InfoQube IM - Community

Submitted by Tom on 2015/04/17 15:50

I'm trying to learn (some basic) HTML

Struggling a bit with remembering all the different aspects, and find myself wanting to save (and tag) bits of code for easy reference while learning.

Wondering:

is IQ suitable at all for saving snippets of code (in this context) ?

I mean, seeing as the viewer is IE-browser based: I did save some snippets in the HTML pane and it appears to save & display code okay,

Copy and paste from there seems to work okay too.

If you think IQ not suitable -

or that there's better software out there for this, please make recommendations!

thanks.

Comments

Tom, I would suggest looking at NoteTab. There are free, standard and pro versions and I think you should start with the free version. Eventually, you might want to do something more than just save snippets, and NoteTab will oblige. You can code entire websites with it (or other text editors for that matter). You could also look at Notepad++ (free) and EmEditor (pay, but I think they have a free version, but I'm not certain). All are excellent and offer slightly different options. For example, EmEditor and Notepad++ allow code folding. NoteTab has something they call Outline, but it is not what we are used to here. I don't think it has code folding.

There is also SublimeText to consider.

Jon

Sony Vaio Z, Intel Core i7, 8 GB RAM, 800 GB SSD

Windows 7 Professional 64 bit

[quote=Jon]

[...]

[/quote]

I agree with Jon. Its fun to learn these thing with a proper IDE or a good text editor. I use Notepad++ for everything simple (e.g. vb script) and full featured IDE (like Eclipse or Visual Studio) for more complex stuff (e.g. in Java or VB).

That said, IQ would still be useful to take notes about HTML, coding in general , organize references (articles, pdfs, web pages...),etc. For that, a simple text editor would be annoying... IMO.

Note however that IQ's grid isn't the ideal place to put HTML code snippets as IQ would interpret some of it as grid formatting by default, and other tags/code would just sit there. The HTML pane doesn't have that "problem" AND you can easily switch between code mode and "view" mode.

(Side note : I personally used IQ as to plan entire coding projects -- instead of using UML notations/diagrams -- with pretty good success... It was fun! IMO, it has definite advantages over a few other solutions -- if one has the patience to implement all that needs to be implemented for it to work smoothly. I'm just mentioning that for programmers as it would be overkill for you, most probably.)

-------------------------------------------------------

Windows 8.1

Sony Vaio S Series 13 (SVS131E21L)

Ram:8gb, CPU: Intel i5-3230M, 2.6ghz

Thanks Jon, Armando,

yeah,

I'm trialling a bunch of text editors (see donationcoder thread)

But this was about learning things like e.g. float & clear; font family vs. face; how and where best to implement; etc. etc.

Basically things I'm learning but forgetting cause I'm not using directly or there's just too much in the brain

I want to save it somewhere easily accessible.

Saying that I will check out the editor recommendations

(am currently trying Sublime Text - I love it but it is not very beginner friendly - NoteTab looks better that way...)

[quote=Tom]

[...] this was about learning things like e.g. float & clear; font family vs. face; how and where best to implement; etc. etc.

Basically things I'm learning but forgetting cause I'm not using directly or there's just too much in the brain

I want to save it somewhere easily accessible.

[/quote]

Then use something that you like and that you're familiar with to organize your info.

As you most probably know, IQ can be used to organize almost any kind of info (unless it's super specialized and has special visual needs, etc.).

Ideas... You could have:

- a field to identify snippets of codes : codeExample

- A field to identify comments on the code : codeNotes / codeComments

- A field to identify snippets categories (CodeExamplesCategory) if you want to

- ... endless possibilities

All of those fields could condition formatting on the item field to make the various data easily recognizable in grids.

Then it would be "easy" (well.. it should be easy, but it depends on how good you are with IQ filtering) to have a grid for snippets only, sortable on certain criteria, a grid for snippets put in context, etc. You could create your own flexible code dictionary, so to speak.

But then it depends how much time you want to invest vs benefits, and there are also great HTML references/books around that are well structured and that might be fine for that kind of reference usage.

-------------------------------------------------------

Windows 8.1

Sony Vaio S Series 13 (SVS131E21L)

Ram:8gb, CPU: Intel i5-3230M, 2.6ghz

I would tend to agree that IQ "could" be used but other tools may be better.

That said, I've always wanted to change the "notepad" style HTML code editor with the same used for VBScript, which supports folding and syntax highlighting.

Also on the boiler plate is a feature whereby an item HTML display is saved (Browse, WYSIWYG editor, HTML code view).

@Armando: Good point, I'll add a column toggle to show/hide the HTML code

Thanks Tom for bringing up the subject

In v0.9.26PreRel50 it is now possible to toggle the display of HTML codes in grid cells

[quote=Pierre_Admin]

In v0.9.26PreRel50 it is now possible to toggle the display of HTML codes in grid cells

[/quote]

thanks for the HTML related changes Pierre :thumbsup: :-)

(I might not get to mess around with it till next week, or maybe at the weekend)

Great !

You could have a grid where the Item column gives a description of the code and an HTMLCode column contains the actual code. Set that column to show HTML codes

Cheers !

Pierre_Admin

Finally started using this -

thanks Pierre !