Some Improvements to the MiniZinc IDE Code Editor

[Gonzalo Hernandez]

Hi Team, I want to share with you some of my improvements I’ve made to the IDE code editor while working with MiniZinc.

All in the codeeditor.cpp  file.

1. Mimicking the Tab-key behaviour using spaces (updating current implementation).

I updated the Tab-key handling so that when tabs are turned into spaces, pressing Tab inserts the correct number of spaces to reach the next indentation level, accurately mimicking real tab stops.

219 } else if (e->key() == Qt::Key_Tab) {

220 e->accept();

221 auto cursor = textCursor();

auto startBlock = document()->findBlock(cursor.selectionStart());

auto endBlock = document()->findBlock(cursor.selectionEnd());

auto partialLineSelection = startBlock.position() != cursor.selectionStart()

|| endBlock.position() + endBlock.length() - 1 != cursor.selectionEnd();

if (!cursor.hasSelection() || (startBlock == endBlock && partialLineSelection)) {

if (useTabs) {

cursor.insertText("\t");

} else {

auto posInLine = cursor.selectionStart() - startBlock.position();

auto distanceFromTabStop = 0;

auto line = startBlock.text();

for (int i = 0; i < posInLine; i++) {

if (line[i] == '\t') {

distanceFromTabStop = 0;

} else {

distanceFromTabStop = (distanceFromTabStop + 1) % indentSize;

}

}

auto toAdd = indentSize - distanceFromTabStop;

cursor.insertText(QString(" ").repeated(toAdd));

}

} else {

shiftRight();

}

ensureCursorVisible();

}

[Gonzalo Hernandez]

2. Smart parentheses and brackets (autocomplete and wrapping of selections).
I also added smart bracket behaviour to the editor to automatically complete (, [, and {, following the standard behaviour of modern IDEs.
This feature supports both pair insertion and wrapping of selected text.

} else if (e->key() == Qt::Key_ParenLeft) {

e->accept();

auto cursor = textCursor();

QString selected = cursor.selectedText();

cursor.insertText("(" + selected + ")");

cursor.movePosition(QTextCursor::Left);

setTextCursor(cursor);

} else if (e->key() == Qt::Key_BracketLeft) {

e->accept();

auto cursor = textCursor();

QString selected = cursor.selectedText();

cursor.insertText("[" + selected + "]");

cursor.movePosition(QTextCursor::Left);

setTextCursor(cursor);

} else if (e->key() == Qt::Key_BraceLeft) {

e->accept();

auto cursor = textCursor();

QString selected = cursor.selectedText();

cursor.insertText("{" + selected + "}");

cursor.movePosition(QTextCursor::Left);

setTextCursor(cursor);

} else if ( e->key() == Qt::Key_ParenRight ||

e->key() == Qt::Key_BracketRight ||

e->key() == Qt::Key_BraceRight ) {

QTextCursor cursor = textCursor();

if (cursor.positionInBlock() < cursor.block().length() - 1) {

cursor.movePosition(QTextCursor::Right, QTextCursor::KeepAnchor, 1);

QString charRight = cursor.selectedText();

cursor.movePosition(QTextCursor::Left, QTextCursor::MoveAnchor, 1);

QChar typedChar = e->text().isEmpty() ? QChar() : e->text().at(0);

if (typedChar.isPrint() && charRight == typedChar) {

e->accept();

cursor.movePosition(QTextCursor::Right);

setTextCursor(cursor);

return;

}

}

QPlainTextEdit::keyPressEvent(e);

}

[Gonzalo Hernandez]

3. Avoiding overwritting brackets or removing properly autoinserted brackets, and  removing tabs inserted using spaces.
I improved the behaviour of Backspace so that it properly interacts with auto-inserted brackets and space-based indentation. When using spaces instead of tabs, pressing Backspace in leading whitespace removes exactly one indentation level. Additionally, if the cursor is between an auto-inserted bracket pair—such as (|), [|] or {|}—pressing Backspace removes both characters together, preventing leftover unmatched brackets.

} else if (e->key() == Qt::Key_Backspace) {

QTextCursor cursor = textCursor();

if (!cursor.hasSelection() && cursor.positionInBlock() > 0) {

QString line = cursor.block().text();

int pos = cursor.positionInBlock();

if (!useTabs) {

if (line.left(pos).trimmed().isEmpty()) {

int removeCount = (pos % indentSize == 0 ? indentSize : pos % indentSize);

cursor.movePosition(QTextCursor::Left, QTextCursor::KeepAnchor, removeCount);

cursor.removeSelectedText();

setTextCursor(cursor);

ensureCursorVisible();

e->accept();

return;

}

}

if (cursor.positionInBlock() < cursor.block().length()) {

QChar charBefore = line.at(pos - 1);

QChar charAfter = line.at(pos);

if ((charBefore == '(' && charAfter == ')') ||

(charBefore == '[' && charAfter == ']') ||

(charBefore == '{' && charAfter == '}'))

{

cursor.movePosition(QTextCursor::Left, QTextCursor::MoveAnchor, 1);

cursor.movePosition(QTextCursor::Right, QTextCursor::KeepAnchor, 2);

cursor.removeSelectedText();

setTextCursor(cursor);

ensureCursorVisible();

e->accept();

return;

}

}

}

QPlainTextEdit::keyPressEvent(e);

}