MS-Windows Integration Features

Epsilon can integrate with Microsoft's Visual Studio (Developer Studio) in several ways. The on-demand style of integration lets you press a key (or click a button) while editing a file in Visual Studio, and start Epsilon on the same file. The other automates this process, so any attempt to open a source file in Visual Studio is routed to Epsilon.

For on-demand integration, you can add Epsilon to the Tools menu in Microsoft Visual Studio. You'll then be able to select Epsilon from the menu and have it begin editing the same file you're viewing in Visual Studio, at the same line.

To do this in Visual Studio 5.0 or 6.0, use the Tools/Customize menu command in Visual Studio. Select the Tools tab in the Customize dialog that appears. Create a new entry for the Tools menu, and set the Command field to the name of Epsilon's executable, epsilon.exe. Include its full path, typically c:\Program Files\Eps14\Bin\epsilon.exe. Set the Arguments field to -add +$(CurLine):$(CurCol) $(FilePath). Set the Initial Directory field to $(FileDir). After creating this new command, you can then use the Tools/Customize/Keyboard command to set up a shortcut key for it. You may also want to configure Visual Studio to detect when a file is changed outside its environment, and automatically load it. See Tools/Options/Editor for this setting.

If you use Visual Studio .NET, the steps are slightly different. Use Tools/External Tools/Add to create a new entry in the Tools menu. Set the Command field to the full path to Epsilon's executable, epsilon.exe, as above. Set the Arguments field to -add +$(CurLine):$(CurCol) $(ItemPath). Optionally, set the Initial Directory field to $(ItemDir). You can use Tools/Options/Environment/Keyboard to set up a shortcut key for the appropriate Tools.ExternalCommand entry. To set Visual Studio .NET to autoload modified files, use Tools/Options/Environment/Documents.

You can also set up Visual Studio 5.0 or 6.0 so that every time Visual Studio tries to open a source file, Epsilon appears and opens the file instead. To set up Visual Studio so its attempts to open a source file are passed to Epsilon, use the Customize command on the Tools menu and select the Add-ins and Macro Files page in the dialog. Click Browse, select Add-ins (.dll) as the File Type, and navigate to the VisEpsil.dll file located in the directory containing Epsilon's executable (typically c:\Program Files\Eps14\bin). Select that file.

Close the Customize dialog and a window containing an Epsilon icon (a blue letter E) should appear. You can move the icon to any toolbar by dragging it. Click the icon and a dialog will appear with two options. Unchecking the first will disable this add-in entirely. If you uncheck the second, then any time you try to open a text file in Dev Studio it will open in both Epsilon and Dev Studio. When checked, it will only open in Epsilon.

Subtopics:

Running Epsilon via a Shortcut
The Open With Epsilon Shell Extension

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Sending Files to a Prior Instance Commands by Topic Running Epsilon via a Shortcut