Page Up/Down interval

[chrisjj]

Could the Text Compare Page Up/Down interval be a full
page, please? Here (41 lines per page) it is short by one line.

(Which is better than BC2's two).

Showing the same line on two successive pages can mislead.

Thanks.

[Tim]

This is working as designed. Many (most?) editors overlap on page up/down.

[chrisjj]

> This is working as designed.

I didn't suggest otherwise. My suggestion was for a design improvement.

> Many (most?) editors overlap on page up/down.

No reason for BC3 not to surpass them!

[Lutz]

> Many (most?) editors overlap on page up/down.
UE12 and UE15 don't overlap.

If this feature will make it in a future release of BC3 I suggest make it a tweak where the user can select the number of lines to overlap at page up/down (0..oo).

I agree with chrisjj because there is a difference between editing a file and comparing two files in my opinion.

[Michael Bulgrien]

If we are suggesting Page Up/Down tweak options, I have often thought that it would be nice if the first press of Page Up/Down would move the current line to the bottom/top of the screen (leaving the focus on the current line), and subsequent presses would continue with the full page scrolls with defined overlap.

[RunnerBiker]

I second Michael's suggestion, and have suggested it before.

My reason for requesting that is:

I frequently cursor through a file looking at every line. When you cursor to the bottom of the screen, you have to slow down because you can't see what is ahead. When you get to the bottom of the screen, Page Down, Page Up will result in a full screen of new lines and the cursor at the top.

[Michael Bulgrien]

Exactly. Currently, when working through a file, Page Up or Down causes the user to lose his or her place. It can be disorienting...and wastes the user's time when they have to reposition their cursor back to where the focus of their work was before paging.

Even using a keyboard modifier to retain current focus when paging (i.e. Alt+PgUp and Alt+PgDn) would be an acceptable implementation... although the ability to configure the functionality as default for unmodified keypresses also has merit.

[Michael Bulgrien]

FYI - UltraEdit uses Alt+PgUp and Alt+PgDn to place focus on the first or last visible line on the screen (without scrolling).

Since Ctrl+PgUp and Ctrl+PgDn already retain focus when paging, perhaps the option to stop with the currently selected line at the top or bottom of the screen would be more appropriate on these keypresses.

[Tim]

> Many (most?) editors overlap on page up/down.
UE12 and UE15 don't overlap.

I believe UE was the only editor we tested that doesn't overlap. Notice also that UE does not show partial lines at the bottom of the window, like BC and many other editors do. It would be impractical to show partial lines and not have an overlap.

[chrisjj]

It would be impractical to show partial lines and not have an overlap.

The overlap of my report was of full not partial lines.

[Tim]

The overlap of my report was of full not partial lines.

What might look to you as a two line overlap is actually one line plus a partial. The 2nd line would be missing at least one pixel in height.

[Michael Bulgrien]

Notice also that UE does not show partial lines at the bottom of the window, like BC and many other editors do. It would be impractical to show partial lines and not have an overlap.

Tim, I didn't suggest that you change the default functionality. I suggested that you make the option available to those that would prefer it... whether it be via a tweak, a configurable option, or assigned to currently unassigned keyboard accelerators. The fact is that the ability to scroll without losing your place in a compare/merge session would be extremely useful.

[chrisjj]

> What might look to you as a two line overlap

Uh, I said "short by one line".

[Tim]

Michael, I think you, chrisjj, and RunnerBike are all suggesting different things. Here are my thoughs on the comments:

1) Eliminating the overlap only makes sense if the window displays whole lines and not partials. We can post this to the wishlist, but I doubt that we will change BC's behavior or offer a tweak anytime soon.

2) PageUp/PageDown keep the cursor at the same position relative to the top of the window. Most of the text editors we use for comparative testing do this. I don't agree that this causes the user to lose his or her place.

3) Ctrl+PgUp/Ctrl+PgDn move the cursor to the extents of the window. Most editors of the editors we use for comparative testing do this.

The one change I'm considering is that subsequent presses of Ctrl+PgUp/Ctrl+PgDn will scroll, like you described in post #5.

[chrisjj]

> 1) Eliminating the overlap only makes sense if the window
> displays whole lines and not partials.

Disagreed. Eliminating whole-line overlap makes sense regardless.

> We can post this to the wishlist,

Thanks.