Syntax Highlighting
The CM Editor features "syntax highlighting". Syntax highlighting is
a technique whereby the editor uses different colors for different elements
of the script (keywords, data values, constants, comments, etc.). This
section talks about the highlighting available in the CM Editor.
Basic Syntax Highlighting
As mentioned above, highlighting involves using different colors for
different types of commands. This makes it easier
to spot mistakes in the script. It also acts as a sort of running "spell
check" on the keywords used in the script. As you are typing a keyword,
"endSequence" for example, the character will be black (the default plain
text color) as you are typing. When you have the entire word in place
the syntax highlighting will cause the word endSequence to turn blue, if
you continue to add letters to it the word will turn black again. During
the time it's blue, the keyword is spelled correctly and is recognized
as a valid command. Note that syntax highlighting is not the same as
syntax checking. It can't tell you whether you're script is logically
correct, only that the command is one it recognizes.
Definition Highlighting
The CM Edit also features a rudimentary form of "definition highlighting".
The highlighter attempts to determine whether a particular variable
or expression is an analog value or a bit value and then picks the color
to use for highlighting based on the data type. Since the CM uses different
colors for the two types of data, you can spot an improper assignment of
data very quickly. Assuming the default colors, if you were to try to enter:
you would see that the types of data didn't match since CMS.B1 (a bit
value) would be orange to the left of the "=" and JS1.A2 would be brown
on the right side of the equation (assuming the default colors). For the
equation to be correct, the two sides should be the same color.
Highlighting Levels
There are really three levels of highlighting available. The simplest
is "No Highlighting". This is the fastest since the editor does not have
to process its contents. All words are the same color, those colors can
be specified in the Editor Options dialog.
The second level is "Standard Highlighting". At this level all known
keywords and commands are highlighted. The colors used can also be set
using the Editor Options dialog. Definition Highlighting
is disabled.
The third level enables Definition Highlighting. It attempts to analyze
items created using a %DEFINE directive to determine their data type, then
dynamically adds that word to the correct list as described earlier.
Thus if you write:
it will analyze the statement, decide that "Trigger" is a bit value,
and it will color it orange (again assuming the default colors) whenever
it appears in the script.
Successive levels of highlighting do take a bit more time, but the current
editor is quite fast and enabling all three levels generally causes no real
problems. If it does become slow, you can reduce the highlighting level by
turning off the Definition Highlighting, this is probably the slowest of
the operations. If you prefer just plain text, you can turn off all the
highlighting and set the main text color and the whole file will appear
in the one color. Even if you do this for the basic file creation, turning
the highlighting on while debugging can be quite helpful in spotting
errors in assignment types, misspelled keywords, etc.
For more info on setting the highlighting level and the color options, see
the Editor Options section later in this Users Guide.
