Feature request: Highlight instances of a selected word

[Aaron]

Hello,

We have limited developer resources, and the developers that would work on this feature are busy with other features and bug fixes. This section of the project isn't something that an external developer could jump into. It is something still on our radar if we're able to bump it up our schedule. For an overview of everything else we've been working on in that time frame, our changelogs posted in the Downloads page offer an overview, in additional to the work we're currently doing on an eventual BC5.0.

[hispeedsurfer]

Hallo together, we now have the year 2023. BC is a brilliant software when it comes to content comparison. But to push a well-founded and useful feature request 14 years ahead of time, I find a bit questionable. If it's not feasible or wanted, please explicitly note it here and be done with it.

[Aaron]

Hello,

Sorry, no, but we do appreciate the offer.

[rkhoury]

This would be SUCH a great feature. I don't suppose you'll let an external developer help? I'm a software developer and would be happy to take a look, and I imagine most who are using this tool are software devs and happy to help.

[Aaron]

It's usually a combination of current work schedule resources, areas of the application that are currently being worked on, and interacting with existing systems (for compatibility and performance). There's also usually an edge case that makes implementation more difficult than it appears.

It is clear that it would be a useful feature, and as other text editors support a similar workflow it is something we'd like to do. While I'm unsure if we'd implement a double-click-like interface, enhancing the Find functionality is still on our radar to allow highlighting all instances.

[ddk]

+1 for this. Like others, I find I must keep copying text to Notepad++ to get that highlighting. BC is such amazing software in so many respects. Please add this feature to be even better.

[Aaron]

Hello,

It's something we want to tackle, but the current Find wasn't initially built with this behavior in mind, and isn't a small change to implement. Given this is how many modern Find solutions work, it's definitely on our radar when we're redesigning this area of the program.

[MichaelR]

This is something still on our wishlist as something we'd like to tackle;

I'm really wondering why this is not yet available. Implementation of such a feature shouldn't be much effort and there are lots of requests for that starting a long time ago:
https://www.scootersoftware.com/vbul...ht-all-matches
https://www.scootersoftware.com/vbul...-selected-text
https://www.scootersoftware.com/vbul...h-highlighting
https://www.scootersoftware.com/vbul...-selected-word
https://www.scootersoftware.com/vbul...ight-same-text

The requests are starting in 2009!
Currently I'm opening the files with Notepad++ when I need the highlighting to get a better overview of the file content. Maybe it's not yet clear why this is so useful. One example: You find a difference in the 10th line below, where suggestedItem is used, and want to see what exactly it is related to. By double clicking 'suggestedItem', all occurrences of that word are highlighted (better by background color but this is not possible to show here), so that you can immediately find the definition and assignment of that variable.

[FONT=courier new]ICompletionData [B][COLOR=#FF0000]suggestedItem [/COLOR][/B]= listBox.SelectedIndex != -1 ? (ICompletionData)(listBox.Items[listBox.SelectedIndex]) : null;

var listBoxItems = new ObservableCollection<ICompletionData>();
int bestIndex = -1;
int bestQuality = -1;
double bestPriority = 0;
int i = 0;
foreach (var matchingItem in matchingItems) {
    double priority = matchingItem.Item == [B][COLOR=#FF0000]suggestedItem [/COLOR][/B]? double.PositiveInfinity : matchingItem.Item.Priority;
    int quality = matchingItem.Quality;
    if (quality > bestQuality || (quality == bestQuality && (priority > bestPriority))) {
        bestIndex = i;
        bestPriority = priority;
        bestQuality = quality;
    }
    listBoxItems.Add(matchingItem.Item);
    i++;
}[/FONT]

This is just one example for something which happens quite often and is very helpful for me and other users as well.
Please consider to increase priority for this request.

[PasTob]

Can you please pump this up to the top of the wishlist, because the OP is from 2009 (9 years ago).

thx a lot

[Aaron]

Thanks for the feedback. This is something still on our wishlist as something we'd like to tackle; I'll add your notes to our entry on the subject.

[PasTob]

+99999 also from here.
On reviewing code this would be very helpful.
Also "Meld" from Tortoise can do this.

Come on guys @ scooter software, please implement this feature.

Thank you!

[cwilliamson]

Me too!!! I want all instances of the current selection highlighted. Or even a "find-all" that we could run that would highlight all instances of searching string. Highlighting has to be persistent though.

Please please please!!

[epatton]

I'd really like this feature too. Understand for C++ and eclipse has it.

Cheers
Eddie

[rzegers]

It would be great if this gets implemented. It saves times and errors during code reviews, highlighting all uses of a specific variable for instance. Hope this will be added.

[Aaron]

Thanks. This isn't a feature we've been able to implement, but is still on our wishlist.