Mikayla Hutchinson's home on the web
The MonoDevelop text editor has many commands are not immediately obvious. Some are accessible from the Edit and Edit->Format menus, and some have default keybindings, but many can only be used if you manually add keybindings for them. Some even have keybindings that are hardcoded into the text editor, and will be available unless you override it by assigning that some keybinding to some other command.
More …After the caret has been in an identifier in a C# file for a few seconds, then all the usages of that identifier in the current file are highlighted. This provides a nice visual cue for finding related code and following code flow.
More …Sometimes it’s useful to be able to edit multiple lines at once in a similar way. This is possible in MonoDevelop using block selections. To make a block selection, drag the mouse between the start and end points while holding down the Alt key on Linux or Windows, or Command key on Mac. Alternatively, you can make a normal selection, then use the Edit->Toggle block selection mode to toggle the selection into a block selection with the same start and end points.
More …One of the most useful pairs of commands in MonoDevelop is Show Next Result and Show Previous Result. These commands move through items in the most recently active navigation list. Right after building, they will cycle though the build errors and warnings; after searching, they cycle through the search results; after running unit tests, they cycle though the test failures, and so on.
More …The MonoDevelop text editor keeps track of the most recent 12 things that have been cut or copied. This can be useful when you realize you want something you cut or copied earlier. These items can be found in the Clipboard Ring in the toolbox. Simply double-click on one to insert it at the caret, or drag it to a specific location to insert it at that location.
More …MonoDevelop’s code completion for C# provides highly context-sensitive and accurate suggestions. However, it can’t provide completion in plain text, such as comments or strings. To help with cases like this, and for languages where MD does not have a completion engine, we’ve implemented a feature from Emacs called “dynamic abbrev”.
More …One of the most useful refactoring commands is “Rename”, which renames a symbol by accurately finding all occurrences and changing them. To rename a symbol, right click on it and choose Refactor->Rename context menu command, or use the keybinding: F2 on Windows and Linux, and Cmd-R on Mac.
More …I’m going to be in San Francisco next week for GDC. I’ll be wandering around SF on Sunday 27th Feb, going to the summits on Monday and Tuesday, then on the Mono booth in the GDC Expo Wednesday through Friday.
More …When you type the “override” keyword in a C# class, MonoDevelop will show a completion list of all abstract or virtual members on base classes that have not been overridden, and interface members that have not been implemented. You don’t even need to type the modifier (e.g. “public”), you can simply type “override” directly in the class body.
More …Code snippets (or code templates) are an incredibly useful feature. They allow inserting and editing template blocks of code, which is useful for quickly replicating common patterns, or learning new patterns. This post explains how to use snippets, and a future post will explain how to create snippets.
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