Bug 71142

Summary: [syntax highlighting] Highlight of enclosing elements
Product: [Eclipse Project] JDT Reporter: Milton Smith <brahma_bull_sj>
Component: TextAssignee: JDT-Text-Inbox <jdt-text-inbox>
Status: ASSIGNED --- QA Contact:
Severity: enhancement    
Priority: P3    
Version: 3.0   
Target Milestone: ---   
Hardware: PC   
OS: Windows XP   
Whiteboard:

Description Milton Smith CLA 2004-07-29 20:40:53 EDT
The current UI tracks enclosing braces and parenthisis by outlining the 
element with a square when the cursor is placed before or after the target 
element.

I propose a more useful paradigm.  As the cursor moves within an enclosing 
zone very lightly highlight(change background) between the elements of the 
zone.  For example,

try {


} catch( Exception foo ) {

}

As my cursor travels down the page thru the psudo code once it passes the 
brace in "try {" eclipse would highlight the zone between:

try {

}

Depending upon where my cursor is on the page as I travel down if I were to 
also pass thru:

( Exception foo )

Highlighting would be removed in the previous zone and reapply between the 
parenthesis.  Having control over hightlight color and turning the feature off 
altogether would be great.

Seems like a trivial thing but each devloper has a different style.  Sometimes 
source control systems screw up formatting.  In these cases having visual 
clues would be a huge bonus.  Getting the proper enclosing elements right is 
critical to good code.  That's my Christmas list....thanks guys!