comment style that tells text editors to fold sections of text
from some@programming.dev to programming@programming.dev on 03 Jul 22:37
https://programming.dev/post/33310905

I noticed that the developer of kitty terminal uses this style of comments I have rarely if ever seen elsewhere:

outside
#: section {{{
inside
#: }}}

Kate text editor recognize sections for purposes of highlighting, folding etc. It’s really nice for me because I sometimes I have a difficult time navigating large text files. And it lets you nest them.

Screenshot that shows the code folding.

I also like his style of distinguishing between narrative comments (starting with #:) and commented-out code (starting with #). Although in my example, Kate doesn’t treat them differently. Is there a term for this? Any conventions, support etc?

plain text used for screenshot

bash #: Comment level 1 {{{ #: Comment level 2 {{{ #: configure something key value #: }}} #: Another Comment level 2 {{{ #: Comment level 3 {{{ #: Helpful explanatory comment file location #: }}} #: Comment level 3 with hidden text {{{ you_cant see_this hidden_emoji “👁️” hidden_emoji2 " 👁️" hidden_emoji3 " 👁️" #: }}} #: let’s set some things up # setting yes # other_setting no different_setting maybe #: }}} # regular comment #: }}} # regular comment outside anything ___

For a real world example, see sample kitty.conf file provided on project website.

#programming

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HelloRoot@lemy.lol on 03 Jul 23:28 next collapse

what is this called?

Marker-based folding

some@programming.dev on 05 Jul 08:51 collapse

Thanks! Searching for this led me to this extremely charming website where in addition to robust folding, the author argues in favor of proportional width fonts and tabstops (not spaces) in coding. Unconventional. It’s nice to know someone who processes text in a similar way to me can be a successful programmer. Even if they had to write their own tools. tibleiz.net/code-browser/elastic-tabstops.html

thingsiplay@beehaw.org on 05 Jul 10:55 collapse

BTW, my personal note about the tabstops for indentation is, I wish everyone would use it over spaces. Because it would make it much easier to display the file differently without changing it. Also parsing it would make it easier too probably. But since spaces are the standard, I exclusively use space for indentation.

zerofk@lemmy.zip on 05 Jul 11:47 collapse

I actually think the argument for mixing tabs and spaces makes a lot of sense. Use tabs for indentation, coupled with spaces for alignment (e.g. of function arguments). It eliminates the downsides of using tabs resp. spaces exclusively. But since nobody uses it, I never have either. Following the style of the project at hand is the way.

thingsiplay@beehaw.org on 05 Jul 12:00 collapse

You mean alignment of arguments or multiline strings in example? If they are not on their own line, then it does not matter to me. If they start on their own line, then mixing spaces and tabs isn’t a good idea to me. In example for function calls with a bit more complex calls and multiple arguments, I put them in their own line each. They are indented and therefore indentation level plays. If they are on the same line, I never align them and if I would, it would be spaces. In general:

function() {
....var = 1
....another_var = 2
....indented(arg, arg2, arg3)
....indented(arg, 
.............arg2, 
.............arg3)
}
some@programming.dev on 06 Jul 18:22 collapse

I am very rarely working in other people’s stuff because I am too rudimentary but of course I try to follow their rules when I do.

For my own purposes, I would do it in one of the below ways. I made the case more complicated by changing the lengths. I mostly choose consistent levels of indentation using tabs over per-character alignment but not always.

[–] = tab, ~ = single space (and double space = double space in front of comments for legibility here)

function() {
[--]var = 1
[--]another_var = 2
[--]indented(arg, arg2, arg3)
[--]indentedTwo(arg, 
[--]~~~~~~~~~~~~arg2,
[--]~~~~~~~~~~~~arg3)  #: aligned by spaces to match specific charecter length
[--]indentedThree(
[--]~~~~~~~~~~~~arg,
[--]~~~~~~~~~~~~arg2)  #: aligned by space to arbitrary charecter length, same as the previous
[--]indented4(
[--][--]arg,
[--][--]arg2)  #: aligned by tabstop by level
[--][--]~~~~~  #: this would be my preference overall if I had to chose
[--][--]~~~~~  #: (which so far I haven't)
}

Kate has a great feature called “insert smart newline” which I shortcut to shift+enter. If you are typing for example on the penultimate line above and “insert smart newline” it’ll automatically fill the line with [–][–]~~~~~ #: and put the cursor at the end. This feature really enables a lot of these habits for better or worse.

When I write output to terminal I really like being able to use tabs to modify the length of tabs according to what is the content. Sometimes I wish I could set tabs in my editor (like a word processor), it would make things simpler. But then there’s portability issues for non standard features like that so.

thingsiplay@beehaw.org on 04 Jul 01:09 next collapse

^(update: just added a new link)^

The way you describe and show it, is called foldmethod “marker”. The advantage of markers are, that they are built into the file. The disadvantage is, its built into the file. I rather like having the source independent from folding markers. The good news is, you can change the foldingmethod in Neovim and ignore the marker comments and instead use your own method.

A simple one is just “manual”, where you set what is foldable and not. There are some automatic ones, like based on indentation and such. I was never a folding guy anyway, so don’t really know all the differences when to use and how they differ. Neovim has following foldmethod: manual, indent, expr, syntax, diff, marker. The “expr” method even allows you a custom code and logic.

some@programming.dev on 05 Jul 08:47 collapse

It makes sense it’s a Vim thing since it’s used in kitty config. When I search for marker based folding as someone else said it’s called above, almost everything I get is for Vim. It’s always confused me why gui-based text editors seem to not have a lot of visually-based features like this compared to terminal-based editors. I guess it’s harder to create a system for user customization in a GUI application.

At least Kate has some support. Now that I know what it’s called I will look into what else is available there.

HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org on 04 Jul 09:23 collapse

It’s often better to split code in smaller functions tho, and give these good names.

some@programming.dev on 05 Jul 08:36 collapse

I am probably a bit over the top with this tbh. I put everything in functions, even single-use activities like declaring initial variables at the beginning. I just do it to enable the code folding. Even though everything I do is small time and I’m sure it’s not excessively burdensome on the system, it seems wasteful to me to have the computer hold a the function in memory when it’s never going to get used again. So I was thinking this might be more efficient in such cases.