Refactoring, hints / tips and tools.

[Dr Danyo]

Just to pick everyone's brains...

The feature I use the most when refactoring JADE code is the "Copy Highlighted Text Only" check box on the "Copy Method As" dialogue. If anyone has any advice or could recommend any tools I would be grateful to hear from you.

regards,
Dr Danyo

[BeeJay]

The feature I make the most use of, at least in 6.3.xx systems, is the multiple clipboards.

I find this very useful when you're copying the same code snippets, and especially when you have more than 1 code snippet, into many different "unrelated" classes where the code can't be inherited from a common superclass.

Cheers,
BeeJay.

[ghosttie]

Jade has multiple clipboards?

[BeeJay]

Yes. It's a two stage key sequence very similar to the standard Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V as follows:

To copy to one of the 10 multiple clipboards
1. Press Ctrl+Alt+C and release.
2. Press one of the numeric keys 1 through 0 to copy the current selection to one of the 10 clipboards

To paste from one of the 10 multiple clipboards
1. Press Ctrl+Alt+V and release
2. Press one of the numeric keys 1 through 0 to paste the contents.

These clipboards operate independent of the standard Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V clipboard but they only work within a given IDE instance. ie: They don't work across different IDE instances but they're still exceedingly useful.

Note: I've yet to go beyond 4 clipboards as you do have to remember the contents of each clipboard yourself. I've also used keyboard bindings to replicate this using Ctrl+Alt+Insert and Shift+Alt+Insert to extend the standard Ctrl+Insert and Shift+Insert copy and paste option with the extended clipboards. (I always use Ctrl+Insert and Shift+Insert rather than Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V when I'm doing copy and paste.)

Another thing I find useful when working with some "long" methods is using the method splitter (Ctrl+Shift+W or just drag the resize bar at the bottom of the method source) and then size the top area of the split so that all the parameters & local variables are visible while reviewing the rest of the method logic.

Cheers,
BeeJay.

[Dr Danyo]

Thanks BeeJay, I didnt know about either of those features, Ill give them a shot today.

Cheers.

[Dr Danyo]

I've been using the excellent open source multiple clipboard tool Ditto, it uses a db to persistent (and synch to multiple computers) your clipboard, supports searching and quick find and lets you store a huge number of clipboard entries.

http://ditto-cp.sourceforge.net/