apldyalogdyalog-ride

Clearing the screen in Dyalog RIDE


Dyalog keeps a session log that persists between restarts. I find myself frequently needing to clear the screen of old output etc, and I've found no other way than mindlessly tapping on the return key. Dyalog RIDE seems to have no equivalent to the standard shell ctrl-l to just clear the screen. Is there a way? Even using )clear to wipe the session clean leaves the screen 'untidy'.


Solution

  • An issue as already be logged for this to be built-in. In the meantime, we can achieve a similar effect (although placing the text caret at the bottom, rather than at the top):

    Edit > Preferences… > Shortcuts > "PF29": ⍞←99 0⍴⍬<ER>

    This will assign Ctrl+F5 to the action of causing 99 empty lines to be printed to the session log, effectively scrolling away all previously visible content.

    Optionally, hover with the mouse over the entry, click the appearing ➕, and press Ctrl+l (or whatever shortcut you prefer).

    You can even add this as a menu item:

    Edit > Preferences… > Shortcuts > Menu, then find the line that says Close All Windows =CAW and insert a line below it saying Clear =PF29

    This will give you a Window > Clear menu item


    Note that a quick flick of the mouse scroll should also "clear" the screen, this time leaving your text caret at the top.