Macro functionality with keyboard shortcuts in Eclipse? - eclipse

Having used Netbeans for ages and being new to Eclipse I couldn't see any built-in Macro functionality in Eclipse. I found the Practically Macro plug-in but this does not seem to have the capability to add keyboard shorcuts. One needs to go through two menus and therefore two mouse clicks to run a macro using the aforementioned plugin.
This does not serve well for my need of frequent macro applications. Is there anyway to have very simple Macros using keyboard shortcuts in Eclipse? Or should I start writing my own Eclipse plugin for this? Or perhaps use another light weight tool for this purpose? Do you have any suggestions?

There doesn't seem to be anything else than Practically Macro for Eclipse. Once you use a Macro, you can press Ctrl-Alt-P to replay that. This helps a bit, but when you want to switch between a couple of macros back and forth doesn't help much.

Not sure about this Macro plug-in you're using, but you can modify keyboard shortcuts (Helios) in Preferences->General->Keys.

Testing PracticallyMacro I found that it did not record right clicks but I was able to find a perfect utility 'TinyTask' and 'TyperTask'. The former can export record and save as small 'exe' files which can then be added as external Eclipse builders the latter can automate tasks based on typed characters - epic.

Related

Eclipse autocomplete parentheses in control structures

I have a quick question that might save me a few seconds of annoyance every day. I know that eclipse can do a lot of autocomplete magic, so this might be possible:
As a programmer who learned with python, I constantly forget to surround contitions in control structures (like if or while) with parentheses. How do I make eclipse autocomplete opening and closing parentheses when I finish typing while or if?
I am aware that I can autocomplete whole structures with ctrl-space, but how can I configure eclipse to do this by itself?
Any help is appreciated.
So in stock Eclipse, the usual way to bring up assisted content is to type Ctrl+Space. The problem with this is that it brings up both Help Proposals and Template Proposals, with the Help Proposals displayed first. You end up wasting time scrolling down to find what you actually want from the Template Proposals. And there's just that much more clutter to choose from.
The solution is this:
Go Window->Preferences->General->Keys. In the type filter text search for "Template". This should bring up a "C++ Content Assist (Template Proposal)" line. Click on it. Now map this to whatever shortcut you'd like (I did Shift+Space because that's an easy one to do while typing). Make sure to click on the "Binding" option to do this. Click "Ok" and you're done!
If you ever want to add or change what is brought up by that shortcut, and for which specific strings it works, just go Window->Preferences->C/C++->Editor->Templates and you can edit those to do exactly what you'd like when using that newly assigned shortcut.
Hope this helps.
EDIT: I am unable verify if this works for PyDev, as I'm running Eclipse Oxygen, which doesn't currently offer PyDev or the Eclipse Marketplace Client plugin. However, my guess is this would still work in PyDev. Best of luck!
Sources:
Setting auto complete shortcuts in Eclipse
How to change the Control+Space autocomplete shortcut keys in Eclipse for Android
Thanks for any help, but the only thing that seems to work are workarounds. My prefered "solution" is to change the Auto activation triggers for Java in Preferences>Java>Editor>Content Assist from . to .iwfs, so that the autocomplete dialog automatically pops up when I start typing if, while, for or switch. Then hitting enter will do exactly what I needed.

How to create a Notepad++ macro to run multiple plugins automatically?

I am using Notepad++ for different languages i.e: JAVA, C, C++. For each of these languages I have installed plugins to make coding easier in Notepad++.
The problem is that every time I start Notepad++ I have to go and run all those plugins manually. I tried recording a macro so that it will perform all these actions by one click but it didn't record anything I did with the plugins. The macro will record any changes I bring to the code or if I save the code to some other location but it won't record the actions performed by the plugins.
Can anyone guide me to a solutions.
Thank you in advance.
Have a look at AutoHotKey tool. It can send keystrokes/mouseclicks to Notepad++ so you can easily combine invoking many menu items into one command. (And much more like work with clipboard, ask for values in input boxes, run apps or DLL's.) Please see AutoHotKey usage with Notepad++ in this answer.

Workspace Editor Macros in Eclipse

Is there a way to record permanent workspace macros in Eclipse and assign them a shortcut key or template?
I'd like to automate some of the actions I routinely do. Workspace editor templates are not a solution since I need to include some conditional logic as well. For example check what is a symbol to the right/left of the cursor.
See my answer at How can I launch more than one debug session in Eclipse from a single click? . The same plugin can work for you as well.

How to Make Eclipse More Like Emacs

I am very familiar with emacs--and I realize that there is nothing that it cannot do--but there are some things that it does not do well or efficiently. So, being between projects I am open to the idea of switching to a full-featured IDE such as Eclipse.
With muscle-memory being what it is, I would like to make Eclipse as emacs-like as possible. I have already discovered the excellent Emacs+ plugin which gets me about halfway there. However, I am still missing the following features of emacs which I routinely rely upon:
shell: It's not just a shell, it's also a buffer.
occur: Search->File... is close to what I want, but I just want it to search the current file--which might be a text file, a logfile, or a shell buffer, or whatever.
align-regexp: This awesome little command in emacs helps me make files more readable, and alignment helps with keyboard macros.
What plugins would you recommend to solve these issues? Are there any other emacs features you miss in Eclipse or plugins you would recommend?
Please, no emacs/vi zealots asking why on Earth I would do such a thing.
For the shell you have WickedShell
Ctrl+F is enough to trigger a Search within the current file. (does not create a new buffer with matched lines)
Only Mark Occurrences is about highlighting occurrences, but that is not as advanced as the Emacs function.
Formatter options can emulate "align-regex" function, as described here.
Preferences -> Java -> Code Style -> Formatter.
Click 'Edit' on the profile (you may need to make a new one since you can't edit the default).
In the indentation section select 'Align fields with columns'.
Then, in your code Ctrl+Shift+F will run that formatter.
I can confirm Brian's suggestion (Emacs key-bindings). What I do to resolve this dilemma is to use both Emacs and Eclipse simultaneously. They are both very good at reporting external changes to files so there is minimal chance of tromping on edits (but it can happen). More to the point, you can leverage the strengths of both tools without having to give up either one. The combination of using both tools and Eclipse having Emacs key-bindings makes this quite satisfactory for me.
IIRC (It's been a while since I've used eclipse) eclipse has a "use Emacs key-bindings" mode. I believe that there's also the option to tell eclipse to use emacs as its own editor...

vim commands in Eclipse

I have been doing some java development lately and have started using Eclipse. For the most part, I think it is great, but being a C/C++ guy used to doing all of his editing in vim, I find myself needlessly hitting the Esc key over and over.
It would be really nice if I got all the nice features of Eclipse, but still could do basic editing the same way I can in vim. Anyone know of any Eclipse pluggins that would help with this?
Vrapper:
an Eclipse plugin which acts as a wrapper for Eclipse text editors to provide a Vim-like input scheme for moving around and editing text.
Unlike other plugins which embed Vim in Eclipse, Vrapper imitates the behaviour of Vim while still using whatever editor you have opened in the workbench. The goal is to have the comfort and ease which comes with the different modes, complex commands and count/operator/motion combinations which are the key features behind editing with Vim, while preserving the powerful features of the different Eclipse text editors, like code generation and refactoring...
There is this plugin that costs $20+
http://satokar.com/viplugin/
I use it and it works great, you've got basic vi movement commands and a set of others.
Here is an open source, free plugin but i've never been able to get it working (i'm on a mac).
http://sourceforge.net/projects/vimplugin/
You can also go the other way and get eclipse code completion inside vim.
http://eclim.sourceforge.net/
You basically run an instance of Eclipse and you will be working inside vim. They just released a version compatible with Eclipse 3.4.
New plugin I've started using
https://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/viable-vim-eclipse
Viable has pretty much what you are looking for along with some extra features which none of the other plugins for eclipse seem to have, like some support for visual block mode, command line history, window splitting, and piping external commands.
It is pay ($15.00 CAD) but free to tree with all the features. I personally like it better than the other solutions.