Moving around in LPEX
Posted: March 24, 2008 Filed under: Don Yantzi, i5/OS, IBM, RDi, Remote Systems LPEX Editor, RSE, RSE Book 7 Comments »So I originally intended to keep blogging as I was working on the RSE book, but as it turns out, writing a book is a lot of work (who knew?) So things like blogging, exercise, and other hobbies got put on hold for awhile. The manuscript is due to MC Press next week so hopefully blogging and exercise can make a come back.
I’m currently reviewing Nazmin’s editor chapters and came across a section called “Moving the Curosr”. My initial thought was “this seems kind of obvious, perhaps we should just delete this section”. But to my surprise I learned three new ways to navigate around LPEX from reading it and I added one that Nazmin didn’t know about.
I suspect that a lot of users don’t know all of the ways, or perhaps they use them in a Web browser but don’t realize they can also be used in LPEX. So we decided to leave this section :) It’s pretty short anyways. And don’t worry, there are lots more exciting sections with cool stuff like the outline view, content assist, and of course keyboard shortcuts in LPEX.
And just so you don’t have to wait, here is the list:
- Press the Up, Down, Left, or Right arrows.
- Press Home to move the cursor to the beginning of a line and End to move it to the end of a line.
- Press Ctrl + Left arrow to move the cursor one word left, or Ctrl + Right ar-row to move it one word right.
- Press Page Up or Page Down to move the cursor up or down one window at a time.
- Press Ctrl + Up arrow to scroll the editor up one line without changing the current line, or Ctrl + Down arrow to scroll the editor down one line.
- Press Ctrl + Home to move the cursor to the beginning of the document, or Ctrl + End to move it to the end of the document.
- Press Ctrl + J to return the cursor to the place in the editor where you last entered text.
- Press Home and then Shift + Tab to position the cursor in the Prefix area.
For those existing RSE users out there, I’d be interested if any of these are new to you. I wasn’t aware of the Ctrl + J shortcut, Ctrl + Left | Right arrows, or Shift + Tab to jump into the prefix area. Good thing Nazmin wrote this chapter!
Machine Readable Patents
Posted: June 8, 2007 Filed under: Brian Farn, IBM, Patents, WDSC Leave a comment »Whenever you and I write software, we usually find ourselves having to design and code a few algorithms or systems. The developers on our team, have always been encouraged to submit novel methods as invention disclosures for review and patenting so that our published products are covered from an intellectual property standpoint.
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The Value of Accessibility
Posted: May 25, 2007 Filed under: Accessibility, Brian Farn, IBM, WDSC Leave a comment »For decades, accessibility for people with impairments has always been a corporate priority at IBM. Yet, for the most part, the software industry tends to treat accessibility as an afterthought, even though there are various government standards such as Section 508. As our user interfaces have progressed from terminals, to desktop clients, to web pages and continue through to immersive three dimensional environments, such as Second Life, providing for accessibility becomes more difficult.
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Heading to COMMON
Posted: April 26, 2007 Filed under: WDSC, IBM, iSeries, Don Yantzi, Conference, COMMON 1 Comment »Over the next few days Nazmin, Claus, George, George (but not the George that writes on this blog :) and I will be heading from the Toronto Lab to Anaheim for COMMON. My last COMMON was Chicago so I’m really looking forward to it (for the past few years I have been speaking at the IBM System i Technology Conference).
We are presenting on pretty much all aspects of WDSC and WDHT along with some of the Rational stuff like change management and EGL. I’ve created a grid of all our WDSC and Rational Sessions using the My Grid tool on the COMMON website. In addition to the sessions that I am presenting, I’m hoping to catch Scott Klement’s session on Web Services from RPG Using HTTP API and one or two of Jon Paris‘ or Susan Gantner’s RPG IV sessions.
I’m also planning to catch up with some WDSC users, business partners and other IBMers. Plus expo, CUDS, etc… so it should be a busy week. I’m planning to do some live blogging from COMMON during the week, so stay tuned.
If you are going to COMMON and want to meet send me an email or just come find me there. I’m generally pretty easy to spot since I’m 6′ 6″ tall and I’ll have my ThinkPad. Feel free to just come up and say hi even if it looks like I’m busy. I’ll be in expo (when it’s running), CUDs (when it’s on), my sessions, Starbucks in the Marriott (during the day), or the Wine bar at the Marriott (during the evening). As a last resort check the pool :)
WDSC Now Part of Rational
Posted: April 20, 2007 Filed under: Don Yantzi, IBM, WDSC, WebSphere Leave a comment »In case the rumor mill hasn’t made it to you yet, or you missed Bob Cancilla’s aritcle, WDSC (and the WDSC development team) are now part of the IBM Rational division.
My own opinion is that this is a good move. It always seemed a bit awkward being part of a runtime division of IBM (WebSphere) as opposed to the tools division (Rational). Especially when we build WDSC on top of existing Rational products.
The Advent of Dualing Mice
Posted: April 20, 2007 Filed under: Brian Farn, IBM, Web 2.0 3 Comments »With the advancements of computing power, storage and memory capacity, we are now able to experience software applications that most of us have never even dreamed of. It isn’t until some remarkable forward thinking people demonstrate new user interface paradigms, such as this impressive one on Multi-touch devices that we begin to realize that our descendants will think that our current graphical user interfaces are antiquated.
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IBM puts software engineering students to the test
Posted: April 14, 2007 Filed under: George P., IBM Leave a comment »The winners of the seventh annual McMaster Software Engineering Design Project Competition were announced last week. One of the judges was our own Dave Muir. Dave was also a judge when I went through that course, unfortunately I wasn’t given any preferential treatment.
IBM ShortCuts
Posted: April 13, 2007 Filed under: IBM, Web 2.0 2 Comments »I just came across a really nice series on ibm.com: IBM ShortCuts Podcasts. Each week industry experts answer technology-related questions submitted by users. Check out this great entry explaining Web 2.0.
System i… “Casino-in-a-box”?
Posted: March 30, 2007 Filed under: Abe Batthish, IBM, System i Leave a comment »To follow Brian’s wonderful post which explores the benefits of componentization, I’ll go to the other extreme and introduce everyone to a recent System i initiative called the System i Verticle Industry Program (VIP). The program stems from IBM’s success in the $50 billion hospitality and casino industry by working together with ISVs and BPs to put together a specialized “all-in-one business computing platform” on System i where it is now used by over 70% of the related establishments in the US. “In addition to the hospitality and casino industry, IBM plans to launch more than 80 VIPs for System i in 15 countries this year…”.
Adapting to Modern User Interface Technology Paradigms
Posted: March 23, 2007 Filed under: Brian Farn, HATS, IBM, System i, WDSC, WebFacing 2 Comments »As a part of the process for helping our customers to keep up with technologies involves determining which new user interface devices customer applications are able to target. As with any other business, the decisions and resulting offerings imply a long term commitment for both the supplier, and the consumer. As such, an important issue always arises. Should older user interface paradigms that are missing, or have alternatives in the newer user interface paradigm be added to the newer technology, or should they be left behind in the name of progress?
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