Problem with VS2008 editor: How to force insert of tab

[Red]

If auto-format is turned off in VS2008, there is apparently no way to
indent a line. Under Tools->Options->Text Editor->C#->Formatting,
there are three checkboxes. Unchecking those seems to cause this
behavior.

I'd simply like to have the tab key insert a tab at the beginning of a
line. I believe that there were publlished macros for doing this in
earlier VS versions, but I expected this to be 'fixed' in VS2008. Yes,
I realize someone will say this is a feature, but it seems reasonable
to be able to simply insert a tab when required.

[Red]

On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 03:05:16 -0400, Red <re*@nospam.com wrote:

>If auto-format is turned off in VS2008, there is apparently no way to
indent a line. Under Tools->Options->Text Editor->C#->Formatting,
there are three checkboxes. Unchecking those seems to cause this
behavior.

I'd simply like to have the tab key insert a tab at the beginning of a
line. I believe that there were publlished macros for doing this in
earlier VS versions, but I expected this to be 'fixed' in VS2008. Yes,
I realize someone will say this is a feature, but it seems reasonable
to be able to simply insert a tab when required.

No word on this? I am not sure whether to log this with Microsoft, as
I'm sure they'll say it's a 'feature.' But givent that turning those
three checkboxes off seems to render the editor unusable, it would
seem like it.

Has anyone got a workaround or more info?

[Chris Dunaway]

On Apr 15, 12:56 am, Red <[e-mail] mwrote:

On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 03:05:16 -0400, Red <[e-mail] mwrote:

If auto-format is turned off in VS2008, there is apparently no way to
indent a line. Under Tools->Options->Text Editor->C#->Formatting,
there are three checkboxes. Unchecking those seems to cause this
behavior.

I'd simply like to have the tab key insert a tab at the beginning of a
line. I believe that there were publlished macros for doing this in
earlier VS versions, but I expected this to be 'fixed' in VS2008. Yes,
I realize someone will say this is a feature, but it seems reasonable
to be able to simply insert a tab when required.

No word on this? I am not sure whether to log this with Microsoft, as
I'm sure they'll say it's a 'feature.' But givent that turning those
three checkboxes off seems to render the editor unusable, it would
seem like it.

Has anyone got a workaround or more info?

Have you tried the settings under Tools->Options->Text Editor->C#-

>Tabs? Perhaps these will get you what you want.

Chris

[Red]

On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 07:21:44 -0700 (PDT), Chris Dunaway
<du******@gmail .comwrote:

>On Apr 15, 12:56 am, Red <[e-mail] mwrote:

>On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 03:05:16 -0400, Red <[e-mail] mwrote:

>If auto-format is turned off in VS2008, there is apparently no way to
indent a line. Under Tools->Options->Text Editor->C#->Formatting,
there are three checkboxes. Unchecking those seems to cause this
behavior.

>I'd simply like to have the tab key insert a tab at the beginning of a
line. I believe that there were publlished macros for doing this in
earlier VS versions, but I expected this to be 'fixed' in VS2008. Yes,
I realize someone will say this is a feature, but it seems reasonable
to be able to simply insert a tab when required.

No word on this? I am not sure whether to log this with Microsoft, as
I'm sure they'll say it's a 'feature.' But givent that turning those
three checkboxes off seems to render the editor unusable, it would
seem like it.

Has anyone got a workaround or more info?

Have you tried the settings under Tools->Options->Text Editor->C#-

>>Tabs? Perhaps these will get you what you want.

Chris

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your reply. The 'tabs' settings do not have any affect,
since the editor enforces its own notion of indentation. That notion,
in this case, seems to be keeping all code at the very left side of
the page. IOW, tabs are disabled.

Surely there must be some option that would override that behavior,
but I haven't found it. That's why it seems like a bug, for lack of a
better term.

[Mythran]

"Red" <Re*@nospam.com wrote in message
news:o4******** *************** *********@4ax.c om...

On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 07:21:44 -0700 (PDT), Chris Dunaway
<du******@gmail .comwrote:

>>On Apr 15, 12:56 am, Red <[e-mail] mwrote:

>>On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 03:05:16 -0400, Red <[e-mail] mwrote:
If auto-format is turned off in VS2008, there is apparently no way to
indent a line. Under Tools->Options->Text Editor->C#->Formatting,
there are three checkboxes. Unchecking those seems to cause this
behavior.

I'd simply like to have the tab key insert a tab at the beginning of a
line. I believe that there were publlished macros for doing this in
earlier VS versions, but I expected this to be 'fixed' in VS2008. Yes,
I realize someone will say this is a feature, but it seems reasonable
to be able to simply insert a tab when required.

No word on this? I am not sure whether to log this with Microsoft, as
I'm sure they'll say it's a 'feature.' But givent that turning those
three checkboxes off seems to render the editor unusable, it would
seem like it.

Has anyone got a workaround or more info?

Have you tried the settings under Tools->Options->Text Editor->C#-

>>>Tabs? Perhaps these will get you what you want.

Chris

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your reply. The 'tabs' settings do not have any affect,
since the editor enforces its own notion of indentation. That notion,
in this case, seems to be keeping all code at the very left side of
the page. IOW, tabs are disabled.

Surely there must be some option that would override that behavior,
but I haven't found it. That's why it seems like a bug, for lack of a
better term.

I have all three options unchecked, and that's how I've been developing.
Tabs work fine for me.

Mythran

[Red]

On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:46:21 -0700, "Mythran" <ki********@hot mail.com>
wrote:

>
"Red" <Re*@nospam.com wrote in message

>>>On Apr 15, 12:56 am, Red <[e-mail] mwrote:
On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 03:05:16 -0400, Red <[e-mail] mwrote:

>>>If auto-format is turned off in VS2008, there is apparently no way to
indent a line. Under Tools->Options->Text Editor->C#->Formatting,
there are three checkboxes. Unchecking those seems to cause this
behavior.

I'd simply like to have the tab key insert a tab at the beginning of a
line. I believe that there were publlished macros for doing this in
earlier VS versions, but I expected this to be 'fixed' in VS2008.

>I have all three options unchecked, and that's how I've been developing.
Tabs work fine for me.

Hi Mythran,

Thanks for your reply! That's what I was waiting to hear (or not!).
Just to clarify my post, here is what I refer to... If I create a new
empty project and insert the following lines, they cannot be indented
by inserting a tab in front of them:

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

namespace Test
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
int q = 12;
int y = 12;
int z = 234;

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

IOW, any inserted statement is kept at the left side (when the
auto-indent options are turned off).

If you don't have this problem with VS2008, then there must be a
difference between our editor options. I've copied all my settings
below. Do you see any differences from yours?

Editor settings follow. Looks long but I think it's only 5 pages::
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tools->Options:
Environment:
Keyboard: Emacs
Text Editor:
C#:
General:
Statemment completion:
[x] Auto list members
[ ] Hide advanced members
[x] Parameter information
Settings:
[ ] Enable Virtual space
[ ] Word wrap
[x] Apply Cut/Copy commands to blank lines when no
selection
Display:
[ ] Line Numbers
[x] Enable single-click URL navigation
[x] Navigation bar
Tabs:
Indenting:
( ) None
( ) Block
( ) Smart
Tab:
Tab Size: 4
Indent Size: 4
( ) Insert spaces
(x) Keep tabs
Advanced:
Outlining:
[x] Enter outlining mode when files open
Editor Help:
[x] Underline errors in the editor
Refactoring:
[ ] Warn if build errors exist when refactoring
[x] Warn on members with compiler generated references
XML Documentation Comments:
[x] Generate XML documentation comments for ///
Implement Interface:
[x] Surrund generated code with #region
Organize Usings:
[x] Warn if build errors exist when organizing usings
[x] Place 'System' directives first when sorting
usings
Formatting:
General: (all three below were checked by default)
[x] Automatically format completed statement on ;
[x] Automatically format completed statement on }
[x] Adjust indentation on paste
Indentation:
[x] Indent block contents
[ ] Indent open and close braces
[x] Indent case contents
[ ] Indent case labels
Label Indentation:
( ) Place goto labels in leftmost column
(x) Place goto labels one indent less than current
( ) Indent labels normally
New Lines:
New line options for braces:
[x] Place open brace on new line for types
[x] Place open brace on new line for methods
[x] Place open brace on new line for anonymous
methods
[ ] Place open brace on new line for control
blocks
[x] Place open brace on new line for anonymous
types
[x] Place open brace on new line for object
initializers
[x] Place open brace on new line for lambda
expressions
New line options for keywords:
[ ] Place 'else' on new line
[ ] Place 'catch' on new line
[ ] Place 'finally' on new line
New line options for expressions:
[x] Place members in object initializers on new
line
[x] Place members in anonymous types on new line
[x] Place query expression clauses on new line
Spacing:
(all unchecked except...)
Set other spacing options:
[x] Insert space after keywords in control flow
statements
[?] Ignore spaces in delaration statements
Set spacing for delimiters:
[x] Insert space after colon for base or interface
in type..
[x] Insert space after comma
[ ] Insert space after dot
[x] Insert space afer semicolon in "for" stateent
[x] Insert space before colon for base ...in type
decl.
[ ] Insert space before comma
[ ] Insert space before dot
[ ] Insert space before semicolonn in "for"
statement
Wrapping:
[x] Leave block on single line
[ ] Leave statements and member declarations on the
same line
IntelliSense:
Completion Lists:
[x] Show completion list after a character is typed
Selection in Completion List:
Committed by typing the following characters:
{}[]().,:;+-*/%&|^!~=<>?@#' "\
[x] Committed by pressing the space bar
[ ] Add new line on commit with enter at end of fully
typed word
Intellisense Member Selection
[x] IntelliSense pre-selects most recently used
members

[Mythran]

"Red" <re*@nospam.com wrote in message
news:2l******** *************** *********@4ax.c om...

On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:46:21 -0700, "Mythran" <ki********@hot mail.com>
wrote:

>>
"Red" <Re*@nospam.com wrote in message

>>>>On Apr 15, 12:56 am, Red <[e-mail] mwrote:
On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 03:05:16 -0400, Red <[e-mail] mwrote:

>>>>If auto-format is turned off in VS2008, there is apparently no way to
indent a line. Under Tools->Options->Text Editor->C#->Formatting,
there are three checkboxes. Unchecking those seems to cause this
behavior.
>
I'd simply like to have the tab key insert a tab at the beginning of
a
line. I believe that there were publlished macros for doing this in
earlier VS versions, but I expected this to be 'fixed' in VS2008.

>>I have all three options unchecked, and that's how I've been developing.
Tabs work fine for me.

Hi Mythran,

Thanks for your reply! That's what I was waiting to hear (or not!).
Just to clarify my post, here is what I refer to... If I create a new
empty project and insert the following lines, they cannot be indented
by inserting a tab in front of them:

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

namespace Test
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
int q = 12;
int y = 12;
int z = 234;

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

IOW, any inserted statement is kept at the left side (when the
auto-indent options are turned off).

If you don't have this problem with VS2008, then there must be a
difference between our editor options. I've copied all my settings
below. Do you see any differences from yours?

Editor settings follow. Looks long but I think it's only 5 pages::
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tools->Options:
Environment:
Keyboard: Emacs
Text Editor:
C#:
General:
Statemment completion:
[x] Auto list members
[ ] Hide advanced members
[x] Parameter information
Settings:
[ ] Enable Virtual space
[ ] Word wrap
[x] Apply Cut/Copy commands to blank lines when no
selection
Display:
[ ] Line Numbers
[x] Enable single-click URL navigation
[x] Navigation bar
Tabs:
Indenting:
( ) None
( ) Block
( ) Smart
Tab:
Tab Size: 4
Indent Size: 4
( ) Insert spaces
(x) Keep tabs
Advanced:
Outlining:
[x] Enter outlining mode when files open
Editor Help:
[x] Underline errors in the editor
Refactoring:
[ ] Warn if build errors exist when refactoring
[x] Warn on members with compiler generated references
XML Documentation Comments:
[x] Generate XML documentation comments for ///
Implement Interface:
[x] Surrund generated code with #region
Organize Usings:
[x] Warn if build errors exist when organizing usings
[x] Place 'System' directives first when sorting
usings
Formatting:
General: (all three below were checked by default)
[x] Automatically format completed statement on ;
[x] Automatically format completed statement on }
[x] Adjust indentation on paste
Indentation:
[x] Indent block contents
[ ] Indent open and close braces
[x] Indent case contents
[ ] Indent case labels
Label Indentation:
( ) Place goto labels in leftmost column
(x) Place goto labels one indent less than current
( ) Indent labels normally
New Lines:
New line options for braces:
[x] Place open brace on new line for types
[x] Place open brace on new line for methods
[x] Place open brace on new line for anonymous
methods
[ ] Place open brace on new line for control
blocks
[x] Place open brace on new line for anonymous
types
[x] Place open brace on new line for object
initializers
[x] Place open brace on new line for lambda
expressions
New line options for keywords:
[ ] Place 'else' on new line
[ ] Place 'catch' on new line
[ ] Place 'finally' on new line
New line options for expressions:
[x] Place members in object initializers on new
line
[x] Place members in anonymous types on new line
[x] Place query expression clauses on new line
Spacing:
(all unchecked except...)
Set other spacing options:
[x] Insert space after keywords in control flow
statements
[?] Ignore spaces in delaration statements
Set spacing for delimiters:
[x] Insert space after colon for base or interface
in type..
[x] Insert space after comma
[ ] Insert space after dot
[x] Insert space afer semicolon in "for" stateent
[x] Insert space before colon for base ...in type
decl.
[ ] Insert space before comma
[ ] Insert space before dot
[ ] Insert space before semicolonn in "for"
statement
Wrapping:
[x] Leave block on single line
[ ] Leave statements and member declarations on the
same line
IntelliSense:
Completion Lists:
[x] Show completion list after a character is typed
Selection in Completion List:
Committed by typing the following characters:
{}[]().,:;+-*/%&|^!~=<>?@#' "\
[x] Committed by pressing the space bar
[ ] Add new line on commit with enter at end of fully
typed word
Intellisense Member Selection
[x] IntelliSense pre-selects most recently used
members

After reviewing the tab issue, I found that it seems to only apply to the
Emacs schema. I checked the Edit.InsertTab command and it does show as
"Tab" for Emacs, but it just doesn't insert the tab. I also checked other
various settings and couldn't find one that allowed the Emacs scheme to
successfully insert the tab...quite strange...

Mythran

[Red]

On Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:27:27 -0700, "Mythran" <ki********@hot mail.com>
wrote:

>After reviewing the tab issue, I found that it seems to only apply to the
Emacs schema. I checked the Edit.InsertTab command and it does show as
"Tab" for Emacs, but it just doesn't insert the tab. I also checked other
various settings and couldn't find one that allowed the Emacs scheme to
successfully insert the tab...quite strange...

Mythran

Hi Mythran,

Are you using Emacs? That is my usual editor. Unfortunately this
happens with both the regular C# editor and with Emacs. With VS2005,
there were macros that were designed to fix problems like this. But I
thought that by 2008 they may have addressed them (plenty of reports
on the MS website).

Also, I don't quite follow your comment. Did the tab key not work for
you after all? I was referring to entering tabs at the start of a
line, as in the code I had posted. Does that work for you? If not,
then how are you getting your code indented?

(Again, thanks for your reply. Maybe this will eventually solve a
problem for you as well, if you're using Emacs emu).

[Red]

On Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:21:09 -0500, Red <Re*@nospam.com wrote:

>On Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:27:27 -0700, "Mythran" <ki********@hot mail.com>
wrote:

>>After reviewing the tab issue, I found that it seems to only apply to the
Emacs schema. I checked the Edit.InsertTab command and it does show as
"Tab" for Emacs, but it just doesn't insert the tab. I also checked other
various settings and couldn't find one that allowed the Emacs scheme to
successfull y insert the tab...quite strange...

Mythran

Hi Mythran,

Are you using Emacs? That is my usual editor. Unfortunately this
happens with both the regular C# editor and with Emacs. With VS2005,
there were macros that were designed to fix problems like this. But I
thought that by 2008 they may have addressed them (plenty of reports
on the MS website).

Also, I don't quite follow your comment. Did the tab key not work for
you after all? I was referring to entering tabs at the start of a
line, as in the code I had posted.

.....

Sorry...I read your reply again and realized that you are probably not
using Emacs keyboard mapping. But I also rechecked various other
mapping options (C#2005, Visual Studio, etc) and none of them will
insert a tab for me.

So even in non-Emacs configuration there is still something different
between the way our VS2008's are working, Apparently that difference
is not showing up in the options menu. Sad that this was not fixed in
VS2008.