subtleGradient comments on Select Balanced HTML Tag

"Select Balanced HTML Tag": comment by Thomas Aylott

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 19:35:27 PST

UPDATE :

New version by Hans-Jörg Bibiko (same link)

"Select Balanced HTML Tag": comment by Thomas Aylott

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 02:06:48 PST

Yeah. I started working on a version that selected only the insides but it was ending up being MUCH more complex and slower. So I went with this version for now.

For general selection stuff I use Balance Jr. Also available from http://Bundleforge.com

Balance Jr selects things very well, but not so great for nested brackets or tags. I have Balance Jr Forward and Back bound to the home and end keys.

"Select Balanced HTML Tag": comment by Nicholas Schlueter

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 19:13:40 PST

sounds good, I totally understand! I looked at the macro a little bit but my face started to melt, so I gave up. I look forward to the next revision.

"Select Balanced HTML Tag": comment by Dean Strelau

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:31:54 PST

From what I see in the video, there’s a crucial difference in the BBEdit version of this command though: it selects the text inside the tags without selecting the tags themselves. The TM and DW versions also select the tags.

"Select Balanced HTML Tag": comment by Thomas aylott

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 11:01:05 PST

yeah, the first version is only really useful in boring vanilla HTML . I plan to upgrade it once I can pry another few precious minutes of “free time” out of my schedule.

I will of course let you all know when that happens.

I just knew that there would be some people out there like myself that have been pining for this forever and wouldnt’ want to have to wait for the full fancy and actually bugfree version ;)

"Select Balanced HTML Tag": comment by Nicholas Schlueter

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:18:11 PST

This is awesome! I wish it worked with my rhtml files in rails though (hint, hint).

"Select Balanced HTML Tag" by admin

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 08:21:00 PST

hey kids
just wanted to share with you my latest textmate innovation.

There is a bit of standard functionality that major html editors have been capable of forever

In BBEdit it’s called View > Balance

In Dreamweaver it’s called Edit > Select Parent Tag

What this does is select the current html tag, no matter where your caret is in between the opening and closing tags.

Ok, that’s all fine and lovely, but I use TextMate. And while TextMate has an Edit > Select > Enclosing Brackets function. That doesn’t actually DO anything in HTML. Nothing useful anyway.

So, what is the solution? How do we actually make this work in TextMate?

Well, that’s where I come in. TextMate is built on a community of developers who spend time extending and expanding on what TextMate is capable of.

So, I have been goofing around with ruby scripts and insanely complex regular expressions since 2005 trying to make this work.

And I have finally managed to come up with something that is simple and uses the normal standard TextMate Select > Enclosing Brackets functionality.

I call it Select Balanced HTML Tag and I have it bound to ⌘⇧B

Let’s bring up TextMate
Put the caret inside of an HTML tag that we want to select, and hit the magic shortcut key: ⌘⇧B

And she-bang! We have our tag selected.

Then you can keep hitting the keystroke to expand your selection to each succesive enclosing tag.

BUT wait, there’s more!

My “Select Balanced HTML Tag” macro is UNDOABLE!
HAHA! Take THAT HTML! Bet you didn’t see THAT one coming!

Yes, sure. Dreamweaver has the “Edit > Select Child” command, but I find that it doesnt actually DO anything most of the time.

I must admit however that the Dreamweaver and BBEdit versions of this command actually work a LOT better and WAY WAY faster, but I find that reasoning completely useless because I’m never goign to be using either of those applications.

So to sum up. New TextMate Macro Select Balanced HTML Tag Selects the current HTML Tag, similar to the BBEdit Balance and Dreamweaver Select Parent Tag commands. Except that it’s UNDOABLE and works in TextMate and is much crappier.
Written by me, Thomas Aylott.

You can download this at BundleForge.com