[Geany-Users] question

Thu Apr 27 00:54:23 UTC 2017

On Sun, Apr 23, 2017 at 10:14 PM, Lex Trotman <elextr at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 24 April 2017 at 12:16, o1bigtenor <o1bigtenor at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On 24 April 2017 at 09:07, o1bigtenor <o1bigtenor at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> (Possible issue - - - I changed a top posted response to a bottom posting - - -
>> sorry!  D)
>
> Don't worry, not consistent about that anyway :)
>
>>
>>>> On Sun, Apr 23, 2017 at 5:16 PM, Matthew Brush <mbrush at codebrainz.ca> wrote:
>>>>> On 2017-04-23 11:31 AM, o1bigtenor wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Fri, Apr 21, 2017 at 9:41 PM, Lex Trotman <elextr at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 22 April 2017 at 12:33, o1bigtenor <o1bigtenor at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Fri, Apr 21, 2017 at 7:45 PM, Lex Trotman <elextr at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> See http://home.gmane.org/ for that sites current situation.  May help
>>>>>>>>> if more people let them know they want Geany archives back, but may
>>>>>>>>> just annoy them if they are trying as hard as possible.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Oh boy - - - I have a complicated question and I had hoped to cruise the
>>>>>>>> archive to see if anyone had talked about any of the aspects before I
>>>>>>>> just
>>>>>>>> dropped it on the list.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Given that geany is in the process of being resuscitated what would you
>>>>>>>> suggest as a 'reasonable' course of action?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> To be clear, its only the Geany archive on Gmane thats being
>>>>>>> resuscitated, not Geany itself, don't want people to get the wrong
>>>>>>> idea :)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I'd say if google can't find anything relevant, just ask.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I am using a program called ledger (sometimes known as ledger-cli) with
>>>>>> a text file for my 'recordkeeping' (what most people call accounting).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I have tried to use both vim (and gvim) and emacs and I think I could
>>>>>> possibly
>>>>>> learn the mountain of pre-wysiwyg codes to use them effectively. Both
>>>>>> suffer,
>>>>>> in my opinion, in that they don't have a search tool that works in
>>>>>> searching for
>>>>>> financial data. Yes they have search tools but their quick use has eluded
>>>>>> me
>>>>>> after quite a number of tries. I only have so much time in my life and
>>>>>> entering
>>>>>> financial information isn't what I want to spend 20% of my life on - -
>>>>>> - training
>>>>>> someone else to use the system I'm presently using WITH these cumbersome
>>>>>> and awkward search tools - - - I'm thinking what I would need is a serious
>>>>>> programmer type - - - and why would they want to work as a bookkeeper
>>>>>> for my business? (This preamble is the why.)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> So now to the issue (the what). When I open a file (text file) in geany
>>>>>> the
>>>>>> physical layout is different than when I open it in vim/emacs (and
>>>>>> seemingly
>>>>>> most of the other text editors I've tried).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Eg
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 2016.01.03 (2 tab spaces)     Company name
>>>>>> 1 tab space Expense: widgets: 5202.01.02.01    (a number of tab spaces) $
>>>>>> 1.00
>>>>>> 1 tab space Asset: account bank xyw: 1023.01.02.02       (")
>>>>>>         $-1.00
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I am using a mono-spaced font  as I want the decimals to line up in the
>>>>>> right,
>>>>>> the beginning of both Expense and Asset (or whatever else that I'm using)
>>>>>> are
>>>>>> 1 tab space (when I can set things I've been trying to use either 4 or 5
>>>>>> spaces
>>>>>> for 1 tab) of indentation.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Sometimes there areas many as 6 or 7 Expense listings, there are sometimes
>>>>>> 2 or 3 Asset listings. What is goofy is that when the text is aligned
>>>>>> in Geany - - -
>>>>>> well its NOT in Leafpad, vim or emacs. Switching between Leafpad vim or
>>>>>> emacs does not seem to create this morphing.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I would like to stay with Geany because geany offers me the option of
>>>>>> creating
>>>>>> routines that I can call at the command line and then (hopefully) insert
>>>>>> what I
>>>>>> have called into the file (looking at using awk at the moment). Why
>>>>>> I'm doing this
>>>>>> is quite a bit more complicated than this delineated 'confusion' so for
>>>>>> now - -
>>>>>> please is there some way to get Geany to look exactly (in layout) like any
>>>>>> of
>>>>>> the other text editors?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanking any of those who care to tackle this in advance!!
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> TL;DR
>>>>>
>>>>> If things are not aligned, make sure your font is actually mono spaced and
>>>>> that nothing is bold (it messes with character widths). Then adjust the tab
>>>>> width (Document->Set Indent Width) to match the other editors (usually 8
>>>>> chars wide rather than Geany's 4 chars).
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for the response!
>>>>
>>>> I checked - - - its a font called Monospace on my Debian 'stable' read 'Jessie'
>>>> vm. All editors have the tab width set to 4 spaces (after checking previously
>>>> - - - - I did try to find the problem!).
>>>>
>>>> What makes this confusing is that the single tab width at the beginning of the
>>>> line is never different. The 2 tab spaces after the date is almost never an
>>>> issue - - - but the end of the line $ amounts - - - well it shifts - -
>>>> - sometimes
>>>> to the right and sometimes to the left. Doesn't seem to be any consistency
>>>> to it. That's why I'm totally puzzled as to how to fix.
>>>>
>>>> Regards
>>>>
>>>> Dee
>>
>> On Sun, Apr 23, 2017 at 7:16 PM, Lex Trotman <elextr at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> You need to provide a small actual file that shows the problem so
>>> people can reproduce it. We can't do anything from the description.
>>> With lines which show shifts both ways.  Using pastebin is fine
>>> (clearly with no actual data in it).
>>
>> Well - - - the actual data is my financial data which isn't going anywhere.
>> The VM is quite disconnected from the web in fact.
>
> Well, you went to the trouble of typing the explanation, but that
> doesn't produce any problem here, can't you just type an example that
> shows the problem with values of 12345.00 or whatever?  If you can't
> make a small file that shows the problem then neither can we, and we
> have not actually seen the problem yet.  If we can't reproduce it we
> can't fix it.
>
>
>>>
>>> Note that monospace isn't usually a font, its an alias for some named
>>> font, so you need to find what that font is to tell if its REALLY
>>> monospace.
>>
>> A description (in detail please) on how to determine what font it actually is
>> would be useful.
>
> That depends on your desktop, its not a Geany thing.  In my Cinnamon
> desktop its under Menu->Preferences->Fonts but your mileage may
> differ.
>
>>>
>>> Also version of Geany and operating system you are using would be useful.
>>
>> The version of Geany was first 1.29.1 and was upgraded to 1.30.1 Thursday or
>> Friday. The operating system was mentioned in the last email.
>
> You said its a VM running on Debian, whats running in the VM?
The vm is on debian testing and the vm on debian stable.
>
>>
>> If this inability to visualize the problem impedes a solution then I guess that
>> I will need to continue searching for a text editor that is easy to use by
>> a noob, needs a minimal amount of 'unusualness' and has a good search
>> system. Geany meets all of these but is insisting on not only reading
>> differently
>> in other environments but even occasionally reading differently when a file is
>> closed and then re-opened.
>
> You mean the file looks different if it is closed by Geany and
> re-opened by Geany without any other tools touching it?
>
>>
>> I tried to give you as close as possible a visual of what was happening but as
>> I am using an 87 character line - - - - well 80 spaces can't display
>> 87 so even if
>> I could put the information here - - - you want actual copy of the file and its
>> not anything I'm putting on the web. Why 87 characters - - - well I need room
>> for the various items of each line and there must be a certain amount of white
>> space between the 'description' part and the amount otherwise there are other
>> issues. (Found that particular need just recently.)
>>
>> So you have everything that I 'can' give. Hopefully its enough.
>
> As I said above, can't reproduce the problem yet.

I looked at reproducing with changes to obscure direct information but
realized that
doing a good job of that was going to take a lot of time, something
I'm short of with
all the projects going on. Decided to see if there wasn't some other
way to look at
things.

Its a simple thing but that's what makes it frustrating. One can have
any tab spacing
you want as long as its 8 spaces. Anything else and there will be a number of
different ways to display the file.

(The file is a text file. Not programming but a file with names,
dates, dollar amounts
and such so no real fancy anything.)

What was interesting was there are about 3 different groups of text
file editors. I had
about 15 different ones installed trying to find something that would
give me what I
want - - - a text file editor where I can use some sub-routines that I
can call in my
'text' and also an editor that has a great search function. That
search function was
a very interesting problem as some of the 'more entrenched' editors
actually have
search functions that are not easy to use. There are a number of 'not
major' text editors
that have some very interesting features. As I also need something
that I can easily
train someone else to my book keeper in the legacy editors suffered
there. At present
I have found a small number of editors that seem to fill my needs. I
will continue to
use them and over time likely work with just one. Geany has a great
search function
and after I realized that tabs MUST be 8 spaces - - - well it works.

Thanking those that spend time in the reading or trying to replicate
my issue. Hopefully
posting what I have found will be at least some compensation for their effort!

Thanking those responsible for Geany for good work!

Regards

Dee