DDE keybindings and preferences
Domino Designer on Eclipse (DDE) is a huge leap in the right direction for our IDE of choice. I agree there is room for improvement but be sure that IBM Lotus knows this as well. Having DDE is a big help in my day-to-day work and with the right key-combinations and the right tweaks to the preferences it can become even better. Below are some of the nice keybindings I find myself using all the time and the preference tweaks I always do.
- Ctrl-F6
Switch view - allows me to easily switch between editors using the keyboard - Alt-<arrow back>
Back in history, not within same editor (i.e. when jumping lines) but between editors - Alt-<arrow forward>
Forward in history, same as above - Ctrl-Alt-L
Goto correct Erl() line
In the preferences I normally tweak are the following:
- General\Editors\Text Editors
Show lines numbers - Domino Designer\LotusScript Editor\Fonts and Colors
Minor tweaks to the default color setup to make code easier to read. - Domino Designer\LotusScript Editor\Remove existing object code when saving with errors
In DDE you may save LotusScript code with errors but then what should happen to the compiled object code (the code actually being run). Should it be removed or kept in place?
Besides all of the above a thing to remember is that DDE is a brand new beast and simply sitting down in front of it and using it without investing any time in getting to know it is pretty arrogant and probably also a little stupid. I really suggest spending some time getting to know it and making sure it looks, acts and feels like you want it to.