Komodo Edit 4.0.2 bug and suggestion list on 2007-04-11
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My system and installation (for information)
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(Same as for my first and second list of problems and suggestions)


- CPU: P4 3C.
- RAM: 1GB.
- OS: Gentoo Linux.


- sys-libs/glibc-2.5  USE="-build -glibc-compat20 -glibc-omitfp -hardened (-multilib) +nls +nptl +nptlonly -profile (-selinux)"
- sys-libs/lib-compat-1.4.1  USE="+sdl" (note that on Gentoo, this version supports both C++ libc-5 and libc-6 compatibility)
- x11-libs/gtk+-2.10.6  USE="+X -debug -doc +jpeg +tiff -xinerama"


- I used package Komodo-Edit-4.0.2-275451-linux-libcpp6-x86.tar.gz (with the official installer, for the problems not related to the Gentoo Linux ebuild)


List of bugs and bug-like problems
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- If I open a project file, from "File" => "Open" => "File", it closes all the currently open projects. If I then close it, one of the previous project is shown. The same if I close it, until there is no more open project...

- Komodo is unable to open some files with some control characters... For example, I tested with a file containing only a \x00 (null) character, and Komodo told me: "File Open Error: Komodo was unable to open the file: foo" (with a blank zone, below the error message... -there should be some details, in this zone, isn't it?). Kododo has special symbols for control characters, so it should permit to open any file, and use these symbols. The file ~/.komodoedit/4.0/host-localhost/XRE/cert8.db, for example, does not open either (I didn't check what was the content, exactly)... Generally, as suggested in a previous list, an hexadecimal editor would be nice, but we should still be able to open any file, normally (and until then, a more specific error message should be displayed).

- I cannot reproduce it, but in a PHP class (like "class Foo\n{\npublic function Bar()\n{\n}\n}\n" -well, with a bit of content), the indentation of the closing curly brace of the class method, was autoindented (Smart Indent) one level too high (at the same level as the class closing brace). I checked that there wasn't any unmatched brace, and it didn't seem to be any... well, it seems to work, now, both with the same file, and with a test file, so I might have imagined it ^_^ If I encounter the problem again, I'll try to find more informations about the problem.

- Autoindent (Smart Indent) seems to work only partially with XML files... Augmenting indent after opening tags works, but neither increase indent before opening tags, after a prior opening tag (if I write "<foo>\n", the autoindent will increase indent, but if I remove the indentation -for any reason-, and append "<bar>", then the new tag will stay at the beginning of the line, instead of being indented again -if the user really want to remove the indentation, he will just has to do it after having written the tags, which is not a problem, and a very limited case, anyway), nor decrease the indent when closing a tag... (well, in fact, if I write the tag by myself, it will indeed decrease the indent, but it will use one space, instead of one tabulation (note that I configured Komodo to use tabulations, but even if there was a problem with this, I configured the use of 4 spaces per indent, so the use of a single space per indent is completely wrong -I guess a space was written, instead of a tab, somewhere in the Komodo source code), to indent the tag... and if I use the completion, it will do nothing -two problems, here).

- For commands, the "parse output with" option does not seem to work, at least with replacements ("s/foo/bar/"). The original output is outputted to the command output tab, without a change.

- In the command properties, if I check "Insert output", then, notably, the "Do not open output pane" and "Parse output with" checkboxes are grayed out (note, BTW, that the select list, for the "Parse output with" option is still half active -you can see the historic, and select a value (well, it does this even when the checkbox could be selected, but is not)). If I close the properties, and reopen them, these two checkboxes are reactivated (the select list stays half active).

- If I start selecting some code with the mouse, the selection sometimes 'freeze', and cannot be modified without releasing the mouse button (and using the keyboard, to modify the selection, or trying to reselect everything, with the mouse). Just try selecting multiple lines, and mouve your mouse around... it will probably freeze (I can reproduce it everytime). [In fact, it is just the graphical representation of the selection, which freezes... I can still adjust the selection with the mouse, but the graphical representation is not adjusted, which is really confusing.]

- If there is a calltip open, for a function, and the argument list is not closed, and I use the bottom arrow key to go the the next lines, which contain some other code, the calltip does not disappear (well, it disappears after four lines -same with the right arrow key). Well, it is good, when the arguments are written on multiple lines, but it should disappear if the cursor encounter some other code... You already close the tooltip if a ';' character is encountered, but you should also detect, at least '{' and '}' characters, and maybe use the indentation, to decide if the code is likely to be part of the function argument list, or not...

- There are highlighting problems in CSS... I don't have much details, and cannot reproduce it reliably, but I had multiple rules like "div#foo-bar {}", and if I removed the closing curly brace, the rules below became purple, but if I readded the curly brace, they sometimes remained purple... (until I removed and readded some other curly braces, elsewhere). When you have multiple rules as quoted, you might also try removing both curly braces, from a rule in the middle of the list, and readding them in order...

- First crash ^_^ I launched Komodo from an icon, so I don't know what has been outputted, if anything has... I didn't loose any data, as I save often. Komodo was loaded for a few hours; I was currently opening files one by one, and replacing some text with pasted content... it happened when double-clicking on the fifth or sixth file, to open it... When I restarted Komodo, it tried to load back some files from -I think-, the previous session... it would be nice if the list of opened files was saved regularly... (every few minutes -it is not that important, but it does not cost much either...). Same for anything which might not be saved regularly, by the way (any configuration change, notably, if you do not save them regularly -I already said this in previous notes).

- I cannot reproduce it, but I noticed multiple times that the cursor graphical representation sometimes freeze, until it is moved with the mouse... I can still type things with the keyboard normally, but the cursor graphical representation does not move.


List of suggestions
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- I didn't check, but are all configuration values saved as soon as you click on "ok" -or as soon as you click on a menu option-? (the configuration might also be saved in real time, in a crash recovery file, but that probably shouldn't be necessary for Komodo). I didn't have any crash, but I did have problems with multiple other pieces of software (Eclipse, notably, multiple times, but other kind of software too), which crashed on me, while, or after having configured it, and I loose the configuration, which is quite annoying.

- Double-clicking on tabs should hide/close them. Double-clicking on an empty space, in pane headers should hide/close them.

- Open source as much things as possible (well, as you mostly use Python, it seems you already have quite an amount of open source code -and a number of compiled code is from free software programs, so I guess not much is left as binary-only code, which is quite nice already), with a license as free as possible (even if only for some extension/component).

- It would be nice to have a version of Komodo without any external applications/resources (notably if these applications/resources are free/open software/resources), for better integration into distributions. You ship Komodo with Python, Mozilla (though I don't have a precise idea of how tightly Komodo is associated with the Mozilla code), HTML Tidy, a number of DTDs/schemas, and I think a few other things related to debugging could be externalized too... (Xdebug, for PHP, for example).

- In the project and toolbox tabs, when I right-click on a file/directory, and select "Show in File Manager", it uses Nautilus (which viciously create a root window, by default, while launching the file manager part -I now deactivated this). I'm under KDE, but have Nautilus installed, because of some dependency to other installed programs. I checked your koSysUtils.py, and my environment variables DESKTOP_SESSION and WINDOWMANAGER are not set (I guess they are set by xdm/gdm/kdm stuffs, and I don't use them)... though I will simply set them myself, it would be nice to be able to set exactly what file manager to launch, in the Komodo preferences (with Konqueror, you can use different profiles, for example, and it might be useful to permit to specify all this, in the command line to execute).

- In the Komodo archive, a number of files are not user-writable... (I noticed this, when modifying the komodo wrapper script, to create patches...), while not a big deal, there is no reason for this, and the files should be user-writable.

- In the project tab, the icons to create a new project, and to open an existing project, are not clear at all. I don't know what to use, though.

- There does not seem to be any way to open a project file, as a normal file... Even dragging the project file, and dropping it in the editor zone, opens it as a project... (it might become annoying to have to choose, each time a project is opened, so there probably should be a dedicated menu/option, somewhere...). While there should be no need to open them, we should still be able to open them as normal files, to check the content, without having to use an external editor... (if you support opening project files as normal files, be sure to warn about opening as a normal file, a currently opened project... -if the project is saved in Komodo, it would erase all modifications made to the project file).

- Could you provide syntax highlighting for .kkf and .ksf files? As for project files, there should not be a need to open them manually, but it could still be interesting, notably to create and possibly distribute a clean configuration... (for this, there should however be some things to do to avoid the clean configuration to be rewrote, without warning, by Komodo... -the most basic solution would be to add a specific flag, in the .kkf and .ksf files, either to say that the file has been autogenerated by Komodo, or that it has been manually built by the user, and Komodo would then warn, or not, depending on the flag).

- Syntax highlighting for .ini files (including .desktop files).

- Maybe permit to open/use archives in the file opening/saving dialog... (tar, gz, bz2, zip -and jar, odt, xpi, and other common extensions using zipped files-, rar, ace, 7zip, etc., depending on available decompressors). It sure is a low priority feature, but it might be useful to some people. In Konqueror (the KDE file/Internet browser), you can open archives directly, for example (well, in Windows too, for zip archives).

- More advanced common syntax styles... I don't see variables, methods (if the language makes a difference, like in PHP, there should be the possibility to use different styles, ), etc., for example... it does not matter if it does not apply to all languages... what matter most is to be able to configure as many things as possible, globally, so the syntax highlighting is as standardized as possible, without having to modify the lang-specific settings of all languages...

- Syntax highlighting for .tip files?

- When opening a read-only file, there is only a tiny lock, next to the file tab title... "Read-only" should be written in the status bar, in bold, and maybe there could be some more visible, temporary notice... (couldn't you use the notices like in Firefox, with a thin bar, opening just above the content -it should not cover the content, however, so the content should be pushed down temporarily, or something like this, though it's not cute-, and a close button (and, possibly, a timer)...? otherwise, support other kind of mostly-non-intrusive notices, somewhere, like at the bottom-right or left corners, with pop-above... another solution would be to renamed the "Command output" tab to something more general, or add a "Status" or "Notice" tab to the bottom pane, and switch to it, when there is a notice to print -though it might sometimes be more intrusive than the other solutions, but it should not be a problem, when the user is currently opening a file),

- Syntax highlighting for SGML files (it can still be useful for DTDs).

- The file opening dialog uses the path from the currently active file, as the default directory... while it can be interesting, I think it is generally more useful to use the most recent path opened/saved... (note I use the XUL file opening/saving dialog -"ui.allow_platform_file_picker=false", in the Mozilla configuration-, so there might be some differences with the GTK dialog... if there are, I think you should also support the XUL dialog, because, while far from perfect, it is far better than the GTK one, as many have said).

- For the auto-save feature, you should specify, in the preference dialog, that the files are saved in the 
user profile (it is not the original files, which are saved, and it they are not saved in the same directory as the original file). You should also speicify that these backups are removed each time the associated file is saved by the user.

- Support auto-save for projects.

- Support additional backups, for projects (well, it seems they are not even saved by the auto-save feature), and for when the user Backup files/projects for the Komodo configuration files, and for project files. I heard on the forum, someone losing work, because of a problem in the toolbox (http://support.activestate.com/forum-topic/loosing-work-again). There should be automatic backup of project files (including the toolbox project file), and of Komodo configuration files. For configuration files, backup all .xml, .kkf, .ksf files. In case Komodo crashed (use a flag to tell if it was properly closed, if you don't already do it), inform the user about the backup files. As the configuration files are quite small, there should be like up to five backups (it can be useful, if the user modified other things, after the problem, before trying to restore things). Maybe use filenames like "prefs.xml.X.tmp.bck" (well, permit to configure the extension), with "X" a number increasing each time, or something like this. For project files, they are generally quite small too (well, if the user added a lot of snippets/templates to the project, it can become significant, though, but there should still be the possibility to keep multiple backups), so it shouldn't be a problem, but you should still permit the user choose to put the backups in the same directory as the project file, or in their Komodo profile directory (some people might not want to keep them in the same directory as their project file -though if they use CVS/SVN, they could easily exclude them, if they would not be already excluded by default). If the backups are kept in the project file directory, they should be prefixed with a ".", to hide them (though you should let the user configure both the prefix and the extension). If they are saved in the Komodo profile directory (like "~/.komodoedit/4.0/project-backups/" -be careful about duplicate project filenames), no need for a "." prefix.

- In the project and toolbox tabs (and maybe in other contexts), when you use the right-click menu to delete a file (and maybe in other contexts too), the dialog asking for confirmation does not name the files/directories which will be deleted... it is important to specify it, for double checking... (and in case multiple files/directories were selected, I still think you should list them all... -in a vertical list, for better readability, and maybe with checkboxes to unselect some files/directories, without having to cancel and reselect the correct files/directories to remove). Note that it may be important to list the full path, or at least (well, it should be better, in most cases), the path relative to the project root (or maybe even just the two or three parent directories, if there are more, prefixed by something like ".../", to specify an unknown number of other parent directories -though I think I remeber three dots were used, in DOS, to go back to the root of the current drive, and some other people might confuse it with "../", so maybe another symbol should be used, like "-/"), for example, if the user has a project with multiple directories containing similarly-named files/subdirectories...

- If you add a file browser tab (independently from projects), you should support a bookmark feature, to bookmark locations (and maybe permit to associate shortcuts). Well, you could also do it for projects, with global bookmarks/shortcuts to open specific projects, and local bookmarks/shortcuts, to open a specific directory/file in the currently active project... (well, to open files and projects, you can use commands, but it would be better if it was fully integrated).

- Komodo freezes for a few seconds, when opening a large file (my 5MB firewall log, for example, so it should be even worse for larger files, with color highlighting and syntax checking...), and there is also a one-second freeze when closing the file... Komodo sure act far better than, say, Gedit, but KWrite opens the file within less than a second, and NEdit opens it instantly. There is no delay when scrolling (as with KWrite and NEdit), even very quickly, so it's quite good.

- A created a file with a 1MB line (I didn't test what was the minimum length for problems to start to happen... it could be quite lower). Komodo acts similarly to Gedit, except Komodo does not freeze as much. Without word wrapping, at some point, the text is printed starting from the beginning of the line (above the other characters ^_^;), and it is quite slow to do anything, both with or without word wrapping, that is loading the file (closing it is ok, in Komodo, though), scrolling, etc. (even focusing on another window, and coming back to Komodo). As for large files, KWrite is quite fast, and NEdit loads it just as fast as a one-byte file... While encountering very long lines should be quite rare, there might still be some cases, and Komodo should handle these, as a general proof of robustness.

- Add a drop-down menu, in the project tab, to the icon to open projects, to list the most recent opened projects (when you want to open a project, you first think about the project tab, not the "File" => "Recent projects" menu entry -which is also further from the editor zone, the central point of attention, and which requires one more click, and far more eye movement). At the bottom of the menu, after a separator, add a redundant link to "open another project". Note a normal click on the icon should open the project opening dialog as usual. I guess the menu should open on a prolongated onmousedown, or something like this. Same, in the main toolbar, for the file opening icon. Same for the new file icon, which should list all templates, and a special entry for a blank new file -at the top-, and another one, for recently used templates... -at the bottom. For the file opening and creation, it's one less click (and a bit less distance), and it really matters a great deal, for everyday use of an editor/IDE.

- Add an option to automatically add and close brackets, and automatically close quotes, notably depending on what language is used, and possibly on the context, and letting the possibility for the user to adjust the behaviour. For example, in PHP, if I write "function X" (the first character of the function name), Komodo should automatically add "()", and keep the cursor to the current position, so the user can continue typing the function name. It should also add "{\n}\n". Same for control structures, though you should permit to users to either place the opening '{' on the first line, or on the second ("if (foo) {\n}", or "if (foo)\n{\n}\n"). If I write "$Foo[", Komodo should add ']'. If I write "$Foo['" or `$Foo["`, it should add "']" or `"]` (well, with the previous rule, it would be done in two times). If I write "$Foo = (", it should add ")". If I write `$Foo = "`, it should add a `"`, etc, etc. If nothing follows some piece of code, and depending on syntax and semantics, it should add a final ";" (not if the line is ending with an opening bracket, quote, a closing curly brace, the control block of a control structure, etc.).

- Advanced SQL support. Zend Studio has a complete client. It sure might have its use -instead of using a separate client and testing-, if properly integrated, but some kind of query construction helper -like a regular expression helper-, could be useful, for people who don't master the syntax (well, just like for regular expressions, it sure might be better to just learn the syntax once and for all)... What could be great would be to be able to get a pop-above on SQL queries in the code -taking into account variables names, basic string concatenation, etc.-, which would format the query on multiple lines, for easy editing... when done, it would put the query back in the original format ^_^; (I don't know how you handle regular expression with your toolkit, but it would be great to see something like this too, instead of an independant window...).

- Zend Studio has the possibility to create "links" on functions, for example, to go where they are defined... (I guess they also support variables, classes, methods, etc.). I see Komodo as a "Go to Definition" shortcut... does it permit to go to definitions from another file? (included, or in the same project... -AFAIC, I have an automatic class loader for PHP, so I don't have any include for classes). I don't know if Zend Studio supports this, but I guess they do, and it sure could be useful. (By the way, with the "Go to Definition" shortcut, when you are already on the definition, the status bar shows an error which is not clear at all -I guess you didn't support this cas... there should be a clear message, like "it seems you are already on the definition"...).

- Zend Studio has a code profiler for PHP (notably with the possibility to time and count everything).

- When there is multiple open projects, add the possibility to move a project up and down, in the project list (you can already drag and drop them, and all, but they aren't moved).

- In RELNOTES.txt, add a blank line between each item of lists -except if each item (or the large majority of items) fits on a single line-, add a second line at the end of each section, and, possibly, add more separation between sections -lines of "#####", "=====", or "-----", depending on the hierarchy level, between sections, or just below section titles. This applies to the other text files as well. It's better for readability, and to find a section more easily.

- In RELNOTES.txt, for example, for the entry about default proportional and fixed-width font problem, associated to bug 27206, I get: "Permission denied. Sorry; you do not have the permissions necessary to see bug 27206", from your bugzilla... it does it for a number of bugs listed, which is a problem if someone want to follow something, or find more informations. Also, a nuber of entries do not have an associated bugzilla id... while not that a big deal, it would be nice to have an id for each and every problems, so we can follow the possible resolution (if someone really wants to get news on an issue, he should try to search on the bugzilla himself, and, possibly, create a new report, but it would be more simple to already have a bugzilla id, for all issues listed in RELNOTES.txt -even if with just the same text as in this file).

- For the "Open/Find toolbar", if the "in" field is blank, it should be filled with the active document (and maybe changed, automatically, if not manually modified, if the user switch to another document). Also, the drop-down menu of this field is filled with the files from the current directory of the active file, but if I select a file which is not opened, the search is done in the active document, which is not good (it should open the requested document). Finally, I don't think it the menu should be filled with the files from the current directory... (I don't quite see the use -if you need to search something in a document, you generally start by opening it). Instead, it should probably list the currently opened documents, but the field should probably just be removed as too redundant (well, the interface speaks of search in multiple documents, and even folders, by adding files and directories separated by a colon, which could be more useful, but it simply does not work: it only searches in the active document... if you make it work, you should add an option, in the right-click menu of files and directories in the project and toolbox panes, to search something in this file/directory, and it would copy the path to the search list... -certainly add a second option to append the path, instead, and also permit to select multiple files/directories, to copy/append in one time (though it would be better to have a real list, rather than a single-line text zone)). There is also a problem with using colon-separated values for the search list, and the drop-down menu for paths which won't be used for the search... we you talk about a list, the user will generally think first about the drop-down, rather than using colon-separated values... maybe you should simply remove the drop-down menu... In conclusion, you should probably drop the "in" field, and readd it to the search dialog... as it stays above the Komodo main window, but you can still select files from the project/toolbox tabs, you could easily add files to the list... (which would then be a real list, with the possibility to easily remove one or more items, and add items using drag and drop, and an "add file/directory to the search list" button). When there are results in multiple files/directories, you should then list the results in the same dialog, in a result list field (like a dedicated file search program), with the possibility to easily open the associated file, to the specific line, with proper highlight, and to find occurences in the same file... [err... ok, I just found you had to press "enter" in ther "in" field, to have the search results listed in the bottom pane... highly unintuitive behaviour, and not properly documented :) having the list in the bottom pane is indeed nice, but the usability should really be improved... there are also strange characters in the results... is that "NL", for "new line"? these symbols should just not be listed, except if the search terms are broken on multiple lines, or if you support regexps, and the regexp specify new line characters...]

- For the "Open/Find toolbar", add the possibility to highlight all occurrences... (probably a checkbox, and you could check/uncheck the box at all times, and it would highlight or unhighlight the occurences...).

- In my 2007-03-25 list, I was talking about an "Highlight all" button, for the "Find" dialog... There should be a similar button for the "Replace" dialog (to highlight all occurences, before a possible replacement).

- With the "Open/Find toolbar" (and maybe with the search/replace dialog too), when Komodo found all occurences, it opens an alert dialog, and you have to click on "ok" or press enter to continue... If you add a non-intrusive (but just as visible) notice system, you should better simply notice the user that all occurences were presented, and that the search restarted to the first occurence. An alert dialog is too intrusive. Same for the "Find & Replace" dialog (and it is even more important, because having two open dialogs starts to become hard to follow -taking into account that the center of attention is the text in the main window, not the dialogs...). Note, however, that when replacing things, the alert that Komodo replaced all occurences sure should be very visible, and make the user stop, because, depending on what is searched for, it might cause problems when replacing (e.g., when searching "Foo", and replacing it -maybe not everywhere, so the user has to check each occurence, and cannot simply click on "Replace All"- by "Foobar"... if the user does not notice Komodo started searching again, from the beginning -more complex search, tiredness, highly-repetitive stuff, etc.-, he might replace "Foo" multiple times, it becomes "Foobarbar", which probably isn't what the user wants).

- In the "Open/Find toolbar", for the "find" field, there should be an entry, in the right-click menu of the field, to clear the history (same for the find and replace dialog).

- After having done a search using the "Open/Find toolbar", using the enter key in the "in" field, you cannot seem to be able to close the "Find Result" tab, in the bottom pane... there should be close buttons on each tab, and/or a right-click menu.

- With the "Open/Find toolbar", if using the enter key in the "in" field, for a single document, even the active one, it uses the "Find Result" tab, in the bottom pane... if the document is active, it should act as usual, that is to show the results in the document... if the document is already opened, it should switch to its tab... if it is not open, it should simply open it... no need to use the "Find Result" tab, for a single document... (though there might be an option to still use it, as it sure can make it easier to find information, depending on what you want to find).

- When searching for something, it sometimes happen that a line or block of code contains a lot of occurences, but you know they are not what you want to find... maybe there could be some button/shortcut, to skip directly to the next line or block...

- In the "Find & Replace" dialog, when a search is already shown in the "Find Results" bottom pane, there is a checkbox "Display results in Find Results 2 tab", which is confusing... it should be rewritten to something like `Display result list in Find Results tab, in the bottom pane`, or something like this (if you think it is too long, remove "in the bottom pane", I guess)... possibly "[...] in new Find Results tab, but I don't think allowing multiple tabs is that useful... (and it does not works, for now, anyway... when the box is checked, it still show the results in the document).

- When creating a file, a no template is selected, it should simply create a blank file, instead of graying-out the "Open" button (and it should take into account the possibility that no filename was specified either -it already takes this into account, when using a template).

- In the new file dialog, you cannot see/select templates which are located at the root of the template directory... (they have to be located in subdirectories)... it would be nice to be able to see/select them.

- In the new file dialog, there should be another way

- In some drop-down selects (for example, new file dialog, for the directory where to create the file, or in the "Open/Find toolbar", for the "in" field, for past search lists), you use file paths in italic... just don't, it is highly unreadable, for file paths.

- In the new file dialog (and maybe elsewhere), add more controls to navigate between directories... there should be a button to go to the parent directory, to the home directory, to the root directory, and to navigate easily between sibling directories... you have "local" and and "remote" buttons, but it means opening a second dialog, and having to use, in total, three different dialogs, to open a file, which should really be avoided. In understand that you might not want to have too many elements in the basic new file dialog, but there is no other way. Well, if you merge files and directories, you will need only two main elements (the list of files and directories, and the list of template files and directories).

- In XML files, word wrapping can cut tags anywhere, which is not cute at all (and not readable ^_^). For example, it can cut "<" and "br/>" (don't forget to take into account XHTML 1.0, where we generally use a space between the tag name and "/>", for empty tags), and "</" and "em:description>". Same for attributes. Do not cut between the attribute name, the equal sign, the opening quote, and the first word of the attribute value, not between the last word of the attribute value, and the closing quote (well, it seems quotes are ok, but word wrapping can currently cut on either side of the equal sign). It should also avoid cutting between an opening tag, and the first word or subtag which follows, and conversely, for closing tags (except, of course, if the first word is longer than the window length -a long URL, for example). Same for comments (taking into account a possible space between the comment opening/closing tag, and the first/last word). For example, if I have "<!-- (Foo Bar", the first place where to possibly cut, would be between "Foo" and "Bar".

- When "Ensure file ends with EOL marker" is checked, an EOL marker is added, even when the file is completely empty... meaning the file won't be empty anymore... (and that there will be a blank line at the beginning of the file, if something is appended to it...). Komodo should not add an EOL marker, on save, if the file is completely empty (that is not even a space character, or, in general, a control character of any kind).

- In PHP, you do not complete interface classes (neither the PHP ones, nor the user ones too), when defining a class, after the "implements" keyword. It would be nice if you did.

- With PHP, using Smart Indent, if I have a snippet on multiple lines, when I insert it, the first line will be where the cursor is (generally, it will be already properly indented, but it might not, and Smart Indent should correct the indentation, if needed), and the following lines won't be indented automatically at all... Smart Indent should adjust the indentation as needed. Same for copy-pasting, even when the original indentation of the pasted code is invalid. Smart Indent should correct everything.

- While in the project tab, the open directories are kept accross restarts, it is not the case with the toolbox, where all directories reappear as closed... when you use multiple directories, notably depending on the programming language used, it takes time to reopen the needed directories every times... (note it does that both with project directories, and live directories). On a similar matter, however, in the project tab, projects which were "closed" (in this case, I mean reduced/minimized, so no file/directory it contains are shown in the tree), are reopened when restarting Komodo... it would be nice if their status was also saved.

- Maybe the possibility to fold multiline comments... (possibly only keeping the first line, notably it starts with "/**" -Doxygen comments, which use the first line as a title).

- With Smart Indent, in PHP, the indentation is increased after (next line) a multiline comment closing sequence ("*/"), instead of staying the same.

- In my 2007-03-25 list, I said: "In dialogs to add files, the status of the checkbox "Show hidden files and directories", is not saved. It would be nice if it was". I forgot to specify I was using the XUL file picker ("ui.allow_platform_file_picker"="false", in the Mozilla preferences). Note it also apply to the file opening dialog, and probably other dialogs (though you use you own, for a number of dialogs listing files -if you ever add an option to specifically show the hidden files, to these dialogs, don't forget its status should be saved). The problem is the same with Firefox, so it should be reported, if not already... (though they might refuse to do so, if they do not support the XUL file picker anymore... -they currently use the horrible GTK file picker). If you don't have the time to report the problem to them (well, I didn't search if it was aready reported), or don't support either (though I think you should configure Komodo to use the XUL file picker by default, and maybe create an option, in the preference dialog, as, although it is far more usable, the XUL file picker is a bit less advanced than the GTK one), the use of the XUL file picker, just tell me, and I'll register on their bugzilla, and report the problem. If they do not accept the change, you could however change the behaviour for Komodo.

- In a number of languages (maybe all), and even in plain text, when there is a closing parenthesis (and maybe elsewhere), and the cursor is just before, and you type a non-ASCII character (like "é"), then for an instant, a '?' symbol is displayed, before being replaced by the correct character... while not too important (though still a bit confusing) in languages, like French, where there isn't many non-ASCII characters, I guess it could be more of a problem, in languages where there is quite a number of them, used frequently, notably when touch typing. Anything which can draw the attention of the user, away from what really matters, is quite important.

- In my 2007-03-25 list, I said: `I have no idea what is causing it, but on some lines, even when the cursor is there, when I use "ctrl+s", to save he document, Komodo scrolls the document to some point upward, and the line with the cursor disappear at the bottom of the window... it does not do it on all lines... it's very annoying, when saving the document often, as I do...`. It seems to be due to word wrapping... in fact, Komodo seems to jump back to the position where the cursor would be, if there was no word wrapping... for example, with word wrapping, if I save the document, Komodo jumps to about five screens from the beginning of the document... then, if I deactivate the word wrapping, I can notice that the line where is my cursor, is also about five screens from the beginning of the document... I'm not absolutely sure, but it seems to be how it is. I hope it can be fixed. [It does not seem to be strictly related to word wrapping... sometimes, there is no problem, even when the document contains word wrapped lines... well, I don't know ^_^].

- There is a bit of delay between the time I use the Ctrl+F shortcut (Find & Replace), and the time it starts to take input into account... If I start typing too quickly, the first one or two letters are not taken into account (though they do not appear either in the active document content, so I guess the problem is the "Find & Replace" dialog does not start to accept input, soon enough, when it is being loaded).

- By default, you should associate ".htaccess" files to the Apache highlighting rules. Same for ".htpasswd" and ".htgroup" files, if they are properly highlighted with the Apache highlighting rules (I didn't test)... otherwise, create highlighting rules for these two formats (and for maps for the URL rewriting module, maybe associated to .htmap, though the name does not seem to be used for this purpose).

- Maybe an option so the left and right panes (and maybe the bottom pane, to a more limited extend), are resized automatically, depending on the space needed to display the directories/filenames... You should then permit an absolute limit. If the user resizes the panes manually, the absolute limit would be set to this limit.

- More advanced highlighting rules for Apache... for exemple, `RewriteRule ^(index|index\.php)$ / [nocase,redirect=301,last,env=foo:bar]` is very incompletely highlighted. Same for `RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.\w{1,6}$`. The most used Apache modules must be supported.

- In PHP, "<?php" and "<?xml" (from the HTML context) are not completed (well, they are short, be they still should be).

- In the project and toolbox tabs, the icons, in the header, to add something to the project, make me think far more about the file classification, than about adding something to the project.

- In PHP, Komodo does not seem to complete constants defined with define(). It would be nice if it did.

- For commands, there should be a simple option to strip the final new line characters, when inserting the output.

- For commands, in the field "Parse output with", you should not default to anything... (the "^(?P<file>.+?):(?P<line>\d+):(?P<content>.*)$" expression is there by default) and if you want to add a few common regular expressions, they should be described at the same place.

- For commands, you must be able to use regular expressions, when inserting the output, even when not outputting anything to the command output tab.

- In the command output tab, it would be nice to be able to have the commands append their output, instead of replacing all other output.

- In PHP, you do not complete the indexes of the $_SERVER superglobal... there sure are dynamic values in this array, but you could complete the indexes described in the PHP documentation.

- In PHP, I have something like: "if (\n(foo) and\n(bar)\n)"... the problem is the final closing parenthesis is automatically aligned with the first, using Smart Indent, instead of being at the same level as the 'i' of "if" (well, it should be aligned with the beginning of the line -not counting the base indentation). Similarly, if I have "foobar(foo);", and I press enter while the cursor is after the opening parenthesis, then "foo" will be aligned with the character following the opening parenthesis (nothing, as I just pressed enter...). Generally, indentation should be thought relatively to the beginning of the line, not to the preceeding line (the preceeding line only says if the indentation should stay the same, or be increase by one level, or decreased by one level).

- In PHP, if I have something like "{\nfoo\n}", and I increase the indentation of the opening curly brace, maybe you could increase the indentation of the whole block... (same if decreasing the indentation). Probably do not do this for the other lines of the block, as it would prevent any manual indentation (well, it could be an option, when Smart Indent will indent everything perfectly, in all cases).

- The calltip can mask the code from the next line, which might be a problem, if I want to read something from that line... Transparency generally isn't usable at all, for text on text, so it is not a solution. Though not perfect, you might allow people to move the tooltip with the mouse... Maybe also create a shortcut to switch between showing the tooltip above or below the current line... (or maybe to temporarily hide it).

- In PHP, you should differentiate "return" (a control structure, which style should default to black, bold, like if-then-else, etc. -same for include() and associated language constructs), and special values like null, true and false (I have no suggestion for the style, except it probably should match, by default, the style of constants, though the definition should still be separated).

- For calltips, in PHP, for custom functions, you show seems to show only the first four lines of the above comment block. When you will support Doxygen comments, you should permit the user to define what to show (only the title, and the @param and @returns tags, for example, but you should let the user free to modify this choice -notably if he used custom tags). You should also at the very least, limit the width of the calltip to something like 90% of the screen... (even if it is far too long on a large screen, it is at least better than letting the calltip use 100% of the screen width -I guess I should note I generally do not use line breaks at 80 characters or less, so the comment lines in my code can easily fill the whole screen). The best would probably be to keep the width at, like, 82 characters, if the height can fit between the current line and the border of the available space... if it cannot, start enlarging the width of the calltip... if it still cannot fit, use scrollbars... (and probably permit to navigate within the calltip, using the top/down arrow keys, the pageup/down buttons, and the mouse -with the scroll bar, and with the wheel-, though it sure mean a new navigation context, which will limit the navigation in the code, as soon as a calltip appear...).

- In PHP, in a function (and other contexts, maybe all contexts), you do not complete the keywords "global", "static" (and maybe others). In fact, you also do not complete language constructs like "echo", "print", "while", "foreach", "return", etc., keywords like "function", "class", etc. These are of course the basic keywords of the language, but it does not mean you shouldn't complete them. There might be differences between languages, and the user might not quite remember if this is the exact keyword to use, if it is supported, etc. and generally, it is always a few characters the user won't have to type. It also avoids the problem of expecting completion to happen (when you become used to it), and loosing a few instants, and some attention, because nothing is happening.

- In PHP, currently, the calltip only appear just after having opened a function parenthesis. It disappears if completing a variable in the argument list, it disappear if moving the cursor elsewhere, etc., and it does not reappear when coming back to the function argument list context (well, except by removing the opening parenthesis, and readding it again...). It would be nice if it did.

- In PHP, if I start to write a function name, then remove the name with the back key, then start to write another function name, the function completion list will stay the same as for the first one.

- When completing the function names, it would be nice if Komodo first selected the most recently used function. Same for variables, and all the other types.

- In PHP, if I start writing something like `foo("bar" . str`, then no completion takes place for functions starting with "str"... You should support the concatenation operator.

- For completion, when inside a function or a block, first suggest the variables and functions already used in the function/block.

- In PHP, if I write "strlen(foo)", and then, prefix "mb_" to "strlen", then the completion should first select "mb_strlen", and if I press enter, it should probably replace the already written part "strlen", instead of inserting it again, leading to "mb_strlenstrlen(foo)"... However, it is good that I can start writing the name of another function, even when the cursor is at the beginning of another name, because it might be different expressions, and I would add some operators/expressions, between the two names, afterward... For example, if I have "echo bar;", and my cursor is at the beginning of "echo", I want to be able to start writing "print", and get the possible completions for functions (and constants and maybe other things, depending on the context), starting by "print" (this is the current behaviour of Komodo), because I might want to write something like "print foo; echo bar;". Of course, if I wanted to write a second "echo", before the first one, then there would be some conflict in the completion behaviour... replace the existing part of "echo", or write a second one?

- Possibly, color highlighting with softer tones, when some recognizable language is used in strings... (for example, HTML/XML, SQL, PHP -when using eval() to execute PHP code in strings-, etc.). The color adjustment might be done automatically, if there is no readability problem. Of course, it should still be clear that this is a string, so there is some thinking to do, but this would really be interesting.

- Complete the function arguments with known values, and already used values... For known values, for example, in PHP, with the "header" function, there could be some completion for the header name and status number, using the headers from the HTTP RFC. Same for HTML, for example.

- In PHP, for completion, if I start writing something, get some completion possibilities, but continue writing something else, the completion list stays here, which is confusing. I can understand it might be useful, in very rare cases, when the user changes its mind, or made a typo, but this is still confusing. You might keep it as an option, but I think it should be deactivated by default.

- On a very related note to the above one, when you show the completion possibilities, you do not remove the possibilities which became "impossible", due to a new letter being typed. For example, if I write "str", then "n", you will select the first function starting by "strn", but you will keep all the other functions which start by "str", but not by "strn"... it means the list of possibilities is really large, and hard to navigate into... You should remove all entries which do not match the beginning of the typed text, exactly.

- I don't know how it works exactly, but it seems you start completing variables as soon as one character is typed, but you wait until the third character has been typed, for functions... while there might be problems with the number of functions, when only one letter has been written (though I guess the list could be loaded when needed, and not all from the beginning -which should, by the way, avoid the small delays, when loading the list, as already reported), it still can be useful (and for letters which are seldom used as the first character of a function, it would be completley relevant). Having different numbers of letters activating the completion, depending on the type of data is a problem, when you become used to completion, because you are instinctively waiting for a list to open, even when not using it this time... You should open the completion list as soon as possible (for variables, it can be as soon as typing the '$' symbol, in languages which use this symbol, even though it might be used in other contexts...), and be consistent with this behaviour.

- In PHP, in the HTML context, the doctype is not highlighted (well, same in HTML, as it seems...). I use the "XHTML 1.0 Strict" doctype... maybe you only highlight the HTML ones, in which case, you should highlight the doctype in a more generic manner.

- In my 2007-03-25 list, I said `If I use an XML declaration, in an HTML file (for proper XHTML), I get an error from the WCAG, saying: "Access: [3.3.1.1] use style sheets to control presentation"`.

- In PHP, if I have two existing variables "$Foobar" and "$Foofoo", in the current document, and, after their declaration, I write "$Foobar", but changes my mind, and erase the "bar" part, then their won't be any completion suggestions from Komodo... it would be nice if both variables names were suggested...

- By default, do not use italic for comments... it makes the comments less readable. Color is enough (and the comment symbols, of course).

- For syntax highlighting, I think I already said something similar in my previous notes, but I really think you really should not care that much about the context... you should just suggest every existing tokens. It is generally counterproductive to try to discriminate between different contexts. Generally, some tokens, or some parts of some tokens, will be found in many different contexts, and you surely don't want the user to have to write them all by hand, simply because the context is different.

- For CSS, add more completion of values... for example, for colors, list the standardized color names.

- For HTML completion, there must be an option to use lowercase element names. It is generally recommended for HTML, and required for XHTML.

- I said in previous notes that Smart Indent should correct the indentation as much as possible. There is however some cases where it should not do anything before being sure of the final structure of the document (that is there is no more unmatched/unclosed tags). When writing code, notably HTML/XML, I might sometimes want to copy-paste some opening tag, in front of a number of items, and then copy-paste the closing tag to match the opening ones... In some editors, for each opening tag, they will increase the indentation... when copy-pasting the closing tag, they sure will decrease the indentation, but it is still quite annoying, notably when the items are long (or the list of item is long), and it leads word wrapping to take place... (note that, of course, the same problem appears when starting with the closing tags). It is generally not good to delay automation, but in this case, you should really wait that the tags are properly closed, to decide if the indentation should be increased/decreased, or not.

- There is some delay when closing multiple files quickly. If I want to close the last few files, but keep the previously opened files, I will have to close the files more slowly, of risk closing some files I want to keep open...

- In CSS files, while it is good to know when a property is standard or not, it is bad to get syntax errors (wavy green line under the property and its value), when using properties you do not support (like CSS 3 "border-radius", or proprietary properties like "-moz-border-radius"...). I'm not quite sure how you should do it, however. Using different colors is not that great for consistency... maybe a notice in the status bar, and in a tooltip, saying things like "W3C CSS 1.0 property", for level 1 properties, and similar things for CSS 2.0, 2.1 and 3 (well, for properties defined in the current working draft, and it should probably be noted in the notice, like "W3C CSS 3 (WD) property"...). And things like "Gecko CSS property" for Mozilla proprietary properties, "Trident CSS property", "KHTML CSS property", "Presto CSS property", maybe "WebCore CSS property", etc. (well, you can use "Mozilla" (or "Mozilla/Firefox" -or even just "Mozilla Firefox"), "MSIE", and "Opera", instead of "Gecko", "Trident" and "Presto" -and if you support WebCore properties independently from KHTML, maybe use "Konqueror", instead of "KHTML"). Also, there are some standard CSS properties which might have proprietary values... (like "display: -moz-box;")... In this case, you should also append informations about the value... like "W3C CSS 1.0 property; Gecko CSS value"...

- Dialogs always retain their previous position (for example, the Find and Replace dialog)... while it generally is a good things, maybe there could be a smarter algorithm, which would, for example, put the dialog at the center of the Kododo window (or even a few lines above or below the cursor, and a bit on the left or right...), if the Komodo window has been moved a lot, since the previous position... or maybe there could be a quick option in some common dialogs, like Find and Replace, to always reset the position, except when the option is deactivated... Anyway, the problem is that I sometime want to move the Find and Replace dialog away, to better see the results, but, when I call the dialog, I often want to to be near my center of vision, that is near the center of the Komodo dialog... when the Komodo dialog takes half the screen, vertically, and it is located at the bottom of the screen, I don't want the dialog to appear where I might have left it, at the top of the screen... but, depending on how is dimensioned the window, I still might want to keep the previous location of the dialog...

- The Find and Replace dialog is too large... there should probably be an "Advanced..." button, to display the more advanced options... in the more simple mode, there would only be the "Find what" input, and options to match case or not, to match whole word or not, and to use regexps or not. The list of buttons on the right should also be at least compressed, and you should completely separate the "Find" and "Replace" tabs... (we generally know which we want, and it is wasting a line). Maybe there are other common dialogs, which interact with the editor text zone, which could be made a bit smaller too, at least in the more simple mode... (maybe there could also be some option to put them in panes, instead of separate dialogs, so the editor text zone won't be hidden -though it will be a bit smaller, but that is less of a problem).

- In the "Project Properties and Settings" dialog, you use input fields for the name and location of the project file, but their are not editable. I think they should (to rename the file, and move it), but if you do not want it to be possible, you should not use input fields (by the way, in the project file, there is a "name" attribute, to the root "project" element, but it does not seem to be used anywhere in the project tab or project property dialog... it would be good to be able to use it to name the project in the project tab, instead of having to use the filename of the project file...).

- I thought I wrote it in a previous note, but I can't seem to find it anymore, so: in the project tab, there should be a way to reorder the projects (by dragging them with the mouse, and by using some keyboard shortcuts and right-click menu entries -move up/down, and move to top/bottom).

- Support partial completion, with an option for "full partial completion" (if "Foobar" exists, then if I write "b", you should suggest "bar" -a very useless example, but there are cases where it can be useful, notably for long words with parts found in other words (I understand it can be a problem to optimize this, however, but you should stil think about it, maybe only for long words... -more than 8 characters, by default, for example)-, and maybe, if I wrote "testF", you should suggest "testFoobar" -well, probably when more than one character was specified, although as said in a previous note, it would be better to suggest things as soon as possible -but again, if the performance pernalty is too important, there should be some options to adjust things (and it sure should be adjusted by default)), and for partial completion depending on separation characters like '_', '-', '.', '->', '·' (the middle dot (\xB7), which I'm probably the only one using, but it's quite nice, in PHP, to fake hierarchy...), etc. (for example, if "Foo_bar" exists, and I write "b", you should suggest "bar"... and if I write "test_Foo", you should suggest "test_Foo_bar" -because there is a separation between "test" and "Foo").

- For partial completion, if the suggestion contains multiple words separated by a separation character, you should suggest different possibilities... for example, if "Foo_bar_test" exists, and I write "Foo", you should suggest "Foo_bar_test", and "Foo_bar".

- There should be an option for case-insensitive suggestions (for completion), and you should adapt the case depending on what has already been written... For example, if I write "Foobar", and start writing "foo", you should suggest both "foobar" and "Foobar"... (it could be a typo, but it could also be simply using the same word, or word part -with full partial completion, if I wrote "testf", you should suggest "testfoobar" and "testFoobar").

- Although I prefer to use tabulation characters for line start indent (no problem if someone else uses a different tab width), I generally use space characters, when indenting between fields... it would be nice maybe to have a special indentation mode for this, or at least the possibility to assign keyboard shortcuts to this feature. There are too possibilities, which should at least be supported by shortcuts (but you should probably allow both, if you create a special indentation mode -or maybe add the feature to Smart Indent): indent just like tabs (indent to next column, width the column width being defined by the the tab width), or indent to the next one-character column, after a space, after the longest field of all lines in the neighborhood (a series of lines separated by a blank line above and below, or comments, if we are not already in comments...). If you do not see what I mean, here are a few examples (a '#' character, specify where I would press the indentation key, while a '@' character specify where the cursor should be moved -and the interval filled with space characters):

Foo#@

Foo#   @
Foobar#@

Foo    bar
Bar#   @      [<- fields would be defined as a separation by tabs, or a space character -in some cases, we would have to press the indentation key multiple time to get to the correct position, if a field is composed of multiple words, but this is not a problem]

Foo#   @Foobar#@
Foobar#@Bar#   @

Note that with Smart Indent, you could also adapt the indentation, by removing or adding space characters as needed, if the longest field is modified... (though you should take into account that, sometimes, if there are numerous and/or very long fields, we sometime might want to use different indentation width, even in the same block... so there should be an option to deactivate the automatic adjusting of this kind of indentation).