IDE feature?

I'm currently only using the standard B3D IDE but if the following feature exists in another, I would seriously consider changing.

Comment folding/hiding:
This would work pretty much in the same way function folding does. First, I'd like to be able to fold all comments so that only the top line of multi-line comments is displayed. The thinking here is that the top line of multi-line comments is a brief explanation, with subsequent lines going into greater detail.

Secondly, I'd like to able to hide all comment lines completely.

This feature would be extremely useful (to me, at least) as I want to heavily comment my current project's code so I can come back to it as-and-when and pick up where I left off with the minimum of fuss.

The only problem of 'over commenting' is that it gets in the way of following the actual code when you're trying to track down a bug, or whatever.

Would anyone else find this feature useful, and is there an IDE out there that already supports it?

Protean allows you to specify collapsable regions (maybe other IDEs do as well).

Would I be able to tell Protean to collapse all comment lines, then?

No, you'd have to mark them as regions first.

Something I find useful is to give comments a color that is close to the background color. That way your eye easily ignores them if you are just looking at the code itself.

If you want to read the comments, you can easily do it but if you choose to ignore them, your brain fades them out of view very easily.

Yeah, that's not a bad idea, EpicBoy. ;)

However, debugging when you know what the code is supposed to be doing, I find it's best to have as much code visible on screen without any distractions.

I'm a bit surprised there isn't an IDE out there that does comment folding/hiding, unless I'm the only one who'd find it useful, of course?! :)

I routinely use comment lines for visual formatting, to block out portions of code to make it easier to read. For example, I use a row of asterisks before and after functions to delineate where functions begin and end. I wouldn't want to fold/hide comments like that.

Well, I guess everyone's going to have their own commenting methods. Even so, I don't see what the problem would be even with the method you use - you could always un-hide the comments again, when needed. :)

hi big10p

maybe you should look @ this IDE:

http://www.blitzview.de

don't know exactly if you can hide the comments with a single click. but changing the colors is quite easy.¨

greez
ale

Yeah, it's not too hard to change the colours in the default IDE. You just need to know the hex RGB values of the colour you want. :P

If none of the above mentioned IDE's fits your needs maybe Brain Editor Pro does...

http://www.twinno.com/brainedpro

I dunno, let's see ... Does it automatically fold/hide comments?