Is there interest in a syntax-highlighting code editor control (SyntaxEditor) for Silverlight?

We’ve had several people e-mail us asking if our SyntaxEditor for WPF product will be ported to Silverlight. Our efforts in this area will depend on how much interest there is in such a product.

SyntaxEditor for WPF is the premier syntax-highlighting code editor control for WPF. A potential Silverlight version could contain a large subset of the features found in the WPF version.

We want to know what all you Silverlight devs out there think! Please post some comment replies here or e-mail us and answer as many of the questions below as you can. Your feedback will help determine if we move forward on a SyntaxEditor for Silverlight or not.

Questions

The biggest question… is a syntax-highlighting code editor control something you would actually purchase and use in your Silverlight applications?
Please rank in priority order the required features you would need at a minimum to make the control worth purchasing.
Please rank in priority order the optional features that you’d like to see, but wouldn’t be absolutely necessary.
If the information isn’t confidential, please give a general description of what you would be doing with the control and how specifically you’d be using it in your Silverlight applications.

Thanks for your comments!

1. The biggest question… is a syntax-highlighting code editor control something you would actually purchase and use in your Silverlight applications?

Absolutely. We have just finally switched to XAML apps and due to requirement be more web-enabled and have Mac audience we have no option other than Silverlight. We need it for full code files and as well for single-line editors where we need end-users to enter rules and criteria.

2. Please rank in priority order the required features you would need at a minimum to make the control worth purchasing.

- Same code base as WPF version
- AST over C#
- Multithreaded (async) approach (for not freezing application)
- Performance of drawing and scrolling
- Ability to insert custom controls in code text
- Standard-based styling ability
- Control over Intellisense

3. Please rank in priority order the optional features that you’d like to see, but wouldn’t be absolutely necessary.

Well, I believe WPF version should be just the same version as Silverlight. Some things that really hard to port should be omitted at first.

4. If the information isn’t confidential, please give a general description of what you would be doing with the control and how specifically you’d be using it in your Silverlight applications.

We are planning to have highly improved version of code editor. It would have embedded controls, should show errors before compilation, must have best intellisense, embedded versioning, discussions, and other things I can't tell you.

Second thing is business rules, search criterias - single line embedded editors allowing to quickly define small code/rule parts.

We actually using Mono Compiler of C# adapted to work in Silverlight. All in all - it's new PaaS where Silverlight and .NET plays a huge role in making adequate system for developers instead of current weak approaches for rapid apps building. And there is no chance to do that so great without your upcoming shining Silverlight Syntax Editor.

August 27, 2009 at 20:45

Interest in syntax-highlighting code editor control for Silverlight?

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August 27, 2009 at 23:01

definately, and i think that you'd get a pretty good monopoly in such thing if you bring it out soon. You see a slow trent towards online dev/IDE like heroku for rails etc. I can see a myriad of product ideas with

karl prosser

August 28, 2009 at 04:38

1. The biggest question… is a syntax-highlighting code editor control something you would actually purchase and use in your Silverlight applications?

A: Yes, I've been working on a DSL (Domain Specific Language) for my new start up but want to write the online silverlight version first for more open access.

2. Please rank in priority order the required features you would need at a minimum to make the control worth purchasing.

A: 1. Must have the capabilities to be driven via a specified set of directives.
2. Must be able to provide context specific help ala /// xml comments in visual studio.
3. Must highlight syntax in the formats specified.
4. Must support splitview.
5. Must be able to support regions ala #region directive in visual studio
6. Must allow for searching of key phrase.
7. Must allow for goto line number
8. Must support load from stream not just file stream.

3. Please rank in priority order the optional features that you’d like to see, but wouldn’t be absolutely necessary.

Be easy to customize the highlighting formats in above feature request.
Allow for reg ex searching
Printing support

4. If the information isn’t confidential, please give a general description of what you would be doing with the control and how specifically you’d be using it in your Silverlight applications.

A: To make an online DSL toolkit to suit my specific domain needs.

Peter Johnson

August 28, 2009 at 18:00

Yes, absolutely, for one primary reason: to maintain a consistent web-to-desktop strategy.  For example, imagine a desktop version of MSSQL Enterprise Manager that has a corresponding web version.  The desktop version would require no central setup while the web version offers central, consistent management and perhaps a less expensive license model for high volume customers.  As I evaluate WPF and Silverlight components, I'm looking for vendors that have a common strategy between the platforms.  This maximizes my ability to share code.

Having said that, I don't expect the Silverlight version to have the same feature set.  For example, perhaps intellisense can be limited to the desktop version if that presents high overhead.  Users expect a desktop version to have more features.  Fast syntax highlighting that shares the same definition as the Desktop version would be satisfactory in Silverlight.

Having a Silverlight version of SyntaxEditor is pretty important as most SL-to-WPF development starts in SL since it is a subset of WPF.

Adam Commander

August 28, 2009 at 22:01

1. I would buy it but not before 6-10 months from now.

2. Must have row numbers, multi-language syntax highlighting using the same grammars as the WPF version. Should have acceptable performance for files around the 5 Mb mark.

3. Per row background colour, go to line functionality, printing, font selection.

4. It would be part of a web version of a data mining product.

Jose Simas

August 29, 2009 at 01:41

Great comments, keep them coming. We have a prototype somewhat functional here with the basic features in place.

The problems occur in areas where in WPF we used routed events, commands, and a couple other places which have no corresponding implementation in Silverlight. One thing we were considering is maybe adding a new project to our actipro.codeplex.com solution that implements some of these core missing pieces that are in WPF but not in Silverlight. Are there already open source implementations with support for custom routed events, etc.?

Bill Henning (Actipro)

August 29, 2009 at 02:31

Bill,

Thanks for the update on the projects status.

This blog post here from Josh Smith has an implementation of routed events in silverlight 3 which he has placed on codeplex.

joshsmithonwpf.wordpress.com/.../

I should also add that I disagree with Adam Commander and feel that intellisense is a must have for this component, if it doesn't have intellisense it's just a rich textbox :o)

Hope this helps

Pete

August 29, 2009 at 02:36

Max Kosenko

August 29, 2009 at 02:48

Thanks Pete, we need some other things in addition to the routed events, so we'd probably need to make our own implementation of all the missing pieces.  We have some of it stubbed out (very roughly) just to get the prototype functional.

Another idea being thrown around is making an ActiproSoftware.Compatibility namespace that houses all the types we'd need to be available to ensure WPF/Silverlight code is compatible, then include that in Shared libraries for both WPF and Silverlight.  As Silverlight adds more functionality in the future, we could phase out portions of the Compatibility namespace.

I think the first release of SyntaxEditor for Silverlight would likely focus on core syntax highlighting, editing features, etc.  Then we could add things like IntelliPrompt in future releases.  By the way, the entire Text assembly (which contains our core text/parsing framework) converts over no problem.  So all that functionality (including our multi-threaded parsing abilities) would be available in the first release.  The same language definitions could be used as in WPF, etc.  Much of the WPF codebase converts over too with some tweaks here and there.

August 29, 2009 at 02:53

I also not agree with Adam regarding Intellisense. Adam doesn't actually need Syntax Editor - he needs Syntax Highliter in Silverlight. But that can be done much more easily. Editor w/o Intellisense is just a rich text box, that's true.

August 29, 2009 at 02:54

One other thing I would like to add as well is the support for multiple languages.

I would also like to see it bundled in a similar manner to that of the WPF Studio so that the cost is spread across multiple products / components.

This would make it an easier sale to my company which is a small software house, but also make it easily justifiable to my own company (which is just me :o) ).

Thanks
Pete

August 29, 2009 at 05:24

Yes, I think there would be a definite market for that.

My requirements would be support of all of the intelliprompt features found in SE4, as well as the newer parsing framework for large document support.

Matt Whitfield

August 29, 2009 at 19:11

<< Adam doesn't actually need Syntax Editor - he needs Syntax Highliter in Silverlight. >>

Actually, I need advanced syntax editing with intellisense. But I was asked to prioritize, and don't want intellisense to block the basic availability of a syntax editor for Silverlight that is compatible with WPF. I think we all agree that intellisense is critical eventually.

<<we used routed events, commands...making an ActiproSoftware.Compatibility namespace>>

This sounds great. I would love to see a replica of the commanding infrastructure in Silverlight. If you use a different namespace, that will create its own compatibility problems. Is there a way to implement this in its own assembly that is dynamically loaded if no equalivant types exist in Silverlight? That would allow your code to remain compatible with current and future versions of Silverlight.

August 30, 2009 at 13:48

We're currently users of the WPF version of SyntaxEditor and don't have and won't have in the forseable future the need for a Silverlight version. For web deployment, XBAP's are enough for us. We'd prefer that you use your resources in finishing the WPF version or in improving the performance of the properties control.

Gustavo Guerra

September 11, 2009 at 03:40

SilverLight currently no related controls. I am now an urgent need for syntax highlighting editor control for silverlight.

delphidoc

September 29, 2009 at 02:55

Although we wouldn't need it immediately a syntax editor together with a DSL (from Oslo?) would be a great way to bring the editing experience in a very light way to the user.

Some of the aspects that are "missing" in silverlight are not really missing, they were only solved differently e.g. commanding and trigger come with expression blend 3 and are available for both Silverlight and WPF.

TryToUnderstand

September 29, 2009 at 15:41

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September 30, 2009 at 11:49

Yes, absolutely. We have been using SyntaxEditor as our base editor for all our Modeling Language. Creating Model Driven Development Environments on the cloud will acelerate in the near future. If your DSL have some textual language you will need an advanced editor.

There are many development on the cloud right now and for future development our approach is take a look just on Libraries that allow us target Win and the Cloud.

Did you see Bespin? Well there you have some guys that already realize that the web is the next platform even for IDEs.

Take a look on ideas.dalezak.ca/.../...why-change-everything.html

Best Regards,
Gastón

Gaston Milano

September 30, 2009 at 12:06

Bespin does certainly look interesting. FYI, we are working on porting our WPF code to Silverlight and coming up with a common object model that both will share. Implementing something like Bespin but with Silverlight will certainly be an exciting possibility in the future via SyntaxEditor.

October 22, 2009 at 07:12

The answers to your questions are as follows:
1. Yes! ...and I'd give you my credit card number right now if you had it working.
2. For my use right now, syntax highlighting for c# & intellisense.
3. Syntax editing for other languages.
4. We would use it for editing a script that would run on a server.

My question to you is when do you think you might have a first release/beta available? Can you give me a rough idea of your timeline?

Jason Nadrowski

October 22, 2009 at 13:49

Hi Jason,

Right now we have the SL version of SyntaxEditor somewhat functional. The text/parsing assembly converts over 100%. The SyntaxEditor itself is missing some feature areas in WPF but for the most part we're trying to keep it in sync with WPF, especially going forward. There are a couple tricky bugs yet, and a lot of cleanup to do before it would be ready for prime time. But we are trying to work on it a bit as we continue to continue new development on the WPF version. I can't give a timeframe yet for a beta, but we'll make more blog posts when we are closed to having an alpha ready.

October 23, 2009 at 00:22

Thanks for the update, Bill!

Awaiting patiently until we can see SL SyntaxEditor!!

1) Yes!
2) At the minimum, Syntax highlighting based on C#.
3) Other, definition-based language highlighting, Intellisense
4) Writing/Editing code contained in server-based collaboration solutions. (Intentionally vague there..)

Sean McLellan

November 1, 2009 at 07:25

a) Yes
b) Syntax highlighting and Intellisense. We want to make it easier for users to write in a specific DSL and Intellisense is very important for that.
c) All other features
d) A specific DSL

Mohan Taneja

November 1, 2009 at 15:48

Just posted the first video of SyntaxEditor for Silverlight here:
http://tr.im/DZ5W

March 1, 2010 at 23:36

Yes please. When?

chadbr

March 1, 2010 at 23:40

Keep an eye on our blog, we are continuing to make posts as we move forward with its development. We hope to have something testable in the next month or two.

April 7, 2010 at 11:26

Yes! Absolutely yes! Please make a control that will stop our users from whining every time they have to edit a business rule!!!!!!

   1. Absolutely yes.

   2. If it would highlight text as you type, that would be fantastic enough. But, the control needs to have a header and footer part which is hidden from the user so that the method signature exists behind the scenes.

   3. Intellisense would be just awesome. Automatic code formatting would be the bomb.

   4. Our customers can control the workflow of our application by editing business rules in VB or C#. They are basically just the guts of a method.

Christian

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