[MQL5] If you do not use MetaEditor to code, which alternative editor do you use? - page 2

[Anthony Garot]

whroeder1:
. . . code folding

As I recall, this was the specific reason I sought editors outside MetaEditor.

[Marco vd Heijden]

And here is Bluefish editor, this one is particular handy if you are working with embedded HTML for example to produce web content directly from MQL.

http://bluefish.openoffice.nl/index.html

[Carl Schreiber]

I use Notepad++ too and beside what has already mentioned I am occasionally very happy with it as it has a plugin to translate and replace Russian comments in e.g. English, just with a few clicks.

[Pierre Rougier]

Fernando Carreiro:

I cannot speak for others, but I personally use both MetaEditor as well as Microsoft Visual Studio Code (free and open-source) with the MQL4/5 Syntax Highlight extension.

Do you compile in Visual Studio Code or outside with MetaEditor ?

[Fernando Carreiro]

Pierre Rougier: Do you compile in Visual Studio Code or outside with MetaEditor ?

I usually compile in MetaEditor for convenience, because I can just double-click on the warnings and errors and go directly to the offending lines.

However, you can also setup it up to compile from within VSCode, using MetaEditor's command line parameters and have the compilation log open up in VSCode automatically.

Compilation from the Command Line

A MetaEditor executable file can be used as the compiler when working with a source code in external editors. The compiler is started from the command line, specifying the path and name of the file you want to compile:

• metaeditor.exe /compile:"<full path to the source file>"
• metaeditor64.exe /compile:"<full path to the source file>"

Example
"C:\Program Files\TradingPlatform\metaeditor64.exe" /compile:"C:\Program Files\TradingPlatform\MQL5\Scripts\myscript.mq5"

Compilation log

Specify the additional /log key for more information about the compilation process. In this case, <source file name>.log compilation log file is created in the folder containing the source file.

Example
"C:\Program Files\TradingPlatform\metaeditor64.exe" /compile:"C:\Program Files\TradingPlatform\MQL5\Scripts\myscript.mq5" /log Log file: C:\Program Files\TradingPlatform\MQL5\Script\myscript.log

[aries]

OMFG I love you. I thought that extention was just for MQL4 and left disappointed before rereading the description :))))

I was trying to switch to some other IDE for years lol, but with all the hassle it was always better to just grind teeth and use metaeditor.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! :)) I'm happy now :)

[nicholish en]

Fernando Carreiro:

Yes, it also has "Code Folding", "Auto-complete/IntelliSense", "Code-snippets" as well as "Bracket matching", but I am not advocating VSCode over others, it is simply my own personal preference.

If you are interested, here is an overview of the features: Code Editing Features in VS Code

I'm coming over to VScode from sublime because there is no intellisence for c++... I'll have plenty of questions for you... but for starters how did you get the intellisence to work with MQL? I hacked it by mapping mq4,mq5,mqh files to the cpp intellisence, edited the include folder location to MQL\Include, and then disabled the cpp problem underlining. Is there a better way? 

Also, I'm slowly adding in the MQL built-in functions to the custom user snippets... do you already have these?

Any other tips?

Edit: I'm new to VSC, but so far VSC > Sublime > notepad++

[Fernando Carreiro]

nicholishen: I'm coming over to VScode from sublime because there is no intellisence for c++... I'll have plenty of questions for you... but for starters how did you get the intellisence to work with MQL? I hacked it by mapping mq4,mq5,mqh files to the cpp intellisence, edited the include folder location to MQL\Include, and then disabled the cpp problem underlining. Is there a better way? 

Also, I'm slowly adding in the MQL built-in functions to the custom user snippets... do you already have these?

Any other tips?

No need to hack it that way. Just install the MQL4/5 Syntax Highlight extension for which I provided a link on my post #1.

PS! Do a clean install of VSCode so that your hacked changes don't conflict with the extension functionality!

[nicholish en]

Fernando Carreiro:

No need to hack it that way. Just install the MQL4/5 Syntax Highlight extension for which I provided a link on my post #1.

PS! Do a clean install of VSCode so that your hacked changes don't conflict with the extension functionality!

Syntax highlighting is only highlighting, and yes I had it installed already. I'm actually referring to the intellisence features, and if you haven't enabled the cpp intellisence and mapped it to MQL files, it's going to blow your freaking mind! It was enough for me to say goodbye to sublime after like 5 seconds of demoing :-p 

 

Save this in your user settings

{
    "files.associations": {
        "*.mqh":"cpp",
        "*.mq4":"cpp",
        "*.mq5":"cpp"
    },

    "editor.tabSize": 3,
    "[cpp]": {
      
   }
}

Install the c++ intellisence package

There will be a warning that pops up to configure your include folder... I run in portable mode so mine was easy... eg. C:\User\Dropbox\MT\MQL4\Include

[nicholish en]

BTW, this is how I configured the c_cppproperies.json file 

...
        {
            "name": "Win32",
            "includePath": [
                "${workspaceRoot}",
                "C:\\Users\\User\\Dropbox\\MT-TK\\MQL4\\Include"
            ],
            "defines": [
                "_DEBUG",
                "UNICODE"
            ],
            "intelliSenseMode": "msvc-x64",
            "browse": {
                "path": [
                    "${workspaceRoot}"
                ],
                "limitSymbolsToIncludedHeaders": true,
                "databaseFilename": ""
            }
        }
...