Command Window Improvements

[JimForest]

Hi,

I would like to see the command window behave like that of Foxpro where every command entered gets saved sequentially and you can arrow up to all old commands and make changes. These are saved and reappear when you reopen the program. MATLAB has a similar command history box.

In fact, a Matlab type desktop arrangement would be an enhancing option. Anything that saves me typing and keeps me organized is a good thing.

JF :D

[startz]

I second the motion. In fact, having an optional, separate dockable history window might be nice.

[EViews Gareth]

The EViews command window is already sort of like that - you can up arrow to move to your previous commands, edit them if you like and hit enter on any line to resubmit it. The EViews command window can also be saved to disk so that in a later session you can see what commands you issued.


Having said that, you did spark some inspiration that might lead to some command window improvements for EViews 7.

[JimForest]

That would be great Gareth. Especially the option to have the history from the prior session/s appear in the window when you return to the program. I like being able to go back and grab old lines of code to past into programs.

What would really light my fire is if the command line statement that would generate the same result as the gui option would be echoed to the command line. This is another thing Foxpro does. I select an option from the menu system and the command to conduct that function gets bounced to the command window. So your users learn the eviews language just by using the menu system. Please consider this as I think it would be a default setting or option that people would fall in love with -- especially new users.

[EViews Gareth]

That's been on our radar for quite some time. Unfortunately it is a really complicated, difficult task that would take us some time to accomplish.

[JimForest]

glad to hear it. Hope you find a way to make it happen. Even if it is just an option.

[JimForest]

I do notice that you can find it for equations by going to view and clicking representations.

Examples:

Estimation Command:
=========================
ARCH(1,1,H,B,M=5000,C=0.001,DERIV=F) CH_BAA REGR REGRC

or

Estimation Command:
=========================
LS(N) CH_AAA SS_AUTOS SS_BUSINV SS_CAPACIT SS_CONSTRC SS_CONFIDN SS_CPI SS_CPIXFE SS_DURGDS SS_ECI SS_GDP SS_GDSSERV SS_HSLS SS_GDPPRIC SS_HREARN C

But I can't get that for charts, which would be really cool.

[EViews Gareth]

Charts are one of the hardest things to do, since so much is done via mouse movements (i.e. translating the gui positioning of a title into code is pretty tricky).

[ChrisFM]

I have to second the request -- the command window is really showing its age. I'd like to suggest a number of things (plagiarizing from above..):
1. Line-by-line commands
2. Save to log-file
3. Detachable window (why force to the top?)
4. Better indication of "where" you are (it is not always obvious whether your command window is active or not)
5. Auto-completion of the following:
Commands (del<space> translates into delete)
"Smart-sensing" for objects (like in the VBA editor, pressing a "dot" brings up a dropdown menu listing all properties/methods)
Drag and drop of objects from the workfile into a command line (you could highlight several objects in the command file, drop them into the command line, and they'd get inserted into a line of text, say)

[EViews Gareth]

I'm not sure I understand 1), and 2) you can already do. The rest are good ideas though :)