McNeel forgot about c#?

Scripting
,
1

Hi all.

I’m going crazy writing c# GH scripts component in 7 and executing them in 8…
I’m starting to consider buying for my clients second-hand R7 licences or use other “solutions” to avoid using 8.

2026, and it’s still impossible to decently code c# in Rhino 8 (or WIP).
I’ve made so many posts about this.
Out from the various and different problems, we still don’t even have auto-indentation. :man_facepalming:
Can you imagine trying to code anything in 2026 without auto-indentation?
There are other crucial problems not yet solved, but even this one alone make one desist even trying.
This lack-of-feature alone tells how many users (or developers) are actually bothering using the new c# editor!!

In Rhino 7 c# editor was a playground.
c# script editor was so easy, simple and quick to edit that exploring Rhinocommon and learning c# was a joy, funny, productive.

With Rhino 8 the “legacy” or “old” script component was given a garbage editor, and the new c# component simply is worse at everything.
So a lose-lose situation, the backward compatibility (or editability) was killed, and the new version is incomplete. (analyze the situation carefully, please never do a similar thing ever again!)

I know other users that still experiment in Rhino 7 to then eventually develop plugins in VS for 7/8… because doing experiments in 8 is a no-go.

Is someone in McNeel considering the future effect of having skipped a whole iteration (maybe 2, if WIP will not change) where users didn’t have the same quality tool as 7 to dive in developing?

You are going on by “inertia”… but the situation is BAD.

Any official statement about this? Please.

Thanks in advance, and sorry for the hard words.

2

I’ve assigned this to Ehsan for an official comment.

I haven’t seen too much of the criticism in this regard but don’t pay attention to scripting issues near as much.

I do know there is a total re-write going into the WIP for the scripting editor very soon, it’s always a good time to get comments in when its announced.

4

I asked about this months ago. Probably more than a year. When 8 was the “WIP”…
Current state of 8 c# editor is “incomplete”, not ready for work.
It would have been way better to just leave the 7 editor, then.

If you have a refined and use-able c# editor, please push it also on 8, no only WIP/9 … otherwise it means you want to actually trash a whole generation of users that bought 8.

I bough 8 to support McNeel but I’ve used it probably less than 50 hours total because of incomplete c# editor.

All of this is really bad. :frowning:

5

I know well Ehsan is working on this, but this shouldn’t be a matter of a single developer.
The “develop-ability” of Rhino should be a top priority of whole McNeel.

Can you imagine Rhino release in future where users have no means of scripting capabilities?
Well, imagine no more, it’s 8!

6

Rhino 8 was released in November 2023. As I mentioned, I haven’t seen much criticism of the C# scripting component, especially with this tone. Regardless, the updated editor in the WIP is where your comments can be turned into youtrack issues and worked through

7

Me too! Survival bias maybe?
If I had 8 instead of 7 when I started trying scripting in c# I would have simply gave up, never learning c# at all or Rhinocommon… and never giving any feedback at all, including criticism.
(I mentioned this in my first post already.)

Anyway, if McNeel think current situation is “ok”, then ignore me.

I’m totally deluded.

8

I get auto-indentation when using braces, but do see it not working in the case where no braces are used. Is this what you are seeing?

In other words

if (x == 10)
{
    return;  // auto indentation works here
}

if (x == 10)
return;  // auto indentation does not work here
9

Thank you Steve, but no, current auto-indentation in 8 latest SR or latest 9 is nothing compared to auto-indentation in 7 (or VS or any other code editor), try it with a bigger code and you’ll see.

Anyway, this and the other problems were already discussed in lots of other threads, I don’t want to transform this thread about trying to explain/discuss some specific bugs once again for the n-th time…

I think it’s better to leave this thread about the general situation.

10

I’m going to un-assign this from Ehsan then, no need to disturb his deep work and you’ve said your piece.

12

Why not use VS Code as your editor?

https://www.food4rhino.com/en/app/scriptparasite-grasshopper

13

I understand you guys had enough of having to deal with me.
… sorry for bothering you.

I use Rhino daily, always… I’ve bough 8 but I’m still stuck with 7 and I’m here trying to make you devs understand my point of view… I failed and now I’m even more disappointed.

14

Hello
bumping on this discussion. Will we see the format command active ?

image
image391×154 3 KB

15

I agree, the same for GhPython editor
I still use Rhino 7 for creating scripts

16

FWIW, one can still use the old editors in Rhino 8/9 (not in Grasshopper 2 though), by e.g. searching #ghpython. I’ve made a userobject (with no typehints) that’ll show in normal search and in the tabs. Feels like we’re a while off from using the new scripting components in production. One day…

17

Where’s my f’ing life going!!! I feel like it was one year ago :frowning:

18

…no.
The c# “old” or “legacy” editor is absolutely not suited to work.
no method description
no auto indentation
no subobject or methods autocompletion
the component itself self-trigger expiration while you are editing it AND it lose focus, no idea how much this is a problem, you end up deleting the component itself because is selected on grasshopper and losing all the edits you made…

Absolutely not a viable solution. Even small edits are a messy hell.

19

I didn’t know how to reply at that :frowning:…
Auto-indentation simply is totally absent. There is a small function that enter some tabulations as soon as you enter a new line, but nothing past that.

Is anyone at McNeel actually using/testing c# script component or c# scripts?
(not for 2-3 rows of code… but 50/100/more…)
Everything is still there as it was 3 years ago when 8 was stil WIP: not suited for everyday work. At all.

20

Hello,
You can change the settings under Tool > Options.
Is it set to “Yes”?

Tool_Options
Tool_Options556×544 49.8 KB

21

Yes, exactly as yours.
As I just wrote, the current “feature” that adds white spaces at the start of a new line depending on the context might seems an auto-indentation… but is not.

no auto indentation
Do you think any “auto-indentation” is happening here?
Adding “;” or “}” character in 7 was enough to make the editor cleanup the code and fix the indentation everywhere.

Rhino 7 c# editor has it working perfectly.
Try to code c# in 8/9 for more than 30 seconds and you’ll understand what i mean.

The amount of white space after you enter a new line depends only on how much white space is on your current line. If your current line have wrong amount of white space, every new line will be wrong too. To keep the code clean is totally up to the user. Currently auto-indentation doesn’t help and writing the code on an external tool or even a plain text editor is better. (like 3 years ago)

I did post countless screenshots and short videos regarding this and other problems.
If it’s really needed I can start over again and re-post them.
Indentation, the useless list always bothering, method description incomplete, object properties or classes without description or even type shown. Nothing works.
Working on 7 is the only viable solution.
I’m frightened the current editor will be the default on 9 too … this is BAD , seems like McNeel simply don’t care at all, or noone inside bothered testing this for more than 3 years… even after all the feedback.

22

In Rhino 9 WIP, you can use the “Format” command.
Is that what you’re saying?