Re: Editor supporting "Escaped Characters"

From:
Lew <noone@lewscanon.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.java.programmer
Date:
Thu, 18 Nov 2010 08:52:52 -0500
Message-ID:
<ic3b2k$1tn$1@news.albasani.net>
Sebastian L (Berlin) wrote:

I am searching for an editor, that supports "escaped characters"
(/n /t // /") as in strings.


Those are not escaped characters. Maybe that is the source of your trouble.
<http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/third_edition/html/lexical.html#3.10.6>

I want to write/edit a long text/string I use in my source code, but
am annoyed every time, I want to make a change in it.


Externalize that string! Source code is no place for it.

When I put long strings in source, I break them up into multiple lines for
readability, e.g.,

public final static String LONGSTR =
   "This is a long string. I like to keep listings narrow for readability.\n"
  +"If you don't do that, you will have a hard time maintaining your code.\n"
  +"I think maybe you didn't define your problem correctly.\n"
  +"This way you don't have to futz around with silly mode switches.\n"
  +"BTW, why do you insist on putting quotes around the word \"escaped\" "
  +"every time you use it, much less \"plain text\"? "
  +"They serve no useful purpose."

What I need is an editor, where I can edit a "plain text" with
linebreaks and quotes; simply converting into "escaped"-format
afterwards and back.


That's not really what you need. You need to format your long strings for
readability at a minimum, or ideally to externalize them.

NetBeans and Eclipse both highlight escaped characters in an optionally
different color, font and style from other text. Emacs does, too, IIRC.
Others probably do, too.

Does anyone know a usable editor. [sic]


Yes, I do. All the ones I just mentioned.

Searching the net several times, I couldnt find a usable one....


Use one of the ones I mentioned, then. They're all eminently usable.

--
Lew

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