NetLinx Studio settings

jjames

I'm not sure how many of you have been exporting your hotkeys or editor settings since it's been available, but I love it. I'd bet most if not all of us moved away from the default colors offered by AMX - which in my opinion, is very difficult to read (especially the silver / light gray on white background.)

Anyway, I thought I'd offer my colors and a preview of what they look like. I'd also like to see what other programmers are using for their settings.

Also, if you post your editor settings, you'll need to rename them to an extension that is allowed on here - I used "txt". Then, when downloading it, you'll need to change it back to "epx".

And the obvious . . .
BE SURE TO BACK UP YOUR SETTINGS BEFORE LOADING ANYONE ELSES!!!

Marc Scheibein

I like it more "classic"

DHawthorne

I too liked the old Axcent scheme, and mine is set something like it.

Dries Kaspers

Fairly standard, but more readable than default colors....

Chip Moody

Simple, perhaps too bland, but it works for me. I've always hated the default white background, but the old Axcess black was TOO dark for me...

- Chip

jjames

Fonts?

One more question - what font do you use?

I'm partial to the Raize font - which can be found for free at http://www.raize.com/DevTools/Tools/RzFont.asp - just because it's monospaced, it has crossed zeros, and for me is easy to read.

wcravenel

Jeremiah,

Many thanks for that font, crossed zeros very nice.

Bill

DHawthorne

The lack of a slashed (or dotted) zero has been driving me nuts for a while now, but I can't say that Raize is to my taste either (bit too jaggy). So I went hunting and found this gem of a web site: http://www.lowing.org/fonts/ .

I happen to agree with the site owner that the Bitstream Vera Sans Mono is the best choice, but there are a lot of nice fonts there.

pdabrowski

Also a user of the classic dark background - and I found the font "anonymous" from the above mentioned site to be easy on the eye - even at 8px

Matt Bradley

That 'Anonymous' font looks better on the webpage that it does used. Not near as smooth looking when viewed in the Studio editor.

I'm trying 'Crisp' from this page of programmer fonts:

http://www.proggyfonts.com/index.php?menu=download

Bigsquatch

I just found this thread when searching for something else entirely.

You can see my color scheme here:
http://fc07.deviantart.com/fs27/f/2008/121/6/9/NS_Light_On_Blue_by_Bigsquatch.png

If you want to use my settings then copy and paste the following into a text file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><EditorSettings><ClipboardTextBufferMaxItems>20</ClipboardTextBufferMaxItems>
<ClipboardTextBufferMaxWidth>50</ClipboardTextBufferMaxWidth>
<AutoIndentEnabled>1</AutoIndentEnabled>
<ShowLineNumbersEnabled>1</ShowLineNumbersEnabled>
<CodeFoldingEnabled>1</CodeFoldingEnabled>
<AutoSuggestEnabled>1</AutoSuggestEnabled>
<IndentGuidesEnabled>1</IndentGuidesEnabled>
<CallTipsEnabled>1</CallTipsEnabled>
<UTF8FormatEnabled>0</UTF8FormatEnabled>
<IndentationWidth>3</IndentationWidth>
<TabSpaces>6</TabSpaces>
<FontPointSize>10</FontPointSize>
<FontName>Courier New</FontName>
<OnlyFixedPitchFontsEnabled>0</OnlyFixedPitchFontsEnabled>
<PrinterColorMode>2</PrinterColorMode>
<Styles><Style><StyleKey>TextViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Default Text</StyleName>
<StyleType>17</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>0</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>65535</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>TextViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Selected Text</StyleName>
<StyleType>18</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>10485760</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>16777215</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>TextViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Caret</StyleName>
<StyleType>19</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>12632256</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>12632256</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>TextViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Window Background</StyleName>
<StyleType>32</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>0</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>65535</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>TextViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Margin</StyleName>
<StyleType>33</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>12632256</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>16711680</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Space</StyleName>
<StyleType>0</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>8388736</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Comment</StyleName>
<StyleType>1</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>4931122</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>12623485</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>InComment1</StyleName>
<StyleType>2</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>32768</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>1</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>InComment2</StyleName>
<StyleType>3</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>32768</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>1</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>InComment3</StyleName>
<StyleType>4</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>32768</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>1</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>InComment4</StyleName>
<StyleType>5</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>32768</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>1</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>InComment5</StyleName>
<StyleType>6</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>32768</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>1</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Reserved Word</StyleName>
<StyleType>7</StyleType>
<Bold>1</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>16117442</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>String</StyleName>
<StyleType>8</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>1</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>6008319</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>InString</StyleName>
<StyleType>9</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>1</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>255</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>1</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Operator</StyleName>
<StyleType>10</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>12632256</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Number</StyleName>
<StyleType>11</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>16443110</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Float</StyleName>
<StyleType>12</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>12632256</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Device</StyleName>
<StyleType>13</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>55295</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Constant</StyleName>
<StyleType>14</StyleType>
<Bold>1</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>10025880</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Variable</StyleName>
<StyleType>15</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>33023</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Type</StyleName>
<StyleType>16</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>12632256</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Default Text</StyleName>
<StyleType>17</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>16777215</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Selected Text</StyleName>
<StyleType>18</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>10485760</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>16777215</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Caret</StyleName>
<StyleType>19</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>12632256</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Function Names</StyleName>
<StyleType>20</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>12632256</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Stack/Param Variables</StyleName>
<StyleType>21</StyleType>
<Bold>1</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>65535</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Code-Fold Margin</StyleName>
<StyleType>22</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>12632256</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Code-Fold Plus</StyleName>
<StyleType>23</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>16711680</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Code-Fold Minus</StyleName>
<StyleType>24</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>255</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Window Background</StyleName>
<StyleType>32</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>0</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
<Style><StyleKey>AXSViewColorPreferences</StyleKey>
<StyleName>Margin</StyleName>
<StyleType>33</StyleType>
<Bold>0</Bold>
<Italic>0</Italic>
<Underline>0</Underline>
<BackgroundColor>5654330</BackgroundColor>
<ForegroundColor>12632256</ForegroundColor>
<Internal>0</Internal>
</Style>
</Styles>
</EditorSettings>

Then save the file as Light On Blue.EPX and then you can import it into studio using tools>Import Editor Preferences.

I don't have a good place to host the preferences file itself but the copy & paste method will work.

Sensiva

I guess mine is a little bit odd... but I like it...

I have a copy of my pref and hotkeys on a USB stick, so any Netlinx studio I may use in the whole day can be as mine at the office.

It's cool to see how others are dealing with NXS... nice thread James

a_riot42

I know its off-topic but why do AMX programmers type everything in upper case? DId you know that on the interweb all-caps is considered yelling?

Here is my setup, pretty simple. I use the proggy fonts and like them well enough.
Paul

Sensiva

a_riot42 wrote: »

why do AMX programmers type everything in upper case? DId you know that on the interweb all-caps is considered yelling?

May be because most of AMX University instructors do, I don't like caps too, but when coding I can't help it, CapsLock is always ON, and I decided to lay off all variables prefixes (dv, fn,lvl,...) becuase its very annoying to me to press shift to type them, unfortunately anyone try to read my code has to go to Define_variable section several times, may be bookmarked

a_riot42 wrote: »

DId you know that on the interweb all-caps is considered yelling?

Yeah, but for NI, its kinda a romantic whisper

jjames

During programmer 2 (maybe 1) AMX teaches (Systems) Hungarian notation. I find it VERY helpful. It seems that Netlinx and it's standards is a hodgepodge of language and takes the best from all of them.

a_riot42

I don't use Hungarian notation and don't understand what benefit it is in AMX programming. I will make some designation for constants but that's about it. I see people use fn in front of a function name, but an identifier followed by parentheses has to be a function so I don't understand what that buys you and it makes it harder to read since every function now starts with the same first two letters. Between the variable name and the context, that should be more than enough information to read code. I put alot of effort into coming up with good variable names which allow for self commenting code. I just don't see the need for HN in AMX. Is there some benefit I am missing?
Paul

Sensiva

a_riot42 wrote: »

I see people use fn in front of a function name, but an identifier followed by parentheses has to be a function so I don't understand what that buys you and it makes it harder to read since every function now starts with the same first two letters.

Calls too may have parameter enclosed by parentheses, I know calls are enclosed by ' ' but sometimes they are not noticable.

Anyway , as I mentioned above it helps a little bit in knowing the type of the identifiers , otherwise you have to go to define_variable many many many times (since I don't use these notations, I suffer this issue alot while WRITING my own code, not to mention when reading someone else's code)

I used to use these notation with QBasic, Visual Basic, and its always recommended by most of programming text books.

jjames

a_riot42 wrote: »

I don't use Hungarian notation and don't understand what benefit it is in AMX programming. I will make some designation for constants but that's about it. I see people use fn in front of a function name, but an identifier followed by parentheses has to be a function so I don't understand what that buys you and it makes it harder to read since every function now starts with the same first two letters. Between the variable name and the context, that should be more than enough information to read code. I put alot of effort into coming up with good variable names which allow for self commenting code. I just don't see the need for HN in AMX. Is there some benefit I am missing?
Paul

Nope - no benefit. The way I program is not the right way. The way you program is not the right way. The way that the instructors at AMX is not the right way.There IS NO right way. You could program with Pig Latin . . . as long as it works, the client doesn't care.

There's no benefit. It's sort of like . . . how were you taught to tie your shoes? "Criss Cross and go under the bridge, Then you got to pull it tight." Or maybe "Build a tee pee, Come inside, Close it tight so we can hide"? It doesn't matter HOW you learned as long as you don't look like a fool with untied shoes. Some could argue that Hungarian notation is far out dated and serves no purpose. While other will argue that for us who have a gazillion and a half things going on all at once, we don't need the extra hassle of trying to remember if it was a signed integer or a signed long.

Tomayto-tomawto . . . it's still red and tasty.

DHawthorne

Hungarion notation can be very useful. I was just working on a tuner segment the other day, and had need to go back and forth with the tuned frequency between string form and integer; the string became sFrequency, and the integer nFrequency. In that portion of the code, I had no difficulty figuring which reference was which. In some cases, it matters not at all ... but I do agree that using "fn" as a function prefix is useless. The prefix ought to show the return type in that case.

Spire_Jeff

If you never have to share your code with anyone, HN is optional. Personally, I just had an instance in which I was looking at some code one of our other programmers wrote, and altho I knew what the variables were being used for, I had a very difficult time trying to check the code for proper functionality because I wasn't sure how the variables where holding the information. This is because we have different programming methodologies and he codes things different than I do. Without the HN, I immediately had my attention drawn to something that I would handle with integers, but it was being passed a Char. I had to scroll through the variable list to find out that he was actually using Chars, so there was nothing wrong with the code. This took me a few minutes, but if he had used HN, I would have seen that the variable was designed to hold Chars.

Also, as Dave has pointed out, HN makes going back into old code I have written a lot easier to deal with. I have also caught a few mistake while I am writing code over a couple day span. When things don't work as expected, occasionally the HN is the thing that makes it click in my head that I am sending an Integer instead of a Char.

Jeff

P.S.
I also used to wonder about HN.... in fact, I even used to code with very generic variable names, but as I started to write more complex code I evolved. Then, when I started having to revisit code, I really started to adhere to HN and comments

Joe Hebert

Hungarian Notation

DHawthorne wrote:

Hungarion notation can be very useful.

I agree 100%. It doesn’t matter what programming language is used, Hungarian notation is indeed very useful. I never declare a device or virtual device without using dv or vdv but to each their own.

DHawthorne wrote:

I do agree that using "fn" as a function prefix is useless

I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s useless. I never used to precede function names with fn until I saw others on the forum using it. Once I tried it I found it to be of great help when used in conjunction with auto suggest/complete. If I want to call a function I just type in fn and all my functions popup in the auto suggest list. When you need to juggle several jobs at once or revisit old code every little advantage helps. Other than using fn for auto suggest, I agree that it’s not all that fn useful.

Chip Moody

So I'm transitioning over to a new laptop. Already installed all the apps, but I don't know if I want to muck with trying to re-do all my Studio settings. Is there a prefs file(s) I could just drag over from my old Studio install? (Copied nearly everything over from my last laptop)

Thanks,

- Chip

jjames

Chip Moody wrote: »

So I'm transitioning over to a new laptop. Already installed all the apps, but I don't know if I want to muck with trying to re-do all my Studio settings. Is there a prefs file(s) I could just drag over from my old Studio install? (Copied nearly everything over from my last laptop)

Thanks,

- Chip

You can export your hotkeys and editor preferences (colors, tab stops, etc.) by going to Tools and using Export/Import Hotkeys and Export/Import Editor Preferences (towards the bottom). I believe this was started in version 2.5, but it could have been earlier.

Chip Moody

Hmmm... Let me see if I can get to the old Laptop. I copied all the files off of it - hoped I could just move the right files to the right place...

Thanks,
- Chip

jjames

You don't have to move any certain files - just export the file to anywhere, a USB stick would do - then import them on the new computer. Hope this helps!

Chip Moody

Yes, but the act of exporting assumes that one would be able to launch Studio on the computer it was installed on. I had given the laptop back to my IT folks after copying my files off of it, and as such had no way of accessing the export feature!

My thought being that the exported data had to come from some other file(s) on the drive, so why not just get to those files...

(I was fortunately able to borrow the computer back for a few minutes before they re-imaged it)

- Chip

jjames

Chip Moody wrote: »

Yes, but the act of exporting assumes that one would be able to launch Studio on the computer it was installed on. I had given the laptop back to my IT folks after copying my files off of it, and as such had no way of accessing the export feature!

My thought being that the exported data had to come from some other file(s) on the drive, so why not just get to those files...

(I was fortunately able to borrow the computer back for a few minutes before they re-imaged it)

- Chip

All those settings are actually in the registry. You can even access a few things that aren't in the editor preferences tab, such as underlining certain text (i.e. devices, variables, etc.)