The editor tab provides the options that apply to the general editing process and how the code editor appears to the user. This section also describes the options displayed on the General tab for the default file type.
The check-box options on this tab can reflect three distinct states; checked (enabled), unchecked (disabled), and shaded (use default setting). When displaying the shaded state, the presence of a check mark indicates the current default setting.
This option defines the language syntax for the file. This defines keywords, quoted string support, comment layout and CodeAware support.
Support for the representation of tab stops or tab characters (ASCII 9) are divided into two categories, default size and fixed positions.
Tab stops are set at the default positions following the last fixed tab position. If no fixed tab positions have been specified, each tab stop is positioned the specified number of characters from the left margin.
For example, to set fixed tab positions every 10 characters for the first three tab stops, in the pos field enter, ô10, 20, 30ö. To continue with tab stops at 4 character intervals, in the tab stops field enter ô4ö.
To set tab stops every 8 characters, in the tab stops field enter ô8ö, and ensure the pos field is left empty.
This option is designed for use with files where the length of any line is limited to a fixed size, for example COBOL. When set, the line length is represented visually in the code editor and a warning is given when saving a file that includes a line longer than the specified limit.
Guide Lines provide a purely visual indication of character positions as vertical lines displayed in the Code Editor. This can be useful when working with files where the layout of multiple lines must be exact, for example fixed format data files.
Guide Lines are specified as a comma delimited list of character positions relative to the left hand margin.
Smart indent provides a simple method to ensure that tabs and spaces preceding the first character on a line are duplicated for new lines when hitting the return key at the end of a line.
This option allows all space and tab characters appearing at the end of each line to be ignored when loading a file. This can be useful not only to reduce the size of files where trailing spaces are ignored (i.e. C source files), but also when using the END key to quickly position the insertion point at the end of a line.
In the case of COBOL files with line tags or files with line numbers appearing at the end of each line, this feature can be used to remove the spaces inserted for formatting.
This option allows all space and tab characters appearing at the end of each line to be ignored when saving a file. This can be useful to reduce the size of files where trailing spaces are ignored (i.e. C source files).
In the case of COBOLÆ85 files using line tags, or files with line numbers appearing at the end of each line, this feature is ignored and the required number of spaces are inserted before the line tag or number.
This option will convert tab characters as they are typed into the correct number of spaces required to reach the next tab stop. This feature may be required for compilers that do not support the use of the tab character in source files.
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Note |
When pasting text from the clipboard, any tab characters included in the text are NOT converted. It is strongly recommended that the Save Tabs as Spaces option should be used to ensure no tab characters are included when the file is saved. |
This option will convert all tab characters into the correct number of spaces required to reach the next tab stop when the file is saved. This feature may be required for compilers that do not support the use of the tab character in source files.
This option will display the ruler in the Code Editor.
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Note |
To display the tab stops on the ruler see the Code Editor category in the Preferences dialog box. |
This option will display line numbers in the Code Editor. This will either be the line index or, in the case of numbered files, the line number in the file.