Contextual Menu for code and formulas

Would it be possible to have contextual menus that would allow us to choose things like functions and field names whenever it is appropriate? Those things are sorely lacking. I am trying to generate form letters, and it would be much easier if those were available for Text Display Objects. I can see the same problem when writing code for fields.

I guess for the time being, it is possible to write that stuff in a new Procedure, and then copy it over, but that is a kludge which could cause problems later. The contextual menu in Procedure windows would be much more useful in other places, but having even more things, like functions, would be even better. On the other hand, the Share item is totally useless!

Anything is possible given enough time and effort. Since time and effort aren’t infinite resources, all things are not possible. Adding context menus to the code and formula editors in inspector panels is not trivial, so that isn’t something that has happened yet. For now these use the standard Apple context menu, which is why items like Share are included.

I don’t understand what the “kludge” aspect of this is. What sort of problems later?

Please keep in mind that unlike in Panorama 6, none of these editors are modal in Panorama X. There is no reason you can’t copy (or drag) directly from the Help system. You look up the function or statement you need, then copy or drag to the code or forumula you are editing. Since there is nothing modal, you can flip back and forth as much as needed. Essentially the Help system is available no matter what you are doing.

In 2017 I don’t think the context menu is the place for this – there are just too many functions and statements. The ideal solution would be code completion like Xcode, BBedit, and other code editors offer. Hopefully code completion will be a signature feature of a major Panorama X update in the future – something to look forward to.

Well, I do not know what is easy and what takes a lot of work. The contextual menu in Procedure windows exists, so I thought it might be easily transferable to other places that take code.

Actually, I am not a big fan of contextual menus. A regular menu that would allow me to place field names, would be easier to use even in procedure menus. I have to be too careful about bringing up the contextual menu without moving the insertion point on my laptop. I can do without the functions in a menu, but fields would be nice.

The problem with doing things in a procedure window is that it is one more window open. Panorama X requires much more screen space than Panorama 6 for development. If I am working on a form or something similar, the Properties takes up a lot of space, and if I need to have a procedure window open as well, I end up with several windows on top of each other when I would like to be working on them simultaneously.