Programmer’s Notepad is able to add user specific tools. For example, I added the command line tool XMLStartlet. With XMLStartlet, I can validate or format XML files:

In this example, I want to take the output of XMLStartlet and insert it to my currently opened file:

This is just one tiny example, how Programmer’s Notepad can be extended. There are plenty of other tools, which are useful in Programmer’s Notepad. Every developer can decide for himself, which one he wants to use!

 

 

 

Did you know, that it is possible to blog with a future time stamp?

Windows Live Writer:

WordPress:

In my opinion, it is better to write blog entries day after day and not all at once.

(this entry was written on March, 4, but posted some days later

 

 

 

Everybody, who’s working with Eclipse is knows the Content Assistant (better known as Code Completion). Just press CTRL + Space, and every possible piece of code gets completed.

But did you know, that Eclipse is also capable of using templates. Templates can be defined in Window – Preferences – Java – Editor – Templates.

For example, instead of typing the main function every time manually, just type main and press CTRL + Space, choose the template main and press Enter. The whole main method is created.

 

Interesting default templates are:

sysout: creates a System.out.println() entry

runnable: creates a complete Runnable inner class

public_method: template for a public method (same with private, default, and so on)

 

Of course, you also can define your own template. E.g. for an EJB 3.0 stateless or message-driven bean!

 

 

 

In a previous post I mentioned the Putty Connection Manager. This tool is a wrapper, which creates a tab for each Putty instance. Today, I encountered a nice feature. With this Connection Manager it is possible, to rename the tabs. Very useful if you are debugging on several servers or on different ssh instances on a machine.

To rename a tab, just press CTRL + R or right click on the tab:

 

 

 

If you are working with CVS in your projects, there is a nice feature in Eclipse to mark all changed files. Usually, changes to the source code are only marked in the Package Explorer with a “>”. If many files are changed in the project, it’s hard to find all the changes at a single glance (expect through the Team Synchronization view).

In Eclipse, you can choose the way, how changed files should appear in the Package Explorer. For example, I changed the background color to a bright yellow and the text color to blue:

To change the appearance of changed CVS file, just do following:

1. Open Windows > Preferences…
2. Team > CVS > Label Decorations
3. Check the box “Enable font and color decorations”
4. Now open General > Appearance > Colors and Fonts
5. You can change now the appearance of the changed files in the category CVS.

 

 

 

This is my first blog, in which I’m using Windows Live Writer. This tool, a usual windows application, let’s me to write a blog entry on a rich client.

With the spelling corrector and the easy way to embed images simplifies the way to write a blog entry. It’s even possible to paste a screenshot directly to the blog.

Let’s have a look http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/

It supports WordPress and downloads all available categories. Nice feature!