SlickEdit Core v4.3 for Eclipse SlickEdit Core v4.3 for Eclipse Information in this documentation is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of SlickEdit Inc. The software described in this document is protected by U.S. and international copyright laws and by other applicable laws, and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of the license or nondisclosure agreement that accompanies the software. It is against the law to copy the software on any medium except as specifically allowed in the license or nondisclosure agreement. The licensee may make one copy of the software for backup purposes. No part of this documentation may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval systems, for any purpose other than the licensee's personal use, without the express written permission of SlickEdit Inc. Copyright 1988-2014 SlickEdit Inc. www.slickedit.com [http://www.slickedit.com] SlickEdit, Visual SlickEdit, Clipboard Inheritance, DIFFzilla, SmartPaste, Context Tagging, Slick-C, and Code Quick | Think Slick are registered trademarks of SlickEdit Inc. All other products or company names are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners. Protected by U.S. Patent 5,710,926. Introduction This chapter describes how to install SlickEdit Core and provides information about new features, documentation, supported languages, product support, and performance tuning. 1 Getting the Most Out of SlickEdit® Core What is SlickEdit Core? SlickEdit Core is a plug-in for Eclipse that contributes a code editor and several views. The code editor can be used to write code in C/C++, Java, or any of the over 50 other languages we support. The SlickEdit Core Views augment the standard Eclipse views, providing information that helps you better understand and navigate your code. SlickEdit Core is based on our standalone editor, SlickEdit. So, the capabilities provided by the editor and views are nearly the same in both products. Our goal was to integrate them into Eclipse, making them work as seamlessly as possible. Wherever SlickEdit offered a capability that already existed in Eclipse we chose to exclude it, except in those cases where our version offers better functionality or performance. For example, we included our SlickEdit Search feature due to its color-coded search functionality and its speed. SlickEdit Core uses the workspace, project, and build system of Eclipse. Therefore, you cannot use a SlickEdit workspace or project with SlickEdit Core. To migrate from one environment to the other you'll have to redefine the workspace. 2 Learn About Our Cool Features Getting the Most Out of SlickEdit® Core SlickEdit Core brings the rich history of excellence of SlickEdit to the Eclipse framework. It delivers the power programming capabilities needed to write more code faster and more accurately, making it an indispensable plug-in for developers. At SlickEdit, our belief is that it's the code that really matters. We are a company of power programmers working to develop the tools that power programmers demand, tools that provide the best editing capabilities to help you write your code the way you want. We take great pride in delivering unparalleled power, speed, and flexibility to our customers. Our goal is to remove the tedious tasks involved with programming, allowing you to focus on the reason you first got into programming: the thrill of writing great code. Learn About Our Cool Features SlickEdit® Core contains the most powerful and comprehensive set of features available in any editor. Many are unique to SlickEdit Core. To see a list of features we think are particularly cool, click Help → SlickEdit Cool Features from the Eclipse main menu. Each feature is described and you can watch a short demo of the feature in action. Write More Code, Faster These strategies will help you write more code, faster than you ever have before: • Use workspaces and projects to manage your code - SlickEdit Core uses Context Tagging® to build a database of the symbols in your source files. All of the files within a workspace are tagged, allowing for more accurate completion information and rapid navigation. For more information, see Context Tagging Features. • Keep your hands on the keyboard - Time is wasted each time you reach for the mouse. SlickEdit Core contains 14 editor emulations with predefined key bindings that are ready for use in performing common tasks. Define your own key bindings or invoke editor operations from the SlickEdit Core command line. For more information, see Using the Mouse and Keyboard. • Type as little as possible - SlickEdit Core contains many features that reduce the number of keystrokes you type, including: completions, syntax expansion, aliases, macros, and code templates. For information about these features, see the topics in the Editing Features chapter. • Rapidly navigate code - Instantly jump from a symbol to its definition or view a list of references. Preview definitions for the current symbol without having to open the file. Use bookmarks to mark important locations in the code. SlickEdit Core includes powerful browsers and search capabilities, allowing you to quickly find the code you want. See Navigation and Symbol Browsing for more information. • Access information quickly - SlickEdit Core uses visual indicators to provide you with information about your code, including syntax highlighting and color coding. Special views are also available for 3 Quick Start viewing information about files, classes, symbols, definitions, and more. To learn more, see SlickEdit Core Views, Symbol Browsing and the Editing Features chapter. • Let SlickEdit Core do the formatting - Syntax indenting, SmartPaste®, and code beautifiers are just a few of the automatic formatting features in SlickEdit Core. For more information, see the topics in the Editing Features chapter. • Time-saving utilities - SlickEdit Core provides many utilities for working with your code, such as DIFFzilla®, 3-Way Merge, Spell Check, FTP, a RegEx Evaluator, math commands, and even a calculator. See the topics in the Tools and Utilities chapter for more information. Quick Start SlickEdit Core offers a Quick Start Configuration Wizard to help configure the most commonly changed options. Use this to get up and running with SlickEdit Core as quickly as possible. The User Guide also includes the Quick Start guide. It describes how to set the options featured in the Quick Start Configuration Wizard plus a few more common user preference settings. Register Your Product Registering your product allows SlickEdit Inc. to provide you with automatic notification of free updates and new releases, and enters your name into a weekly drawing for a free gift pack. To register your product, visit our Web site at www.slickedit.com/register [http://www.slickedit.com/register]. 4 64-bit Version for Windows New Features and Enhancements This section describes the new features and enhancements in SlickEdit® Core. 64-bit Version for Windows A native 64-bit version of SlickEdit Core for Eclipse is now available for Windows. This version requires a 64-bit JVM and Eclipse. SlickEdit Core still retains the 2 gigabyte file size limit. Improved PL/I and COBOL Support • All supported Context Tagging operations for PL/I and COBOL are improved in this version, with upgraded or newly implemented parsers. • Includes/copybooks are now tagged at parse-time. In order for SlickEdit Core to recognize the location of your PL/I includes and COBOL copybooks, set the macro variables def_pl1_include_path and def_cobol_copy_path to the location of your PL/I includes and COBOL copybooks, respectively. • Background tagging is supported for both languages. • A new PL/I formatting option for defining the margins of your PL/I code, Code Margins, is located at the PL/I formatting options dialog at Window → SlickEdit Preferences → Languages → [Language Category] → [Language] → Formatting. Setting these margin values will enable SlickEdit Core to accurately detect your PL/I code. If some of your source files have different margin settings, you can either change this value or add a preprocessor statement to the code (*PROCESS MARGINS(X,Y)), and SlickEdit Core will automatically adjust the margin settings for that particular file from the preprocessor statement. The default margin settings are 2 and 72. Workspace Tagging Excludes SlickEdit Core will automatically tag all source files in your Eclipse workspace. The Workspace Tagging Excludes feature allows you to specify absolute paths or partial path components in your workspace which you want to be excluded from automatically being tagged. Available at Window → SlickEdit Preferences → Editing → Workspace Tagging Excludes. 5 Documentation Updates/ Feedback Documentation The SlickEdit Core documentation only covers the features contributed by the SlickEdit Core plug-in. For information about working with Eclipse, including setting up workspaces, doing builds, and integrating with source control; refer to the documentation provided by Eclipse. Documentation for SlickEdit® Core consists of: • A built-in Help system. See The Help System for more information. • The SlickEdit® Core User Guide, which provides the same information as the Help system in PDF format for viewing and printing as a manual. • Emulation charts in PDF format for the following editors: BBEdit, Brief, CodeWarrior™, CodeWright®,