The source outline view displays a project level view of all of the program files, procedures, and functions in your project. When you first open a project (either by creating one, importing one, or opening a previous project), the following screen will appear:

From this view, you can navigate to any function or program. By double clicking on the function, you will jump directly to the function in a source code window. If the program is not opened in a source code window, one will be opened automatically. If you press the minus button, the outline will be collapsed to only show the program names. You can only click on the plus and minus boxes within the outline individually. Doing so will expand/collapse the particular program that is currently selected.

In addition, there is a pop-up menu associated with the outline. By pressing the right mouse button, you will be given the option to sort the programs alphabetically. You can also switch between function view (i.e. the outline lists all functions alphabetically with the program they are found in below them), and the default program view, which lists programs and functions within them.

Once you’ve entered a program file (or any other text file), you can use the source code editor to make changes to your source files. Both the main menu and the toolbar control the editor. The toolbar is shown below:

Each button on the toolbar also has a corresponding menu item.

NEW

The NEW option allows you to create a new program file or dialog screen in the editor. The new program will have a default program header (which you can modify in the INI settings). If you select a dialog screen, then the code necessary to create an empty Xbase++ dialog object will be written into the new editor file. The new file will be named NEWxx where xx is an incrementing number based on new files in the source code directory.

OPEN

The OPEN option allows you to open any kind of text file within the source code editor. The editor understands the keywords, comments, etc. for the Xbase++ standard file types (PRG, CH, XPJ, etc.) If the file is already open within the editor, the editor will move to that file rather than open it a second time.

SAVE

The SAVE option saves the current file under the original file name. The editor is not closed, only the edited copy of the file is saved to the disk.

SAVE AS

The SAVE AS option allows you to specify a new file name, and/or new directory to save the program changes to. Note that the current file in the editor does not change, it is still the original file. If you want to edit the newly saved file, you will need to open it in another editor window.

CLOSE

The CLOSE option closes the current file in the editor. If it has been changed, you will be asked if you’d like to save the changes or not.

COMPILE (F5)

This COMPILE option compiles the current file in the editor. (I’d recommend only compiling PRG files…). It calls the Xbase++ compiler and captures any error messages from the compiler. If warnings or errors occur, they will be display in the window below the editor window. You can double-click on any error message to jump directly to that line in the code. In addition, a yellow dot will appear in the margin of any line that generated a warning text and a red dot for any line that generates an error message. You can quickly tell by looking at the margin whether or not you can run this program.

PRINT

The PRINT option prints a copy of the current program on the default printer. If you click the print button, the source code is printed immediately, without the benefit of a printer setup dialog. If you select print from the menu, you will be given a printer setup dialog first, before the source code is printed.

UNDO

The UNDO option allows you to reverse an edit operation. Note that once the file is saved that the undo stack is cleared and you will no longer be able to undo changes prior to the save.

REDO

The REDO option undoes an UNDO command. It too, can not be accessed after the file is saved.

CUT

The CUT option takes the highlighted text and transfers it into the clipboard. It is also removed from the source code file.

COPY

The COPY option takes the highlighted text and transfers it into the clipboard. It is, however, not removed from the source code file.

PASTE

The PASTE option copies any text from the clipboard into the source code window.

INSERT

The INSERT option allows you to insert various code constructs into your program file. Selecting this option will present a menu of standard code constructs (such as DO CASE, IF..ENDIF,etc) which you can select and have copied into your program. (If you change you mind, UNDO will remove the newly inserted text).

In addition to code constructs, you can also insert RC script files into your source code. If you specify an RC script file, the editor will open it and allow you to choice any dialog from with the file. The editor will then convert the RC script commands into the appropriate Xbase++ controls for you. This allows you to quickly and easily re-use RC script files from other languages.

DATE STAMP

The DATE STAMP option will add a comment line with a date and time stamp into the source code window. You can customize this code to include the user-id as well. This is a handy way to keep track of source code changes.

GO TO

The GOTO option allows you to enter a line number to jump to in the source code.

CLEAR MESSAGES

The CLEAR MESSAGE option clears the message window of compiler messages and search results.

FIND

The FIND option allows you to search for text within your program. You can search using wildcard characters (the same as the DOS wildcard set, * for any number of characters, or ? for a single character). You can restrict your search to just within strings, within comments, to ignore comments, etc.

FIND AGAIN (F3)

The FIND AGAIN allows you to continue a prior search. It will remember searches done in previous editing sessions as well, so a find/replace operation can be continued the next day right where you left it off.

The following keystrokes are used by the source code editor.

Ctrl-A brings up the Save As dialog. It is the same as selecting SAVE AS from the menu.

it will look like the code on the right after pressing Ctrl-B. If you don’t like the results, pressing Ctrl-Z (undo) will return the code to the original state.

• while .NOT. eof()
•       if CUSTOMER-> taxable
•             if CUSTOMER-> state="PA"
•                   taxRate := .06
•             else
•                   taxRate := .05
•             endif
•       endif
•       skip+1
• enddo

Ctrl-C copies the currently selected text into the clipboard.

Ctrl-F brings up the FIND dialog. It is the same as selecting FIND from the menu or speed button.

CTRL-K spell checks all of the string’s within your application.

Ctrl-L converts the currently highlight text to all lower case, i.e. ENDIF becomes endif

Ctrl-O opens the file which is currently highlighted if it can be found. First, the editor searches in the current directory. If not found, and the file extension is .CH, the INCLUDE directory is search. If not found and the file extension is .PRG, the directory specified as source code path in the project properties is searched.

Ctrl-R brings up the REPLACE dialog. It is the same as selecting REPLACE from the menu or speed button.

Ctrl-S saves the current file. It is the same as the SAVE menu or speed button.

Ctrl-V pastes the contents of the clipboard into the current spot in the editor.

Ctrl-X copies the selected text to the clipboard AND removes it from the editor.

Ctrl-Z undoes the previous operation. However, after you’ve saved the file to disk, you cannot undo any previous operations.

Ctrl-<down arrow> finds the appropriate ending for the currently highlighted text. For example, if you’ve highlighted an IF statement and press CTRL-<down>, the cursor will move to the corresponding ENDIF. This is handy when you are nested several layers deep to help navigate between the conditionals.

Ctrl-<up arrow> finds the appropriate beginning for the currently highlighted text. For example, if you’ve highlighted an ENDIF statement and press CTRL-<up>, the cursor will move to the corresponding IF. This is the reverse function of the CTRL-<down arrow>.

The F3 key repeats a search from where it left off. You can continue searches even if you’ve exited the project or closed the file in the interim.

The F5 key compiles the current program and reports the results in the lower window. It is the same as selecting the COMPILE menu or speed button

The F9 key compiles and links the current project and if successful, runs it. If an error occurs, a new edit window is opened showing the error text.

The F9 key compiles and links the current project and if successful, runs it within the debugger. If an error occurs, a new edit window is opened showing the error text.

The F12 keys toggles between the visual design mode and the source code editor.