Hi,

When you enable "show special characters" or "show hidden characters" (eg: spaces and tab characters), most editors place the tab character indicator exact where the tab character actually occurs in the text. The beginning of the tab width. Lazarus IDE place the tab character indicator at the trailing end of the tab width. See 'before.png' image.

Placing the tab character indicator at the beginning makes it easier to see, because it is never against any normal text.

I would like to modify my Lazarus to do what most other editors do - maybe the official Lazarus will change too (but I don't mind if it doesn't).

Anyway, I know nothing about SynEdit, but I think I found the place I need to modify. My tab indicators are now "almost" in the correct location - they just don't match up with the actual tab width. See 'after.png' image. And the more tab characters i have, the worse it gets.

Attached is my patch. Can somebody tell me what my patch is doing wrong please?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
- Graeme -

I fixed the problem. Attached image is now how my tab characters are displayed. I also attached the new fixed synedit.pp patch file.

Regards,
- Graeme -

Looks ok, to me. I think it can be included, and will do so.

I will probably save "j", by moving the special char in front of the loop, and make it a while loop

...

Actually have to think about it.

Current solution allows you to see where a tab ends, if it is at the end of line (ok, most tabs are at the start of line, or middle).

OpenOffice writer puts the symbol in the middle (centered) Notepad++ has a continues arrow over the whole tab eclipse show them at start

Martin wrote

OpenOffice writer puts the symbol in the middle (centered) Notepad++ has a continues arrow over the whole tab eclipse show them at start

syn (editor also based on SynEdit) puts symbol in the middle EditPad Pro - symbol at the beginning.
Midnight Commander - uses <-----> style arrows (looks terrible) MonoDevelop uses a symbol in the beginning

I guess the other reason I like the symbol in the beginning, is because it help visually seeing indentation blocks from start to finish.

Regards,
- Graeme -

I put an option in synedit.

It is not published in ide options (patch welcome). but you can edit it on top of synedit:

   TSynVisibleSpecialChar = (vscSpace, vscTabAtFirst, vscTabAtLast);
   SYNEDIT_DEFAULT_VISIBLESPECIALCHARS = [
     vscSpace,
     vscTabAtLast
   ];
property VisibleSpecialChars: TSynVisibleSpecialChars

Martin wrote

I put an option in synedit.

Excellent, thanks.

Regards,
- Graeme -