Source code formatter

Started by pwhirley, May 01, 2024, 05:03:09 PM

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pwhirley

Has anyone out there written a source code formatter for PXPlus programs?  I use Eclipse with a plug-in developed and maintained by Fred McGuirk.  It does a great job of decompiling PXPlus programs into text source, but it does not attempt to do any pretty formatting.  I am considering writing a tool to do the formatting (i.e. remove LET, replace "THEN" with "{", indent IF and loop constructs, etc).  I don't want to write it if someone else has already done so.

Phil
Philip Whirley
Freelance software developer
Ride the Lowcountry, LLC
phil@whirley.org

Mike King

There is one built into ED+.

Simply load the program into ED+ then select Tools >> Reformat from the menu bar. 

You can then save the resultant as a sequential file.
Mike King
President - BBSysco Consulting
eMail: mike.king@bbsysco.com

Josh Fake

Mike/Phil,

If I remember correctly with ED+, applications and programs that use line numbers would renumber not maintaining the original line numbers.  It's been a long while since I tried utilizing ED+ but it was too cumbersome to use with the application I modify and maintain.

I would LOVE to see an add-on to either Notepad++ or Visual Studio Code (Preferred) for PxPlus.

Allen Miglore

*IT is much better at working with programs with line numbers.  ED+ just treats the line numbers as part of the code, with no functionality to renumber or maintain auto numbering as you insert lines.  What I wish *IT had was code formatting with indention of loops and {} if blocks (and code folding would be nice too).  It's easy to get lost in long, deeply nested sections.  I work with both, depending on if I'm willing to remove line numbers, which for much existing code I can't.

pwhirley

Thanks for the input.
I have not used line numbers in my code in many years, so changing line numbers doesn't bother me at all.  I also haven't used ED+ in many years, but I'll check it out and see if I can make use of it.  I really don't want to have to load individual programs to reformat them.  I would prefer to be able to process a whole folder full of source text at once.

Josh, you might want to check out the Eclipse plug-in.  Notepad++ is a good editor, but Eclipse is a full-featured integrated development environment which you can use at no cost.  With the plug-ins available (https://eclipse.sagemas.com) you get a decent editor and the ability to decompile programs, recompile with error flagging, a to-do list, very sophisticated search tool, integration to SVN or Git and much more.  You can automatically save your programs, classes and libraries to multiple locations such as a project space and a test system.

I'll let y'all know if I write something to format or if I figure out how to automate the existing ED+ tool.

Phil
Philip Whirley
Freelance software developer
Ride the Lowcountry, LLC
phil@whirley.org

Len Vassos

Thanks for all your input.

Based on feedback from our developer community, we will be introducing a PxPlus extension for Visual Studio Code in PxPlus 2024 which is scheduled to be released later this month.
PVX Plus Technologies, Ltd.

pwhirley

This is great news, Len!  Thanks for letting us know.  I will look forward to the extension and will immediately begin playing with it. 

Perhaps I'll even make it to the developer conference in September, though I can't find much information on it.

Phil
Philip Whirley
Freelance software developer
Ride the Lowcountry, LLC
phil@whirley.org