Alternative Uses
The Poor Man's Outliner
The editor can be used as a plain text outliner. Simply create a new file
with the '.txt' extension, and choose the tree view layout. To create a new
section, use the Insert/Folder command.
My todo list
Editing XML or TeX documents
Put chapters, sections and subsections in subfolders. You can browse
quickly your document, you don't need to cut a document into small
files anymore.
You can choose arbitrarily which level are to be folded.
There is an extra cost to maintain headings but it worth it, you can find
quickly a section and you only see the content of one section.
Here is an example with the docbook source of the documentation
of Code Browser:
You can easily create the same hierarchy...
...as in the final document
Understanding existing source code
Code Browser can help you to understand existing source code.
There is a lot of tools dedicated to program understanding
that will do the job better than Code Browser, but if the source code
is written in a too obscure language or too old, this editor can be a cheap
alternative.
Here is some tips to make more sense of a flat text file by
extracting a structure and reducing its apparent complexity:
- Folding methods/functions
If the source code is in C, C++ or java, you can try the foldup tool to perform
this step automatically. See the foldup page for more
information on this tool.
- Hiding local functions
Most languages does not support nested functions. With Code Browser you can
move sub-fonctions used by only one caller into the caller's folder. This step reduces
the number of functions at the top level.
- Grouping functions
Grouping functions help locating them. I usually use a convention inspired by the Smalltalk
Common Protocol Patterns
to group my methods even when programming in C++. But you can decide the best way to group methods
depending on the situation.
- Using links
Links to related functions or definitions can be added to create 'see also' sections in comments.
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Code Browser