On forums that are pretty software intensive, i.e., people posting lots of code… the preformatted text ctrl+k thing doesn’t cut it. I’m constantly having to edit posts and do this technique:
Is there an easy way to just change this button to be the CODE button and default it to whatever makes sense for your community?
There is no amount of tutorials that can fix this problem… the problem is people look at the tools in front of them and the pick the one with CODE in it. Which turns out to be terrible for code unless you use it in a non-intuitive way.
For example… here’s some code using preformatted text. Well, I say using it because the way people use it is they go and copy their code… then they click the preformatted text button. Then they paste their code. And it blows up like this:
// virtual members
#include
using namespace std;
class Polygon {
protected:
int width, height;
public:
void set_values (int a, int b)
{ width=a; height=b; }
virtual int area ()
{ return 0; }
};
class Rectangle: public Polygon {
public:
int area ()
{ return width * height; }
};
class Triangle: public Polygon {
public:
int area ()
{ return (width * height / 2); }
};
int main () {
Rectangle rect;
Triangle trgl;
Polygon poly;
Polygon * ppoly1 = ▭
Polygon * ppoly2 = &trgl;
Polygon * ppoly3 = &poly;
ppoly1->set_values (4,5);
ppoly2->set_values (4,5);
ppoly3->set_values (4,5);
cout << ppoly1->area() << ‘\n’;
cout << ppoly2->area() << ‘\n’;
cout << ppoly3->area() << ‘\n’;
return 0;
}
Now if you paste your code first… highlight it, and then click the preformatted text button it’s much nicer:
// virtual members
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
class Polygon {
protected:
int width, height;
public:
void set_values (int a, int b)
{ width=a; height=b; }
virtual int area ()
{ return 0; }
};
class Rectangle: public Polygon {
public:
int area ()
{ return width * height; }
};
class Triangle: public Polygon {
public:
int area ()
{ return (width * height / 2); }
};
int main () {
Rectangle rect;
Triangle trgl;
Polygon poly;
Polygon * ppoly1 = ▭
Polygon * ppoly2 = &trgl;
Polygon * ppoly3 = &poly;
ppoly1->set_values (4,5);
ppoly2->set_values (4,5);
ppoly3->set_values (4,5);
cout << ppoly1->area() << '\n';
cout << ppoly2->area() << '\n';
cout << ppoly3->area() << '\n';
return 0;
}
However that’s not intuitive either… so if you click the code button and get:
```cpp
// paste code here
```
Then it will look like this:
// virtual members
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
class Polygon {
protected:
int width, height;
public:
void set_values (int a, int b)
{ width=a; height=b; }
virtual int area ()
{ return 0; }
};
class Rectangle: public Polygon {
public:
int area ()
{ return width * height; }
};
class Triangle: public Polygon {
public:
int area ()
{ return (width * height / 2); }
};
int main () {
Rectangle rect;
Triangle trgl;
Polygon poly;
Polygon * ppoly1 = ▭
Polygon * ppoly2 = &trgl;
Polygon * ppoly3 = &poly;
ppoly1->set_values (4,5);
ppoly2->set_values (4,5);
ppoly3->set_values (4,5);
cout << ppoly1->area() << '\n';
cout << ppoly2->area() << '\n';
cout << ppoly3->area() << '\n';
return 0;
}
Ahh, so nice.
How can we make life easier for coders ? 
Thanks!!
