Mini C# Lab ver 1.3 Release Note

After Mini C# Lab ver 1.2, I got several important feedbacks from community, a friend, elleryq, told me that there is a free software Snippet Compiler providing colorful formatting, line number, document outlining, method list dropdown, even Intellisence, almost as luxurious as Visual Studio. Wow! It's really cool.

Compared with Snippet Compiler, Mini C# Lab's code editor is quite weak. The Snippet Compiler integrated ActiPro's SyntaxEditor control to provide friendly editing environment, but this make it fatter (about 3MB, but still not big) and not open-source. If Mini C# Lab can improve its code editor, the mini size (less than 100KB), open-source, and single file features still can distinguish it from such fancy solutions as Snippet Compiler, IMHO.

Another friend, adminjew (AKA Yotzichok), did a splendid job!  The open source code editor, ICSharpCode.TextEditor, was integrated to provide adequate features for C# coding, although no Intellisense and method list, it's good enough for mini coding job.  Except the new code editor, adminjew also add a whole bunch of new features, including undo/redo, a tool bar, splitted window, copy as formatted HTML...

I postponed the release of ver 1.3 for several weeks for dogfooding it by myself.  I was excited about the nice experience of using Mini C# Lab on remote machine via terminal service, download and run!  The best experience is when I had to write and test C# code directly on a Bloomberg terminal, I was not allowed to setup Visual Studio on it because of memory limitation and authorization issue.  My code cause Snippet Compiler failed, so I use Mini C# Lab 1.3 to complete the whole coding and testing, it's totally adequate for the job!

Here are the new features of Mini C# Lab v1.3:

*  Replace RichTextBox+CSharpFormat with ICSharpCode.TextEditor
*  Add toolbar and cut/copy/paste, print, undo, redo, split code box, copy as html functions...
*  Terminate execution by force while exiting
*  Prompt to save modified code before exiting
*  Remember saved file name for latter saving

You can download the v1.3 from CodePlex or from http://www.darkthread.net/MiniCSharpLab/MiniCSharpLab.zip directly.

【中文摘要】

Mini C# Lab 1.2推出後，我收到不少珍貴的回饋。elleryq提到了Snippet Compiler，同樣是即寫即編即跑，但內建的ActiPro SyntaxEditor程式碼編輯器支援Intellisense(是的，他加了洋葱 XD)，豪華到讓人感動落淚，跟Mini C# 1.2簡陋到不行的克難程式碼編輯器，簡直是拿XX比XX。

不過，上天的安排真是巧妙，另一位天使出現。來自美國紐約的adminjew咻咻咻地擴充了我的Mini C# Lab，加入一缸子新功能，還包含一個可怕的新東西--ICSharpCode.TextEditor，一個Open Source的程式碼編輯器，雖然不及ActiPro SyntaxEditor豪華，但已經比之前RichTextBox+CSharpFormat土法鍊鋼好上一百倍，剛好補強原本最弱的一環。現在行號有了，也可以即時變換文字顏色，還可以Undo... 酷呆了! 最重要的是，ICSharpCode.TextEditor是Open Source的，這樣Mini C# Lab就可以維持Open Source下去。

adminjew在好幾週前就提出了他的改良，我卻遲推了好幾個星期才釋出新版，理由是我花了幾週吃自己的狗食(dogfooding)後才推出。這段時間，好幾次在Terminal Service到遠端主機時，直接Copy Mini C# Lab過去寫Code測試某些程式跑不起來的問題。而最棒的一次經驗是則是在Bloomberg Terminal上寫整合程式，因為記憶體限制跟未獲機器主人授權的理由，我不可能在上面裝一套Visual Studio，而該程式在Snippet Compiler上執行會出錯，所以我切回Mini C# Lab上，邊寫邊測地把程式寫完。

跟雄偉的Snippet Compiler巨人相比，Mini C# Lab仍具有Open Source、可自行擴充、單一執行檔的優點，但由於缺乏Intellisense，並不適合對語法生疏的情境，算是提供給大家另一個選擇。

整理一下1.3版的新特色:

*  以ICSharpCode.TextEditor取代原本RichTextBox+CSharpFormat
*  加入工具列，支援剪下/複製/貼上、列印、復原(Undo)、分割顯示、複製成HTML等功能
*  程式結束時會強迫停止執行中的程式
*  結束前提示是否要存檔
*  連續多次存檔時會記住前次的存檔檔名