1. Lingnan Dai's Avatar
    Hi everyone,

    For a long time I was frustrated with the lack of an all-rounded text editor on BB10, and eventually I decided to write my own

    Helium, or Highlight Editor with LIghtweight rUntime environMent, is a powerful tool that will change the way you work with text files.

    Feature summary:

    * Multi-tabbed: open multiple files at once and easily switch between them; or open the same file in different tabs and refer to its different parts
    * Syntax highlight: support syntax highlight for over 50 filetypes e.g. python, c, cpp, html, css, etc. For the complete list refer to App World
    * Mod-key shortcuts: you can use key-chords such as Enter+S to save a file just like Ctrl+S on your computer; there are tons of keyboard shortcuts for power users
    * Undo & Redo
    * Regex find and replace: if you are familiar with Perl style regular expressions then you are going to like it
    * Executing scripts: currently you can run python, shell and javascript; but you can also define your own commands to run
    * Previewing html: handy for web developers
    * Colorschemes and fonts: 4 colorschemes and 20+ fonts; more to come
    * Multithreaded: e.g., save is in background so that you can keep on editing without waiting for it to finish

    Link: https://appworld.blackberry.com/webs...ntent/59963952

    Any feedback is welcome!
    07-06-15 01:37 AM
  2. allwi's Avatar
    Wow - cool! The editor looks very promising ... but the price is also very ambitious ...

    Not the price where I download it just to give it a try. So two questions:
    Is it integrated in the share menu? I.e. can you share any file from file explorer, even with an unknown extension, and it opens in Helium?
    What kind of normal search is supported? I.e. do you have incremental search? Can you use via keyboard hotkey "search next" to go to the next match?
    07-06-15 04:40 AM
  3. Lingnan Dai's Avatar
    Hi allwi,

    Thanks for your interest! To answer your question:

    1. Yes, you can tap on any file inside the file explorer and that will be opened in Helium; but if you already have a default app for a given file type (e.g. txt), you need to long tap the file, choose 'Open with' and select Helium as default app. Next time it will be opened with Helium just fine.
    2. There is the 'Exact match' search option which treats all search characters as non-special, thus disabling regex. This might be what you want as 'normal search'. In addition, 'Ignore case' will let all letters in the regex expression match both upper and lower cases. All search is incremental (assuming I understand your reference correctly) i.e., searching a term goes to the next immediate match inside the view. And yes, everything in Helium has a keyboard shortcut - in the case of 'Find', that includes 'Find Next', 'Find Previous', 'Next Search Option', 'Previous Search Option', 'Cancel', 'Replace Next', 'Replace All Remaining', 'Undo', 'Redo', etc. And you can always bring up the full list of keyboard shortcuts by pressing 'Backspace' (when not inside a text area), or 'Enter+Backspace' (when inside a text area)
    allwi likes this.
    07-06-15 07:15 AM
  4. FF22's Avatar
    Good luck with the app.
    07-06-15 07:41 AM
  5. arfin's Avatar
    I tried to contact you via BlackBerry world but couldn't find your email. I would like to thank you for creating this app, it's incredible! I was on a flight on Saturday and used this app to edit my website on the go.

    It was a great feeling being able to do that, and because the app is so well done I felt as if I was on my macbook using Komodo Edit! I just googled helium and crackberry and found this thread and felt compelled to thank you!
    08-02-15 11:33 PM
  6. BoyTanggol's Avatar
    Could it open CSVs and .log? I can purchase other text editor but I like Helium's highlights.

    Posted via CB10 using BlackBerry Passport
    08-20-15 03:15 AM
  7. anon(5594800)'s Avatar
    I want IAP or demo version to try))
    08-24-15 01:07 PM
  8. Amonchakai's Avatar
    Hello,

    Cool app' ! If I may, some idea for possible improvements

    - it is not so easy to scroll in the text using the passport touched enabled keyboard. But I am not really sure you can do better. If you put it in a scrollview, I am not sure about the performance.

    - in case we picked a dark theme, when we render a markdown file, it would be good to have a black background in the webview (and then inverse the color)

    - I would also love that the application reopen the last opened file in case you would close the application without closing the file. To do that you could eventually use the fact that to close an application, you first minimize it as an active frame, then close it. So you could catch the minimizing event, and save the status of the application

    - similarly, I would love a cache for the current opened file: you start typing something, and if close the application without saving, reopen it restore what you typed. it is something I frequently do and love with 'sublime text' on desktop

    Thank you


    Posted via CB10
    08-29-15 01:25 AM
  9. BoyTanggol's Avatar
    Could someone confirm if it can open csv

    Posted via CB10 using BlackBerry Passport
    09-02-15 06:09 AM
  10. Amonchakai's Avatar
    Yes, it does.

    The extension does not matter, it opens anything and show its content. Whether it makes sense or not is another story.
    BoyTanggol likes this.
    09-02-15 07:51 AM
  11. Lingnan Dai's Avatar
    Hi BoyTanggol,

    Sorry for the long delay - I don't check this thread very often. Just as Amonchakai has said, Helium will open any file just fine.
    09-13-15 04:12 PM
  12. Lingnan Dai's Avatar
    - it is not so easy to scroll in the text using the passport touched enabled keyboard. But I am not really sure you can do better. If you put it in a scrollview, I am not sure about the performance.
    One trick you can try is to bring up the 'circle' by double tapping on the touch keyboard when you are editing, and simply 'drag' that circle around by using the touch keyboard as a means of navigation.

    Alternatively, while the text area is not in focus, use <Space> and U/<Shift-Space> to page down/up.

    - in case we picked a dark theme, when we render a markdown file, it would be good to have a black background in the webview (and then inverse the color)
    Mhh, haven't thought about that, will note it down and give it some thoughts.

    - I would also love that the application reopen the last opened file in case you would close the application without closing the file. To do that you could eventually use the fact that to close an application, you first minimize it as an active frame, then close it. So you could catch the minimizing event, and save the status of the application
    Yes, this feature is already on the road map. In fact the project list is already 'saved', but I haven't got around to implementing the same thing for individual files. Right now to alleviate the pain a bit you can create projects with their path set to 'near' the files you edit a lot.

    - similarly, I would love a cache for the current opened file: you start typing something, and if close the application without saving, reopen it restore what you typed. it is something I frequently do and love with 'sublime text' on desktop
    This has been requested in the past as well but it might take longer to see the light. I'll need to think about it - mostly because I don't quite trust 'autosave' features myself and don't want users to rely on it too much.
    09-13-15 04:23 PM
  13. SparrowhawkMMU's Avatar
    Hi

    Any news on the proposed soft tab key for all touch users?

    It's the only thing keeping me from using this to create scripts - currently I use Helium to view files only. For which, I might say, it is in a class of its own.

    Thanks for making one of the stand out apps for BB10. An absolute gem.



    Posted via CB10
    09-14-15 01:29 PM
  14. Lingnan Dai's Avatar
    Unfortunately I have to say that it's still on the to-do list :/ Currently I'm preoccupied with adding git support to the app, once that major release is out these things will surely be picked up.
    09-14-15 01:51 PM
  15. Amonchakai's Avatar
    Ah! I have a similar project, looking forward to see your implementation

    Posted via CB10
    09-14-15 03:04 PM
  16. wojt7's Avatar
    What a great app. Thanks for taking the time to write it. Hope it sells well.
    I'm surprised at the quality of that app, believe or not but I bought it mainly just to support the native developer more so than to use it extensively.
    Hope the updates will keep coming...
    09-15-15 06:17 PM
  17. SparrowhawkMMU's Avatar
    No worries. Git integration will be a huge bonus.

    Posted via CB10
    09-16-15 12:48 PM
  18. sn1's Avatar
    Do you have auto complete feature for some programming languages? I mean code completion.

     Q10
    Last edited by sn1; 10-07-15 at 10:29 PM.
    10-07-15 06:54 AM
  19. juan17263's Avatar
    Thanks for producing a great app for BB10 and my apologies if this isn't the right place to post this, but I have a questions to ask:

    How do I compile C and C++ with playbook-dev-tools? I managed to get the playbook-dev-tools installed onto my BB10 device but when I try to set the run command to compile my cpp file, it says that "/bin/sh: g++: cannot execute - No such file or directory" or "/bin/sh: arm-unknown-nto-qnx8.0.0eabi-g++: No such file or directory".

    I have the playbook-dev-tools installed on /accounts/1000/shared/documents/clitools and I used BGShellPlus to verify that the command works.
    Last edited by juan17263; 10-20-15 at 05:01 PM.
    10-20-15 03:09 PM

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