JShell tool: remove or keep default Edit Pad editor?

[Jonathan Gibbons]

The nice thing about a service-oriented approach is that you could 
provide/support/allow different editor services, such as "use EditPad", 
"use JEdit", "use EDITOR", and the user could configure their choice.

-- Jon


On 10/12/2016 03:56 PM, Robert Field wrote:
>
> On 10/12/16 09:04, Paul Deitel wrote:
>> While I understand the issue of bundling Edit Pad with respect to 
>> modularization, as an author of introductory computer programming 
>> texts, like Java How to Program, command line REPL is much less 
>> useful for beginners if they have to try to figure out how to edit 
>> something like a complete class definition from the command line.
>>
>> If possible, I’d recommend somehow providing access to a more robust 
>> cross-platform editor—perhaps something like jEdit (jedit.org). If 
>> not, perhaps the modularized JShell could provide an option that 
>> enables Edit Pad if someone wants to use it.
>
> jEdit is a nice editor.  I've started to use it as a stand-alone 
> editor -- thanks.   There are a lot issues with rolling external code 
> into the JDK -- and were it added the update cycle is far shower than 
> in the wild..  I think for a newbie jEdit would look like a jet 
> console.  Besides that somethings works out of the box, the idea of 
> the Edit Pad is to be dead-simple for newbies.
>
> jEdit would be a good choice for a user to use as the retained 
> external editor jshell setting.   I notice however that doing so you 
> do not get Java features, like syntax highlighting because the file 
> ends in ".edit".  I've added:
>
>     jshell tool: external editor temp file should be *.java
>     https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8167640
>
>>
>> If you do keep Edit Pad, here are some changes I’d like to see to 
>> make it slightly nicer:
>>
>> a. Use a fixed-width code font for readability
>>
>> b. Use a bigger font size or provide controls for changing the font 
>> size--the current size is tiny and hard to read
>>
>> c. Add 5-10 pixels of padding between the textbox containing the code 
>> and the window border—right now the left edge of the code is right up 
>> against the window’s border, again making the code hard to read.
>>
>> d. Separate each snippet from the next by a blank line.
>
> I have added:
>
>     jshell tool: Edit Pad has readability issues
>     https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8167639
>
> Separating by a blank line I have some hesitation.  For one, it does 
> not match what is sent to external editors.
>
> Thanks,
> Robert
>
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Paul
>