Updated Wiki: Thor TWEeT 24

Thor TWEeT #24: New Thor Tools

There are eight new tools that have been added recently to the Thor Repository:

• Pack VCXs, SCXs, etc. from a project or folder
• Hack Intellisense
• Dropdown Intellisense Scripts
• Keyboard Macro Expansion
• Create SQL Data Dictionary
• Browse SQL Data Dictionary
• Toggle Debugger
• Toggle PEM Editor Event Handler

Pack VCXs, SCXs, etc. from a project or folder

There

Hack Intellisense

The new tool Hack Intellisense provides an extremely usable alternative to the native Intellisense Manager (shown below) for working with your custom Intellisense scripts.

I always found the Intellisense Manager page to be remarkably opaque, to the point where I simply gave up trying to add any new scripts to it. 

The tool Hack Intellisense provides a different UI to update your FoxCode table, making everything much clearer. It also provides a number of niceties, including:

• Filtering by text or type of script (I suggest trying "User" filter)
• Sorting
• Buttons to duplicate or remove a script.
• Buffering of your changes, so that you can commit or revert as desired
• Backing up of your FoxCode table.
• Customizable signature
• "Edit" and "Test" buttons for your more intricate code (in field "data")

In the short time that this tool has been available, I have already found that I am taking advantage of these custom scripts much more frequently.

There are also plans of enhancing Hack Intellisense to facilitate sharing of scripts that we have each created over time. I will keep you posted of any developments.

Note also a related tool, DropDown Intellisense Scripts, announced last week, which helps you find and use scripts you have created without using this form.

Hack Intellisense was written by Rick Schummer, with some tweaks by Todd Landrum and myself.

Dropdown Intellisense Scripts

There

Keyboard Macro Expansion

The new tool Keyboard Macro Expansion is an extension to native Intellisense. Native Intellisense expands custom scripts, but only at the beginning of a line of code in the command window or code window.

Thus, when I type TGO (one of my custom Intellisense scripts) into the command window and follow it by a space, it is expanded by Intellisense to:

ExecScript(_Screen.cThorDispatcher, 'Get Option=', 'KEY', 'TOOL')

The new tool Keyboard Macro Expansion also expands Intellinsense scripts, but is not limited to doing so at the beginning of a line.

If I enter the following:

lcOption = TGO

and then call this new tool (which I have assigned to the hot key Ctrl+I), it expands to:

lcOption = ExecScript(_Screen.cThorDispatcher, 'Get Option=', 'KEY', 'TOOL')

(This works by reading the same definitions from the FoxCode table as used by native Intellisense.)

There is a second extension, provided in the plug-in for  Keyboard Macro Expansion(see Plug-Ins). The plug-in provides an alternative to the FoxCode table so that you can programmatically evaluate the word that is to be substituted for and replace it as desired.  The sample code in the plug-in demonstrates how

loAnything

becomes

Local loAnything as Anything of Anything.prg

Create SQL Data Dictionary

There

Browse SQL Data Dictionary

There

Toggle Debugger

There

Toggle PEM Editor Event Handler

There