6.4 The Menu

The main menu (the gray bar at the top of the IDE) provides access to all the functionality of the IDE. It also displays a clock, displaying the current time. The menu is always available, except when a dialog is opened. If a dialog is opened, it must be closed first in order to access the menu.

In certain windows, a local menu is also available. The local menu will appear where the cursor is, and provides additional commands that are context-sensitive.

Accessing the menu

1. By using the mouse to select items. The mouse cursor should be located over the desired menu item, and a left mouse click will then select it.
2. By pressing F10. This will switch the IDE focus to the menu. Use the arrow keys can then be used to navigate in the menu, the ENTER key should be used to select items.
3. To access menu items directly, ALT-¡HIGHLIGHTED MENU LETTER¿ can be used to select a menu item. Afterwards submenu entries can be selected by pressing the highlighted letter, but without ALT. E.g. ALT-S G is a fast way to display the goto line dialog.

Every menu item is explained by a short text in the status bar.

When a local menu is available, it can be accessed by pressing the right mouse button or ALT-F10.

In the subsequent, all menu entries and their actions are described.

The File menu

New

Opens a new, empty editor window.

New from template

Prompts for a template to be used, asks to fill in any parameters, and then starts a new editor window with the template.

Open

(F3) Presents a file selection dialog, and opens the selected file in a new editor window.

Save

(F2) Saves the contents of the current edit window with the current filename. If the current edit window does not yet have a filename, a dialog is presented to enter a filename.

Save as

Presents a dialog in which a filename can be entered. The current window’s contents are then saved to this new filename, and the filename is stored for further save actions.

Change dir

Presents a dialog in which a directory can be selected. The current working directory is then changed to the selected directory.

Command shell

Executes a command shell. After the shell exited, the IDE resumes. Which command shell is executed depends on the system.

Exit

(ALT-X) Exits the IDE. If any unsaved files are in the editor, the IDE will ask if these files should be saved.

Under the ”Exit” menu appear some filenames of recently used files. These entries can be used to quickly reload these files in the editor.

The Edit menu

Undo

(ALT-BKSP) Undo the last editing action. The editing actions are stored in a buffer, selecting this mechanism will move backwards through this buffer, i.e. multiple undo levels are possible. The selection is not preserved, though.

Redo

Redo the last action that was previously undone. Redo can redo multiple undone actions.

Cut

(SHIFT-DEL) Copy the current selection to the clipboard and delete the selection from the text. Any previous clipboard contents is lost after this action. After this action, the clipboard contents can be pasted elsewhere in the text.

Copy

(CTRL-INS) Copy the current selection to the clipboard. Any previous clipboard contents is lost after this action. After this action, the clipboard contents can be pasted elsewhere in the text.

Paste

(SHIFT-INS) Insert the current clipboard contents in the text at the cursor position. The clipboard contents remains as it was.

Clear

(CTRL-DEL) Clears (i.e. deletes) the current selection.

Show clipboard

Opens a window in which the current clipboard contents is shown.

When running an IDE under WINDOWS, the ”Edit” menu has two additional entries. The IDE maintains a separate clipboard which does not share its contents with the windows clipboard. To access the Windows clipboard, the following two entries are also present:

Copy to Windows

this will copy the selection to the Windows clipboard.

Paste from Windows

this will insert the content of the windows clipboard (if it contains text) in the edit window at the current cursor position.

The Search menu

Find

(CTRL-Q F) Presents the search dialog. A search text can be entered, and when the dialog is closed, the entered text is searched in the active window. If the text is found, it will be selected.

Replace

(CTRL-Q A) Presents the search and replace dialog. After the dialog is closed, the search text will be replaced by the replace text in the active window.

Search again

(CTRL-L) Repeats the last search or search and replace action, using the same parameters.

Go to line number

(ALT-G) Prompts for a line number, and then jumps to this line number.

When the program and units are compiled with browse information, then the following menu entries are also enabled:

Find procedure

Not yet implemented.

Objects

Asks for the name of an object and opens a browse window for this object.

Modules

Asks for the name of a module and opens a browse window for this object.

Globals

Asks for the name of a global symbol and opens a browse window for this object.

Symbol

Opens a window with all known symbols, so a symbol can be selected. After the symbol is selected, a browse window for that symbol is opened.

The Run menu

Run

(CTRL-F9) If the sources were modified, compiles the program. If the compile is successful, the program is executed. If the primary file was set, then that is used to determine which program to execute. See section 6.4, page 128 for more information on how to set the primary file.

Step over

(F8) Run the program till the next source line is reached. If any calls to procedures are made, these will be executed completely as well.

Trace into

(F7) Execute the current line. If the current line contains a call to another procedure, the process will stop at the entry point of the called procedure.

Goto cursor

(F4) Runs the program till the execution point matches the line where the cursor is.

Until return

Runs the current procedure till it exits.

Parameters

This menu item allows to enter parameters that will be passed on to the program when it is being executed.

Program reset

(CTRL-F2) if the program is being run or debugged, the debug session is aborted, and the running program is killed.

The Compile menu

Compile

(ALT-F9) Compiles the contents of the active window, irrespective of the primary file setting.

Make

(F9) Compiles the contents of the active window, and any files that the unit or program depends on and that were modified since the last compile. If the primary file was set, the primary file is compiled instead.

Build

Compiles the contents of the active window, and any files that the unit or program depends on, whether they were modified or not. If the primary file was set, the primary file is compiled instead.

Target

Sets the target operating system for which should be compiled.

Primary file

Sets the primary file. If set, any run or compile command will act on the primary file instead of on the active window. The primary file need not be loaded in the IDE for this to have effect.

Clear primary file

Clears the primary file. After this command, any run or compile action will act on the active window.

Information

Displays some information about the current program.

Compiler messages

(F12) Displays the compiler messages window. This window will display the messages generated by the compiler during the last compile.

The Debug menu

Output

User screen

(ALT-F5) Switches to the screen as it was last left by the running program.

Breakpoint

(CTRL-F8) Sets a breakpoint at the current line. When debugging, program execution will stop at this breakpoint.

Call stack

(CTRL-F3) Shows the call stack. The call stack is the list of addresses (and filenames and line numbers, if this information was compiled in) of procedures that are currently being called by the running program.

Registers

Shows the current content of the CPU registers.

Add watch

(CTRL-F7) Add a watch. A watch is an expression that can be evaluated by the IDE and will be shown in a special window. Usually this is the content of some variable.

Watches

Shows the current list of watches in a separate window.

Breakpoint list

Shows the current list of breakpoints in a separate window.

GDB window

Shows the GDB debugger console. This can be used to interact with the debugger directly; here arbitrary GDB commands can be typed and the result will be shown in the window.

The Tools menu

Messages

(F11) Show the messages window. This window contains the output from one of the tools. For more information, see section 6.10, page 181.

Goto next

(ALT-F8) Goto next message.

Goto previous

(ALT-F7) Goto previous message

Grep

(SHIFT-F2) Prompts for a regular expression and options to be given to grep, and then executes grep with the given expression and options. For this to work, the grep program must be installed on the system, and be in a directory that is in the PATH. For more information, see section 6.10, page 184.

Calculator

Displays the calculator. For more information, see section 6.10, page 188

Ascii table

Displays the ASCII table. For more information, see section 6.10, page 184

The Options menu

Mode

Presents a dialog to set the current mode of the compiler. The current mode is shown at the right of the menu entry. For more information, see section 6.11, page 250.

Compiler

Presents a dialog that can be used to set common compiler options. These options will be used when compiling a program or unit.

Memory sizes

Presents a dialog where the stack size and the heap size for the program can be set. These options will be used when compiling a program.

Linker

Presents a dialog where some linker options can be set. These options will be used when a program or library is compiled.

Debugger

Presents a dialog where the debugging options can be stored. These options are used when compiling units or programs. Note that the debugger will not work unless debugging information is generated in the program.

Directories

Presents a dialog where the various directories needed by the compiler can be set. These directories will be used when a program or unit is compiled.

Browser

Presents a dialog where the browser options can be set. The browser options affect the behaviour of the symbol browser of the IDE.

Tools

Presents a dialog to configure the tools menu. For more information, see section 6.10, page 200.

Environment

Presents a dialog to configure the behaviour of the IDE. A sub menu is presented with the various aspects of the IDE:

Preferences

General preferences, such as whether to save files or not, and which files should be saved. The video mode can also be set here.

Editor

Controls various aspects of the edit windows.

CodeComplete

Used to set the words which can be automatically completed when typing in the editor windows.

Codetemplates

Used to define code templates, which can be inserted in an edit window.

Desktop

Used to control the behaviour of the desktop, i.e. several features can be switched on or off.

Mouse

Can be used to control the actions of the mouse, and to assign commands to various mouse actions.

Startup

Not yet implemented.

Colors

Here the various colors used in the IDE and the editor windows can be set.

Open

Presents a dialog in which a file with editor preferences can be selected. after the dialog is closed, the preferences file will be read and the preferences will be applied.

Save

Save the current options in the default file.

Save as

Saves the current options in an alternate file. A file selection dialog box will be presented in which the alternate settings file can be entered.

Please note that options are not saved automatically, they should be saved explicitly with the ”Options--Save” command.

The Window menu

Tile

Tiles all opened windows on the desktop.

Cascade

Cascades all opened windows on the desktop.

Close all

Close all opened windows.

Size/move

(CTRL-F5) Put the IDE in Size/move modus; after this command the active window can be moved and resized using the arrow keys.

Zoom

(F5) Zooms or unzooms the current window.

Next

(F6) Activates the next window in the window list.

Previous

(SHIFT-F6) Activates the previous window in the window list.

Hide

(CTRL-F6) Hides the active window.

Close

(ALT-F3) Closes the active window.

List

(ALT-0) Shows the list of opened windows. From there a window can be activated, closed, shown and hidden.

Refresh display

Redraws the screen.

The Help menu

Contents

Shows the help table of contents

Index

(SHIFT-F1) Jumps to the help Index.

Topic search

(CTRL-F1) Jumps to the topic associated with the currently highlighted text.

Previous topic

(ALT-F1) Jumps to the previously visited topic.

Using help

Displays help on using the help system.

Files

Allows to configure the help menu. With this menu item, help files can be added to the help system.

About

Displays information about the IDE. See section 6.13, page 276 for more information.