Getting started

This section explains how to start Snaked, perform basic editing and configure it.

Running

After installation snaked script will be created. You can run it either from terminal or run dialog:

snaked

Quick Open dialog will be shown after Snaked’s start to allow one open first file.

This command will run snaked with specified file:

snaked /tmp/first_snaked_file.py

Note

Specified file do not need to exist. Snaked will create it after first save.

You can give several filenames to snaked:

snaked /tmp/first_snaked_file.py /tmp/second_snaked_file.py

And each file will be opened in own tab.

One can switch tabs on <alt>Left/<alt>Right keys.

Project navigation

But specifying file names every time is too annoying, how can one open project file from Snaked itself? Solution is Quick Open dialog. Default shortcut <ctrl><alt>r:

Here it is very common Snaked dialog – search entry at of the top and list view below. It is used for preferences finding and python outline navigation also.

Behavior is very simple: you type several characters of subject to find, “se” in my case and dialog shows variants to select. Up/Down navigate between items, Enter activates selection, <alt>s focuses search entry again. Also if there is only the one item you can press Enter without need to put focus on list view.

Quick Open searches files only in current project following these matching rules:

• filename starts with search term.
• filename contains search term
• file path contains search term
• fuzzy match. if search term contains slashes it matches similar file paths. For example pl/py will match plugin/python/__init__.py or plugin/name/python.py

If search entry is empty, browser mode is activated. With it you can investigate project structure in more common way: Enter opens directory content and Backspace returns to upper level.

Shortcuts

• <ctrl>Enter opens selected item with default system editor. This important feature is missed in many other editors. For example you may open glade file as xml in Snaked (Enter) or show it in Glade Designer (<ctrl>Enter).
• At very bottom there is project combo box, it allows switch between project paths being searched. <alt>Up and <alt>Down keys change its value.
• <ctrl>p popups project combo box for easy selecting from large list.
• <ctrl>o shows standard file choose dialog.
• <ctrl>Delete deletes current project from list.

Creating new file

Standard GTK open dialog is too frustrating and hard to use from keyboard, so I implemented file create panel.

It provides folder autocomplete as you type. With Tab key you can cycle through proposals. Esc hides dialog, Enter opens editor with created file.

Sessions

Snaked provides sessions to store open editors on quit, they allow you omit files at all. What you have to do to enable sessions?

Run Snaked with -s (--session) option with session name. For example:

snaked -s test /tmp/first_snaked_file.py

Now, after closing editor by <ctrl>q key or closing window by wm facilities test session will be created and you can open it with simple command:

snaked -s test

Also there is ability to select session at snaked start:

snaked --select-session

Think about sessions like some sort of workspaces which are separate you tasks. One session for task or project or whatever.

Preferences

Preferences dialog is shown on <ctrl>p key:

It is alike Eclipse’s quick settings. You need to type what you want to configure (font, key, etc.) and select wanted item.

There are only three core configuration dialogs.

Key configuration

Here you can see all Snaked shortcuts, and change them:

Editor settings

Allow one to tune editor theme, font, tabs, margin and so on.

Every gtksourceview language can have own settings. Also there is special language default, it’s settings spread over all langs. For example you can change style theme for default language and editors for other langs will be use it automatically.

Plugins

Simple list with available extensions. Check to enable, uncheck to disable, nothing more. If plugin will provide it’s own configuration dialog it will appear in preferences.

Default editor shortcuts

These key bindings are provided by gtksourceview itself and can’t be changed (at least now).

• Tab / <shift>Tab – (de)indents current line or selection.
• <ctrl>Space – pop up completion dialog if any completions providers was associated with editor. There is only python provider now.
• <ctrl>c / <ctrl>v / <ctrl>x – standard copy/paste/cut editor shortcuts. Also there are common <ctrl>Insert / <shift>Insert / <shift>Delete.
• <ctrl>z / <ctrl>y – undo/redo
• <alt>Up / <alt>Down – moves selection up or down. Very useful feature, especially with smart select.

Spot navigation

Snaked tries to remember important editing places and allows one to navigate between such spots.

Behavior is not fine tuned yet, but spot navigation satisfy my needs in bookmarks plugin.

How does it work?

If you move cursor to big distance (PageUp/Down, buffer start/end, switch tab, goto line, goto definition or moving to spot) spot is placed. Also you can place spot manually by <alt>T. Spots are orginized as fixed length stack.

Shortcuts

• <alt>Q moves to last spot and put current cursor position at top of spot stack. Thereby double <alt>Q brings you back to same position.
• <ctrl><alt>Left/Right moves to previous/next spot in stack.
• <alt>T adds current cursor position as spot at top of stack.