So after a few days of (hopefully) well deserved vacation, I'm back to TM development, and I'm currently adding support for printing.
But printing plain text from a plain text editor is really alien to me ;) so I was curious, what options do people expect to see?
I.e. should it always be soft wrapped? Should the font be changeable in the printing dialog, or just use the document font? Should it have the option to print with/without line numbers? Another tab-size? How about syntax-highlight, should that be turned into b/w (there's a quartz filter to turn it into grey-scale by default)? etc. etc.
If you do use/desire printing, let me know which “options” you use (let's try not to mention all the things printing _could_ have) and what stuff you actually do print (as plain text), especially the latter will help me better understand the target audience for this feature!
Kind regards Allan
So after a few days of (hopefully) well deserved vacation, I'm back to TM development, and I'm currently adding support for printing.
Great!
I.e. should it always be soft wrapped? Should the font be changeable in the printing dialog, or just use the document font? Should it have the option to print with/without line numbers? Another tab-size? How about syntax-highlight, should that be turned into b/w (there's a quartz filter to turn it into grey-scale by default)? etc. etc.
I would love if it could something in the a2ps style, i.e.:
(1) soft wrapped text (2) keep syntax-highlight when printing (3) allow toprint with line numbers
Thanks in advance,
Normand Mousseau
On Oct 24, 2004, at 4:27 PM, Allan Odgaard wrote:
I.e. should it always be soft wrapped?
I prefer this, but you could make it a user-settable option.
Should the font be changeable in the printing dialog, or just use the document font?
I would be happy with the document font. It's one less option to worry about.
Should it have the option to print with/without line numbers?
Yes.
Another tab-size?
Again, go with the current document setting
How about syntax-highlight, should that be turned into b/w (there's a quartz filter to turn it into grey-scale by default)? etc. etc.
I would be more than happy to just have the ability to route the plain text file through something like a2ps or enscript and have TM return the resulting pdf for printing or saving to disk. Others may want more, but I'm easy to please.
William D. Neumann
"You've got Rita Marlowe in the palm of your hand." "Palm of my hand? You haven't seen Rita Marlowe..."
-- Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
Allan Odgaard allan@macromates.com wrote:
So after a few days of (hopefully) well deserved vacation, I'm back to TM development, and I'm currently adding support for printing.
Great!
But printing plain text from a plain text editor is really alien to me ;) so I was curious, what options do people expect to see?
Something like BBEdit print options?
I.e. should it always be soft wrapped? Should the font be changeable in the printing dialog, or just use the document font? Should it have the option to print with/without line numbers? Another tab-size? How about syntax-highlight, should that be turned into b/w (there's a quartz filter to turn it into grey-scale by default)? etc. etc.
All these parameters should be available in the print dialog box, or (let's dream :) in the Preference dialog box
If you do use/desire printing, let me know which "options" you use (let's try not to mention all the things printing _could_ have) and what stuff you actually do print (as plain text), especially the latter will help me better understand the target audience for this feature!
If the text is wrapped, and if the last paragraph could not be completely printed on the current page, it could automaticaly be printed on the top of next page (sounds like "orphan lines" no?). Add option to set manual page break in the document (perhaps this does already exists?) and a print preview (or at least see page break as grey line in the document window) Insert header in every page of the document with file path, date last saved, insert page footer with page number and total number of page of the document etc...
Bonne journée,
On 25/10/2004, at 1:55 PM, José Campos wrote:
But printing plain text from a plain text editor is really alien to me ;) so I was curious, what options do people expect to see?
Something like BBEdit print options?
Allan doesn't own BBEdit, and it's best that he doesn't really see how other's do it... best off coming up with own solution -- safer, cleaner, and more chance of innovation.
I.e. should it always be soft wrapped? Should the font be changeable in the printing dialog, or just use the document font? Should it have the option to print with/without line numbers? Another tab-size? How about syntax-highlight, should that be turned into b/w (there's a quartz filter to turn it into grey-scale by default)? etc. etc.
All these parameters should be available in the print dialog box,or (let's dream :) in the Preference dialog box
They should be in the print dialogue, and be "remembered" between prints. In addition, I like the idea that I could have a couple of different sets of print dialogues preset and available as pull-down menu, much like the printer defaults and saved settings in OS X, and the PDF export options of programs like InDesign.
Add option to set manual page break in the document (perhaps thisdoes already exists?) and a print preview (or at least see page break as grey line in the document window)
Too much... it's not a word processor :) I think an option in the print dialogue which makes bookmarks (those stars) act like forced page breaks would be plenty.
Insert header in every page of the document with file path, datelast saved, insert page footer with page number and total number of page of the document etc...
And if this header was customisable with TM_* variables (and some new vars), etc etc, that would be great.
Justin
On Oct 24, 2004, at 23:27, Allan Odgaard wrote:
I'm back to TM development, and I'm currently adding support for printing. what options do people expect to see?
Great !!
I.e. should it always be soft wrapped?
Yes, by default, with an option to turn off (for those who would like that. Why they would escapes me)
Should the font be changeable in the printing dialog, or just use the document font?
Same as document as default, and with an option to change IF (!!!) it's quick and easy for you to add it. Not important for me.
Should it have the option to print with/without line numbers?
YES !! Definitely with line numbers as default and with options to change.
Another tab-size?
No, not unless it's easy for you to incorporate this feature.
How about syntax-highlight, should that be turned into b/w (there's a quartz filter to turn it into grey-scale by default)?
Hmm. I'm split on this one. Used to print out all my code for reviewing while travelling on the Tube in the past, and then colour syntax was useful. Very useful !! These days I can't afford to print in colour, so I print on a B&W laser printer. Since printing mono, I am printing without syntax colouring since certain colours at 11px Monaco on 2 pages/page printing at 300dpi looks like crap.
So to summarise: Default = Without syntax colouring: Option 1: with colour syntax colouring, Option 2: with grayscale syntax colouring.
(Why have all three versions ?? Well, then you could print a grayscale version even though you have colour printer. Saves on ink )
etc. etc.
Page Margins: This is very important to me. The default in Apple's TextEdit app is 1 inch margins and no way to change this. (WTF !!! Stupid crap) Whatever you do, please make sure that the page margins can go down to 1 cm so that I can make good use of the page. Being a bit stingy when it comes to printing on paper : ) IF this is impossible, please let us know.
Print Dialog: I assume that you would implement Apple's default Print dialog box, so that we have the options to preview, save as PDF etc. How much control do you have over the default print sheet ?? Can you easily add the extra option in there as checkboxes, or do you have to use the pop-up menu for implementing the TM options as a separate sheet ??
Code Foldings: It would be great if we could have an option on how the printing handled the code foldings: The default option would be to un-fold folded code for printing ( but NOT in the current code view, only in the printed output ), but it would be good too if we could have foldings in there as well as a way to 'hide' large chunks of code that we are not interested in. If you see what I'm saying.
I also support Justin's ideas: Print presets, bookmarks = page breaks & customisable headers with TM_Vars.
Off Topic for Allan:: I suggested a version of Project Shell variables ( see Feature Request: Per Project Shell Variables ) which received no replies. Any comments on this ?? Just curious : )
Kind regards,
Mats
Op 25-okt-04 om 00:27 heeft Allan Odgaard het volgende geschreven:
So after a few days of (hopefully) well deserved vacation, I'm back to TM development, and I'm currently adding support for printing.
But printing plain text from a plain text editor is really alien to me ;) so I was curious, what options do people expect to see?
I.e. should it always be soft wrapped? Should the font be changeable in the printing dialog, or just use the document font? Should it have the option to print with/without line numbers? Another tab-size? How about syntax-highlight, should that be turned into b/w (there's a quartz filter to turn it into grey-scale by default)? etc. etc.
If you do use/desire printing, let me know which “options” you use (let's try not to mention all the things printing _could_ have) and what stuff you actually do print (as plain text), especially the latter will help me better understand the target audience for this feature!
Well, if you start implementing stylesheets for syntaxes, maybe you could add a print stylesheet for every syntax. There you can set nice syntax hilighting colors. (so it doesn't use a black background or something :))
Other than that, I would just print it like you see it. If I enabled line numbers, print the line numbers, otherwise don't. If I set tab size to 3 spaces, use 3 spaces for printing.. I would keep the number of print-options to a minimum. Otherwise it's a PITA to find and set all the options. (I don't want a KDE nightmare on my mac :-))
Also, it would be nice to keep a folding on the same page. It isn't always possible for big foldings, but it would be nice if the following is avoided as much as possible:
def goodmorning(name)
--- page end ---
puts "Goodmorning #{name}! How are you today?" end
On 25. Oct 2004, at 13:03, Mats Persson wrote:
Page Margins: [...] IF this is impossible, please let us know.
I'll look into it! ;)
How much control do you have over the default print sheet ?? Can you easily add the extra option in there as checkboxes, or do you have to use the pop-up menu for implementing the TM options as a separate sheet ??
I can add auxiliary views, so it's no problem to add options to the standard dialog.
Off Topic for Allan:: I suggested a version of Project Shell variables ( see Feature Request: Per Project Shell Variables ) which received no replies. Any comments on this ?? Just curious : )
Yes, there will be project variables. Probably I'll do this for the next beta, and I'll do the GUI as well (I feel the GUI-side of TextMate is lacking seriously behind, so probably I should work a bit on the GUI before I add more "hidden" options ;) ).
Long term I would like to ditch project files (.tmproj) and have the project drawer be more like a regular Finder window, and a project is just a "snapshot" (bookmark/favorite) of the current project drawer contents (with filters, mixed sources etc.) -- and probably at the top (folder) level there'll be virtual folders for networks (ftp/sftp), saved projects (i.e. snapshots) etc.
TextMate will then by default just show the user home directory (~) in a collapsed state in the project drawer, when opening a new window.
But I'm not settled 100% on how to handle this -- I'm mentioning it only to send a signal that project files should be deprecated in the future, so I don't want to start to rely too much on these (unless it turns out that they really are unavoidable).
Kind regards Allan
On 24 Oct 2004, at 23:27, Allan Odgaard wrote:
So after a few days of (hopefully) well deserved vacation, I'm back to TM development, and I'm currently adding support for printing.
Definitely well deserved!
But printing plain text from a plain text editor is really alien to me ;) so I was curious, what options do people expect to see?
These would be top of my list (in rough order of importance):
- The ability to select different fonts for display and print (Nice to reduce the size of long printouts)
- Line numbers
- Some flexibility in defining headers / footers (File / path name, modification date / page number / total pages)
- A switch to right-justify soft-wrapped lines
- The ability to switch syntax highlighting on or off when printing, or perhaps the ability to select a different form of highlighting. (Highlighting can look pretty awful on paper - depending on the font. Printouts are often clearest with just the class / method / function declarations in bold - for easy reference).
- Some form of control over orphans / widows (agree with the comments from José and Justin)
Cheers all, -- Andre
-
Allan Odgaard -
Andre Posumentov -
Jan Sabbe -
jose.campos+tm＠galacsys.com -
Justin French -
Mats Persson -
profprof＠mac.com -
William D.Neumann