UEStudio

Description

IDM Computer Solutions built UEStudio on top of UltraEdit — their long-established professional text editor — and added the components that make a text editor into an integrated development environment: a project system to organize source files, a class browser to map the structure of the code, a built-in compiler interface, integrated version control, and a debugger connection. The result is aimed at developers who want the editing performance and depth of features of UltraEdit with the IDE capabilities added on top, rather than starting from an IDE and adding the editing functionality as a secondary concern.

UEStudio comes with a full license of UltraEdit, so users benefit from the full range of features of the text editor — large file handling, column editing, macros, regex search, FTP/SFTP integration — plus the development environment additions. The two have the same interface, and UEStudio is UltraEdit unless the project-based IDE features are being used.

Project System

UEStudio structures code in a project and workspace hierarchy. A workspace contains several related projects and each project specifies a set of source files, build configurations and compiler settings. The file tree in the project panel displays the directory structure of the project with icons that represent the type of file. Opening a file from the project panel opens it in the editor with the project context active, so searches, tag generation, and class browsing work within the scope of the project, rather than individual files.

Class Browser and Tag Generation

The class browser parses source files and shows the structure of the code: classes, functions, methods, variables, and their relationships in a navigable tree. Clicking on an entry in the class browser will jump directly to the definition in the editor. Tag generation uses ctags to generate the tag database from the project’s source files, and the editor uses the tags for navigation — jumping to a function definition from a call site, finding all references to a function or variable across the project. Some of the supported languages for tag generation are C, C++, C#, Java, Python, JavaScript, PHP, and others that ctags supports.

Compiler Integration

UEStudio connects to compilers and build tools via configurable build settings. Compilers such as GCC, MinGW, Microsoft Visual C++, Java compilers, etc. configure using the project settings. Running a build runs the configured command and stores the output in a build results panel. Compiler error messages parse into a clickable list where selecting an error jumps the editor to the file and line the error references.

Integrated Debugger

The debugger interface is connected to GDB for C and C++ projects, to set breakpoints, step through code, inspect variable values and to look at the call stack from within UEStudio without having to switch to a separate debugger application. Breakpoints that are set by clicking in the gutter of the editor are retained in the project settings.

Version Control Integration

UEStudio integrates with Subversion, Git, and Perforce via the version control panel. Operations such as commit, update, diff, log, and branch management are performed from within the IDE. Changed files are shown with status indicators in the project tree. The diff viewer displays line-by-line differences between the working copy and repository version.

Column Editing and Multi-Caret

Column editing selects a rectangular block of text across multiple lines, enabling typing the same text in all selected lines simultaneously or removing a column of characters from aligned data. Multiple carets are placed at arbitrary positions and type simultaneously. These editing modes are good for working with structured data files, aligned code, and configuration files where the same change needs to be made to multiple lines simultaneously.

FTP/SFTP Integration

UEStudio opens and saves files directly on remote servers via FTP and SFTP connections, without first downloading to a local temporary file. The FTP browser is used to navigate through the remote directory, and to open files for editing directly in the editor. Saving saves the updated file back to the server automatically.

Macro and Scripting System

The macro recorder records keystrokes and editor commands as executable macros that replay a recorded editing sequence. The scripting system is an extension of macros that adds conditional logic, loops, and access to editor functions to automate complex multi-step editing tasks.