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 Find Reference Output Window Suggestion
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chrisd
Junior Member

20 Posts

Posted - Sep 12 2006 :  3:50:56 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
When using the Find Reference feature today, I found that the output window always defaulted to expanded (Filenames + found refrences). It would be useful to add a collapse/expand all feature to this.

Also the tips that show code context in the reference dialog are extremely useful, however it shows a tip even when hovering over the filename. I would suggest that either no tip be displayed when hovering over the file name, or even better, the number of references found (would be very useful when collapsed).

Thanks
Chris

chrisd
Junior Member

20 Posts

Posted - Sep 12 2006 :  4:24:14 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Just another quick thought on this, line numbers would also be very useful in the output

ex:
c:\\development\\project\\test.cpp
(127) Class::findReference* pFind = NULL;
(135) Class::findReference* pFind = pFind2;
(250) Class::findReference* pFind = NULL;

Chris
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Uniwares
Tomato Guru

Portugal
2322 Posts

Posted - Sep 12 2006 :  10:07:36 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Find References in current project only would be useful too, since the output is in no order that would make sense and always shows references in ALL projects, even when the projects contain different files containing the "same" class.
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rhummer
Tomato Guru

USA
527 Posts

Posted - Sep 12 2006 :  11:18:32 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
All of these are pretty good ideas and suggestions :)

The Expand/Collapse All is a good idea:
case=2488

Code Tooltips showing while hovering over the file entry:
case=2489

Adding line numbers to the items:
case=2491 (corrected from 2591)

Find References in Current Project, good idea I've added it to the request list:
case=2490


Tools Engineer - Raven Software
VS2005 SP2/VS2008 SP1 - VAX <LATEST> - Win 7 x64


Edited by - jpizzi on Sep 12 2006 11:53:30 PM
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schoenherr
Tomato Guru

Germany
160 Posts

Posted - Sep 13 2006 :  12:58:43 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
i would vote for this feature requests,
so maybe the priority is bumped a littl bit ;)
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support
Whole Tomato Software

5566 Posts

Posted - Oct 30 2006 :  12:24:11 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
2489 fixed in build 1540.
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Bernhard
New Member

3 Posts

Posted - Mar 22 2007 :  05:37:04 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I have a related feature request for "Find References": add the information how many files contained references.
So the title text in VA Find References Results would read:

Found 463 references in 36 files to: MyFunkyClass

An additional request would be: Allow selecting (individual or all) files in the VA Find References Results and copy them.
The clipboard would then contain the list of files names.

And another one (stolen from www.eclipse.org and SNiFF+ (http://tinyurl.com/2cj8fc)): Keep a history of VA Find References Results with back and forth buttons.

Thanks
Bernhard

Edited by - Bernhard on Mar 22 2007 07:17:51 AM
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19039 Posts

Posted - Mar 22 2007 :  09:34:03 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
We are considering allowing multiple Find References Results windows, which will solve the history problem for you. Personally I am looking forward to this, since I love Find References

case=1182

We are also considering allowing you to copy text from the Find References Results window:

case=3542

showing the number of files, an interesting idea:

case=5621

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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Esone
Tomato Guru

Russia
115 Posts

Posted - Mar 30 2007 :  04:28:28 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Find References Results window should be split into several columns. The columns' presence, order and width should be customizable and saveable.

One of them - is what we see now for each item: the item's string, like "Class::findReference* pFind = NULL;".
Another - is line number of an item(case=2491).
Yet another - is "Context of an item" - this should be exactly what we can see in the "Context" field of the Alt+M bar, when the cursor is put in the end of current item's string.

I am bringing the idea of "context" within find references results window for a long time, and this topic inspired me to express it. Being this view customizable, it will satisfy users with multiple tastes.
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Esone
Tomato Guru

Russia
115 Posts

Posted - Mar 30 2007 :  04:43:13 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I like all ideas in this topic. And have a couple more.

Sometimes the searched item is listed several times on the same code string. Like the item myItem listed 3 times here:

myItem = 2 * myItem + someFun(myItem);

In this case, there are 3 different rows for myItem in Find references results. And when I click different rows in results window, I stay on the same code line in the source window. This seems misleading.

My suggestions are:
1) When the item has several(2+) entries within the same source line, the Find references results window should contain only one row for this source line. May be marked somehow with the number of items repetitions in this line, like (3).
2) We can see the searched items highlighted in the source code, but not in the Find references results window. I propose to highlight items in Find references results too.
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19039 Posts

Posted - Mar 30 2007 :  09:55:20 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
When a symbol is used several times on the same line it gets several lines in Find References Results, this allows stepping through the references to work correctly, so collapsing this into a single line would break other things, at least for now.

On the second, third, etc line the reference is marked with --> so that you can see it. We are considering replacing this with syntax highlighting instead:

case=2706

Individual columns within Find References Results, an interesting idea. I can see some possible problems with this though, mainly due to different runs of Find References producing very different results, with strings of very different lengths.

The idea of adding a column showing context to Find References Results has come up already. For now hover the mouse over a result, and you are shown a few surrounding lines of code, to give you some idea of the context.

case=3493

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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Esone
Tomato Guru

Russia
115 Posts

Posted - Mar 30 2007 :  10:33:58 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by feline
... We are considering replacing this with syntax highlighting instead:

case=2706 ...

Do you mean by syntax highlighting the highlighting of the symbol in Find references results window with background color? If so, then we are in sync here. And I also think that the searched symbol should be hoghlighted in all result window's rows, not only for those that have several symbols on same line.

quote:
Originally posted by feline
Individual columns within Find References Results, an interesting idea. I can see some possible problems with this though, mainly due to different runs of Find References producing very different results, with strings of very different lengths.


If those columns are customizable, the user can leave only one column, or put "short" columns to the left, so that the longest will occupy all remaining space. Would you give it a case?

quote:
Originally posted by feline
The idea of adding a column showing context to Find References Results has come up already. For now hover the mouse over a result, and you are shown a few surrounding lines of code, to give you some idea of the context.

case=3493


I guess that surrounding lines of code are more cryptic, than if there's certain context shown in the neighbour column, like "alg_tools.ScheduleProvider_DB1.getSchedulesVec.while".
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19039 Posts

Posted - Mar 30 2007 :  1:14:25 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Background highlighting is one solution to highlighting, but I am not sure what will happen, it depends on what works best, and is most reliable.

Adding columns, this overlaps with other people asking for the ability to sort the results from Find References, so this needs to be considered along side other requests, not in isolation.

The surrounding code in the tooltips, this is not always that helpful, but it is there, and it is something. Showing the context, this is something we are considering doing.

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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support
Whole Tomato Software

5566 Posts

Posted - Apr 14 2007 :  12:18:34 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
5621 implemented in 1553.
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Bernhard
New Member

3 Posts

Posted - Apr 24 2007 :  07:04:53 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Thanks for adding the number of files feature in "Find References"!

I have an additional request: When doing a search for references to a (instance) variable and this variable occurs as a parameter of a method call that happens to list the parameter in question on a line by itself (idiosyncratic source code format), the respective hit in the "Find References" window is displayed as it occurs in the source text. So I have to click on it to reveal the corresponding context in the source text. It would be nice to have a more "symbolic" display in the "Find References" window displaying not the literal source code line, but instead the encircling function call. Additionally it would be useful to display whether the formal parameter in the method is a "const" parameter or not (possibly using the already used read/write icons). Example:

Find References to: m_pSomething

There's a call to some method that uses m_pSomething in the parameter list formatted in the source code as follows:

someObject->someFunction(
  someParameter,
  m_pSomething,
  someAdditionalParameter
);

VA Find References Result
...
m_pSomething,
...

which in itself is not very informative, while this would be more useful:

VA Find References Result
...
someObject->someFunction(someParameter,m_pSomething,someAdditionalParameter);
...

Thanks
Bernhard

Edited by - Bernhard on Apr 24 2007 07:06:33 AM
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19039 Posts

Posted - Apr 24 2007 :  08:52:31 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
We are considering adding a column to the Find References Results display that shows the function or context of the reference, which would help here.

case=3493

Currently are you aware that you get a tooltip, showing you a small amount of the surrounding code when you hover the mouse over one of the lines in the Find References Results window?

I see your problem here, but I am a little concerned about asking VA to do this, since I can see all sorts of edge cases where this is likely to cause problems. One case, that is already causing Change Signature problems is a function like this:

void parametersOnSeveralLines(
    int nOne, // with a comment
    int nTwo  // also with a comment
    )
{
    // ....
}

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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chrisd
Junior Member

20 Posts

Posted - Apr 24 2007 :  09:03:37 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I can see the issue on this edge case, my opinion on this would be to lose the comments as you already do (this is a user beware) or you could comment out the existing signature and the have the new signature

ex:
void parametersOnSeveralLines(
int nOne, // with a comment
int nTwo // also with a comment
)


changes to
//void parametersOnSeveralLines(
// int nOne, // with a comment
//int nTwo // also with a comment
//)


void parametersOnSeveralLines(int nOne, int nTwo, int nThree)

Just my 2 cents
Chris


quote:
Originally posted by feline

One case, that is already causing Change Signature problems is a function like this:

void parametersOnSeveralLines(
    int nOne, // with a comment
    int nTwo  // also with a comment
    )
{
    // ....
}


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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19039 Posts

Posted - Apr 24 2007 :  10:39:06 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I try to avoid suggesting that people should change their code to make it easier for VA to handle, this often does not go down very well

Also sometimes the problem code is not "theirs", e.g. 3rd party library code, or something else they cannot really change.

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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n/a
deleted

1 Posts

Posted - Apr 26 2007 :  06:23:28 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I Have a suggestion for the tooltip in the Find Refference window
(i didn't check if it is allready suggested)

It would be nice to add a line above the filename with the class/function the refference is found in

ex:

CODE

Scope: Class::Function
File: c:\\example
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19039 Posts

Posted - Apr 26 2007 :  07:51:23 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
We are considering adding a column to Find References Results showing the context, which will have the same effect without the need to produce the tooltip.

case=3493

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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Bernhard
New Member

3 Posts

Posted - Apr 26 2007 :  08:09:12 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by feline

I see your problem here, but I am a little concerned about asking VA to do this, since I can see all sorts of edge cases where this is likely to cause problems. One case, that is already causing Change Signature problems is a function like this:

void parametersOnSeveralLines(
    int nOne, // with a comment
    int nTwo  // also with a comment
    )
{
    // ....
}




The idea would be to only display the bare compiler-relevant code, possibly on one line. So in the above case when looking for references to variable intTwo the respective hit would be displayed as:
parametersOnSeveralLines(intOne, intTwo);

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support
Whole Tomato Software

5566 Posts

Posted - Oct 29 2007 :  01:44:50 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
case=1182
case=3542
case=3493
case=2706

are all implemented in Build 1614
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support
Whole Tomato Software

5566 Posts

Posted - Oct 29 2007 :  01:49:50 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
case=2491 is also implemented in Build 1614
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kate_m
Junior Member

20 Posts

Posted - Jan 29 2008 :  05:58:42 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Any word on case=2488 (expand/collapse of find references results)? it would be _really_ handy for me...
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19039 Posts

Posted - Jan 29 2008 :  09:19:25 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Unfortunately no progress on this yet. Are you aware you can delete files, along with all their child references, from the Find References Results window? This is not quite the same, but if you are working through a long list of references you might find this a helpful way to manage the information.

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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sean
Whole Tomato Software

USA
2817 Posts

Posted - Sep 24 2018 :  2:32:23 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
case=2488 is implemented in build 2291 (see context menu in Find References results tool window).
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