Tab character not working whit Shift-Tab

[GreenMoose]

[build 444]
During inline edit, if I press Shift-Tab it produces a tab (to the right) instead of removing the previous (to the left).

[Tim]

Thanks, GreenMoose. We'll fix that. (Shift+Tab will position the cursor at the previous tab stop.)

[GreenMoose]

Is this fixed? (In Build 453 I experience the same behavior), or was the intent that Shift-Tab should only move cursor to previous tab position rather than actually deleting it?
If the latter is the case, I vote you to change it so shift-tab removes the previous tab (or spaces if spaces are inserted instead of tabs).

Thanks.

*Edit whops I misread the original issue. That issue was indeed fixed.
Other editors like vstudio/notepad++ removes previous tab rather than only moving the cursor (which IMHO is the expected behavior) which I think would be a better choice.

[Erik]

Here is what I have found checking out other apps:

• Most behave like BC3 does now (moves to previous tabstop).
• Visual Studio does nothing unless the cursor is directly after whitespace. In that case, it deletes whitespace stopping at the tabstop.
• Notepad++ behaves like BC3 except if the there is only whitespace before the cursor. In that case, it unindents.

[Michael Bulgrien]

I agree...

File Viewers (read only mode) move to next or previous tab.
File Editors (full edit mode) usually insert new tab or delete previous tab>

The current BC3 functionality mixes expected View and Edit functionality when in Full Edit mode.

[Michael Bulgrien]

To be more specific, in Visual Studio, Tab and Shift+Tab are keyboard shortcuts to indent and undent (see screencast) which is a really nice feature to have...

[GreenMoose]

Here is what I have found checking out other apps:

• Most behave like BC3 does now (moves to previous tabstop).
• Visual Studio does nothing unless the cursor is directly after whitespace. In that case, it deletes whitespace stopping at the tabstop.
• Notepad++ behaves like BC3 except if the there is only whitespace before the cursor. In that case, it unindents.

* My VStudio2005 always removes previous "tab" char(s), no matter where cursor is.
* Notepad++, you are correct. Never noticed this issue before since I only indent lines where only whitespace are on the left side.
IMHO this behavior is a bug, why would one want to insert a tab when hitting TAB, but have a different behavior when pressing Shift-TAB? I think the cursor-keys would be a better choice to reposition the cursor.

Maybe my opinion is reflected by the fact I'm sitting in front of vstudio all day long . And I always use spaces instead of tab characters btw for alignment purposes

(I agree with Michael that indenting an entire selection in vstudio is a handy feature, and is also seen in Notepad++, but would consider this as an enhancement).

[Michael Bulgrien]

Tim / Erik:

I see the advantage of being able to move back through tab stops when a file format defines the indent in a certain number of spaces instead of tab characters. However, I also agree with GreenMoose that the current functionality is not balanced, and feels wrong. May I suggest the following:

Tab: Inserts a tab (or spaces) to the next tab stop position
Shift+Tab: Deletes whitespace to previous tab position
Ctrl+Tab: Moves to next tab stop position
Shift+Ctrl+Tab: Moves to previous tab stop position

This would balance the functionality (insert paired with delete, and move foreward paird with move backwards) and give the user the best of both worlds.

[Erik]

Indenting/unindenting selections with [Tab]/[Shift+Tab] was introduced quite a while ago in Cirrus. Unidenting with [Shift+Tab] was broken a few builds ago and will be fixed in build 454.

File Viewers (read only mode) move to next or previous tab.
File Editors (full edit mode) usually insert new tab or delete previous tab>

In my research, I didn't find this to be the case at all. As I said earlier, most apps do exactly what BC3 currently does.

[Zoë]

Ctrl+Tab and Shift+Ctrl+Tab are already used to switch beween viewer tabs. One thing that will be fixed in the next release is that Shift+Tab with a selection will unindent the selection. Shift+Tab without a selection is really the only key combination who's functionality can be changed.

Naturally those of you using Visual Studio will want BC to mimic that behavior, though as Erik said, it only removes whitespace if it has whitespace immediately to the left of it and moves the cursor otherwise. If it behaves differently then I'd guess you've changed something, because the copy we checked is fully patched, and isn't used enough that it would have anything but defaults.