SlickEdit 2008 at first Glance

May 10, 2008 · 2 min read

This is somewhat mildly embarrasing, but I just went from version 7.02 of SlickEdit to SlickEdit 2008 which is version 13.0 -- wow...6 versions behind!

I've been using SlickEdit since (I think) version 1.0 when Brief took a dump in Windows 98 Beta and my boss told me to order two copies of this new editor.

So why haven't I upgraded? Well... SlickEdit is almost TOO good at what it does.

SlickEdit is (for it's editing functions anyway) essentially a big macro editor. They ship it with a ton of macros, a macro engine and you code it in what looks a heck of a lot like C.

Having started using stand-alone editors back in the WordStar days, I was addicted to the 'finger macros' of WordStar, and Brief allowed me to code them up. I also liked some of the WordPerfect macro functions and of course liked a lot of the Brief macros.

So when I got my hands on SlickEdit, my first task was to build all my macros into SlickEdit, and that worked great. It was always a bit of a hassle doing so through successive upgrades, but I always found it working well.

I would get the new update list fromSlickEdit, and I'd look at the functionality it offered and what I didn't have I'd think ... hmm... I could write that... :) So I have... I've got a lot of macros I've done for a lot of different things. I've got macros that find class functions and throw headers on them, including the live date, my name, a company name, and header information.

I have all sorts of macros for formatting stuff.

So, it was with some trepidation that I turned SlickEdit 2008 loose on my machine tonight. After some bookkeeping things, it threw up a lot of warnings about xml files that are called out in some Silverlight files that were open in my file list, but when it was done, there was my latest file open and wow... all my finger macros work! So that means that independent of the install, it went out and found the setup files for the older version and dealt with it.. cool :)

The only thing I can tell that's missing is my custom toolbars, but that's only at first glance... they may be around.

I just thought I'd do an early note that I'm pretty happy that all my macros appear to be alive and well, and the double-key launch codes work, such as Ctrl-R, E,S,D,F,G,X,C, etc... I can do a lot of cursor movement with my left hand while I'm reaching for the mouse for other things... actually makes me much more efficient.

Good job, SlickEdit... I assumed I'd have to add all this to usermacs.e and userdefs.e, but it just works!

-Dave

This article is part of the GWB Archives. Original Author: Dave Campbell

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