Blog ProjectsAbout

Eclipse word-wrap functionality

May 28, 2006
Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.

For now, following decision-points have been discovered for soft wrap:

  • Enable wrapping: is it File or System-wide Setting?
    Good would be to have file-specific setting and add global option for newly opened files.
    Should the state of wrap-mode restored after reopening file with editor? If yes then how to reset this option globally without making user-interface crappy and unintuitive.Quick-start: I would try to make it system-wide and later refactor it into an indivudual file editor configuration settings. Makes sense?
  • Wrap indentation: two choices: simple wrap that starts at every row beginning; smart wrap for java code that takes into account eclipse code formatting rules about proper indentation.Quick-start: Makes sense to start with simple wrap and later introduce extension point to enable wrapping rules to be taken from eclipse formatting plugin.

Explanation: Hard wrap is storing line-breaks in file. Soft wrap is just an editor capability to wrap long lines.

What are your ideas about word-wrap? How do you expect it to behave in eclipse?

UPDATE!! Please check this entry for initial alpha-release! (damaged line numbers etc when turning on but everything is restored after turning wrap off again).

  • Dimitris

    Yes! I cannot imagine how eclipse users have been living without soft wrap for so long, this is a *must* have feature, I find myself having to resort to another editor to work with some files!

  • http://ahtik.com ahti.kitsik

    Exactly! :)

  • Anonymous

    funny, just browsing the internet today for an answer how to enable soft word wrap (isn’t word wrap always soft?). unbelieveable eclipse can’t do this.

  • http://ahtik.com ahti.kitsik

    Hi Anonymous! Yes, unbelievable. But also just as unbelievable as the fact that neither does intellij or netbeans have soft word wrap. At least I couln’t find it. Especially hard is to implement soft word wrap for syntax-aware editors like java editor because of possible annotations, markers etc.

    Coming to your second question: there is still a wrap style that is called hard word wrap. This is basically just writing line-breaks into your sourcefile. Soft wrap wraps lines without modifying file.

    I’ll do my best to implement word wrap for eclipse!
    If you’re interested, feel free to visit this site to get updates about how it’s going or volunteer for an alpha-tester :)

  • Karuna Govind [kgx]

    I don’t think it should be too hard to implement a soft/dynamic word wrap? Have a look at Kate (and its source code) on KDE. It has a very nice soft word wrap. IIRC, Notepad++ on Windows also has something similar.

  • Az

    In “[...] syntax-aware editors like java editor[...]” it must be not that easy, as was said before, not only Eclipse does not support word wrapping. It is a pain, but E. like NB does highlight your syntax based on the code, not only on the wordlist… Show me that option in Kate or Notepad++. Don’t get me wrong, N++ is very nice editor, but NB, Eclipse etc – are IDEs.

Home | ©2006-2010 Ahti Kitsik. All rights reserved.