Scintilla

Scintilla Documentation

There is an overview of the internal design of Scintilla.
Some notes on using Scintilla.
How to use the Scintilla Edit Control on Windows.
A simple sample using Scintilla from C++ on Windows.
A simple sample using Scintilla from Visual Basic.
A detailed description of how to write a lexer, including a discussion of folding.

The coding style used in Scintilla and SciTE is worth following if you want to contribute code to Scintilla but is not compulsory.

For now, the best way to work out how to develop using Scintilla is to see how SciTE uses it. SciTE exercises most of Scintilla's facilities.

The Windows version of Scintilla is a Windows Control. As such, its primary programming interface is through Windows messages. Early versions of Scintilla emulated much of the API defined by the standard Windows Edit and Richedit controls but those APIs are now deprecated in favour of Scintilla's own, more consistent API. In addition to messages performing the actions of a normal Edit control, Scintilla allows control of syntax styling, markers, auto-completion and call tips.

The GTK+ version also uses messages in a similar way to the Windows version. This is different to normal GTK+ practice but made it easier to implement rapidly.

In the descriptions that follow, the messages are described as function calls with zero, one or two arguments. These two arguments are the standard wParam and lParam familiar to Windows programmers. Although the commands only use the arguments described, because all messages have two arguments whether Scintilla uses them or not, it is strongly recommended that any unused arguments are set to 0. This allows future enhancement of messages without the risk of breaking existing code. Common argument types are:

Message categories

Messages with names of the form SCI_SETxxxxx often have a companion SCI_GETxxxxx. To save tedious repetition, if the SCI_GETxxxxx message returns the value set by the SCI_SETxxxxx message, the SET routine is described and the GET routine is left to your imagination.

Text retrieval and modification

SCI_GETTEXT(int length, char *text)
SCI_SETTEXT(<unused>, const char *text)
SCI_SETSAVEPOINT
SCI_GETLINE(int line, char *text)
SCI_REPLACESEL(<unused>, const char *text)
SCI_SETREADONLY(bool readOnly)
SCI_GETREADONLY
SCI_GETTEXTRANGE(<unused>, TEXTRANGE *tr)
SCI_ADDTEXT(int length, char *s)
SCI_ADDSTYLEDTEXT(int length, cell *s)
SCI_APPENDTEXT(int length, char *s)
SCI_INSERTTEXT(int pos, char *text)
SCI_CLEARALL
SCI_CLEARDOCUMENTSTYLE
SCI_GETCHARAT(int position)
SCI_GETSTYLEAT(int position)
SCI_GETSTYLEDTEXT(<unused>, TEXTRANGE *tr)
SCI_SETSTYLEBITS(int bits)
SCI_GETSTYLEBITS

Each character in a Scintilla document is followed by an associated byte of styling information. The combination of a character byte and a style byte is called a cell. Style bytes are interpreted as a style index in the low 5 bits and as 3 individual bits of indicators. This allows 32 fundamental styles which is enough for most languages and three independent indicators so that, for example, syntax errors, deprecated names and bad indentation could all be displayed at once. The number of bits used for styles can be altered with SCI_SETSTYLEBITS up to a maximum of 7 bits. The remaining bits can be used for indicators.

Positions within the Scintilla document refer to a character or the gap before that character. The first character in a document is 0, the second 1 and so on. If a document contains nLen characters the last character is numbered nLen-1. The caret exists between character positions and can be located from before the first character (0) to after the last character (nLen).

There are places where the caret can not go where two character bytes make up one character. This occurs when a DBCS character from a language like Japanese is included in the document or when line ends are marked with the CP/M standard of a carriage return followed by a line feed. The INVALID_POSITION constant (-1) represents an invalid position within the document.

All lines of text in Scintilla are the same height, and this height is calculated from the largest font in any current style. This restriction is for performance as if lines differed in height then calculations involving positioning of text would require that text to be styled first.

SCI_GETTEXT(int length, char *text)
This returns length-1 characters of text from the start of the document plus one terminating 0 character. To collect all the text in a document, use SCI_GETLENGTH to get the number of characters in the document (nLen), allocate a character buffer of length nLen+1 bytes, then call SCI_GETTEXT(nLen+1, char *text). If you then save the text you should use SCI_SETSAVEPOINT to mark the text as unmodified.

See also: SCI_GETSELTEXT, SCI_GETCURLINE, SCI_GETLINE, SCI_GETSTYLEDTEXT, SCI_GETTEXTRANGE

SCI_SETTEXT(<unused>, const char *text)
This replaces all the text in the document with the zero terminated text string you pass in.

SCI_SETSAVEPOINT
This message tells Scintilla that the current state of the document is unmodified. This is usually done when the file is saved or loaded, hence the name "save point". As Scintilla performs undo and redo operations, it notifies the container that it has entered or left the save point with SCN_SAVEPOINTREACHED and SCN_SAVEPOINTLEFT notification messages, allowing the container to know if the file should be considered dirty or not.

See also: SCI_EMPTYUNDOBUFFER, SCI_GETMODIFY

SCI_GETLINE(int line, char *text)
This fills the buffer defined by text with the contents of the nominated line (lines start at 0). The buffer is not terminated by a 0 character. It is up to you to make sure that the buffer is long enough for the text, use SCI_LINELENGTH(int line). The returned value is the number of characters copied to the buffer. The returned text includes any end of line characters. If you ask for a line number outside the range of lines in the document, 0 characters are copied.

See also: SCI_GETCURLINE, SCI_GETSELTEXT, SCI_GETTEXTRANGE, SCI_GETSTYLEDTEXT, SCI_GETTEXT

SCI_REPLACESEL(<unused>, const char *text)
The currently selected text between the anchor and the current position is replaced by the 0 terminated text string. If the anchor and current position are the same, the text is inserted at the caret position. The caret is positioned after the inserted text and the caret is scrolled into view.

SCI_SETREADONLY(bool readOnly)
SCI_GETREADONLY
Set and get the read only flag for the document.

SCI_GETTEXTRANGE(<unused>, TEXTRANGE *tr)
This collects the text between the positions cpMin and cpMax and copies it to lpstrText (see struct TextRange in Scintilla.h). If cpMax is -1, text is returned to the end of the document. The text is 0 terminated, so you must supply a buffer that is at least 1 character longer than the number of characters you wish to read. The return value is the length of the returned text not including the terminating 0.

See also: SCI_GETSELTEXT, SCI_GETLINE, SCI_GETCURLINE, SCI_GETSTYLEDTEXT, SCI_GETTEXT

SCI_GETSTYLEDTEXT(<unused>, TEXTRANGE *tr)
This collects styled text into a buffer using two bytes for each cell, with the character at the lower address of each pair and the style byte at the upper address. Characters between the positions cpSCI_GETTEXTMin and cpMSCI_GETTEXTax are copied to lpsSCI_GETTEXTtrText (see struct TextRange in Scintilla.h). Two 0 bytes are added to the end of the text, so the buffer that lpstrText points at must be at least 2*(cpMax-cpMin)+2 bytes long.No check is made for sensible values of cpMin or cpMax. Positions outside the document return character codes and style bytes of 0.

See also: SCI_GETSELTEXT, SCI_GETLINE, SCI_GETCURLINE, SCI_GETTEXTRANGE, SCI_GETTEXT

SCI_ADDTEXT(int length, char *s)
This inserts the first length characters from the string s including any 0's in the string that you might have expected to stop the insert operation. The current position is set at the end of the inserted text, but it is not scrolled into view.

SCI_ADDSTYLEDTEXT(int length, cell *s)
This behaves just like SCI_ADDTEXT, but inserts styled text.

SCI_APPENDTEXT(int length, char *s)
SCI_APPENDTEXT appends a string to the end of the document without changing the selection range.

SCI_INSERTTEXT(int pos, const char *text)
This inserts the zero terminated text string at position pos or at the current position if pos is -1. The current position is set at the end of the inserted text, but it is not scrolled into view.

SCI_CLEARALL
Unless the document is read only, this deletes all the text.

SCI_CLEARDOCUMENTSTYLE
When wanting to completely restyle the document, for example after choosing a lexer, the SCI_CLEARDOCUMENTSTYLE can be used to clear all styling information and reset the folding state.

SCI_GETCHARAT(int pos)
This returns the character at pos in the document or 0 if pos is negative or past the end of the document.

SCI_GETSTYLEAT(int pos)
This returns the style at pos in the document, or 0 if pos is negative or past the end of the document.

SCI_SETSTYLEBITS(int bits)
SCI_GETSTYLEBITS
This pair of routines sets and reads back the number of bits in each cell to use for styling, to a maximum of 7 style bits. The remaining bits can be used as indicators. The standard setting is SCI_SETSTYLEBITS(5).

Searching

SCI_FINDTEXT(int flags, TextToFind *ttf)
SCI_SEARCHANCHOR
SCI_SEARCHNEXT(int searchFlags, const char *text)
SCI_SEARCHPREV(int searchFlags, const char *text)

searchFlags
Several of the search routines use flag options which include a simple regular expression search. Combine the flag options by adding them:

If SCFIND_REGEXP is not included in the searchFlags, you can search backwards to find the previous occurance of a search string by setting the end of the search range before the start. If SCFIND_REGEXP is included searches are always from a lower position to a higher position, even if the search range is backwards.

In a regular expression, special characters interpreted are:

SCI_FINDTEXT(int searchFlags, TextToFind *ttf)
This message searches for text in the document. It does not use or move the current selection. The searchFlags argument controls the search type, which includes regular expression searches.

The TextToFind structure is defined in Scintilla.h; set chrg.cpMin and chrg.cpMax with the range of positions in the document to search. If SCFIND_REGEXP is included in the flags, the search is always forwards (even if chrg.cpMax is less than chrg.cpMin). If SCFIND_REGEXP is not included, you can search backwards by setting chrg.cpMax less than chrg.cpMin. Set the lpstrText member of TextToFind to point at a zero terminated text string holding the search pattern. If your language makes the use of TextToFind difficult, you should consider using SCI_SEARCHINTARGET instead.

The return value is -1 if the search fails or the position of the start of the found text it is succeeds. The chrgText.cpMin and chrgText.cpMax members of TextToFind are filled in with the start and end positions of the found text.

See also: SCI_SEARCHINTARGET

SCI_SEARCHANCHOR
SCI_SEARCHNEXT(int searchFlags, const char *text)
SCI_SEARCHPREV(int searchFlags, const char *text)
These messages provide relocatable search support. This allows multiple incremental interactive searches to be macro recorded while still setting the selection to found text so the find/select operation is self-contained. These three messages send SCN_MACRORECORD notifications if macro recording is enabled.

SCI_SEARCHANCHOR sets the search start point used by SCI_SEARCHNEXT and SCI_SEARCHPREV to the start of the current selection, that is, the end of the selection that is nearer to the start of the document. You should always call this before calling either of SCI_SEARCHNEXT or SCI_SEARCHPREV.

SCI_SEARCHNEXT and SCI_SEARCHPREV search for the next and previous occurance of the zero terminated search string pointed at by text. The search is modified by the searchFlags. If you request a regular expression, SCI_SEARCHPREV finds the first occurance of the seach string in the document, not the previous one before the anchor point.

The return value is -1 if nothing is found, otherwise the return value is the start position of the matching text. The selection is updated to show the matched text, but is not scrolled into view.

See also: SCI_SEARCHINTARGET, SCI_FINDTEXT

Search and replace using the target

SCI_SETTARGETSTART(int pos)
SCI_GETTARGETSTART
SCI_SETTARGETEND(int pos)
SCI_GETTARGETEND
SCI_REPLACETARGET(int length, const char *text)
SCI_REPLACETARGETRE(int length, const char *text)
SCI_SETSEARCHFLAGS(int searchFlags)
SCI_GETSEARCHFLAGS
SCI_SEARCHINTARGET(int length, const char *text)

Using SCI_REPLACESEL, modifications cause scrolling and other visible changes which may take some time and cause unwanted display updates. If performing many changes, such as a replace all command, the target can be used instead. First set the range to be replaced. Then call SCI_REPLACETARGET or SCI_REPLACETARGETRE.

Searching can be performed within the target range with SCI_SEARCHINTARGET which uses a counted string to allow searching for null characters. Returns length of range or -1 for failure in which case target is not moved. The flags used by SCI_SEARCHINTARGET such as SCFIND_MATCHCASE, SCFIND_WHOLEWORD, SCFIND_WORDSTART, and SCFIND_REGEXP can be set with SCI_SETSEARCHFLAGS. SCI_SEARCHINTARGET may be simpler for some clients to use than SCI_FINDTEXT as that requires using a pointer to a structure.

SCI_SETTARGETSTART(int pos)
SCI_GETTARGETSTART
SCI_SETTARGETEND(int pos)
SCI_GETTARGETEND
These functions set and return the start and end of the target. When searching in non-regular expression mode, you can set start greater than end to find the last matching text in the target rather than the first matching text. The target is also set by a sucessful SCI_SEARCHINTARGET.

SCI_REPLACETARGET(int length, const char *text)
If length is -1, text is a zero terminated string, otherwise length sets the number of character to replace the target with. The return value is the length of the replacement string.

SCI_REPLACETARGETRE(int length, const char *text)
This replaces the target using regular expressions. The replacement string is formed from the text string with any sequences of \1 through \9 replaced by tagged matches from the most recent regular expression search. The return value is the length of the replacement string.

SCI_SETSEARCHFLAGS(int searchFlags)
SCI_GETSEARCHFLAGS
These get and set the searchFlags used by SCI_SEARCHINTARGET. There are several option flags including a simple regular expression search.

SCI_SEARCHINTARGET(int length, const char *text)
This searches for the first occurance of a text string in the target defined by SCI_SETTARGETSTART and SCI_SETTARGETEND. The text string is not zero terminated; the size is set by length. The search is modified by the search flags set by SCI_SETSEARCHFLAGS. If the search succeeds, the target is set to the found text and the return value is the position of the start of the matching text. If the search fails, the result is -1.

See also: SCI_FINDTEXT

Overtype

SCI_SETOVERTYPE(bool overType)
SCI_GETOVERTYPE

SCI_GETOVERTYPE returns TRUE (1) if overtyping is active otherwise FALSE (0) will be returned. Use SCI_GETOVERTYPE to set the overtype node.

Cut, copy and paste

SCI_CUT
SCI_COPY
SCI_PASTE
SCI_CLEAR
SCI_CANPASTE

These commands perform the standard tasks of cutting and copying data to the clipboard, pasting from the clipboard into the document, and clearing the document. SCI_CANPASTE returns non-zero if there is anything in the clipboard in a suitable format for pasting. If you need a "can copy" or "can cut", use SCI_GETSELECTIONSTART()-SCI_GETSELECTIONEND() which will be non-zero if you can copy or cut to the clipboard.

Error handling

SCI_SETSTATUS(int status)
SCI_GETSTATUS
If an error occurs, Scintilla may set an internal error number that can be retrieved with SCI_GETSTATUS. Not currently used but will be in the future. To clear the error status call SCI_SETSTATUS(0).

Undo and Redo

SCI_UNDO
SCI_CANUNDO
SCI_EMPTYUNDOBUFFER
SCI_REDO
SCI_CANREDO
SCI_SETUNDOCOLLECTION(bool collectUndo)
SCI_GETUNDOCOLLECTION
SCI_BEGINUNDOACTION
SCI_ENDUNDOACTION

See also: SCI_SETSAVEPOINT

You might wish to turn off saving undo information if you use the Scintilla to store text generated by a program (a Log view) or in a display window where text is often deleted and regenerated.

SCI_BEGINUNDOACTION
SCI_ENDUNDOACTION
Send these two messages to Scintilla to mark the beginning and end of a set of operations that you want to undo all as one operation but that you have to generate as several operations. Alternatively, you can use these to mark a set of operations that you do not want to have combined with the preceding or following operations if they are undone.

Selection and information

SCI_GETTEXTLENGTH
SCI_GETLENGTH
SCI_GETLINECOUNT
SCI_GETFIRSTVISIBLELINE
SCI_LINESONSCREEN
SCI_GETMODIFY
SCI_SETSEL(int anchorPos, int currentPos)
SCI_GOTOPOS(int position)
SCI_GOTOLINE(int line)
SCI_SETCURRENTPOS(int position)
SCI_GETCURRENTPOS
SCI_SETANCHOR(int position)
SCI_GETANCHOR
SCI_SETSELECTIONSTART(int position)
SCI_GETSELECTIONSTART
SCI_SETSELECTIONEND(int position)
SCI_GETSELECTIONEND
SCI_SELECTALL
SCI_LINEFROMPOSITION(int position)
SCI_POSITIONFROMLINE(int line)
SCI_GETLINEENDPOSITION(int line)
SCI_LINELENGTH(int line)
SCI_GETCOLUMN(int position)
SCI_POSITIONFROMPOINT(int x, int y)
SCI_POSITIONFROMPOINTCLOSE(int x, int y)
SCI_POINTXFROMPOSITION(<unused>, int position)
SCI_POINTYFROMPOSITION(<unused>, int position)
SCI_HIDESELECTION(bool hide)
SCI_GETSELTEXT(<unused>, char *text)
SCI_GETCURLINE(int textlen, char *text)
SCI_SELECTIONISRECTANGLE
SCI_MOVECARETINSIDEVIEW
SCI_WORDENDPOSITION(int position, bool onlyWordCharacters)
SCI_WORDSTARTPOSITION(int position, bool onlyWordCharacters)
SCI_TEXTWIDTH(int stylenumber, char *text)
SCI_TEXTHEIGHT(int line)

Scintilla maintains a selection which stretches between two points, the anchor and the current position. If the anchor and the current position are the same, there is no selected text. Positions in the document range from 0 (before the first character), to the document size (after the last character). If you use messages, there is nothing to stop you setting a position that is in the middle of a CRLF pair, or in the middle of a 2 byte character. However, keyboard commands will not move the caret into such positions.

SCI_GETTEXTLENGTH
SCI_GETLENGTH
Both these messages return the length of the document in characters.

SCI_GETLINECOUNT
This returns the number of lines in the document. An empty document contains 1 line. A document holding only an end of line sequence has 2 lines.

SCI_GETFIRSTVISIBLELINE
This returns the line number of the first visible line in the Scintilla view. The first line in the document is numbered 0.

SCI_LINESONSCREEN
This returns the number of complete lines visible on the screen. With a constant line height, this is the vertical space available divided by the line separation. Unless you arrange to size your window to an integral number of lines, there may be a partial line visible at the bottom of the view.

SCI_GETMODIFY
This returns non-zero if the document is "modified" and 0 if it is "unmodified". The modified status of a document is determined by the undo position relative to the save point. The save point is set by SCI_SETSAVEPOINT, usually when you have saved data to a file.

If you need to be notified when the document becomes modified, Scintilla notifies the container that it has entered or left the save point with the SCN_SAVEPOINTREACHED and SCN_SAVEPOINTLEFT notification messages.

SCI_SETSEL(int anchorPos, int currentPos)
If currentPos is negative, it means the end of the document. If anchorPos is negative it means remove any selection (i.e. set the anchor to the same position as currentPos). The caret is scrolled into view after this operation.

SCI_GOTOPOS(int pos)
This removes any selection, sets the caret at pos and scrolls the view to make the caret visible, if necessary. It is equivalent to SCI_SETSEL(pos,pos). The anchor position is set the same as the current position.

SCI_GOTOLINE(int line)
If line is outside the lines in the document (first line is 0), the line set is the first or last. This removes any selection and sets the caret at the start of the line and scrolls the view (if needed) to make it visible. The anchor position is set the same as the current position.

SCI_SETCURRENTPOS(int pos)
This sets the current position and creates a selection between the anchor and the current position. The caret is not scrolled into view.

See also: SCI_SCROLLCARET

SCI_GETCURRENTPOS
This returns the current position.

SCI_SETANCHOR(int pos)
This sets the anchor position and creates a selection between the anchor position and the current position. The caret is not scrolled into view.

See also: SCI_SCROLLCARET

SCI_GETANCHOR
This returns the current anchor position.

SCI_SETSELECTIONSTART(int pos)
SCI_SETSELECTIONEND(int pos)
These set the selection based on the assumption that the anchor position is less than the current position. They do not make the caret visible.

See also: SCI_SCROLLCARET

SCI_GETSELECTIONSTART
SCI_GETSELECTIONEND
These return the start and end of the selection without regard to which end is the current position and which is the anchor.SCI_GETSELECTIONSTART returns the smaller of the current position or the anchor position. SCI_GETSELECTIONEND returns the larger of the two values.

SCI_SELECTALL
This selects all the text in the document. The current postion is not scrolled into view.

SCI_LINEFROMPOSITION(int pos)
This message returns the line that contains the position pos in the document. The return value is 0 if pos <= 0. The return value is the last line if pos is beyond the end of the document.

SCI_POSITIONFROMLINE(int line)
This returns the document position that corresponds with the start of the line. If line is negative, the position of the line holding the start of the selection is returned. If line is greater than the lines in the document, the return value is -1. If line is equal to the number of lines in the document (i.e. 1 line past the last line), the return value is the end of the document.

SCI_GETLINEENDPOSITION(int line)
This returns the position at the end of the line, before any line end characters. If line is negative, the result is 0. If line is the last line in the document, (which does not have any end of line characters), the result is the size of the document. If line is negative, the result is -1. If line is >= SCI_GETLINECOUNT(), the result is currently SCI_GETLENGTH()-1... (undefined?).

SCI_LINELENGTH(int line)
This returns the length of the line, including any line end characters. If line is negative or beyond the last line in the document, the result is 0. If you want the length of the line not including any end of line characters use SCI_GETLINENDPOSITION(line) - SCI_GETLINEPOSITION(line).

See also: SCI_GETCURLINE, SCI_GETLINE, SCI_GETTEXT, SCI_GETSTYLEDTEXT, SCI_GETTEXTRANGE

SCI_GETCURLINE(int textlen, char *text)
This retrieves the text of the line containing the caret and returns the position within the line of the caret. Pass in char* text pointing at a buffer large enough to hold the text you wish to retrieve and a terminating 0 character. Set textLen to the length of the buffer.

See also: SCI_GETSELTEXT, SCI_GETLINE, SCI_GETTEXT, SCI_GETSTYLEDTEXT, SCI_GETTEXTRANGE

SCI_SELECTIONISRECTANGLE
This returns 1 if the current selection is in rectangle mode, 0 if not.

SCI_MOVECARETINSIDEVIEW
If the caret is off the top or bottom of the view, it is moved to the nearest line that is visible to its current position. Any selection is lost.

SCI_WORDENDPOSITION(int position, bool onlyWordCharacters)
SCI_WORDSTARTPOSITION(int position, bool onlyWordCharacters)
These messages return the start and end of words using the same definition of words as used internally within Scintilla. You can set your own list of characters that count as words with SCI_SETWORDCHARS. The position sets the start or the search, which is forwards when searching for the end and backwards when searching for the start.

Set onlyWordCharacters to true (1) to stop searching at the first non-word character in the search direction. If onlyWordCharacters is false (0), the first character in the search direction sets the type of the search as word or non-word and the search stops at the first non-matching character. Searches are also terminated by the start or end of the document.

If "w" represents word characters and "." represents non-word characters and "|" represents the position and true or false is the state of onlyWordCharacters:

SCI_TEXTWIDTH(int stylenumber, char *text)
This returns the pixel width of a string drawn in the given stylenumber which can be used, for example, to decide how wide to make the line number margin in order to display a given number of numerals.

SCI_TEXTHEIGHT(int line)
This returns the height in pixels of a particular line. Currently all lines are the same height.

SCI_GETCOLUMN(int pos)
This message returns the column number of a position pos within the document taking the width of tabs into account. This returns the column number of the last tab on the line before pos, plus the number of characters between the last tab and pos.If there are no tabs characters on the line, the return value is the number of characters up to the position on the line. In both cases, double byte characters count as a single character. This is probably only useful with monospaced fonts.

SCI_POSITIONFROMPOINT(int x, int y)
SCI_POSITIONFROMPOINTCLOSE(int x, int y)
SCI_POSITIONFROMPOINT finds the closest character position to a point and SCI_POSITIONFROMPOINTCLOSE is similar but returns -1 if the point is outside the window or not close to any characters.

SCI_POINTXFROMPOSITION(<unused>, int pos)
SCI_POINTYFROMPOSITION(<unused>, int pos)
These messages return the x and y display pixel location of text at position pos in the document.

SCI_HIDESELECTION(bool hide)
The normal state is to make the selection visible by drawing it as set by SCI_SETSELFORE and SCI_SETSELBACK. However, if you hide the selection, it is drawn as normal text.

Scrolling and automatic scrolling

SCI_LINESCROLL(int column, int line)
SCI_SCROLLCARET
SCI_SETXCARETPOLICY(int caretPolicy, int caretSlop)
SCI_SETYCARETPOLICY(int caretPolicy, int caretSlop)
SCI_SETVISIBLEPOLICY(int caretPolicy, int caretSlop)
SCI_SETHSCROLLBAR(bool visible)
SCI_GETHSCROLLBAR
SCI_GETXOFFSET
SCI_SETXOFFSET(int xoffset)
SCI_SETSCROLLWIDTH(int pixelWidth)
SCI_GETSCROLLWIDTH
SCI_SETENDATLASTLINE(bool endAtLastLine)
SCI_GETENDATLASTLINE

SCI_LINESCROLL(int column, int line)
This will attempt to scroll the display by the number of columns and lines that you specify. Positive line values increase the line number at the top of the screen (i.e. they move the text upwards as far as the user is concerned), Negative line values do the reverse.

The column measure is the width of a space in the default style. Positive values increase the column at the left edge of the view (i.e. they move the text leftwards as far as the user is concerned). Negative values do the reverse.

See also:SCI_SETXOFFSET

SCI_SCROLLCARET
If the current position (this is the caret if there is no selection) is not visible the view is scrolled to make it visable according to the current caret policy.

SCI_SETXCARETPOLICY(int caretPolicy, int caretSlop)
SCI_SETYCARETPOLICY(int caretPolicy, int caretSlop)
These set the caret policy. The value of caretPolicy is a combination of CARET_SLOP, CARET_STRICT, CARET_JUMPS and CARET_EVEN.

SCI_SETVISIBLEPOLICY(int caretPolicy, int caretSlop)
This determines how the vertical positioning is determined when SCI_ENSUREVISIBLEENFORCEPOLICY is called. It takes VISIBLE_SLOP and VISIBLE_STRICT flags for the policy parameter. It is similar in operation to SCI_SETYCARETPOLICY(int caretPolicy, int caretSlop).

SCI_SETHSCROLLBAR(bool visible)
SCI_GETHSCROLLBAR
The horizontal scroll bar is only displayed if it is needed. If you never wish to see it, call SCI_SETHSCROLLBAR(0). Use SCI_SETHSCROLLBAR(1) to enable it again. SCI_GETHSCROLLBAR returns the current state. The default state is to display it when needed.

SCI_SETXOFFSET(int xoffset)
SCI_GETXOFFSET
The xoffset is the horizontal scroll position in pixels of the start of the text view. A value of 0 is the normal position with the first text column visible at the left of the view.

SCI_SETSCROLLWIDTH(int pixelWidth)
SCI_GETSCROLLWIDTH
These set and get the document width in pixels assumed by Scintilla when calculating how to display the horizontal scroll bar. The default value is 2000.

SCI_SETENDATLASTLINE(bool endAtLastLine)
SCI_GETENDATLASTLINE
SCI_SETENDATLASTLINE sets the scroll range so that maximum scroll position has the last line at the bottom of the view (default). Setting this to false allows scrolling one page below the last line.

White space

SCI_SETVIEWWS(int wsMode)
SCI_GETVIEWWS
SCI_SETWHITESPACEFORE(bool useWhitespaceForeColour, int colour)
SCI_SETWHITESPACEBACK(bool useWhitespaceBackColour, int colour)

SCI_SETVIEWWS(int wsMode)
SCI_GETVIEWWS
White space can be made visible which may useful for languages in which whitespace is significant, such as Python. Space characters appear as small centred dots and tab characters as light arrows pointing to the right. There are also ways to control the display of end of line characters. The two messages set and get the white space display mode. The wsMode argument can be one of:

The effect of using any other wsMode value is undefined.

SCI_SETWHITESPACEFORE<(bool useWhitespaceForeColour, int colour)
SCI_SETWHITESPACEBACK(bool useWhitespaceBackColour, int colour)
By default, the colour of visible whitespace is determined by the lexer in use. The foreground and / or background colour of all visible whitespace can be set globally, overriding the lexer's colours with SCI_SETWHITESPACEFORE and SCI_SETWHITESPACEBACK.

Cursor

SCI_SETCURSOR(int curType)
SCI_GETCURSOR
The cursor is normally chosen in a context sensitive way, so it will be different over the margin than when over the text. When performing a slow action, you may wish to change to a wait cursor. You set the cursor type with SCI_SETCURSOR. The curType argument can be:

Cursor values 1 through 7 have defined cursors, but only SC_CURSORWAIT is usefully controllable. Other values of curType cause a pointer to be displayed. The SCI_GETCURSOR message returns the last cursor type you set, or SC_CURSORNORMAL (-1) if you have not set a cursor type.

Mouse capture

SCI_SETMOUSEDOWNCAPTURES(bool captures)
SCI_GETMOUSEDOWNCAPTURES
When the mouse is pressed inside Scintilla, it is captured so future mouse movement events are sent to Scintilla. This behaviour may be turned off with SCI_SETMOUSEDOWNCAPTURES(0).

Line endings

Scintilla can interpret any of the three major line end conventions, Macintosh (\r), Unix (\n) and CP/M / DOS / Windows (\r\n). When the user presses the Enter key, one of these line end strings is inserted into the buffer. The default is \r\n, but this can be changed with the SCI_SETEOLMODE message. You can also convert the entire document to one of these line endings with SCI_CONVERTEOLS. Finally, you can choose to display the line endings with SCI_SETVIEWEOL.

SCI_SETEOLMODE(int eolMode)
SCI_GETEOLMODE
SCI_CONVERTEOLS(int eolMode)
SCI_SETVIEWEOL(bool visible)
SCI_GETVIEWEOL

SCI_SETEOLMODE(int eolMode)
SCI_GETEOLMODE
SCI_SETEOLMODE sets the characters that are added into the document when the user presses the Enter key. You can set eolMode to one of SC_EOL_CRLF (0), SC_EOL_CR (1), or SC_EOL_LF (2). The SCI_GETEOLMODE message retrieves the current state.

SCI_CONVERTEOLS(int eolMode)
This message changes all the end of line characters in the document to match eolMode. Valid values are: SC_EOL_CRLF (0), SC_EOL_CR (1), or SC_EOL_LF (2).

SCI_SETVIEWEOL(bool visible)
SCI_GETVIEWEOL
Normally, the end of line characters are hidden, but SCI_SETVIEWEOL allows you to display (or hide) them by setting visible true (or false). The visible rendering of the end of line characters is similar to (CR), (LF), or (CR)(LF). SCI_GETVIEWEOL returns the current state.

Styling

The styling messages allow you to assign styles to text. The standard Scintilla settings divide the 8 style bits available for each character into 5 bits (0 to 4 = styles 0 to 31) that set a style and three bits (5 to 7) that define indicators. You can change the balance between styles and indicators with SCI_SETSTYLEBITS. If your styling needs can be met by one of the standard lexers, or if you can write your own, then a lexer is probably the easiest way to style your document. If you choose to use the container to do the styling you can use the SCI_SETLEXER command to select SCLEX_CONTAINER, in which case the container is sent a SCN_STYLENEEDED notification each time text needs styling for display. As another alternative, you might use idle time to style the document.Even if you use a lexer, you might use the styling commands to mark errors detected by a compiler. The following commands can be used.

SCI_GETENDSTYLED
SCI_STARTSTYLING(int position, int mask)
SCI_SETSTYLING(int length, int style)
SCI_SETSTYLINGEX(int length, const char *styles)
SCI_SETLINESTATE(int line, int value)
SCI_GETLINESTATE(int line)
SCI_GETMAXLINESTATE

SCI_GETENDSTYLED
Scintilla keeps a record of the last character that is likely to be styled correctly. This is moved forwards when characters after it are styled and moved backwards if changes are made to the text of the document before it. Before drawing text, this position is checked to see if any styling is needed and a notification message sent to the container if so. The container can send SCI_GETENDSTYLED to work out where it needs to start styling. Scintilla will always ask to style whole lines.

SCI_STARTSTYLING(int pos, int mask)
This prepares for styling by setting the styling position pos to start at and a mask indicating which bits of the style bytes can be set. The mask allows styling to occur over several passes, with, for example, basic styling done on an initial pass to ensure that the text of the code is seen quickly and correctly, and then a second slower pass, detecting syntax errors and using indicators to show where these are. For example, with the standard settings of 5 style bits and 3 indicator bits, you would use a mask value of 31 (0x1f) if you were setting text styles and did not want to change the indicators. After SCI_STARTSTYLING, send multiple SCI_SETSTYLING messages for each lexical entity to style.

SCI_SETSTYLING(int length, int style)
This message sets the style of length characters starting at the styling position and then increases the styling position by length, ready for the next call. If sCell is the style byte, the operation is:
if ((sCell & mask) != style) sCell = (sCell & ~mask) | style;
It is up to you to make sure that no bits in style are set that are clear in the mask or the result may not be what was intended. {Neil, surely you need a style &= mask; in CellBuffer::SetStyleFor and CellBuffer::SetStyleAt?}

SCI_SETSTYLINGEX(int length, const char *styles)
As an alternative to SCI_SETSTYLING which applies the same style to each byte, you can use this message which specifies the styles for each of length bytes from the styling position and then increases the styling position by length, ready for the next call. The length styling bytes pointed at by styles should not contain any bits not set in mask.

SCI_SETLINESTATE(int line, int value)
SCI_GETLINESTATE(int line)
As well as the 8 bits of lexical state stored for each character there is also an integer stored for each line. This can be used for longer lived parse states such as what the current scripting language is in an ASP page. Use SCI_SETLINESTATE to set the integer value and SCI_GETLINESTATE to get the value.

SCI_GETMAXLINESTATE
This returns the last line that has any line state.

Style definition

While the style setting messages mentioned above, change the style numbers associated with text, these messages define how those style numbers are interpreted visually. There are 128 lexer styles that can set, numbered 0 to STYLEMAX (127). Unless you use SCI_SETSTYLEBITS to change the number of style bits, styles 0 to 31 are used to set the text attributes. There are also some predefined numbered styles starting at 32, The following STYLE_* constants are defined.

For each style you can set the font name, size and use of bold, italic and underline, foreground and background colour and the character set. You can also choose to hide text with a given style, display all characters as upper or lower case and fill from the last character on a line to the end of the line (for embedded languages). There is also an experimental attribute to make text read-only.

It is entirely up to you how you use styles. If you want to use syntax colouring you might use style 0 for white space, style 1 for numbers, style 2 for keywords, style 3 for strings, style 4 for preprocessor, style 5 for operators, and so on.

SCI_STYLERESETDEFAULT
SCI_STYLECLEARALL
SCI_STYLESETFONT(int stylenumber, char *fontname)
SCI_STYLESETSIZE(int stylenumber, int sizeinpoints)
SCI_STYLESETBOLD(int stylenumber, bool bold)
SCI_STYLESETITALIC(int stylenumber, bool italic)
SCI_STYLESETUNDERLINE(int stylenumber, bool underline)
SCI_STYLESETFORE(int stylenumber, int colour)
SCI_STYLESETBACK(int stylenumber, int colour)
SCI_STYLESETEOLFILLED(int stylenumber, bool eolfilled)
SCI_STYLESETCHARACTERSET(int stylenumber, int charset)
SCI_STYLESETCASE(int stylenumber, SC_CASE_MIXED or SC_CASE_UPPER or SC_CASE_LOWER)
SCI_STYLESETVISIBLE(int stylenumber, bool visible)
SCI_STYLESETCHANGEABLE(int stylenumber, bool changeable)

SCI_STYLERESETDEFAULT
This message resets STYLE_DEFAULT to its state when Scintilla was initialised.

SCI_STYLECLEARALL
This message sets all styles to have the same attributes as STYLE_DEFAULT. If you are setting up Scintilla for syntax colouring, it is likely that the lexical styles you set will be very similar. One way to set the styles is to set STYLE_DEFAULT to the common features of all styles, use SCI_STYLECLEARALL to duplicate this, then make the calls needed to set the attributes that make your lexical styles different.

SCI_STYLESETFONT(int stylenumber, char *fontname)
SCI_STYLESETSIZE(int stylenumber, int sizeinpoints)
SCI_STYLESETBOLD(int stylenumber, bool bold)
SCI_STYLESETITALIC(int stylenumber, bool italic)
These messages (plus SCI_STYLESETCHARACTERSET) set the font attributes that are used to match the fonts you request to those available. The fontname is a zero terminated string holding the name of a font. Under Windows, the name must be no more the 32 characters long and is not case sensitive. For internal cacheing, Scintilla tracks fonts by name and does care about the casing of font names, so please be consistent. {I believe you can crash Scintilla by using a font name in Windows of more than 32 characters as strcpy() is used to move the name into the LOGFONT}.

SCI_STYLESETUNDERLINE(int stylenumber, bool underline)
You can set a style to be underlined. The underline is drawn in the foreground colour. All characters with a style that includes the underline attribute are underlined, even if they are white space.

SCI_STYLESETFORE(int stylenumber, int colour)
SCI_STYLESETBACK(int stylenumber, int colour)
Text is drawn in the foreground colour, the space in each character that is not occupied by the character is drawn in the background colour.

SCI_STYLESETEOLFILLED(int stylenumber, bool eolfilled)
If the last character in the line has a style with this attribute set, the remainder of the line up to the right edge of the window is filled with the background colour set for the last character. This is useful when a document contains embedded sections in another language such as HTML pages with embedded JavaScript. By setting eolfilled true style and a consistent background colour (different from the background colour set for the HTML styles) to all JavaScript styles then JavaScript sections will be easily distinguished from HTML.

SCI_STYLESETCHARACTERSET(int stylenumber, int charset)
You can set a style to use a different character set than the default. The places where such characters sets are likely to be useful are comments and literal strings. For example, SCI_STYLESETCHARACTERSET(SCE_C_STRING, SC_CHARSET_RUSSIAN) would ensure that strings in Russian would display correctly in C and C++ (SCE_C_STRING is the style number used by the C and C++ lexer to display literal strings; it has the value 6). This feature currently only works fully on Windows.

The character sets supported on Windows are:
SC_CHARSET_ANSI, SC_CHARSET_ARABIC, SC_CHARSET_BALTIC, SC_CHARSET_CHINESEBIG5, SC_CHARSET_DEFAULT, SC_CHARSET_EASTEUROPE, SC_CHARSET_GB2312, SC_CHARSET_GREEK, SC_CHARSET_HANGUL, SC_CHARSET_HEBREW, SC_CHARSET_JOHAB, SC_CHARSET_MAC, SC_CHARSET_OEM, SC_CHARSET_SHIFTJIS, SC_CHARSET_SYMBOL, SC_CHARSET_THAI, SC_CHARSET_TURKISH, and SC_CHARSET_VIETNAMESE.

The character sets supported on GTK+ are:
SC_CHARSET_ANSI, SC_CHARSET_EASTEUROPE, SC_CHARSET_GB2312, SC_CHARSET_HANGUL, and SC_CHARSET_SHIFTJIS.

SCI_STYLESETCASE(int stylenumber, int caseMode)
The value of caseMode determines how text is displayed. You can set upper case (SC_CASE_UPPER, 1) or lower case (SC_CASE_LOWER, 2) or display normally (SC_CASE_MIXED, 0). This does not change the stored text, only how it is displayed.

SCI_STYLESETVISIBLE(int stylenumber, bool visible)
Text is normally visible. However, you can completely hide it by giving it a style with the visible set to 0. This could be used to hide embedded formatting instruction or hypertext keywords in HTML or XML.

SCI_STYLESETCHANGEABLE(int stylenumber, bool changeable)
This is an experimental and incompletely implemented style attribute. The default setting is changeable set true but when set false it makes text read-only. Currently it only stops the caret from being within not-changeable text and does not yet stop deleting a range that contains not-changeable text.

Caret and selection styles

The selection is shown by changing the foreground and/or background colours. If one of these is not set then that attribute is not changed for the selection. The default is to show the selection by changing the background to light grey and leaving the foreground the same as when it was not selected. When there is no selection, the current insertion point is marked by the text caret. This is a vertical line that is normally blinking on and off to attract the users attention.

SCI_SETSELFORE(bool useSelectionForeColour, int colour)
SCI_SETSELBACK(bool useSelectionBackColour, int colour)
SCI_SETCARETFORE(int colour)
SCI_GETCARETFORE
SCI_SETCARETLINEVISIBLE(bool show)
SCI_GETCARETLINEVISIBLE
SCI_SETCARETLINEBACK(int colour)
SCI_GETCARETLINEBACK
SCI_SETCARETPERIOD(int milliseconds)
SCI_GETCARETPERIOD
SCI_SETCARETWIDTH(int pixels)
SCI_GETCARETWIDTH
SCI_SETCONTROLCHARSYMBOL(int symbol)
SCI_GETCONTROLCHARSYMBOL

SCI_SETSELFORE(bool useSelectionForeColour, int colour)
SCI_SETSELBACK(bool useSelectionBackColour, int colour)
You can choose to override the default selection colouring with these two messages. The colour you provide is used if you set useSelection*Colour to true. If it is set to false, the default colour colouring is set.

SCI_SETCARETFORE(int colour)
SCI_GETCARETFORE
The colour of the caret can be set with SCI_SETCARETFORE and retrieved with SCI_CETCARETFORE.

SCI_SETCARETLINEVISIBLE(bool show)
SCI_GETCARETLINEVISIBLE
SCI_SETCARETLINEBACK(int colour)
SCI_GETCARETLINEBACK
You can choose to make the background colour of the line containing the caret different with these messages. To do this, set the desired background colour with SCI_SETCARETLINEBACK, then use SCI_SETCARETLINEVISIBLE(true) to enable the effect. You can cancel the effect with SCI_SETCARETLINEVISIBLE(false). The two GET functions return the state and the colour. This form of background colouring has highest priority when a line has markers that would otherwise change the background colour.

SCI_SETCARETPERIOD(int milliseconds)
SCI_GETCARETPERIOD
The rate at which the caret blinks can be set with SCI_SETCARETPERIOD which determines the time in milliseconds that the caret is visible or invisible before changing state. Setting the period to 0 stops the caret blinking. The default value is 500 milliseconds. SCI_GETCARETPERIOD returns the current setting.

SCI_SETCARETWIDTH(int pixels)
SCI_GETCARETWIDTH
The width of the caret can be set with SCI_SETCARETWIDTH to a value of 1, 2 or 3 pixels. The default width is 1 pixel. You can read back the current width with SCI_GETCARETWIDTH.

SCI_SETCONTROLCHARSYMBOL(int symbol)
SCI_GETCONTROLCHARSYMBOL
By default, Scintilla diplays control characters (characters with codes less than 32) as their ASCII mnemonics: "NUL", "SOH", "STX", "ETX", "EOT", "ENQ", "ACK", "BEL", "BS", "HT", "LF", "VT", "FF", "CR", "SO", "SI", "DLE", "DC1", "DC2", "DC3", "DC4", "NAK", "SYN", "ETB", "CAN", "EM", "SUB", "ESC", "FS", "GS", "RS", "US" in a rounded rectangle. These mnemonics come from the early days of signalling, though some are still used (LF = Line Feed, BS = Back Space, CR = Carrige Return, for example).

You can choose to replace these mnemonics by a nominated symbol with an ASCII code in the range 32 to 255. If you set a symbol value less than 32, all control characters are displayed as mnemonics. The symbol you set is rendered in the the font of the style set for the character. You can read back the current symbol with the SCI_GETCONTROLCHARSYMBOL message. The default symbol value is 0.

Margins

There may be up to three margins to the left of the text display, plus a gap either side of the text. Each margin can be set to display either symbols or line numbers with SCI_SETMARGINTYPEN. The markers that can be displayed in each margin are set with SCI_SETMARGINMASKN. Any markers not associated with a visible margin will be displayed as changes in background colour in the text. A width in pixels can be set for each margin. Margins with a zero width are ignored completely. You can choose if a mouse click in a margin sends a notification to the container or selects a line of text.

The margins are numbered 0 to 2. Using a margin number outside the valid range has no effect. By default, margin 0 is set to display line numbers, but is given a width of 0, so it is hidden. Margin 1 is set to display non-folding symbols and is given a width of 16 pixels, so it is visible. Margin 2 is set to diplay the folding symbols, but is given a width of 0, so it is hidden. Of course, you can set the margins to be whatever you wish.

SCI_SETMARGINTYPEN(int margin, int type)
SCI_GETMARGINTYPEN(int margin)
SCI_SETMARGINWIDTHN(int margin, int pixelwidth)
SCI_GETMARGINWIDTHN(int margin)
SCI_SETMARGINMASKN(int margin, int mask)
SCI_GETMARGINMASKN(int margin)
SCI_SETMARGINSENSITIVEN(int margin, bool sensitive)
SCI_GETMARGINSENSITIVEN(int margin)
SCI_SETMARGINLEFT(<unused>, int pixels)
SCI_GETMARGINLEFT
SCI_SETMARGINRIGHT(<unused>, int pixels)
SCI_GETMARGINRIGHT

SCI_SETMARGINTYPEN(int margin, int iType)
SCI_GETMARGINTYPEN(int margin)
These two routines set and get the type of a margin. The margin argument should be 0, 1 or 2. You can use the predefined constants SC_MARGIN_SYMBOL (0) and SC_MARGIN_NUMBER (1) to set a margin as either a line number or a symbol margin. By convention, margin 0 is used for line numbers and the other two are used for symbols.

SCI_SETMARGINWIDTHN(int margin, int pixelwidth)
SCI_GETMARGINWIDTHN(int margin)
These routines set and get the width of a margin in pixels. A margin with zero width is invisible. By default, Scintilla sets margin 1 for symbols with a width of 16 pixels, so this is a resonable guess if you are not sure what would be appropriate. Line number margins widths should take into account the number of lines in the document and the line number style. You could use something like SCI_TEXTWIDTH(STYLE_LINENUMBER, "_99999") to get a suitable width.

SCI_SETMARGINMASKN(int margin, int mask)
SCI_GETMARGINMASKN(int margin)
The mask is a 32-bit value. Each bit corresponds to one of 32 logical symbols that can be diplayed in a margin that is enabled for symbols. There is a useful constant, SC_MASK_FOLDERS (0xFE000000 or -33554432), that is a mask for the 7 logical symbols used to denote folding. You can assign a wide range of symbols and colours to each of the 32 logical symbols, see Markers for more information. If (mask & SC_MASK_FOLDERS)==0, the margin background colour is controlled by style 33 (STYLE_LINENUMBER).

You add logical markers to a line with SCI_MARKERADD. If a line has an associated marker that does not not appear in the mask of any margin with a non-zero width, the marker changes the background colour of the line. For example, suppose you decide to use logical marker 10 to mark lines with a syntax error and you want to show such lines by changing the background colour. The mask for this marker is 1 shifted left 10 times (1<<10) which is 0x400. If you make sure that no symbol margin includes 0x400 in its mask, any line with the marker gets the background colour changed.

To set a non-folding margin 1 use SCI_SETMARGINMASKN(1, ~SC_MASK_FOLDERS); to set a folding margin 2 use SCI_SETMARGINMASKN(2, SC_MASK_FOLDERS). This is the default set by Scintilla. ~SC_MASK_FOLDERS is 0x1FFFFFF in hexadecimal or 33554431 decimal. Of course, you may need to display all 32 symbols in a margin, in which case use SCI_SETMARGINMASKN(margin, -1).

SCI_SETMARGINSENSITIVEN(int margin, bool sensitive)
SCI_GETMARGINSENSITIVEN(int margin)
Each of the three margins can be set sensitive or insensitive to mouse clicks. A click in a sensitive margin sends a SCN_MARGINCLICK notification to the container. Margins that are not sensitive act as selection margins which make it easy to select ranges of lines. By default, all margins are insensitive.

SCI_SETMARGINLEFT(<unused>, int pixels)
SCI_GETMARGINLEFT
SCI_SETMARGINRIGHT(<unused>, int pixels)
SCI_GETMARGINRIGHT
These messages set and get the width of the blank margin on both sides of the text in pixels. The default is to one pixel on each side.

Other settings

SCI_SETUSEPALETTE(bool allowPaletteUse)
SCI_GETUSEPALETTE
SCI_SETBUFFEREDDRAW(bool isbuffered)
SCI_GETBUFFEREDDRAW
SCI_SETCODEPAGE(int codepage)
SCI_GETCODEPAGE
SCI_SETWORDCHARS(<unused>, const char *chars)
SCI_GRABFOCUS
SCI_SETFOCUS(bool focus)
SCI_GETFOCUS

SCI_SETUSEPALETTE(bool allowPaletteUse)
SCI_GETUSEPALETTE
On 8 bit displays, which can only display a maximum of 256 colours, the graphics environment mediates between the colour needs of applications through the use of palettes. On GTK+, Scintilla always uses a palette.

On Windows, there are some problems with visual flashing when switching between applications with palettes and it is also necessary for the application containing the Scintilla control to forward some messages to Scintilla for its palette code to work. Because of this, by default, the palette is not used and the application must tell Scintilla to use one. If Scintilla is not using a palette it will only display in those colours already available, which are often the 20 Windows system colours.

To see an example of how to enable palette support in Scintilla, search the text of SciTE for WM_PALETTECHANGED, WM_QUERYNEWPALETTE and SCI_SETUSEPALETTE. The Windows messages to forward are:
WM_SYSCOLORCHANGE, WM_PALETTECHANGED, WM_QUERYNEWPALETTE (should return TRUE).

To forward a message (WM_XXXX, WPARAM, LPARAM) to Scintilla, you can use SendMessage(hScintilla, WM_XXXX, WPARAM, LAPARAM) where hScintilla is the handle to the Scintilla window you created as your editor.

While we are on the subject of forwarding messages in Windows, the top level window should forward any WM_SETTINGCHANGE messages to Scintilla (this is currently used to collect changes to mouse settings, but could be used for other user interface items in the future).

SCI_SETBUFFEREDDRAW(bool isbuffered)
SCI_GETBUFFEREDDRAW
Turns on or off buffered drawing. Buffered drawing draws each line into a bitmap rather than directly to the screen and then copies the bitmap to the screen. This avoids flickering although it does take longer. The default is for drawing to be buffered.

SCI_SETCODEPAGE(int codepage)
SCI_GETCODEPAGE
Scintilla has some very simple Japanese DBCS (and probably Chinese and Korean) support. Use this message with codepage set to the code page number to set Scintilla to use code page information to ensure double byte characters are treated as one character rather than two. This also stops the caret from moving between the two bytes in a double byte character. Call with codepage set to zero to disable DBCS support. The default is SCI_SETCODEPAGE(0).

Code page SC_CP_UTF8 (65001) sets Scintilla into Unicode mode with the document treated as a sequence of characters expressed in UTF-8. The text is converted to the platform's normal Unicode encoding before being drawn by the OS and can thus display Hebrew, Arabic, Cyrillic, and Han characters. Languages which can use two characters stacked vertically in one horizontal space such as Thai will mostly work but there are som eissues where the characters are drawn separately leading to visual glitches. Bidirectional text is not supported.

For GTK+, the locale should be set to a Unicode locale with a call similar to setlocale(LC_CTYPE, "en_US.UTF-8"). Fonts with an "iso10646" registry should be used in a font set. Font sets are a comma separated list of partial font specifications where each partial font specification can be in the form of foundry-fontface-charsetregistry-encoding *OR* fontface-charsetregistry-encoding *OR* foundry-fontface *OR* fontface. An example is "misc-fixed-iso10646-1,*".

{Setting code page to a non-zero value that is not SC_CP_UTF8 causes...?}

SCI_SETWORDCHARS(<unused>, const char *chars)
Scintilla has several functions that operate on words which are defined to be contiguous sequences of characters from a particular set of characters. This message defines which characters are members of that set. If chars is null then the default set, alphanumeric and '_', is used. For example, if you don't allow '_' in your set of characters use:
SCI_SETWORDCHARS(0,"abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789"); {Neil - how about setting flags in the unused argument for upper alpha, lower alpha, and numberics - not everyone allows _, for example}.

SCI_GRABFOCUS
SCI_SETFOCUS(bool focus)
SCI_GETFOCUS
On GTK+, focus handling is more complicated than on Windows, so Scintilla can be told with this message to grab the focus.

The internal focus flag can be set with SCI_SETFOCUS. This is used by clients which have complex focus requirements such as having their own window which gets the real focus but with the need to indicate that Scintilla has the logical focus.

Brace highlighting

SCI_BRACEHIGHLIGHT(int pos1, int pos2)
SCI_BRACEBADLIGHT(int pos1)
SCI_BRACEMATCH(int position, int maxReStyle)

SCI_BRACEHIGHLIGHT(int pos1, int pos2)
Up to two characters can be highlighted in a 'brace highlighting style' which is defined as style number STYLE_BRACELIGHT (34). If you have enabled indent guides you may also wish to highlight the indent that corresponds with the brace. You can locate the column with SCI_GETCOLUMN and highlight the indent with SCI_SETHIGHLIGHTGUIDE.

SCI_BRACEBADLIGHT(int pos1)
If there is no matching brace then the brace badlighting style, style BRACE_BADLIGHT (35), can be used to show the brace that is unmatched. Using a position of INVALID_POSITION (-1) removes the highlight.

SCI_BRACEMATCH(int pos, int maxReStyle)
The SCI_BRACEMATCH message finds a corresponding matching brace given pos, the position of one brace. The brace characters handled are '(', ')', '[', ']', '{', '}', '<', and '>'. The search is forwards from an opening brace and backwards from a closing brace. If the character at position is not a brace character, or a matching brace cannot be found, the return value is -1. Otherwise, the return value is the position of the matching brace.

A match only occurs if the style of the matching brace is the same as the starting brace or the matching brace is beyond the end of styling. Nested braces are handled correctly. The maxReStyle parameter must currently be 0 - it may be used n the future to limit the length of brace searches.

Tabs and Indentation Guides

Indentation (the white space at the start of a line) if often used by programmers to clarify program structure and in some languages, for example Python, it may be part of the language syntax. Tabs are normally used in editors to insert a tab character or to pad text with spaces up to the next tab.

Scintilla can be set to treat tab and backspace in the white space at the start of a line in a special way, so that inserting a tab indents the line to the next indent position rather than just inserting a tab at the current character position and backspace unindents the line rather than deleting a character. Scintilla can also display indentation guides (vertical lines) to help you to generate code.

SCI_SETTABWIDTH(int widthinchars)
SCI_GETTABWIDTH
SCI_SETUSETABS(bool usetabs)
SCI_GETUSETABS
SCI_SETINDENT(int widthinchars)
SCI_GETINDENT
SCI_SETTABINDENTS(bool tabIndents)
SCI_GETTABINDENTS
SCI_SETBACKSPACEUNINDENTS(bool bsUnIndents)
SCI_GETBACKSPACEUNINDENTS
SCI_SETLINEINDENTATION(int line, int indentation)
SCI_GETLINEINDENTATION(int line)
SCI_GETLINEINDENTPOSITION(int line)
SCI_SETINDENTATIONGUIDES(bool view)
SCI_GETINDENTATIONGUIDES
SCI_SETHIGHLIGHTGUIDE(int column)
SCI_GETHIGHLIGHTGUIDE

SCI_SETTABWIDTH(int widthinchars)
SCI_GETTABWIDTH
SCI_SETTABWIDTH sets the size of a tab as a multiple of the size of a space character in STYLE_DEFAULT. The default tab width is 8 characters. There are no limits on tab sizes, but values less than 1 or large values may have undesireable effects. {Neil - the doc previously said "in the style of the first style definition" but I don't think this is correct?}

SCI_SETUSETABS(bool useTabs)
SCI_GETUSETABS
SCI_SETUSETABS determines whether indentation should be created out of a mixture of tabs and spaces or be based purely on spaces. Set useTabs to false (0) to create all tabs and indents out of spaces. The default is true. You can use SCI_GETCOLUMN to get the column of a position taking the width of a tab into account.

SCI_SETTABINDENTS(bool tabIndents)
SCI_GETTABINDENTS
SCI_SETBACKSPACEUNINDENTS(bool bsUnIndents)
SCI_GETBACKSPACEUNINDENTS

Inside indentation whitespace the tab and backspace keys can be made to indent and unindent rather than insert a tab character or delete a character with the SCI_SETTABINDENTS and SCI_SETBACKSPACEUNINDENTS functions.

SCI_SETLINEINDENTATION(int line, int indentation)
SCI_GETLINEINDENTATION(int line)
The amount of indentation on a line can be discovered and set with SCI_GETLINEINDENTATION and SCI_SETLINEINDENTATION. The indentation is measured in character columns which correspond to the width of space characters.

SCI_GETLINEINDENTPOSITION(int line)
This returns the position at the end of indentation of a line.

SCI_SETINDENTATIONGUIDES(bool view)
SCI_GETINDENTATIONGUIDES
Indentation guides are dotted vertical lines that appear within indentation whitespace every indent size columns. They make it easy to see which constructs line up especially when they extend over multiple pages. Style STYLE_INDENTGUIDE (37) is used to specify the foreground and background colour of the indentation guides.

SCI_SETHIGHLIGHTGUIDE(int column)
SCI_GETHIGHLIGHTGUIDE
When brace highlighting occurs, the indentation guide corresponding to the braces may be highlighted with the brace highlighting style, STYLE_BRACELIGHT (34). Set column to 0 to cancel this highlight.

Markers

There are 32 markers, numbered 0 to 31, and you can assign any combination of them to each line in the document. Markers appear in the selection margin to the left of the text. If the selection margin is set to zero width, the background colour of the whole line is changed instead. Marker numbers 25 to 31 are used by Scintilla in folding margins, and have symbolic names of the form SC_MARKNUM_*, for example SC_MARKNUM_FOLDEROPEN.

Marker numbers 0 to 24 have no pre-defined function; you can use them to mark syntax errors or the current point of execution, break points, or whatever you need marking. If you do not neeed folding, you can use all 32 for any purpose you wish.

Each marker number has a symbol associated with it. You can also set the foreground and background colour for each marker number, so you can use the same symbol more than once with different colouring for different uses. Scintilla has a set of symbols you can assign (SC_MARK_*) or you can use characters. By default, all 32 markers are set to SC_MARK_CIRCLE with a black foreground and a white background.

The markers are drawn in the order of their numbers, so higher numbered markers appear on top of lower numbered ones. Markers try to move with their text by tracking where the start of their line moves. When a line is deleted, its markers are combined, by an or operation, with the markers of the previous line.

SCI_MARKERDEFINE(int markernumber, int markersymbols)
SCI_MARKERDEFINEPIXMAP(int markernumber, const char *xpm)
SCI_MARKERSETFORE(int markernumber, int colour)
SCI_MARKERSETBACK(int markernumber, int colour)
SCI_MARKERADD(int line, int markernumber)
SCI_MARKERDELETE(int line, int markernumber)
SCI_MARKERDELETEALL(int markernumber)
SCI_MARKERGET(int line)
SCI_MARKERNEXT(int lineStart, int markermask)
SCI_MARKERPREVIOUS(int lineStart, int markermask)
SCI_MARKERLINEFROMHANDLE(int handle)
SCI_MARKERDELETEHANDLE(int handle)

SCI_MARKERDEFINE(int markernumber, int markersymbols)
This message associates a marker number in the range 0 to 31 with one of the marker symbols or an ASCII character. The general-purpose marker symbols currently available are:
SC_MARK_CIRCLE, SC_MARK_ROUNDRECT, SC_MARK_ARROW, SC_MARK_SMALLRECT, SC_MARK_SHORTARROW, SC_MARK_EMPTY, SC_MARK_ARROWDOWN, SC_MARK_MINUS, SC_MARK_PLUS, SC_MARK_ARROWS, SC_MARK_DOTDOTDOT, SC_MARK_EMPTY and SC_MARK_BACKGROUND.

The SC_MARK_BACKGROUND marker changes the background colour of the line only. The SC_MARK_EMPTY symbol is invisible, allowing client code to track the movement of lines. You would also use it if you changed the folding style and wanted one or more of the SC_FOLDERNUM_* markers to have no associated symbol.

There are also marker symbols designed for use in the folding margin in a flattened tree style.
SC_MARK_BOXMINUS, SC_MARK_BOXMINUSCONNECTED, SC_MARK_BOXPLUS, SC_MARK_BOXPLUSCONNECTED, SC_MARK_CIRCLEMINUS, SC_MARK_CIRCLEMINUSCONNECTED, SC_MARK_CIRCLEPLUS, SC_MARK_CIRCLEPLUSCONNECTED, SC_MARK_LCORNER, SC_MARK_LCORNERCURVE, SC_MARK_TCORNER, SC_MARK_TCORNERCURVE, and SC_MARK_VLINE.

The marker numbers SC_MARKNUM_FOLDER and SC_MARKNUM_FOLDEROPEN are used for showing that a fold is present and open or closed. Any symbols may be assigned for this purpose although the (SC_MARK_PLUS, SC_MARK_MINUS) pair or the (SC_MARK_ARROW, SC_MARK_ARROWDOWN) pair are good choices. As well as these two, more assignments are needed for the flattened tree style: SC_MARKNUM_FOLDEREND, SC_MARKNUM_FOLDERMIDTAIL, SC_MARKNUM_FOLDEROPENMID, SC_MARKNUM_FOLDERSUB, and SC_MARKNUM_FOLDERTAIL. The bits used for folding is specified by SC_MASK_FOLDERS which is commonly used as an argument to SCI_SETMARGINMASKN when defining a margin to be used for folding.

This table shows which SC_MARK_* symbols should be assigned to which SC_MARKNUM_* marker numbers to obtain four folding styles: Arrow (mimics Macintosh), plus/minus shows folded lines as '+' and opened folds as '-', Circle tree, Box tree.

SCI_MARKERSETFORE(int markernumber, int colour)
SCI_MARKERSETBACK(int markernumber, int colour)
These two messages set the foreground and background colour of a marker number.

SCI_MARKERADD(int line, int markernumber)
This message adds marker number markernumber to a line. The messager returns -1 if this fails (illegal line number, out of memory) or it returns a marker handle number that identifies the added marker. You can use this returned handle with SCI_MARKERLINEFROMHANDLE to find where a marker is after moving or combining lines and with SCI_MARKERDELETEHANDLE to delete the marker based on its handle. The message does not check that the value of markernumber, nor does it check if the line already contains the marker.

SCI_MARKERDELETE(int line, int markernumber)
This searches the given line number for the given marker number and deletes it if it is present. If you added the same marker more than once to the line, this will delete one copy each time it is used. If you pass in a marker number of -1, all markers are deleted from the line.

SCI_MARKERDELETEALL(int markernumber)
This removes markers of the given number from all lines. If markernumber is -1, it deletes all markers from all lines.

SCI_MARKERGET(int line)
This returns a 32-bit integer that indicates which markers were present on the line. Bit 0 is set if marker 0 is present, bit 1 for marker 1 and so on.

SCI_MARKERNEXT(int lineStart, int markermask)
SCI_MARKERPREVIOUS(int lineStart, int markermask)
These messages search efficiently for lines that include a given set of markers. The search starts at line number lineStart and continues forwards to the end of the file (SCI_MARKERNEXT) or backwards to the start of the file (SCI_MARKERPREVIOUS). The markermask argument should have one bit set for each marker you wish to find. Set bit 0 to find marker 0, bit 1 for marker 1 and so on. The message returns the line number of the first line that contains one of the markers in markermask or -1 if no marker is found.

SCI_MARKERLINEFROMHANDLE(int markerHandle)
The markerHandle argument is an identifier for a marker returned by SCI_MARKERADD. This function searches the document for the marker with this handle and returns the line number that contains it or -1 if it is not found.

SCI_MARKERDELETEHANDLE(int markerHandle)
The markerHandle argument is an identifier for a marker returned by SCI_MARKERADD. This function searches the document for the marker with this handle and deletes the marker if it is found.

SCI_MARKERDEFINEPIXMAP(int markernumber, const char *xpm)
Markers can be set to pixmaps using the SCI_MARKERDEFINEPIXMAP method. The XPM format is used for the pixmap and it is limited to to pixmaps that use one character per pixel. The data should be null terminated. Pixmaps use the SC_MARK_PIXMAP marker symbol.

Indicators

By default, Scintilla organises the style byte associated with each text byte as 5 bits of style information (for 32 styles) and 3 bits of indicator information for 3 independent indicators so that, for example, syntax errors, deprecated names and bad indentation could all be displayed at once. Indicators may be displayed as simple underlines, squiggly underlines, a line of small 'T' shapes, a line of diagonal hatching or as strike-out.

The indicators are set using SCI_STARTSTYLING with a INDICS_MASK mask and SCI_SETSTYLING with the values INDIC0_MASK, INDIC1_MASK and INDIC2_MASK.

The number of bits used for styles can be altered with SCI_SETSTYLEBITS from 0 to 7 bits. The remaining bits can be used for indicators, so there can be from 1 to 8 indicators. However, the INDIC*_MASK constants defined in scintilla.h all assume 5 bits of styling information and 3 indicators. If you use a different arrangement you must define your own constants.

The SCI_INDIC* messages allow you to get and set the visual appearance of the indicators. They all use an indicatorNumber argument in the range 0 to 7 to set the indicator to style. With the default settings, only indicators 0, 1 and 2 will have any visible effect.

SCI_INDICSETSTYLE(int indicatorNumber, int indicatorStyle)
SCI_INDICGETSTYLE(int indicatorNumber)
SCI_INDICSETFORE(int indicatorNumber, int colour)
SCI_INDICGETFORE(int indicatorNumber)

SCI_INDICSETSTYLE(int indicatorNumber, int indicatorStyle)
SCI_INDICGETSTYLE(int indicatorNumber)
These two messages set and get the style for a particular indicator. The indicator styles currently available are:

The default indicator styles are equivalent to:
SCI_INDICSETSTYLE(0, INDIC_SQUIGGLE);
SCI_INDICSETSTYLE(1, INDIC_TT);
SCI_INDICSETSTYLE(2, INDIC_PLAIN);

SCI_INDICSETFORE(int indicatorNumber, int colour)
SCI_INDICGETFORE(int indicatorNumber)
These two messages set and get the colour used to draw an indicator. The default indicator colours are equivalent to:
SCI_INDICSETFORE(0, 0x007f00); (dark green)
SCI_INDICSETFORE(1, 0xff0000); (light blue)
SCI_INDICSETFORE(2, 0x0000ff); (light red)

Autocompletion

Autocompletion displays a list box showing likely identifiers, based upon the users typing. The user chooses the currently selected item by pressing the tab character or another character that is a member of the fillup character set defined with SCI_AUTOCSETFILLUPS. Autocompletion is triggered by your application. For example, in C if you detect that the user has just typed fred. you could look up fred, and if it has a known list of members, you could offer them in an autocompletion list. Alternatively, you could monitor the user's typing and offer a list of likely items once their typing has narrowed down the choice to a reasonable list. As yet another alternative you could define a key code to activate the list.

To make use of autocompletion you must monitor each character added to the document. See SciTEBase::CharAdded() in SciTEBase.cxx for an example of autocompletion.

SCI_AUTOCSHOW(int lenEntered, const char *list)
SCI_AUTOCCANCEL
SCI_AUTOCACTIVE
SCI_AUTOCPOSSTART
SCI_AUTOCCOMPLETE
SCI_AUTOCSTOPS(<unused>,const char *chars)
SCI_AUTOCSETSEPARATOR(char separator)
SCI_AUTOCGETSEPARATOR
SCI_AUTOCSELECT(<unused>,const char *select)
SCI_AUTOCSETCANCELATSTART(bool cancel)
SCI_AUTOCGETCANCELATSTART
SCI_AUTOCSETFILLUPS(<unused>,const char *chars)
SCI_AUTOCSETCHOOSESINGLE(bool chooseSingle)
SCI_AUTOCGETCHOOSESINGLE
SCI_AUTOCSETIGNORECASE(bool ignoreCase)
SCI_AUTOCGETIGNORECASE
SCI_AUTOCSETAUTOHIDE(bool autoHide)
SCI_AUTOCGETAUTOHIDE
SCI_AUTOCSETDROPRESTOFWORD(bool dropRestOfWord)
SCI_AUTOCGETDROPRESTOFWORD

SCI_AUTOCSHOW(int lenEntered, const char *list)
This message causes a list to be displayed. lenEntered is the number of characters of the word already entered and list is the list of words separated by separator characters. The initial separator character is a space but this can be set or got with SCI_AUTOCSETSEPARATOR and SCI_AUTOCGETSEPARATOR.

The list of words should be in sorted order. If set to ignore case mode with SCI_AUTOCSETIGNORECASE, then strings are matched after being converted to upper case. One result of this is that the list should be sorted with the punctuation characters '[', '\', ']', '^', '_', and '`' sorted after letters.

SCI_AUTOCCANCEL
This message cancels any displayed autocompletion list. When in autocompletion mode, the list should disappear when the user types a character that can not be part of the autocompletion, such as '.', '(' or '[' when typing an identifier. A set of characters which will cancel autocompletion can be specified with the SCI_AUTOCSTOPS.

SCI_AUTOCACTIVE
This message returns non-zero if there is an active autocompletion list and zero if there is not.

SCI_AUTOCPOSSTART
This returns the value of the current position when SCI_AUTOCSHOW started display of the list.

SCI_AUTOCCOMPLETE
This message triggers message. This has the same effect as the tab key.

SCI_AUTOCSTOPS(<unused>,const char *chars)
The chars argument is a string containing a list of characters that will automatically cancel the autocompletion list. When you start the editor, this list is empty.

SCI_AUTOCSETSEPARATOR(char separator)
SCI_AUTOCGETSEPARATOR
These two message set and get the separator character used to separate words in the SCI_AUTOCSHOW list. The default is the space character.

SCI_AUTOCSELECT(<unused>,const char *select)
This message selects an item in the autocompletion list. It searches the list of words for the first that matches select. By default, comparisons are case sensitive, but you can change this with SCI_AUTOCSETIGNORECASE. The match is character by character for the length of the select string. That is, if select is "Fred" it will match "Frederick" if this is the first item in the list that begins with "Fred". If an item is found, it is selected. If the item is not found, the autocompletion list closes if auto-hide is true (see SCI_AUTOCSETAUTOHIDE).

SCI_AUTOCSETCANCELATSTART(bool cancel)
SCI_AUTOCGETCANCELATSTART
The default behaviour is for the list to be cancelled if the caret moves before the location it was at when the list was displayed. By calling this message with a false argument, the list is not cancelled until the caret moves before the first character of the word being completed.

SCI_AUTOCSETFILLUPS(<unused>,const char *chars)
If a fillup character is typed with an autocompletion list active, the currently selected item in the list is added into the document, then the fillup character is added. Common fillup characters are '(', '[' and '.' but others are possible depending on the language. By default, no fillup characters are set.

SCI_AUTOCSETCHOOSESINGLE(bool chooseSingle)
SCI_AUTOCGETCHOOSESINGLE
If you use SCI_AUTOCSETCHOOSESINGLE(1) and a list has only one item, it is automatically added and no list is displayed. The default is to display the list even if there is only a single item.

SCI_AUTOCSETIGNORECASE(bool ignoreCase)
SCI_AUTOCGETIGNORECASE
By default, matching of characters to list members is case sensitive. These messages let you set and get case sensitivity.

SCI_AUTOCSETAUTOHIDE(bool autoHide)
SCI_AUTOCGETAUTOHIDE
By default, the list is cancelled if there are no viable matches (that is the user has typed characters that no longer match a list entry). If you want to keep displaying the original list, set autoHide to false. This also effects SCI_AUTOCSELECT.

SCI_AUTOCSETDROPRESTOFWORD(bool dropRestOfWord)
SCI_AUTOCGETDROPRESTOFWORD
When an item is selected, any word characters following the caret are first erased if dropRestOfWord is set true. The default is false.

User lists

User lists use the internal mechanisms as autocompletion lists, and all the calls listed for autocompletion work on them; you cannot display a user list at the same time as an autocompletion list is active. They differ in the following respects:
o The SCI_AUTOCSETCHOOSESINGLE message has no effect.
o When the user makes a selection you are sent a SCN_USERLISTSELECTION notification message.

BEWARE: if you have set fillup characters or stop characters, these will still be active with the user list, and may result in items being selected or the user list cancelled due to the user typing into the editor.

SCI_USERLISTSHOW(int listType, const char *list)
The listType parameter is returned to the container as the wParam field of the SCNotification structure. It must be greater than 0 (as this is how Scintilla tells the difference between an autocompletion list and a user list. If you have different types of list, for example a list of buffers and a list of macros, you can use listType to tell which one has returned a selection.

Calltips

Call tips are small windows displaying the arguments to a function and are displayed after the user has typed the name of the function. There is some interaction between call tips and autocompletion lists in that showing a call tip cancels any active autocompletion list, and vice versa.

Call tips can highlight part of the text within them. You could use this to highlight the current argument to a function by counting the number of commas (or whatever separator your language uses). See SciTEBase::CharAdded() in SciTEBase.cxx for an example of call tip use.

Alternatively, call tips can be displayed when you leave the mouse pointer for a while over a word in response to the SCN_DWELLSTART notification and cancelled in response to SCN_DWELLEND. This method could be used in a debugger to give the value of a variable, or during editing to give information about the word under the pointer.

SCI_CALLTIPSHOW(int posStart, const char *definition)
SCI_CALLTIPCANCEL
SCI_CALLTIPACTIVE
SCI_CALLTIPPOSSTART
SCI_CALLTIPSETHLT(int highlightstart, int highlightend)
SCI_CALLTIPSETBACK(int colour)

SCI_CALLTIPSHOW(int posStart, const char *definition)
This message starts the process by displaying the call tip window. If a call tip is already active this has no effect.
posStart is the position in the document at which to align the call tip. The call tip text is aligned to start 1 line below this character.
definition is the call tip text. This can contain multiple lines separated by '\n' (Line Feed, ASCII code 10) characters.

SCI_CALLTIPCANCEL
This message cancels any displayed call tip. Scintilla will also cancel call tips for you if you use any keyboard commands that are not compatible with editing the argument list of a function.

SCI_CALLTIPACTIVE
This returns 1 if a call tip is active and 0 if it is not active.

SCI_CALLTIPPOSSTART
This message returns the value of the current position when SCI_CALLTIPSHOW started to display the tip.

SCI_CALLTIPSETHLT(int hlStart, int hlEnd)
This sets the region of the calltip text to display in a highlighted style. hlStart is the zero based index into the string of the first character to highlight and hlEnd is the index of the first character after the hightlight. hlEnd must be greater than hlStart; hlEnd-hlStart is the number of characters to highlight. Highlights can extend over line ends, if this is required.

Unhighlighted text is drawn in a mid grey. Selected text is drawn in a dark blue. The default background is white, but this can be changed with SCI_CALLTIPSETBACK. The only way to change the text colours is to edit the Scintilla source file CallTip.cxx.

SCI_CALLTIPSETBACK(int colour)
The background colour of calltips can be set with this message; the default colour is white. It is not a good idea to set a dark colour as the background as the unselected text is drawn in mid grey and the selected text in a dark blue.

Keyboard commands

To allow the container application to perform any of the actions available to the user with keyboard, all the keyboard actions are messages. They do not take any parameters. These commands are also used when redefining the key bindings with the SCI_ASSIGNCMDKEY message.

The SCI_*EXTEND messages extend the selection.

The SCI_WORDPART* commands are used to move between word segments marked by capitalisation (aCamelCaseIdentifier) or underscores (an_under_bar_ident).

The SCI_[HOME|LINEEND]DISPLAY* commands are used when in line wrap mode to allow movement to the start or end of display lines as opposed to the normal [HOME|LINEEND] commands which move to the start or end of document lines.

Key bindings

There is a default binding of keys to commands that is defined in the Scintilla source in the file KeyMap.cxx by the constant KeyMap::MapDefault[]. This table maps key definitions to SCI_* messages with no parameters (mostly the keyboard commands discussed above, but any Scintilla command that has no arguments can be mapped). You can change the mapping to suit your own requirements.

SCI_ASSIGNCMDKEY(int keyDefinition, int sciCommand)
SCI_CLEARCMDKEY(int keyDefinition)
SCI_CLEARALLCMDKEYS
SCI_NULL

keyDefinition
A key definition contains the key code in the low 16-bits and the key modifiers in the high 16-bits. To combine keyCode and keyMod set:
keyDefinition = keyCode + (keyMode << 16)

The key code is a visible or control character or a key from the SCK_* enumeration, which contains:
SCK_ADD, SCK_BACK, SCK_DELETE, SCK_DIVIDE, SCK_DOWN, SCK_END, SCK_ESCAPE, SCK_HOME, SCK_INSERT, SCK_LEFT, SCK_NEXT (Page Down), SCK_PRIOR (Page Up), SCK_RETURN, SCK_RIGHT, SCK_SUBTRACT, SCK_TAB, and SCK_UP.

The modifiers are a combination of zero or more of SCMOD_ALT, SCMOD_CTRL, and SCMOD_SHIFT. If you are building a table you might want to use SCMOD_NORM which has the value 0, to mean no modifiers.

SCI_ASSIGNCMDKEY(int keyDefinition, int sciCommand)
This assigns the given key definition to a Scintalla command identified by sciCommand. sciCommand can be any SCI_* command that has no arguments.

SCI_CLEARCMDKEY(int keyDefinition)
This makes the given key definition do nothing by assigning the action SCI_NULL to it.

SCI_CLEARALLCMDKEYS
This command removes all keyboard command mapping by setting an empty mapping table.

Popup edit menu

SCI_USEPOPUP(bool bEnablePopup)
Clicking the wrong button on the mouse pops up a short default editing menu. This may be turned off with SCI_USEPOPUP(0).

Macro recording

Start and stop macro recording mode. In macro recording mode, actions are reported to the container through SCN_MACRORECORD notifications. It is then up to the container to record these actions for future replay.

SCI_STARTRECORD
SCI_STOPRECORD
These two messages turn macro recording on and off.

Printing

SCI_FORMATRANGE
SCI_SETPRINTMAGNIFICATION(int magnification)
SCI_GETPRINTMAGNIFICATION
SCI_SETPRINTCOLOURMODE(int mode)
SCI_GETPRINTCOLOURMODE

On Windows SCI_FORMATRANGE can be used to draw the text onto a display context which can include a printer display context.

To print at a different size than drawing on screen use SCI_SETPRINTMAGNIFICATION with a value which is the number of points to add to each style. -3 or -4 gives reasonable small print.

If a black background is used on the screen then it is best to invert the light value of all colours with SCI_SETPRINTCOLOURMODE(SC_PRINT_INVERTLIGHT) when printing to give a white background. If intermediate tones are used on screen then black on white print can be chosen with SCI_SETPRINTCOLOURMODE(SC_PRINT_BLACKONWHITE). Other options are the default, SC_PRINT_NORMAL, and SC_PRINT_COLOURONWHITE and SC_PRINT_COLOURONWHITEDEFAULTBG.

Direct access

SCI_GETDIRECTFUNCTION
SCI_GETDIRECTPOINTER

On Windows, the message passing scheme used to communicate between the container and Scintilla is mediated by the operating system SendMessage function which can lead to bad performance when calling intensively. To avoid this overhead a pointer to a message handling function inside Scintilla can be retrieved with SCI_GETDIRECTFUNCTION. The first argument to use when calling the returned function is the value retrieved from SCI_GETDIRECTPOINTER. After that go the message number, wParam, and lParam.

While faster, this direct calling will cause problems if performed from a different thread to the native thread of the Scintilla window in which case SendMessage should be used to synchronize with the window's thread.

This feature also works on GTK+ but has no significant impact on speed.

From version 1.47 on Windows, Scintilla exports a function called Scintilla_DirectFunction that can be used the same as the function returned by SCI_GETDIRECTFUNCTION.

Multiple views

SCI_GETDOCPOINTER
SCI_SETDOCPOINTER(<unused>,document *pdoc)
SCI_CREATEDOCUMENT
SCI_ADDREFDOCUMENT(<unused>,document *pdoc)
SCI_RELEASEDOCUMENT(<unused>,document *pdoc)

This is to allow simple split views of documents and so applications may maintain multiple buffer which may be individually selected into the editor. Each Scintilla has a pointer to a used document. Initially the used document is a default one created when the Scintilla was created. The SCI_GETDOCPOINTER call returns a pointer to the used document. SCI_SETDOCPOINTER sets the used document. SCI_SETDOCPOINTER(0) switches to a new empty document. Before closing down Scintilla make sure all document pointers retrieved are released to avoid memory leaks.

A new document may be created by SCI_CREATEDOCUMENT which returns a pointer to the document. This document is not selected into the editor and starts with a reference count of 1. A document may be released with SCI_RELEASEDOCUMENT and have its reference count incremented with SCI_ADDREFDOCUMENT.

Folding

SCI_VISIBLEFROMDOCLINE(int docLine)
SCI_DOCLINEFROMVISIBLE(int displayLine)
SCI_SETFOLDLEVEL(int line, int level)
SCI_SETFOLDFLAGS(int flags)
SCI_GETFOLDLEVEL(int line)
SCI_GETLASTCHILD(int line)
SCI_GETFOLDPARENT(int line)
SCI_SHOWLINES(int lineStart, int lineEnd)
SCI_HIDELINES(int lineStart, int lineEnd)
SCI_GETLINEVISIBLE(int line)
SCI_SETFOLDEXPANDED(int line, bool expanded)
SCI_GETFOLDEXPANDED(int line)
SCI_TOGGLEFOLD(int line)
SCI_ENSUREVISIBLE(int line)
SCI_ENSUREVISIBLEENFORCEPOLICY(int line)

The fundamental operation in folding is making lines invisible or visible. Line visibility is a property of the view rather than the document so each view may be displaying a different set of lines. SCI_SHOWLINES and SCI_HIDELINES show or hide a range of lines. SCI_GETLINEVISIBLE determines whether a line is visible. When some lines are hidden, then a particular line in the document may be displayed at a different position to its document position. SCI_VISIBLEFROMDOCLINE and SCI_DOCLINEFROMVISIBLE map from document line to display line and back.

Generally the fold points of a document are based on the hierarchical structure of the contents of the document. In Python, the hierarchy is determined by indentation and in C++ by brace characters. This hierarchy can be represented within a Scintilla document object by attaching a numeric level to each line. The initial level of a file is SC_FOLDLEVELBASE to allow unsigned arithmetic on levels. The SC_FOLDLEVELNUMBERMASK constant can be used to mask out the other bits to reveal the fold level number. There are also two bit flags associated with each line. SC_FOLDLEVELWHITEFLAG indicates that the line is blank and allows it to be treated slightly different then its level may indicate. For example, blank lines should generally not be fold points. SC_FOLDLEVELHEADERFLAG indicates that the line is a header or fold point.

The hierarchy can be navigated just through SCI_GETFOLDLEVEL, but it is often useful to find the parent of a line (SCI_GETFOLDPARENT) or the line that is the last child of a line (SCI_GETLASTCHILD).

Each fold point may be either expanded, displaying all its child lines, or contracted, hiding all the child lines. This is per view state and can be manipulated with SCI_SETFOLDEXPANDED and SCI_GETFOLDEXPANDED. Using SCI_SETFOLDEXPANDED does not show or hide any lines but only changes a state flag and the margin markers that show the contraction state. SCI_TOGGLEFOLD performs the expansion or contraction of a fold point in the manner normally expected.

A hidden line may be hidden because more than one of its parent lines is contracted. SCI_ENSUREVISIBLE travels up the fold hierarchy, expanding any contracted folds until it reaches the top level. The line will then be visible.

The fold flags is a set of bit flags set with the SCI_SETFOLDFLAGS message to determine where folding lines are drawn. 2 is draw above if expanded, 4 is draw above if not expanded. 8 is draw below if expanded and 16 is draw below if not expanded. 64 is display hexadecimal fold levels in line margin to aid debugging folding. This feature needs to be redesigned to be sensible.

Line wrapping

SCI_SETWRAPMODE(SC_WRAP_NONE or SC_WRAP_WORD)
SCI_GETWRAPMODE

When the wrap mode is set to SC_WRAP_WORD lines wider than the window width are continued on the following lines. Lines are broken after space or tab characters or between runs of different styles. If this is not possible because a word in one style is wider than the window then the break occurs before after the last character that completely fits on the line. The horizontal scroll bar does not appear when wrap mode is on.

SCI_SETLAYOUTCACHE(SC_CACHE_NONE or SC_CACHE_CARET or SC_CACHE_PAGE or SC_CACHE_DOCUMENT)
SCI_GETLAYOUTCACHE

Much of the time used by Scintilla is spent on laying out and drawing text. The same text layout calculations may be performed many times even when the data used in these calculations does not change. To avoid these unnecessary calculations in some circumstances, the line layout cache can store the results of the calculations. The cache in invalidated whenever the underlying data, such as the contents or styling of the document changes. Caching the layout of the whole document has the most effect, making dynamic line wrap as much as 20 times faster but this requires 7 times the memory required by the document contents.

SC_CACHE_NONE performs no caching and is the default. SC_CACHE_CARET caches the layout information for the line containing the caret. SC_CACHE_PAGE caches the layout of the visible lines and the caret line. SC_CACHE_DOCUMENT caches the layout of the entire document.

Zooming

SCI_ZOOMIN
SCI_ZOOMOUT
SCI_SETZOOM
SCI_GETZOOM

The text can be made larger and smaller by using SCI_ZOOMIN and SCI_ZOOMOUT. The zoom level can be retrieved by SCI_GETZOOM and set by SCI_SETZOOM. The zoom factors may range from -10 to + 20 and is added to each styles point size. The calculated point size never goes below 2.

Long lines

SCI_GETEDGECOLUMN
SCI_SETEDGECOLUMN(int column)
SCI_GETEDGEMODE
SCI_SETEDGEMODE(int mode)
SCI_GETEDGECOLOUR
SCI_SETEDGECOLOUR(int colour)

This mechanism marks lines that are longer than a specified length in one of two ways. A vertical line can be displayed at the specified column number (EDGE_LINE) or characters after that column can be displayed with a specified background colour (EDGE_BACKGROUND). The vertical line works well for monospaced fonts but not for proportional fonts which should use EDGE_BACKGROUND. The default is to not have any form of long line marking (EDGE_NONE).

Lexer

SCI_SETLEXER(int lexer)
SCI_SETLEXERLANGUAGE(<unused>, char *name)
SCI_GETLEXER
SCI_COLOURISE(int start, int end)
SCI_SETPROPERTY(char *key, char *value)
SCI_SETKEYWORDS(int keywordset, char *keywordlist)

If the SciLexer version of Scintilla is used, then lexing support for some programming languages is included. A particular lexer may be chosen from the SCLEX* enumeration and it is invoked automatically to style the document as required. Lexers can also be chosen by string name rather than by integer ID. If the lexer is set to SCLEX_CONTAINER then the container is notified to perform styling as is the case with the standard Scintilla.DLL version. Styling may be requested for a range of the document by using SCI_COLOURISE.

Settings can be communicated to the lexers using SCI_SETPROPERTY. Currently the "fold" property is defined for most of the lexers to set the fold structure if set to "1". SCLEX_PYTHON understands "tab.timmy.whinge.level" as a setting that determines how to indicate bad indentation. Many languages style a set of keywords distinctly from other words. Some languages, such as HTML may contain embedded languages, VBScript and Javascript are common for HTML. SCI_SETKEYWORDS specifies the keywords separated by spaces. For HTML, key word set 0 is for HTML, 1 is for Javascript and 2 is for VBScript.

Notifications

Notifications are sent (fired) from the Scintilla control to its container when an event has occurred that may interest the container. Notifications are sent using the WM_NOTIFY message on Windows and the "notify" signal on GTK+ with a structure containing information about the event.

SCN_STYLENEEDED(int endstyleneeded)

Before displaying a page or printing, this message is sent to the container. It is a good opportunity for the container to ensure that syntax styling information for the visible text.

SCN_UPDATEUI
SCN_CHECKBRACE

Either the text or styling of the document has changed or the selection range has changed. Now would be a good time to update any container UI elements that depend on document or view state. Was previously called SCN_CHECKBRACE because a common use is to check whether the caret is next to a brace and set highlights on this brace and its corresponding matching brace.

SCN_CHARADDED(int charadded)

Fired when the user types an ordinary text character (as opposed to a command character) which is entered into the text. Can be used by the container to decide to display a call tip or auto completion list.

SCN_SAVEPOINTREACHED
SCN_SAVEPOINTLEFT

Sent to the container when the savepoint is entered or left, allowing the container to display a dirty indicator and change its menus.

See also: SCI_SETSAVEPOINT, SCI_GETMODIFY

SCN_MODIFYATTEMPTRO

When in read-only mode, this notification is sent to the container should the user try to edit the document. This can be used to check the document out of a version control system.

SCN_DOUBLECLICK

Mouse button was double clicked in editor.

SCN_KEY

Reports all keys pressed. Used on GTK+ because of some problems with keyboard focus. Not sent by Windows version.

SCEN_SETFOCUS
SCEN_KILLFOCUS

SCEN_SETFOCUS is fired when Scintilla receives focus and SCEN_KILLFOCUS when it loses focus. These notifications are sent using the WM_COMMAND message on Windows and the "Command" signal on GTK+ as this is the behaviour of the standard edit control. The SET and KILL values are flipped over from the Windows edit control and as clients depend on these constants, this will not be changed to be compatible.

SCN_MODIFIED
SCEN_CHANGE
SCI_SETMODEVENTMASK(int eventmask)
SCI_GETMODEVENTMASK

SCN_MODIFIED is fired when the document has been changed including changes to both the text and styling. The notification structure contains information about what changed, how the change occurred and whether this changed the number of lines in the document. No modifications may be performed while in a SCN_MODIFIED event.

SCEN_CHANGE is fired when the text of the document has been changed for any reason. This notification is sent using the WM_COMMAND message on Windows and the "Command" signal on GTK+ as this is the behaviour of the standard edit control.

Both these notifications can be masked by the SCI_SETMODEVENTMASK function which sets which notification types are sent to the container. For example, a container may decide to see only notifications about changes to text and not styling changes by calling SCI_SETMODEVENTMASK(SC_MOD_INSERTTEXT|SC_MOD_DELETETEXT).

The possible notification types are SC_MOD_INSERTTEXT, SC_MOD_DELETETEXT, SC_MOD_CHANGESTYLE, SC_MOD_CHANGEFOLD, SC_PERFORMED_USER, SC_PERFORMED_UNDO, SC_PERFORMED_REDO, SC_LASTSTEPINUNDOREDO, SC_MOD_CHANGEMARKER, SC_MOD_BEFOREINSERT, SC_MOD_BEFOREDELETE, and SC_MODEVENTMASKALL.

SCN_MACRORECORD

Tells the container that an operation is being performed so that the container may choose to record the fact if it is in a macro recording mode. The fields set in this notification are message, wParam, and lParam.

SCN_MARGINCLICK

Tells the container that the mouse was clicked inside a margin marked sensitive. Can be used to perform folding or to place breakpoints.

SCN_NEEDSHOWN

Scintilla has determined that a range of lines that is currently invisible should be made visible. An example of where this may be needed is if the end of line of a contracted fold point is deleted. This message is sent to the container in case it wants to make the line visible in some unusual way such as making the whole document visible. Most containers will just ensure each line in the range is visible by calling SCI_ENSUREVISIBLE.

SCN_PAINTED

Painting has just been done. Useful when you want to update some other widgets based on a change in Scintilla, but want to have the paint occur first to appear more responsive.

SCN_USERLISTSELECTION

User has selected an item in a user list. The list type is available in wParam and the text chosen in text.

SCN_URIDROPPED

Only on the GTK+ version. Indicates that the user has dragged a URI such as a file name or web address onto Scintilla. The container could interpret this as a request to open the file.

SCN_DWELLSTART
SCN_DWELLEND
SCI_SETMOUSEDWELLTIME
SCI_GETMOUSEDWELLTIME
SC_TIME_FOREVER

SCN_DWELLSTART is generated when the user hold the mouse still in one spot for the dwell period. SCN_DWELLEND is generated after a SCN_DWELLSTART and the mouse is moved or other activity such as key press indicates the dwell is over.

The time the mouse must sit still, in milliseconds, to generate a SCN_DWELLSTART notification. If set to SC_TIME_FOREVER, the default, no dwell events will be generated.

SCN_ZOOM

SCN_ZOOM is generated when the user zooms the display using the keyboard or the SCI_SETZOOM method is called. This notification can be used to recalculate positions, such as the width of the line number margin to maintain sizes in terms of characters rather than pixels.

Edit messages currently supported by Scintilla which will be removed in the future.

WM_GETTEXT(int length, char *text)
WM_SETTEXT(<unused>, char *text)
EM_GETLINE(int line, char *text)
EM_REPLACESEL(<unused>, char *text)
EM_SETREADONLY
EM_GETTEXTRANGE(<unused>, TEXTRANGE *tr)
WM_CUT
WM_COPY
WM_PASTE
WM_CLEAR
WM_UNDO
EM_CANUNDO
EM_EMPTYUNDOBUFFER
WM_GETTEXTLENGTH
EM_GETFIRSTVISIBLELINE
EM_GETLINECOUNT
EM_GETMODIFY
EM_SETMODIFY(bool ismodified)
EM_GETRECT(RECT *rect)
EM_GETSEL(int *start, int *end)
EM_EXGETSEL(<unused>, CHARRANGE *cr)
EM_SETSEL(int start, int end)
EM_EXSETSEL(<unused>, CHARRANGE *cr)
EM_GETSELTEXT(<unused>, char *text)
EM_LINEFROMCHAR(int position)
EM_EXLINEFROMCHAR(int position)
EM_LINEINDEX(int line)
EM_LINELENGTH(int position)
EM_SCROLL(int line)
EM_LINESCROLL(int column, int line)
EM_SCROLLCARET()
EM_CANPASTE
EM_CHARFROMPOS(<unused>, POINT *location)
EM_POSFROMCHAR(int position, POINT *location)
EM_SELECTIONTYPE
EM_HIDESELECTION(bool hide)
EM_FINDTEXT(int flags, FINDTEXTEX *ft)
EM_FINDTEXTEX(int flags, FINDTEXTEX *ft)
EM_GETMARGINS
EM_SETMARGINS(EC_LEFTMARGIN or EC_RIGHTMARGIN or EC_USEFONTINFO, int val)
EM_FORMATRANGE

The SCN_POSCHANGED notification is also deprecated.

Edit messages never supported by Scintilla

EM_GETWORDBREAKPROC EM_GETWORDBREAKPROCEX
EM_SETWORDBREAKPROC EM_SETWORDBREAKPROCEX
EM_GETWORDWRAPMODE EM_SETWORDWRAPMODE
EM_LIMITTEXT EM_EXLIMITTEXT
EM_SETRECT EM_SETRECTNP
EM_FMTLINES
EM_GETHANDLE EM_SETHANDLE
EM_GETPASSWORDCHAR EM_SETPASSWORDCHAR
EM_SETTABSTOPS
EM_FINDWORDBREAK
EM_GETCHARFORMAT EM_SETCHARFORMAT
EM_GETOLEINTERFACE EM_SETOLEINTERFACE
EM_SETOLECALLBACK
EM_GETPARAFORMAT EM_SETPARAFORMAT
EM_PASTESPECIAL
EM_REQUESTRESIZE
EM_GETBKGNDCOLOR EM_SETBKGNDCOLOR
EM_STREAMIN EM_STREAMOUT
EM_GETIMECOLOR EM_SETIMECOLOR
EM_GETIMEOPTIONS EM_SETIMEOPTIONS
EM_GETOPTIONS EM_SETOPTIONS
EM_GETPUNCTUATION EM_SETPUNCTUATION
EM_GETTHUMB
EM_GETEVENTMASK
EM_SETEVENTMASK
EM_DISPLAYBAND
EM_SETTARGETDEVICE

Scintilla tries to be a superset of the standard windows Edit and Richedit controls wherever that makes sense. As it is not intended for use in a word processor, some edit messages can not be sensibly handled. Unsupported messages have no effect.

Building Scintilla

To build Scintilla or SciTE, see the README file present in both the scintilla and scite directories. For Windows, GCC 2.95.3, Borland C++ or Microsoft Visual Studio .NET can be used for building. There is a make file for building Scintilla but not SciTE with Visual C++ 6 at scintilla/win32/scintilla_vc6.mak. For GTK+, GCC 2.95.2 should be used. GTK+ 1.2x and 2.0x are supported. Building for GTK+ 2.0x requires defining GTK2 on the command line.

Static linking

On Windows, Scintilla is normally used as a dynamic library as a .DLL file. If you want to link Scintilla directly into your application .EXE or .DLL file, then the STATIC_BUILD preprocessor symbol should be defined and Scintilla_RegisterClasses called. STATIC_BUILD prevents compiling the DllMain function which will conflict with any DllMain defined in your code. Scintilla_RegisterClasses takes the HINSTANCE of your application and ensures that the "Scintilla" window class is registered. To make sure that the right pointing arrow cursor used in the margin is displayed by Scintilla add the scintilla/win32/Margin.cur file to your application's resources with the ID IDC_MARGIN which is defined in scintilla/win32/platfromRes.h as 400.

Ensuring lexers are linked into Scintilla

Depending on the compiler and linker used, the lexers may be stripped out. This is most often caused when building a static library. To ensure the lexers are linked in, the Scintilla_LinkLexers() function may be called.

Changing set of lexers

To change the set of lexers in Scintilla, add and remove lexer source files (Lex*.cxx) from the scintilla/src directory and run the src/LexGen.py script from the src directory to update the make files and KeyWords.cxx. LexGen.py requires Python 2.1 or later.