Comments on: Getting SDK help from an external editor

By: Andy Nicholas

Andy Nicholas — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 13:01:04 +0000

I just found how to launch an external application with Visual Studio Macros:

Sub LaunchCalc()
DTE.ExecuteCommand(”Tools.Shell c:\Windows\System32\calc.exe”)
End Sub

By: Andy Nicholas

Andy Nicholas — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 12:17:43 +0000

Hi Andrew,

I”ve not had a look at how to do it in a macro yet, but you can launch external applications using the “Tools->External Tools…” where you can also add in the currently selected text into the command line as I mentioned above.

You can also slave it to a keyboard shortcut via the “Customize…” menu, Keyboard” button, and adding the shortcut to one of the “Tools.ExternalCommand(nn)” entries, where (nn) is the numeric position of the external command in the menu.

By: Andrew Skowronski

Andrew Skowronski — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 20:05:35 +0000

(Actually I realise that it would, at least, be possible to use this macro to go to the external wiki version of the docs…

Just change the line above to this:
path = “http://softimage.wiki.avid.com/sdkdocs/” & ts.Text & “.htm”

But opening the chm would often be better.

Also, this approach doesn”t work for the methods of objects, because the path includes the class name.

By: Andrew Skowronski

Andrew Skowronski — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 19:50:47 +0000

Very cool tip. Such a feature should be also very possible in Microsoft Visual Studio, it has a full SDK for writing macros.

However I can”t figure out how to do such a straightfoward thing as launch an application (e.g. call a hh.exe)

I tried going via internet explorer but that DOESN”T work.

Sub XSISDKHelp()
Dim win As Window = DTE.ActiveWindow

Dim ts As TextSelection = win.Selection

If (ts.Text = “”) Then
MsgBox(”Select a word to lookup in the SDK help”)
Exit Sub
End If

Dim path
path = “C:\Softimage\XSI_5.0\Doc\XSISDK\xsidevref.chm::/” & ts.Text & “.htm”

”DOESN”T WORK
Dim oApp
oApp = CreateObject(”InternetExplorer.Application.1″)
oApp.Visible = True
oApp.Navigate(path)

End Sub

Any one have any ideas?

By: Kim Aldis

Kim Aldis — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 08:12:41 +0000

Back in the old days, when we used html, I also figured a way, using the same kind of method, of parsing the html docs and echoing out functions that matched the word under the cursor with an option to pick one to insert in the code in place of the word. In many ways this is more useful than bringing up the full docs because often you know what the function does, you just want a reminder of the arguments. Not quite intellisense but a reasonable imitation thereof.

By: Andy Nicholas

Andy Nicholas — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 21:59:11 +0000

Cool, thanks very much for that Kim. It”d be great if anyone else uses a different editor to the ones mentioned above if you could post how to get this working for yours.

By: Kim Aldis

Kim Aldis — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 21:05:12 +0000

Here’’s a version that”ll work with vim or gvim. Put this code into your _vimrc. It maps the comman to F2. Alter the last two lines if this doesn”t suit. Enjoy, and merry Christmas.

function XSIhelp()

” yank word under cursor into ” buffer
normal yiw

” assign to variable
let sWord = @”

” construct our command
let sCom = ”C:\WINDOWS\hh.exe C:\Softimage\XSI_5.0\Doc\XSISDK\xsidevref.chm::/” . sWord . ”.htm”

” and run it.
let sResponse = system( sCom );

endfunction

:map :call XSIhelp()
:imap :call XSIhelp()