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JR_ Offline OP
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I dont understand why mIRCs script editor doesnt have any syntax highlighting, considering MSLs broad functionality and possiblities. Its missing the most basic and important feature. Every programmer will tell you that.

Hell even KvIrc and pretty much most other freeware irc clients do have it. Even QBasic back then had syntax highlighting........

Instead of adding more and more script functions you should have added syntax highlighting at first.

Another suggestion concerning your script editor is to attach a treebar to it, so we dont have to open the menubar everytime we want to quickly move over to a different file.

I dont know if you are using your own MSL editor, but I do a lot, and its not scripting friendly at all. It barely differs from a plain notepad window.

Having to rely on other 3rd party solutions(msldev/medit) is not really convenient either.

Why are you torturing us.

Regards me




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Hoopy frood
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This has been suggested a lot of times in the past, it probably represented too much work at the time and still does, what's the problem with mslDev?


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Vogon poet
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Originally Posted By: Wims
what's the problem with mslDev?


Nothing can be like a native editor. mSLDev is nice, but it's still a third-party editor..


Nothing...
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Originally Posted By: JR_

Having to rely on other 3rd party solutions(msldev/medit) is not really convenient either.


What's inconvenient about one line added to remotes?

Code:
on *:START:/dll medit.dll Load


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JR_ Offline OP
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Using a propiertary scripting language that is completely useless outside of mirc but having to rely on another 3rd party product to work reasonable with it. That's really great, considering other irc clients are capable of it out of the box. No offense, everybody else is/was able to add such stuff, why cant mirc. This discussion is not about 3rd party tools, apparently you didnt read out the irony of my earlier posting.

SECONDLY, not everybody knows about those 3rd party tools. That means a lot of people dont know they could use a 3rd party tool to enhance their scripting experience.

The whole point of this discussion is, why in the name of god this was not integrated in first place. This is a basic must have feature. And Everybody else usually has it out of the box.
Its so easy to add and yet it was never done. Instead
mIrc scripting became so powerful over the time and broad, and yet it lacks a basic feature.
Sorry but this is out of reason to me, especially considering we are using a proprietary scripting language.

Seriously if ur arguing about just using a 3rd party tool cuz its there and it does what mirc should have done already years ago, then u still dont get it. That why some people never will change the world, they take it as it is.


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Hoopy frood
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It's not really a basic feature. Colorizing text, is, by definition, a superficial feature.

Two things:

1. This has been requested before. Multiple times. Your suggestion is noted, but requesting it again isn't going to change much.

2. Regarding your point about "not everybody knows about those 3rd party tools"-- not everybody needs to know. Those who actually care about syntax highlighting will search for it. Presumably you've already googled "mirc syntax highlighting". Let's not insult the intelligence of others by forgetting that they will do the same. Note that the mIRC community is already conditioned to go looking for third party tools, as this is the whole basis of downloading scripts. Users should be aware that mIRC is a fairly "BYOT (tool)" ecosystem. Some people just don't need to bring this tool.

Let's play this feature out with a quick little hypothetical though: let's say Khaled does add syntax highlighting... would this make you write more code? would this make more users start writing mIRC scripts in general?

I personally think the answer to both of those is going to be "no". People don't download mIRC to write scripts, they download it to use IRC, so while it will make scripters lives easier, its not going to cause more people to download mIRC-- it's not even going to cause scripters to write more scripts, since they're presumably writing scripts out of necessity, not the beauty of the editor. All of this means the feature doesn't really add that much value-- Khaled probably understands this, which is why he prioritizes this feature so low.

...and this is coming from the guy who wrote that "syntax highlighting right inside the standard mIRC editor" dll. I don't even use it.


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Fjord artisan
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Originally Posted By: argv0

...and this is coming from the guy who wrote that "syntax highlighting right inside the standard mIRC editor" dll. I don't even use it.


arg0, agree with all you said, but the above I had to comment on the above...

If you wrote it Lord knows you must know mirc syntax better than most, so its logical you would not need it. I am one who does use the .dll often and I thank you for it.



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Hoopy frood
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Although syntax highlighting looks nice, I write software at work using Visual Studio, which includes syntax highlighting. And I don't really care if it's there or not. Sure, on occasion, I might be able to more quickly find something with it, but that's pretty uncommon. I basically just ignore the colors completely and it ends up being just like it would be if the text was all black. Some may like it, and I certainly don't mind it, but it is certainly not a necessary thing to have.

Now, the one thing I do like having that is somewhat related to syntax highlighting is syntax autocompletion. It's handy to be able to more quickly type some things out by starting the code and hitting tab to finish it. But that's a different beast than highlighting even though it goes together.


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Nobody said to turn mircs script editor into visual studio.
Nobody said either anything about ppl suddenly startin to write more scripts or even to sell more mirc licenses. The market is saturated, the only thing that happens is users changing clients instead of "new" ones coming into the market.
It's more about keeping your "old" people, and in general a lot of customers especialy occassional scripters never heard of those plugins and never will, cuz they take it for granted that its not there. And I wouldnt blame them, for not looking for something that i d already expect to be built in.
Most the ppl that i know, never heard of any of those 2 scripting "plugins".
Instead your just harassing people around.
Back then mIRC was something, but these days its just vegating around while other competitors are adding more and more things.
It's annyoing as hell.
Its like turning the wheel of time back, and still standing at the same point, oh wait no, mirc scripting even got much faster. </irony: cuz its slower by a factor of easily 2x and more up to 30x on some functions, most ppl wont notice but its a fact. >

The first programming rule is, a programm should work for its customer, not against him. But hey whatever, luckily i dont have to argue with ppl at work about adding new things like those, because im the guy in charge over there, coding and adding things myself.
Oh and u forgot one last thing, one of the most important things in business. How is your product comparing to competitor prodcuts. If u dont add functionality only cuz u think its not worth it, well, fine as long others dont either. But most functions u didnt want to add over the past months and years, got added in other clients.

Anyhow so long, im done with this topic.
Its like runnin in circles, lots of talk and yet nothing happens.

PS I have been using mirc for a very very long time, in case anyone thinks this is just a flame post ( since 199x )

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Hoopy frood
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If you're in charge of development, then you should be very aware that you don't prioritize something that has fairly low usefulness over something that has high usefulness. As has been stated, syntax highlighting is not very important, yet there are many other features that are very important. Development needs to start with the important things and if there is time and money left, only then do you add in minor things.

In the end, it doesn't really matter much if other IRC clients have syntax highlighting. I have yet to see any other client with a scripting language that is anywhere near what mIRC's is. People who want scripting ability will almost always choose mIRC regardless of syntax highlighting because it's by far the most in-depth scripting language in IRC clients.

Also, you do develop software for the customer. mIRC's customers aren't all scripters. And, in fact, most are not scripters. So syntax highlighting is far less important for the majority of users than fixing bugs, improving SSL, and adding a variety of other far more requested features. It's important to you, but not to most users (perhaps as many as 90% of users wouldn't care, but that's just my estimate based on years of reading posts here and listening to people on IRC).

And to be clear, I support adding it. However, I don't support adding it before adding more requested features that benefit far more people.

Btw, I never said mIRC scripting should be Visual Studio. My comment was solely about the fact that I use syntax highlighting with an explanation of where I use it.


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I will also just add two more notes, since you raised the issue of keeping old users:

1. Old users are used to not having syntax highlighting, I don't see how not adding it would make them leave. The larger barrier, as Riamus said, is the lack of other clients. If a veteran user left because mIRC lacks syntax highlighting, where would they go? I can't think of any client that competes, on Windows, and most others don't even have built-in editors in the first place (irssi, etc.).

2. The older users will know about the plugins and scripts that can add highlighting. They've been around the block, presumably they've done their research. Your point about not knowing about these scripts really only applies to newer users, which brings me back to: new users aren't picking up mIRC for the syntax highlighting. It might make it easier for them to learn, but this wouldn't be a stay or leave scenario.

I'm also for adding syntax highlighting to mIRC (that's why I wrote the dll), but from my experience implementing it, I don't think it's worth the effort for the minimal value add.

Also, I just saw this: "even QBasic back then had syntax highlighting". That made me double take. I don't know where you got that information, but QBasic never had syntax highlighting. This is the editor everyone saw:



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The OP is asking a legitimate question. And the answer that no one wants to admit is "we don't know." Who would not like the addition of syntax hi-lighting? Any of you? Of course not Syntax Hi-lighting is a benefit for all. It makes code easier to interpret. Mistakes are easier to spot and correct. And it helps users who are new to the language better learn it.



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I think you are missing a bit the point.
If we don't know, we still have a good idea about how things work, either because we tried to do it, or simply because it's part of our knowledge.

If Khaled were to add it, it would most likely bring up bug reports, meaning Khaled would have to spend his time on them (which is, as argv0 said, not needed, just a nice feature), rather than spending his time on mIRC itself.
A lot of people, probably Khaled included, prefer to see SSL working than syntax highlighting, this is understandable.
Also, the coloring part of the richedit control in the script editor is a slow task, that feature really represents a big amount of work.
Syntax highlighting is probably somewhere on Khaled's todo [huge] list, but its priority is probably not very high.

Quote:
It makes code easier to interpret. Mistakes are easier to spot and correct. And it helps users who are new to the language better learn it.
That's exactly why you have mslDev, it already does this better than anything you will ever see wink


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