Template tools

[ZeroDog]

The Dialog Editor in the IDE is being updated to add support for WINDOW and MDI WINDOW types.  This got me to thinking about all the I would add to the Editor, such as layered and alpha blended styles, window regions, etc.  Then I started thinking about how the same system could be used to template just about any skeleton source code.

What if there were an option in the Editor Options that we could add our own template editors?  The template editor could be your own .exe file that outputs source code to the clipboard, so that it can be pasted into IWBasic windows quickly. 

You could add a submenu to the File>New menu called "Templates", and when the you add a template editor in the Editor Options, it adds the name of the template editor under the File>New>Templates menu, so that you can quickly access your template editor. 

Template editors could be as simple or as complex as you wanted, and could be anything from your favorite skeleton template for your latest game engine template, or your favorite layout for custom spreadsheets, or even template editor that creates custom window regions from bitmaps. 

You could pass the template editor the HWND for the IWBasic window, as a command prompt option, so that it can use it as a parent.

People could share thier template editors they create via the forums here, either as source code to compile, or as the compiled .exe itself. 

What do you guys think?  Do you think people would share enough template editors to make it worthwhile?

[LarryMc]

FYI
The new IDE currently has a File/Open/Template menu option that is intended to open a template *.iwb file that is stored in a template folder, separate from all other *.iwb files.

The new IDE currently has a Tools menu which includes a tool menu editor.  The user can add all the *.exes to the Tools menu that they want.

LarryMc

[ZeroDog]

That sounds perfect! 

I should stop procrastinating and check everything out so I'm not suggesting what's already there...