Recent posts

#71

PlanetSquires Software / Tiko - new Localization functi...

Last post by Paul Squires - July 27, 2026, 01:11:53 PM

Just finished working on a brand new implementation of the Localization edit dialog within Tiko. It is much improved and interactive. You select the langauage and the second PsListTree appears for editing. You edit the language phrase directly in the row (like editing a node in a Treeview).

This was the last phase in the Settings/Options redesign that I needed to do so I now consider the new Options dialog complete. I am also thinking of renaming that whole "Environment Options" stuff to simply "Settings". Seem simpler and I think more consistent with the way that most applications handle that concept.

See attached screenshots if this interests you.

The new changes have not yet been pushed to the Development branch (let alone the Main branch), but I am getting close to doing so. I want to finish the Theme edit dialog before I push all the changes to Development.

#72

PlanetSquires Software / Help Center - search Win32 key...

Last post by Paul Squires - July 27, 2026, 11:22:08 AM

The Help Center has been modified to do a best attempt search on Win32 api keywords. The keywords as defined in Tiko's \settings\keywords\winapi_keywords.txt file.

https://www.planetsquires.com/docs

It is still the plan to have this entire website offline and local to Tiko and F1 keypresses to automatically search for help.

The limitation with Win32 api keywords help is that it directs to Microsoft's own documentation rather than store archived copies of it on the Help Center site.

#73

PlanetSquires Software / Re: PsControls Updates

Last post by Paul Squires - July 26, 2026, 08:14:35 PM

Updated control:  PsListBox -> renamed to -> PsListTree

Changed the name in order to better reflect the new capabilities. PsListTree emulates the best of traditional listboxes and treeviews. The recent treeview additions allow for unlimited parent/child branches and in-place node editing.

#74

PlanetSquires Software / Re: Tiko Buttons + other thing...

Last post by Paul Squires - July 26, 2026, 07:24:19 PM

Unless it has been fixed since I last downloaded the editor a month ago the vertical and horizontal scroll bars need buttons.  As it is now clicking where a button should be scrolls a complete page rather than a line.

That's a design choice. Some modern code editors don't use them, others have retained them for historical purposes. I've decided not to retain them.

It would be handy to have the cursor move with the mouse wheel.

I believe what you are describing is called "sticky scroll". I've seen some editors have this as an optional feature. I can see why it would be useful. I'll add it to my hope to do list and give it a shot at implementing it as a user option.

It would be more handy to set and navigate to bookmarks via the keyboard than the mouse.

Keyboard bookmark navigation is the only method I use. F2, and Shift+F2  (I also set a bookmark with Ctrl+F2, and clear all bookmarks with Ctrl+Shift+F2).  Those shortcuts are all listed in the top menu.

Moving to procedures would be more handy if they were listed in a separate form rather than taking up space in the code window.

I assume you mean like a keyboard shortcut that would popup a dialog listing all of the procedures to select from. On small monitors and laptop screens I can see that being useful where screen real estate is at a premium. My old JellyFish Editor used to have a popup selection list for procedures. Maybe even if the side panel could be floating so you could move it to a second monitor. Both something for me to think about.

Is there a problem with creating a standard find/replace window?  What there is now is really rather confusing.

It's being totally redesigned for the next tiko version.

When in debug mode, is there a way to step through code via the keyboard rather than the popup window?

I believe you asked this question before? Checkout the "Debug" menu in the top menu. It lists a number of the keyboard shortcuts that allow you stay within the code editor and navigate as the debugger is active.

As an aside, look at "File" "Preferences", "Keyboard Shortcuts"  (or simply press Ctrl+K) and you'll see all of the current shortcuts available. You can change any of them to different key presses if you desire.

#75

PlanetSquires Software / Re: PsControls Updates

Last post by Paul Squires - July 26, 2026, 07:04:55 PM

New control: PsImage

A small support class for loading a raster image — .ico, .png, .bmp, .jpg, or an existing HBITMAP/HICON — so an owner-drawn control can show a real picture in an icon slot instead of (or as well as) a Segoe Fluent Icons glyph. Works in harmony with other controls such as PsButton, PsToolBar, PsIconPanel.

#76

PlanetSquires Software / Tiko Buttons + other things

Last post by walt decker - July 26, 2026, 06:35:54 PM

Unless it has been fixed since I last downloaded the editor a month ago the vertical and horizontal scroll bars need buttons.  As it is now clicking where a button should be scrolls a complete page rather than a line.

It would be handy to have the cursor move with the mouse wheel.

It would be more handy to set and navigate to bookmarks via the keyboard than the mouse.

Moving to procedures would be more handy if they were listed in a separate form rather than taking up space in the code window.

Is there a problem with creating a standard find/replace window?  What there is now is really rather confusing.

When in debug mode, is there a way to step through code via the keyboard rather than the popup window?

#77

PlanetSquires Software / Re: PsControls Updates

Last post by Paul Squires - July 26, 2026, 08:46:33 AM

New control: PsTooltip

Easier to use ownerdraw, multiline, themed, and icon enabled tooltip popup.

#78

PlanetSquires Software / Re: PsControls Updates

Last post by Paul Squires - July 26, 2026, 08:34:10 AM

New control: PsCalendar

Similar to its related sibling the PsDatePicker. This control embeds into a form whereas PsDatePicker is a popup. They share some commonality but also a number of quite different properties.

#79

PlanetSquires Software / Re: PsControls Updates

Last post by Paul Squires - July 26, 2026, 08:31:41 AM

New control: PsToolbar

The attached screenshot is from the test demo. I'm sure that in practice we can design and implement more beautiful looking toolbars.  :-)

#80

PlanetSquires Software / Re: Regarding UTF-16 encoding ...

Last post by Paul Squires - July 26, 2026, 08:01:59 AM

This bug was very eye opening for me. I had made some fundamental wrong assumptions about how the text conversions worked when applied to the scintilla code buffer.

Tiko's file‑encoding conversion — switching a document between ANSI, UTF‑8, UTF‑8 (BOM), and UTF‑16 (BOM) — had two core defects that corrupted or destroyed text. First, changing the encoding relabelled the document without reliably converting its bytes: choosing "UTF‑8" ran no conversion at all, and a status‑bar refresh (which fires on every caret move) would then flip Scintilla's codepage over the unconverted bytes — turning José into Josxe9 on screen. Second, and worse, every UTF‑16 save wrote only half the file: the code passed a count of characters where the file API expected a count of bytes, so the document was silently truncated mid‑character on disk. Reads compounded this by stopping at the first embedded NUL. The fix routes all conversions through a single, length‑explicit encoder that decodes to UTF‑16 and re‑encodes correctly (BOMs and byte counts included), makes the status bar display‑only, applies the codepage change in the safe order, restores the caret by line/column, and warns before any lossy conversion to ANSI.

I have fixed all three reported scenarios: (1) ANSI → UTF‑8 (no BOM) no longer produces xE9‑style garbage — accented characters convert cleanly; (2) ANSI → UTF‑8 (BOM) / UTF‑16 (BOM) no longer truncates the end of the file, and round‑tripping back to ANSI no longer yields é‑style mojibake; and (3) UTF‑8 / UTF‑16 → ANSI now converts the bytes properly. I have also added a warning popup messagebox when a text conversion contains characters ANSI can't represent (CJK, Cyrillic, emoji). That change is lossy and can not be undone so the user is given the option to cancel proceeding.

I put these changes in a local git where I am working on a large refactor of the Tiko settings dialog and, more notably, a huge refactor of the themeing system (color changes to themes are now interactive and their effects seen in live real time within the Tiko display). The git will be merged to the "development" branch as soon as the features are stable enough for inclusion.