Problems with Android XML Editor and Eclipse...Hard to manually edit XML

Question

It's been a few years since I have last developed android apps. Since then, a graphical editor was added to Eclipse that allows you to generate the XML for an layout in a WYSIWYG fashion (part of the android sdk). I like it. Speeds things up.

However, with this editor I am having a heck of a time editing the xml in the "xml view" as opposed to the "graphical layout" view.

When in the XML view, I can no longer use a lot of shortcut keys. Like ctl-c or ctl-v (cut and paste) and most frustratingly I can't use the "delete" key. When I perform a cut and paste, nothing happens. And checking the clipboard, I can see that nothing gets copied in the first place. When hitting the delete key, strange side effects happen. Somtimes nothing...othertimes enter widgets are removed. I can't figure it out.

While in the XML view, I can use the mouse to cut and paste and everything is fine. I can use the "backspace" key to remove text instead of the delete key. So I can get everything in there with no issues. But...this is a major pain in the backside. I have been programming certain ways for 20 years and it is hard to get myself to use the mouse to cut and paste and whatnot.

Has anyone else eperienced this?? I haven't found anything on the internet pertaining to this problem.

Note: I know I can change the editor preferences in Eclipse to just use the normal eclipse xml editor but I lose the WYSIWYG display...which is nice to have for visualization.

If you have seen this problem or know of a way to get around it...please, please, please let me know.

I don't think it makes a difference, but here are my specs.

Eclipse: Version: 4.1.0 Build id: M20110912-1510

Android Development Tools 12.0.0.v201106281929-138431

Answer 1

This is fixed in ADT 20 Preview 3, released today.

http://tools.android.com/download/adt-20-preview