Can't Post In This Forum?

[freddie1]

I Don't Think I Can Post Here Either. Will Give It A try Though!

[freddie1]

Hmmmm. Seems to work. Don't know what's going on. When I type text to create a new post the count of bytes text box doesn't register anything, and when I hit the 'Preview Post' button nothing comes up. What I mean is the screen comes up but nothing in it. So I figured I couldn't do new posts. But it seems to work normal in replying to posts. I don't hardly ever do anything but reply to posts here, but it bothered me I couldn't make new posts. Seems I can though even though the anomily of the zero byte count for new posts and failure of the preview option. Anyone have any thoughts on this???

[Peter87]

Yes, there are known problems with the posting new topics. The preview and format buttons doesn't work. This is the reason why I never complain to new users for not using code tags anymore.

[MikeyBoy]

The preview and format buttons doesn't work. This is the reason why I never complain to new users for not using code tags anymore.

It's still trivial to add code tags in the text, and new users should still be encouraged to do so.

Remember, using code tags isn't something we insist people do for our benefit. It is entirely for the poster's benefit, as it makes it more likely that people will be able to give them the help that they are looking for. Framing it is "complaining" isn't right - it's helping new users.

Also, everybody can see their own post once they've posted it (assuming the post gets through at all), so the lack of a working preview is neither here nor there. Nobody's going to be offended if someone immediately edits their own post to improve it (as, indeed, I've just done here).

[freddie1]

OK, thanks for the info Peter. It did have me confused. Now I know.

[Peter87]

MikeyBoy wrote:

It's still trivial to add code tags in the text, and new users should still be encouraged to do so.

Go ahead and enlighten the newcomers. I don't mind as long as it's not too harsh (Some people make it sound like they are stupid for not getting it right).

I used to point out that people should use code tags (with indentation) and sometimes, as a matter of principle, didn't provide any help until they did so, but I guess I got tired of that and since the forum isn't even working correctly I felt I should just wait for the bug to be fixed (how hard can it be?) and in the meantime focus on the problem and try to be helpful instead. I still refrain to read some posts because they lack code tags but that is more out of laziness.

[48T7M4Gy]

It's also interesting in terms of good user interface design practice.

If the user is continually making the same 'mistake' then it might be that the user interface is the issue. That's how aircraft instrument and panel design works.

Checklists and sign-offs are another way but I suspect not a good move for this forum and in any case it would be like us all reading the terms and conditions and then signing off on software license agreements.

[Thomas1965]

Peter87 wrote:

I still refrain to read some posts because they lack code tags but that is more out of laziness.

Why don't you just copy and paste the code into your editor? Seems less work than writing a post about code tags.

[Peter87]

Thomas1965 wrote:

Why don't you just copy and paste the code into your editor? Seems less work than writing a post about code tags.

I think the biggest advantage with using code tags is that it preserves the formatting. The syntax highliting is nice but less important for readability in my opposition. I use the code editor Geany and as far as I know it doesn't have a feature to tidy up the formatting automatically.

[Chervil]

Why don't you just copy and paste the code into your editor? Seems less work than writing a post about code tags.

Well, I do that too. But there are several disadvantages.
1. duplicated effort. several different people each going through the same manual process (including inserting indentation) adds up to a larger collective waste of effort.
2. inability to refer to code by line number.
3. inability to comprehend required spacing of either input or output leading to incorrect (therefore unhelpful) answers.

Note: this isn't about trying to attach blame to anyone, it is simply describing problems with the process.

[48T7M4Gy]

http://www.geany.org/manual/dev/index.html#indentation

[Peter87]

kemort, it doesn't explain how to add indentation to already existing code.

[48T7M4Gy]

it doesn't explain how to add indentation to already existing code

Yeah, I'm not surprised one way or the other. I don't use it, just thought I'd check it out and see what it could do. One forum said the following but I don't know whether it works or not. Everybody is different but if it doesn't then that would be good enough for me not to use it.

This is possibly not quite as good, but with Geany if you highlight the code you want indented, ctrl-i indents and ctrl-u unindents.

[Peter87]

This is possibly not quite as good, but with Geany if you highlight the code you want indented, ctrl-i indents and ctrl-u unindents.

That changes the indentation for every line in the selection, same as using tab and shift+tab.

[48T7M4Gy]

So does that mean you can't copy untagged code from this site, paste it in Geany, select all of it then hit the relevant tab or control key and format it as with other IDE editors like Netbeans, Eclipse, VS, XCode and Qt creator and if I remember correctly Notepad++ ?

[Peter87]

Not that I know of. To be fair I should probably mention that I'm using a 7 year old version and there might be plugins you can install.

[48T7M4Gy]

Sounds like both of us will go forward without ever really getting to the bottom of the latest Geany, just resigning ourselves to yet another one of life's great mysteries :)

I'll just pick the post's that suit me and if necessary format them on my IDE (Xcode) and proceed accordingly if they are tagged or not.