&Anders.Lund; &Anders.Lund.mail; &Dominik.Haumann; &Dominik.Haumann.mail; &tde-authors; Advanced Editing Tools Comment/Uncomment The Comment and Uncomment commands, available from the Tools menu allow you to add or remove comment markers to the selection, or to the current line if no text is selected, if comments are supported by the format of the file you are editing. The rules for how commenting is done are defined in the syntax definitions, so if syntax highlighting is not used, commenting/uncommenting is not possible. Some formats define single line comment markers, some multiline markers and some both. If multiline markers are not available, commenting out a selection that does not fully include its last line is not possible. If a single line marker is available, commenting single lines is preferred where applicable, as this helps to avoid problems with nested comments. When removing comment markers, no uncommented text should be selected. When removing multiline comment markers from a selection, any whitespace outside the comment markers is ignored. comment To place comment markers, use the ToolsComment menu item or the related keyboard shortcut sequence, default is &Ctrl;D. uncomment To remove comment markers, use the ToolsUncomment menu item or the related keyboard shortcut, default is &Ctrl;&Shift;D. The Editor Component Command Line Kate's editor component has an internal command line, allowing you to perform various actions from a minimal GUI. The command line is a text entry in the bottom of the editor area, to show it select ViewSwitch to Command Line or use the keyboard shortcut (default is F7). The editor provides a set of commands as documented below, and additional commands can be provided by plugins. To execute a command, type the command and then press the enter key. The command line will indicate whether it succeeded and possibly display a message. If you entered the command line by pressing F7 it will automatically hide after a few seconds. To clear the message and enter a new command, press F7 again. The command line has a built-in help system, you can type the command help to get started. To see a list of all available commands type help list, to view help for a specific command, do help command. The command line has a built-in history too, so you can reuse commands already typed. To navigate the history, use the Up and Down keys. When showing historical commands, the argument part of the command will be selected, allowing you to easily overwrite the arguments. Standard Command Line Commands Argument types BOOLEAN This is used with commands that turn things on or off. Legal values are on, off, true, false, 1, 0 INTEGER An integer number STRING A string Commands for Configuring the Editor These commands are provided by the editor component, and allows you to configure the active document and view only. This is handy if you want to use a setting different from the default settings, for example for indentation. set-tab-widthINTEGER width Sets the tab width to the number width set-indent-widthINTEGER width Sets the indentation width to the number width. Used only if you are indenting with spaces. set-word-wrap-columnINTEGER width Sets the line width for hard wrapping to width. This is used if you are having your text wrapped automatically. set-icon-borderBOOLEAN enable Sets the visibility of the icon border. set-folding-markersBOOLEAN enable Sets the visibility of the folding markers pane. set-line-numbersBOOLEAN enable Sets the visibility of the line numbers pane. set-replace-tabsBOOLEAN enable If enabled, tabs are replaced with spaces as you type. set-remove-trailing-spaceBOOLEAN enable If enabled, trailing whitespace are removed whenever the cursor leaves a line. set-show-tabsBOOLEAN enable If enabled, TAB characters and trailing whitespace will be visualized by a small dot. set-indent-spacesBOOLEAN enable If enabled, the editor will indent with spaces for each indentation level, rather than with one TAB character. set-mixed-indentBOOLEAN enable If enabled, kate will use a mix of TAB and spaces for indentation. Each indentation level will be wide, and more indentation levels will be optimized to use as many TAB characters as possible. When executed, this command will additionally set space indentation enabled, and if the indent width is unspecified it will be set to half of the for the document at the time of execution. set-word-wrapBOOLEAN enable Enables dynamic word wrap according to enable set-replace-tabs-saveBOOLEAN enable When enabled, tabs will be replaced with whitespaces whenever the document is saved. set-remove-trailing-space-saveBOOLEAN enable When enabled, trailing space will be removed from each line whenever the document is saved. set-indent-modename Sets the autoindentation mode to name. If name is not known, the mode is set to 'none'. Valid modes are 'cstyle', 'csands', 'xml', 'python', 'varindent' and 'none'. set-highlighthighlight Sets the syntax highlighting system for the document. The argument must be a valid highlight name, as seen in the ToolsHighlighting menu. This command provides an autocompletion list for its argument. Commands for editing These commands modify the current document. indent Indents the selected lines or the current line. unindent Unindents the selected lines or current line. cleanindent Cleans up the indentation of the selected lines or current line according to the indentation settings in the document. comment Inserts comment markers to make the selection or selected lines or current line a comment according to the text format as defined by the syntax highlight definition for the document. uncomment Removes comment markers from the selection or selected lines or current line according to the text format as defined by the syntax highlight definition for the document. kill-line Deletes the current line. replacepatternreplacement Replaces text matching pattern with replacement. If you want to include whitespace in the pattern, you must quote both the pattern and replacement with single or double quotes. If the arguments are unquoted, the first word is used as pattern and the rest for replacement. If replacement is empty, each occurrence of pattern is removed. You can set flags to configure the search by adding a colon, followed by one or more letters each representing a configuration, giving the form replace:options pattern replacement. Available options are: b Search backwards. c Search from cursor position. e Search in the selection only. r Do regular expression search. If set, you may use \N where N is a number to represent captures in the replacement string. s Do case sensitive search. p Prompt for permission to replace the next occurence. w Match whole words only. dateformat Inserts a date/time string as defined by the specified format, or the format yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss if none is specified. The following translations are done when interpreting format: dThe day as number without a leading zero (1-31). ddThe day as number with a leading zero (01-31). dddThe abbreviated localized day name (e.g. 'Mon'..'Sun'). ddddThe long localized day name (e.g. 'Monday'..'Sunday'). MThe month as number without a leading zero (1-12). MMThe month as number with a leading zero (01-12). MMMThe abbreviated localized month name (e.g. 'Jan'..'Dec'). yyThe year as two digit number (00-99). yyyyThe year as four digit number (1752-8000). hThe hour without a leading zero (0..23 or 1..12 if AM/PM display). hhThe hour with a leading zero (00..23 or 01..12 if AM/PM display). mThe minute without a leading zero (0..59). mmThe minute with a leading zero (00..59). sThe second without a leading zero (0..59). ssThe second with a leading zero (00..59). zThe milliseconds without leading zeroes (0..999). zzzThe milliseconds with leading zeroes (000..999). APUse AM/PM display. AP will be replaced by either "AM" or "PM". apUse am/pm display. ap will be replaced by either "am" or "pm". charidentifier This command allows you to insert literal characters by their numerical identifier, in decimal, octal or hexadecimal form. To use it launch the Editing Command dialog and type char: [number] in the entry box, then hit OK. <command>char</command> examples Input: char:234 Output: ê Input: char:0x1234 Output: replace, sed style search, sed style s///[ig] and %s///[ig] This command does a sed-like search/replace operation on the current line, or on the whole file (%s///). In short, &kate; searches for text matching the search pattern (the regular expression between the first and the second slash), and when a match is found the matching part of the text is replaced with the expression between the middle and last slash. Parenthesis in the search pattern create back references, that is the command remembers which part of the text matched in the parenthesis. These strings can be reused in the replace pattern, referred to as \1 for the first set of parenthesis, \2 for the second and so on. To search for a literal ( or ), you need to escape it using a backslash character: \(, \) If you put an i at the end of the expression, the matching will be case insensitive. If you put a g at the end, all occurrences of the pattern will be replaced, otherwise only the first occurrence is replaced. Replacing text in the current line Your friendly compiler just stopped, telling you that the class myClass mentioned in line 3902 in your source file is not defined. "Buckle!" you think, it is of course MyClass. You go to line 3902, and instead of trying to find the word in the text, you launch the Editing Command Dialog, enter s/myclass/MyClass/i, hit the OK button, save the file and compile successfully without the error. Replacing text in the whole file Imagine that you have a file, in which you mention a Miss Jensen several times, when someone comes in and tells you that she just got married to Mr. Jones. You want, of course, to replace each and every occurrence of Miss Jensen with Ms Jones. Enter the command line and issue the command %s/Miss Jensen/Ms. Jones/ and hit enter, you are done. Commands for navigation gotoINT line This command navigates to the specified line. findpattern This command navigates to the first occurrence of pattern according to the configuration. Following occurrences can be found using EditFind Next (the default shortcut is F3). The find command can be configured by appending a colon followed by one or more options, the form is find:options pattern. The following options are supported: b Search backwards. c Search from cursor position. e Search in the selection only. r Do regular expression search. s Do case sensitive search. w Match whole words only. ifindpattern This command provides incremental (as-you-type) searching. You can configure the behavior of the search by appending a colon followed by one or more options, like this: ifind:options pattern. Allowed options are: b Search backwards. r Do regular expression search. s Do case sensitive search. c Search from cursor position. Using Code Folding Code folding allows you to hide parts of a document in the editor, making it easier to overview large documents. In &kate; the foldable regions are calculated using rules defined in the syntax highlight definitions and therefore it is only available in some file formats - typically program source code, XML markup and similar. Most highlight definition files supporting code folding also let you manually define foldable regions, typically using the BEGIN and END keywords. To use the code folding feature, activate the folding markers using ViewShow Folding Markers menu item if they are not already visible. The Folding Markers Pane in the left side of the screen displays a graphical view of the foldable regions, with +/- signs to indicate the possible operation on a given region. A - means that the region is expanded; clicking on the - will collapse the region and a + will be displayed instead. Four commands are provided to manipulate the state of folding regions, see the menu documentation for details. If you do not want to use the code folding feature, you can disable it completely using the Show folding markers (if available) option in the Editor Appearance configuration page Scripting the editor with JS Introduction Starting with version 2.5, the &kate; editor component supports scripting with ECMA script, also known as JavaScript. Scripts can be used through the built-in command line only. The requirements are that the scripts are placed in a folder where &kate; can find them, along with an optional .desktop file that defines the related properties. The valid folders are named katepart/scripts in the &tde; data folders. You can find the data folders by running the command tde-config data. You will usually have at least a system and a personal data folder. Of course scripts in the system data folder are available to all users on the system, while those in the personal folder are available to you only. The Kate JavaScript API Here is the complete set of functions and properties available in the document and view objects. In addition, you can use all the standard objects such as Math, String Regex and so forth. When a script is run, the document object is the current document, and the view object is the current view. Types are not used in JavaScript. In this list, they are there solely to indicate what sort of arguments the functions expect. Global Functions debug(string s) function parameters s the string to output. Outputs the string to STDERR using kdDebug(). A dedicated output area is used for the output, which will be prefixed by "Kate (KJS Scripts):" The <classname>document</classname> API document.attribute(uint line, uint column) function Parameters line the line of the position for which to find the attribute. column the column of the position for which to find the attribute. Returns the numeric ID of the attribute for the document position [line, column]. The attribute represents the visual appearance or style of the text, and is also used to calculate the syntax highlight for a specific part of the text in mixed formats like HTML or PHP. document.canBreakAt(char c, attribute attrib) function Parameters c the character to test. attrib the attribute at the position of c. Returns whether it is allowed to break the line at the character c with attribute attribute. document.canComment(attribute start_attrib, attribute end_attrib) function Parameters start_attrib the attribute at the start of the range to turn into a comment. end_attrib the attribute at end of the range to turn into a comment. Returns whether start_attribute and end_attribute belongs to the same syntax highlight system. If they do, it is possible to comment the block. document.clear() function Clears the document. document.commentStart(attribute attrib) function Parameters attrib the attribute of the text for which to get the commentStart string. Returns the string required to start a multiline comment for a text with attribute attrib, or an empty string if multiline comments are not supported for that text. document.commentMarker(attribute attrib) function Parameters attrib the attribute of the text for which to get the commentMarker string. Returns the string used to mark the rest of the line as a comment for a text with attribute attrib or an empty string if single line comments are not supported for that text. document.commentEnd(attribute attrib) function Parameters attrib the attribute of the text for which to get the commentEnd string. Returns the string required to end a multiline comment for a text with attribute attrib, or an empty string if multiline comments are not supported for that text. document.editBegin() function Starts an editing group. All actions done until the call to editEnd() will be grouped as a single undo action. document.editEnd() function Ends an editing group. document.highlightMode property, read only The name of the document's highlight mode, such as JavaScript or C++. If no syntax highlight mode is set for the document, the value is none. Notice that you need to use the English name in cases where it differs from the translated one. document.indentMode property, read only The name of the document indent mode, such as normal or cstyle. If no indent mode is set, the value is none. document.indentWidth property, read only The indentation width set for the document. This is used if space indenting is enabled. document.insertLine(uint line, string text) function Parameters line the document line number. text the text to insert. Inserts a new line with the text text at the line line. document.insertText(uint line, uint column, string text) function Parameters line the line number. column the column number. text the text to insert. Inserts the text text in line line at column column. document.length() function Returns the document's size in bytes. document.lines() function Returns the number of lines in the document. document.mixedIndent property, read only A boolean telling whether the mixed-indent setting is enabled for the document. If so, indentation is optimized to contain a mix of tab characters and spaces like in the Emacs editor. document.removeLine(uint line) function Parameters line the line number. Removes the document line line. document.removeText(uint startLine, uint startColumn, uint endLine, uint endColumn) function Parameters startLine specifies the beginning line. startColumn specifies the beginning column. endLine specifies the ending line. endColumn specifies the ending column. Removes the text range from line startLine and column startColumn to line endLine and column endColumn. document.setText(string text) function Parameters text the new document text. Sets the entire document content to text. document.spaceIndent property, read only A boolean telling whether space-indent is enabled for the document. If so, the document is indented with indentWidth spaces per level, otherwise indentation is one tab character per level. document.textFull() function Returns the full document text. If the text spans over multiple lines the linefeed character is \n. document.textLine(uint line) function Parameters line the line number. Returns the text at line line. document.textRange(uint startLine, uint startColumn, uint endLine, uint endColumn) function Parameters startLine specifies the beginning line. startColumn specifies the beginning column. endLine specifies the ending line. endColumn specifies the ending column. Returns the specified text range. If the range spans over multiple lines the linefeed character is \n. The <classname>view</classname> API view.clearSelection() function Deselects all text. view.cursorColumn() function Returns the current cursor column (TAB characters are expanded). view.cursorColumnReal() function Returns the current real cursor column (a TAB character counts as one). view.cursorLine() function Returns the current cursor line. view.hasSelection() function Returns true if some text in the view has been selected, otherwise false. view.removeSelectedText() function Removes the selected text, if the view has a selection. view.selectAll() function Selects all text. view.selection() function Returns the selected text. If the selection spans over multiple lines the linefeed character is \n. view.selectionEndColumn property, read only Returns the ending column of the selection. view.selectionEndLine property, read only Returns the ending line of the selection. view.selectionStartColumn property, read only Returns the starting column of the selection. view.selectionStartLine property, read only Returns the starting line of the selection. view.setCursorPosition(uint line, uint column) function Parameters line specifies the new line for the cursor. column specifies the new column for the cursor. Sets the input cursor position in the view to (line, column). TAB characters are expanded and the cursor position is made visible. Both line and column are zero-based. view.setCursorPositionReal(uint line, uint column) function Parameters line specifies the new line for the cursor. column specifies the new column for the cursor. Sets the input cursor position to (line, column). This sets the string position, that is a TAB character counts for 1, and the cursor position is made visible. Both line and column are zero-based. view.setSelection(uint startLine, uint startColumn, uint endLine, uint endColumn) function Parameters startLine specifies the beginning line. startColumn specifies the beginning column. endLine specifies the ending line. endColumn specifies the ending column. Sets a selection from line startLine and column startColumn to line endLine and column endColumn. A sample script As an example we will create a small script that transforms the selected text to upper case. We first need to check whether a selection exists: if so we get the text, change the case and then replace the original text with the new one. An implementation would look something like this: if (view.hasSelection()) { // uppercase selection column = view.selectionStartColumn; line = view.selectionStartLine; selection = view.selection().toUpperCase(); document.editBegin(); view.removeSelectedText(); document.insertText(line, column, selection); document.editEnd(); } To group this actions together so that they will be reverted by a single activation of Undo, we encapsulate the lines view.removeSelectedText() document.insertText() in a document.editBegin() - document.editEnd() block. A sample <filename>.desktop</filename> file Here is a sample .desktop file that accompanies the above script. # Example of a .desktop file [Desktop Entry] Encoding=UTF-8 Name=Kate Part JavaScript Uppercase Script Comment=Script to transform the selected text to upper case X-Kate-Command=uppercase-selection X-Kate-Help=<p>Usage: <code>uppercase-selection</code></p> As you can see you can define the Encoding, set a Name, a Comment, a help text using X-Kate-Help and the command line name via X-Kate-Command. Putting it all together &kate; will search the script folders (see above) for .js files. For every such file found, &kate; will check whether there is a corresponding .desktop file with the same basename (for example script.js and script.desktop). If a corresponding .desktop file exists, the script will be registered using the name from the .desktop entry X-Kate-Command. If a corresponding .desktop file can not be found, the script will be registered with the file basename (i.e. without the ending .js). If you only need the command name and none of the extra features that a .desktop file would provide, you do not need a .desktop file at all.