old without facelifting... :-)

What not necessary means it is bad ... i just hope that the developers of mbs one day get rid of it and spend time with "faceliftings" :-)

btw. did the navision developers at mbs work with the same tools we did? if "yes" they must be used to the pain

Marije_Brummel

Sicne 3.70 it is possible to search on function names and jump to the function.

Leonh

In my opinion it isnt that there is anything amazingly wrong with the functionality of the IDE. My main gripe is the text editor, it just fails to do some pretty basic stuff such as highlighting text etc. Not the most important thing in the world, but not the most difficult to implement either.

Guybrush_Threepwood

Mark Brummel wrote:

Sicne 3.70 it is possible to search on function names and jump to the function.

That is right. Although, I mean the missing search function in an toher context.

Example:
On any form I want to fill the property "SourceExpr". I press "F6" and i get into the "Liste Table" (<- the german localization of Nav 4 SP2). there i can´t use "ctrl+f" to find the table i want to use. Even if i know the name AND the number, i can only jump per the first character. if i want to choose table 80000 for example, i can only jump from table to table which number starts with "8" until i reach table 80000. and it´s not better when i "search" for the table name. Table name is "machines" i have to jump from table to table by pressing "m". why can´t i use "ctrl+f" and type in "80000" or "machines" in the proper column? that is why i wrote that the search function is crap. in this special case it such a crap not because it doesn´t work proper but it doe not exists anyway.

Guybrush_Threepwood

Leonh wrote:

In my opinion it isnt that there is anything amazingly wrong with the functionality of the IDE. My main gripe is the text editor, it just fails to do some pretty basic stuff such as highlighting text etc. Not the most important thing in the world, but not the most difficult to implement either.

yeah, that´s true. it works and i´m not really unhappy with it at all. there´s just a few trivials that are annoying if someone works with it every day.

highlighting seems not to be sooo difficult to implement ... that´s why it is so incomprehensible at all.

Marije_Brummel

Guybrush_Threepwood wrote:

Example:
On any form I want to fill the property "SourceExpr". I press "F6" and i get into the "Liste Table" (<- the german localization of Nav 4 SP2). there i can´t use "ctrl+f" to find the table i want to use. Even if i know the name AND the number, i can only jump per the first character. if i want to choose table 80000 for example, i can only jump from table to table which number starts with "8" until i reach table 80000. and it´s not better when i "search" for the table name. Table name is "machines" i have to jump from table to table by pressing "m". why can´t i use "ctrl+f" and type in "80000" or "machines" in the proper column? that is why i wrote that the search function is crap. in this special case it such a crap not because it doesn´t work proper but it doe not exists anyway.

Absolutely true

This is why I copy the tableno from the objectdesigner before I make the tablelrelation 8-[

That is only when I don';t know the tableid by heart because that is what happens after a short while

Guybrush_Threepwood

it comes better! as long as that window "Liste Table" is open, i can´t reach any other parts of the editor!

at the end, i have a really long list with table-numbers and -names but i can´t browse it reason. of course, if you use navision for a long time i´m sure that you know nearly ALL the tables with number and name memorized ... although i think it would be a nice feature ... and on other places in navision you have that option indeed. you can search there with wildcards and other comfort-functions.


I don´t want to say the c/al code editor is bad at all ... there are just a few little things where they (the mbs-guys) can do it much better. in german there is an adage "da hat sich jemand hingesetzt und sich gedanken darüber gemacht". i don´t think the sense is the same in english "someone sit down and agitate how to do something". means someone really take intense thoughts how to do something good. in navision i often have the feeling "wow, the developers really have done a good job". on the other side i have often the feeling "hmm, i don´t actually think they know what they do when they did this", too.

thaug

Guybrush, the "feature" of searching for objects is horrendous. I just want to be able to use CTRL-F and find an object. You can spend a lot of time searching for objects that could have been MUCH easier.

While we are at, why can't I search for a field name when I'm in the table designer? With a table like Sales Header, there are so many fields, and so many custom fields that we have put in, that I have a lot of trouble finding. CTRL-F would certainly help.

It would also be nice if you can go in the C/AL Globals or Locals, and click on a function, press F9, and have it take you directly to that function. True, I can search for functions now, but it still is not a perfect solution. Say you are trying to find a function that has paramaters. Unless you know the paramater names, you might be doing a lot of searching if that function is used a lot in the code. An extra checkbox in Find for Find Function would work nicely.

Or how about when you have a variable that points to a non-existant table? You compile, and it tells you there is a problem, but it should bring you to C/AL Globals or Locals where it is.

I've gotten used to many of the quirks of this IDE. But, I do miss many of the features that I used to have in Visual Basic and Visual FoxPro that I was using in the year 2000 (I was on 6.0 version of both).

Guybrush_Threepwood

I agree without any contradiction.

deyo84

http://deyo.co.cc/

robsmit

Get a life, Visual Foxpro is far better.