Xlate Comment should display multiple lines if enter key is

[Jim Kosloskey]

I would like to suggest an enhancement to the Xlate COMMENT Action.

If one presses the enter key, the display should do a line break rather than tacking the characters after the enter.

For example If I enter ‘some comment sentence oneSome comment second sentence’.

Currently displays as:

‘some comment sentence oneSomecomment second sentence’

I think this should be displayed:

‘some comment sentence one

Some comment second sentence’

What are your thoughts – also please answer the poll.

email: jim.kosloskey@jim-kosloskey.com 29+ years Cloverleaf, 59 years IT - old fart.

Topic

[Steve Williams]

I like the current functionality.

It allows me to type a really long comment with embedded newlines that I use to explain something complicated and only shows as on line in the xlate.

To get multiline comments, I just add multiple comments lines

     when I want to show a longer on screen comment. Plus, I

     can indent the second+ lines on the comments to control the

     onscreen display. Just like I’ve done with this post. 🙂

Just my two cents…

[Robert Kersemakers]

Currently every action is exactly one line. If comments would be multiline, then an Xlate would get very crowded/noisy I fear. Would have to see it in action how it looks, but right now I would say no.

Zuyderland Medisch Centrum; Heerlen/Sittard; The Netherlands

[Jim Kosloskey]

What I envisioned actually existed for a few releases.

So to be clear:

COMMENT display panel would have:

Some comment one

some comment two

If one deploys the enter key after one above

Rather than the current COMMENT panel looking like this:

Some comment onesome comment two.

So one actual Action line but inside the display panel multiple lines of display. It would also be nice if other formatting characters such as TAB were honored then one could indent on the same COMMENT.

So I think this makes for fewer actual Xlate Action lines as to do this today would require 2 COMMENT Actions and hitting the space key to effect a tab.

email: jim.kosloskey@jim-kosloskey.com 29+ years Cloverleaf, 59 years IT - old fart.

[Jim Kosloskey]

What I envisioned actually existed for a few releases.

So to be clear:

COMMENT display panel would have:

Some comment one

some comment two

If one deploys the enter key after one above

Rather than the current COMMENT panel looking like this:

Some commentonesome comment two.

So one actual Action line but inside the display panel multiple lines of display. It would also be nice if other formatting characters such as TAB were honored then one could indent on the same COMMENT.

So I think this makes for fewer actual Xlate Action lines as to do this today would require 2 COMMENT Actions and hitting the space key to effect a tab.

email: jim.kosloskey@jim-kosloskey.com 29+ years Cloverleaf, 59 years IT - old fart.

[Robert Kersemakers]

Ah, you mean what you see in the included screenprint? But that is how it has always been and still is (on our current 6.0.2 version, running on Linux), as far as I know.

Is this a new ‘feature’ then from 6.1/6.2?

Zuyderland Medisch Centrum; Heerlen/Sittard; The Netherlands

[Jim Kosloskey]

Yes but one needs to actually show the properties in order to get the display.

What I am asking for is the display to show the multiple lines expanded when, for example, the Xlate is first opened.

Then one would be able to read the comments without needing to actually ‘open’ each COMMENT. As it is with a fully commented Xlate, a new person wanting to understand what is going on needs to actually look at each COMMENT rather than the Xlate.

If that seems too cluttered, an option could be added I would think to specify expand comments or collapse comments.

That display I am describing did exist in one or more of the 3.x releases.

email: jim.kosloskey@jim-kosloskey.com 29+ years Cloverleaf, 59 years IT - old fart.

[Steve Williams]

I believe the following animated screenshot illustrates Jim’s proposal…

Note the comments on lines 41-43 in the current display will become just one line in the proposed multiline comment display.

The animation cycles every 3 seconds.

[Robert Milfajt]

Reading through the dialogue, I wonder if comment lines are the right place for some of the commentary.  Similar to how Cloverleaf associates Notes with threads, it might be a good idea to have a Notes functionality for Xlates, routes, tables, etc.  In that way, one could be as verbose as necessary, especially for versioning type commentary.  Just a thought, or perhaps a wish, of mine.

Thanks,

Robert Milfajt
Northwestern Medicine
Chicago, IL

[Author]

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