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|
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta name="generator" content="HTML Tidy, see www.w3.org" />
<meta name="generator" content="SciTE" />
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<title>
Scintilla and SciTE
</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<table bgcolor="#000000" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0">
<tr>
<td>
<img src="SciTEIco.png" border="3" height="64" width="64" alt="Scintilla icon" />
</td>
<td>
<a href="index.html" style="color:white;text-decoration:none"><font size="5">
Scintilla</font></a>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<h2>
Scintilla Documentation
</h2>
<p>
There is <a href="Design.html">an overview of the internal design of Scintilla</a>.
</p>
<p>
<a href="ScintillaUsage.html">Some notes on using Scintilla</a>.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
The Windows version of Scintilla is a Windows Control. As such, its primary programming
interface is through Windows messages. It responds to many of the messages defined for the
standard Edit and Richedit controls as well as a suite of its own for controlling syntax
styling, markers, auto-completion and call tips.
</p>
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.
<p>
The messages are (with wParam and lParam use)
</p>
<h3>
Text retrieval and modification.
</h3>
<pre>
WM_GETTEXT(int length, char *text)
WM_SETTEXT(<unused>, char *text)
EM_GETLINE(int line, char *text)
EM_REPLACESEL(<unused>, char *text)
EM_SETREADONLY
SCI_GETREADONLY
EM_GETTEXTRANGE(<unused>, TEXTRANGE *tr)
SCI_ADDTEXT(int length, char *s)
SCI_ADDSTYLEDTEXT(int length, cell *s)
SCI_INSERTTEXT(int pos, char *text)
SCI_CLEARALL
SCI_GETCHARAT(int position)
SCI_GETSTYLEAT(int position)
SCI_GETSTYLEDTEXT(<unused>, TEXTRANGE *tr)
SCI_SETSTYLEBITS(int bits)
SCI_GETSTYLEBITS
</pre>
<p>
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. Indicators may be displayed as simple underlines,
squiggly underlines, a line of small 'T' shapes, a line of diagonal hatching or as strike-out.
Additional indicators such as blurred could be defined in the future.
The number of bits used for styles can be altered
with SCI_SETSTYLEBITS up to a maximum of 6 bits.
The remaining bits can be used for indicators.
</p>
<p>
Positions within the Scintilla document refer to a character or the gap before that
character. The caret exists between character positions and can be located from before the
first character to after the last character. 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.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<h3>
Standard commands
</h3>
<pre>
WM_CUT
WM_COPY
WM_PASTE
WM_CLEAR
</pre>
<h3>
Undo and Redo
</h3>
<pre>
WM_UNDO
EM_CANUNDO
EM_EMPTYUNDOBUFFER
SCI_REDO
SCI_CANREDO
SCI_SETUNDOCOLLECTION(bool collectUndo)
SCI_GETUNDOCOLLECTION
SCI_BEGINUNDOACTION
SCI_ENDUNDOACTION
</pre>
<p>
Scintilla has multiple level undo and redo. It will continue to collect undoable actions
until memory runs out. Sequences of typing or deleting are compressed into single actions to
make it easier to undo and redo at a sensible level of detail. Sequences of actions can be
combined into actions that are undone as a unit. These sequences occur between
SCI_BEGINUNDOACTION and SCI_ENDUNDOACTION messages. These sequences can be nested and only
the top level sequences are undone as units.
</p>
<h3>
Selection and information
</h3>
<pre>
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)
SCI_GETLENGTH
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_GOTOLINE(int line)
SCI_GOTOPOS(int position)
SCI_GETCURLINE(int textlen, char *text)
SCI_LINELENGTH(int line)
SCI_SETCARETPOLICY(int policy)
SCI_LINESONSCREEN
SCI_SELECTIONISRECTANGLE
SCI_SETHSCROLLBAR(bool visible)
SCI_GETHSCROLLBAR
</pre>
<p>
Scintilla maintains a selection which stretches between two points, the anchor and the
current position.
</p>
<p>
EM_SETMODIFY is no longer supported as whether the document is modified is determined by
whether the undo position is at the save point.
</p>
<p>
SCI_GETCURLINE retrieves the text of the line containing the caret and returns the position
within the line of the caret.
</p>
<p>
SCI_SETCARETPOLICY can be set to a combination of the flags CARET_SLOP,
CARET_CENTER, and CARET_STRICT to change the automatic vertical positioning of the view
when ensuring a position is visible.
</p>
<h3>
Searching
</h3>
<pre>
EM_FINDTEXT(int flags, FINDTEXTEX *ft)
EM_FINDTEXTEX(int flags, FINDTEXTEX *ft)
</pre>
<p>
Scintilla can find where a string is present in its document.
</p>
<pre>
SCI_SEARCHANCHOR
SCI_SEARCHNEXT(int flags, char *text)
SCI_SEARCHPREV(int flags, char *text)
</pre>
<p>
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.
</p>
<h3>
Visible white space
</h3>
<pre>
SCI_GETVIEWWS
SCI_SETVIEWWS(bool visible)
</pre>
<p>
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.
</p>
<h3>
Line endings
</h3>
<pre>
SCI_GETEOLMODE
SCI_SETEOLMODE(SC_EOL_CRLF or SC_EOL_CR or SC_EOL_LF)
SCI_GETVIEWEOL
SCI_SETVIEWEOL(bool visible)
SCI_CONVERTEOLS(SC_EOL_CRLF or SC_EOL_CR or SC_EOL_LF)
</pre>
<p>
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 taking a an argument of SC_EOL_CRLF, SC_EOL_CR, or SC_EOL_LF. The
SCI_GETEOLMODE message retrieves the current state.
</p>
<p>
The characters that make up line ends can be made visible with the view EOL option. This
looks similar to (CR), (LF), or (CR)(LF).
</p>
<p>
All of the line ends in the document may be changed by calling SCI_CONVERTEOLS with the
desired line ending.
</p>
<h3>
Styling
</h3>
<pre>
SCI_GETENDSTYLED
SCI_STARTSTYLING(int position, int mask)
SCI_SETSTYLING(int length, int style)
SCI_SETSTYLINGEX(int length, stylesequence *s)
SCI_SETLINESTATE(int line, int value)
SCI_GETLINESTATE(int line)
</pre>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
To perform the actual styling, SCI_STARTSTYLING is sent with the position 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. After SCI_STARTSTYLING, multiple
SCI_SETSTYLING messages are sent for each lexical entity to be styled.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<h3>
Style Definition
</h3>
<pre>
SCI_STYLECLEARALL
SCI_STYLERESETDEFAULT
SCI_STYLESETFORE(int stylenumber, int colour)
SCI_STYLESETBACK(int stylenumber, int colour)
SCI_STYLESETBOLD(int stylenumber, bool bold)
SCI_STYLESETITALIC(int stylenumber, bool italic)
SCI_STYLESETSIZE(int stylenumber, int sizeinpoints)
SCI_STYLESETFONT(int stylenumber, char *fontname)
SCI_STYLESETEOLFILLED(int stylenumber, bool eolfilled)
SCI_STYLESETUNDERLINE(int stylenumber, bool underline)
SCI_STYLESETCHARACTERSET(int stylenumber, int charset)
</pre>
<p>
While the style setting messages mentioned above, change the style numbers associated with
text, these messages define how those style numbers are interpreted visually. The
STYLE_DEFAULT style defines the attributes that all styles will receive when
SCI_STYLECLEARALL is called. SCI_STYLERESETDEFAULT resets STYLE_DEFAULT to its state when
Scintilla was initialised.
</p>
<p>
The EOLFILLED style allows to colourise from the end of the line to the right side of the
window.
</p>
<p>
SCI_STYLESETCHARACTERSET can set a style to use a different character set than the default.
For example, SCI_STYLESETCHARACTERSET(SCE_C_STRING, SC_CHARSET_RUSSIAN)
would ensure that strings in Russian would display correctly.
This feature currently only works on Windows.
</p>
<p>
As well as the 32 fundamental lexer styles, there are also some predefined numbered styles
starting at 32, STYLE_DEFAULT, STYLE_LINENUMBER, STYLE_BRACELIGHT, STYLE_BRACEBAD,
STYLE_CONTROLCHAR, and STYLE_INDENTGUIDE.
These can be defined with the SCI_STYLESET* messages.
</p>
<pre>
SCI_SETFORE(int colour)
SCI_SETBACK(int colour)
SCI_SETBOLD(bool bold)
SCI_SETITALIC(bool italic)
SCI_SETSIZE(int sizeinpoints)
SCI_SETFONT(char *fontname)
</pre>
<p>
These messages are responsible for global default styling and are used when no explicit
setting is defined for a style.<br />
These messages are deprecated in favour of using the SCI_STYLESET* messages for
STYLE_DEFAULT. They will be removed in a future release.
</p>
<pre>
SCI_SETSELFORE(bool useSelectionForeColour, int colour)
SCI_SETSELBACK(bool useSelectionBackColour, int colour)
SCI_SETCARETFORE(int colour)
SCI_GETCARETFORE
SCI_GETCARETPERIOD
SCI_SETCARETPERIOD(int milliseconds)
</pre>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
The colour of the caret can be set with SCI_SETCARETFORE. 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.
</p>
<h3>
Margins
</h3>
<pre>
EM_GETMARGINS
EM_SETMARGINS(EC_LEFTMARGIN or EC_RIGHTMARGIN or EC_USEFONTINFO, int val)
</pre>
<p>
Gets or sets the width of the blank margin on both sides of the text. This defaults to one
pixel on each side. val contains a left margin size in its low word and a right margin size
in its high word. This is also the way that EM_GETMARGINS returns the current setting.
EC_LEFTMARGIN and EC_RIGHTMARGIN are bit flags that can be used individually or combined to
set both margins at once. EC_USEFONTINFO ignores val and sets both margins to be half the
average character width in the current default font.
</p>
<pre>
SCI_SETMARGINTYPEN(int margin, SC_MARGIN_SYMBOL | SC_MARGIN_NUMBER)
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)
</pre>
<p>
There may be up to three margins to the left of the text display. Each margin may contain
marker symbols and some may be set to display line numbers
(with SCI_SETMARGINTYPEN). The markers 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. Each margin may be made sensitive to mouse
clicks. A click in a sensitive margin will result in a SCN_MARGINCLICK notification being
sent to the container. Margins that are not sensitive act as selection margins which make it
easy to select ranges of lines.
</p>
<p>
Earlier versions of Scintilla hard coded particular margin types and provided
SCI_SETMARGINWIDTH and SCI_SETLINENUMBERWIDTH which are
now deprecated.
</p>
<h3>
Other settings
</h3>
<pre>
SCI_SETUSEPALETTE(bool allowPaletteUse)
SCI_GETUSEPALETTE
</pre>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
Because of these issues, the application must tell Scintilla to use a palette. If Scintilla
is not using a palette, then it will only be able to display in those colours already
available, which are often the 20 Windows system colours.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<pre>
SCI_SETBUFFEREDDRAW(bool isbuffered)
SCI_GETBUFFEREDDRAW
</pre>
<p>
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.
</p>
<pre>
SCI_GETTABWIDTH
SCI_SETTABWIDTH(int widthinchars)
SCI_GETINDENT
SCI_SETINDENT(int widthinchars)
SCI_GETUSETABS
SCI_SETUSETABS(bool usetabs)
</pre>
<p>
SCI_SETTABWIDTH sets the size of a tab as a multiple of the size of a space character in the style of the
first style definition. SCI_SETINDENT sets the size of indentation in terms of characters.
SCI_SETUSETABS determines whether indentation should be created out of a mixture of tabs
and space or be based purely on spaces.
</p>
<pre>
SCI_SETLINEINDENTATION(int line, int indentation)
SCI_GETLINEINDENTATION(int line)
SCI_GETLINEINDENTPOSITION(int line)
SCI_GETCOLUMN(int position)
</pre>
<p>
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 returns the position at the end of indentation of a line.
SCI_GETCOLUMN returns the column number of a position within the document taking the width
of tabs into account.
</p>
<pre>
SCI_SETCODEPAGE(int codepage)
SCI_GETCODEPAGE
</pre>
<p>
Scintilla has some very simple Japanese DBCS (and probably Chinese and Korean) support. Use
this message with argument 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 argument set to zero to disable DBCS support.
</p>
<p>
On Windows, code page SC_CP_UTF8 (65001) sets Scintilla into Unicode mode with the
document treated as a sequence of characters expressed in UTF8. The text is converted to
UCS-2 before being drawn by the OS and can thus display Hebrew, Arabic, Cyrillic, and
Han characters.
</p>
<pre>
SCI_SETWORDCHARS(<unused>, char *chars)
</pre>
<p>
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.
</p>
<pre>
SCI_GRABFOCUS
</pre>
<p>
On GTK+, focus handling is more complicated than on Windows, so Scintilla can be told with
this message to grab the focus.
</p>
<h3>
Brace highlighting
</h3>
<pre>
SCI_BRACEHIGHLIGHT(int pos1, int pos2)
SCI_BRACEBADLIGHT(int pos1)
SCI_BRACEMATCH(int position, int maxReStyle)
</pre>
<p>
Up to two characters can be highlighted in a 'brace highlighting style' which is defined as
style number 34. If there is no matching brace then the 'brace badlighting style', style
number 35, can be used to show the brace that is unmatched. Using a position of
INVALID_POSITION removes the highlight.
</p>
<p>
The SCI_BRACEMATCH message finds a corresponding matching brace given the position of one
brace. The brace characters handled are '(', ')', '[', ']', '{', '}', '<', and '>'. 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.
</p>
<h3>
Indentation Guides
</h3>
<pre>
SCI_SETINDENTATIONGUIDES(bool view)
SCI_GETINDENTATIONGUIDES
SCI_SETHIGHLIGHTGUIDE(int column)
SCI_GETHIGHLIGHTGUIDE
</pre>
<p>
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 37 is used to specify the foreground and
background colour of the indentation guides.
</p>
<p>
When brace highlighting occurs, the indentation guide corresponding to the braces may be
highlighted with the brace highlighting style, 34.
</p>
<h3>
Markers
</h3>
<pre>
SCI_MARKERDEFINE(int markernumber, int markersymbols)
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)
</pre>
<p>
Markers appear in the selection margin to the left of the text. They are small geometric
symbols often used in debuggers to indicate breakpoints and the current line. If the
selection margin is set to zero width then the background colour of the whole line is changed
instead. There may be up to 32 marker symbols defined and each line has a set of these markers
associated with it. The markers are drawn in the order of their numbers. 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. The
SCI_MARKERDELETEALL removes markers of the given number from all lines, and treats a
parameter of -1 as meaning delete all markers from all lines.<br />
SCI_MARKERADD returns a marker handle number which may be used to find out where a marker
has moved to with the SCI_MARKERLINEFROMHANDLE message. SCI_MARKERDELETEHANDLE can be used to
delete a marker based upon its handle.
</p>
<p>
SCI_MARKERGET retrieves the set of markers associated with a line. SCI_MARKERNEXT and
SCI_MARKERPREVIOUS can be used to efficiently search for lines that contain markers. They
return the next / previous line with a set of markers that includes some of the bits set in
the markermask parameter.<br />
The markermask is equal to a OR of (1 << markernumber) for each marker of the desired
/ retrieved set.
</p>
<p>
The 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. The SC_MARK_EMPTY symbol is invisible,
allowing client code to track the movement of lines.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<h3>
Indicators
</h3>
<pre>
SCI_INDICSETSTYLE(int indicatornumber, int indicatorstyle)
SCI_INDICGETSTYLE(int indicatornumber)
SCI_INDICSETFORE(int indicatornumber, int colour)
SCI_INDICGETFORE(int indicatornumber)
</pre>
<p>
These messages allow setting the visual appearance of the three (0, 1, and 2) available
indicators.
</p>
<p>
The indicator styles currently available are INDIC_PLAIN, INDIC_SQUIGGLE, INDIC_TT,
INDIC_DIAGONAL, and INDIC_STRIKE.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<h3>
Autocompletion
</h3>
<pre>
SCI_AUTOCSHOW(int lenEntered;,char *list)
SCI_AUTOCCANCEL
SCI_AUTOCACTIVE
SCI_AUTOCPOSSTART
SCI_AUTOCCOMPLETE
SCI_AUTOCSTOPS(<unused>,char *chars)
SCI_AUTOCSETSEPARATOR(char separator)
SCI_AUTOCGETSEPARATOR
SCI_AUTOCSELECT(<unused>,char *stringtoselect)
</pre>
<p>
Auto completion displays a list box based upon the users typing showing likely identifiers.
The SCI_AUTOCSHOW message causes this list to be displayed, with its argument being a 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.
SCI_AUTOCPOSSTART returns the value of the current
position when SCI_AUTOCSHOW started display of the list.
An entry can be selected SCI_AUTOCSELECT.
</p>
<p>
The current selection can be triggered with the SCI_AUTOCCOMPLETE message. This has the same
effect as the tab key. 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.
</p>
<h3>
Calltips
</h3>
<pre>
SCI_CALLTIPSHOW(int posStart, char *definition)
SCI_CALLTIPCANCEL
SCI_CALLTIPACTIVE
SCI_CALLTIPPOSSTART
SCI_CALLTIPSETHLT(int highlightstart, int highlightend)
SCI_CALLTIPSETBACK(int colour)
</pre>
<p>
Call tips are small windows displaying the arguments to a function and are displayed after
the user has typed the name of the function. As the user types values for each argument, the
name of the argument currently being entered is highlighted.
</p>
<p>
SCI_CALLTIPSHOW starts the process by displaying the calltip window, with the definition
argument containing the text to display. SCI_CALLTIPPOSSTART returns the value of the current
position when SCI_CALLTIPSHOW started display of the list. SCI_CALLTIPSETHLT sets the region
of the calltip text displayed in a highlighted style. The background colour of calltips can
be set with SCI_CALLTIPSETBACK with the default being white.
</p>
<h3>
Keyboard Commands
</h3>
<pre>
SCI_LINEDOWN
SCI_LINEDOWNEXTEND
SCI_LINEUP
SCI_LINEUPEXTEND
SCI_CHARLEFT
SCI_CHARLEFTEXTEND
SCI_CHARRIGHT
SCI_CHARRIGHTEXTEND
SCI_WORDLEFT
SCI_WORDLEFTEXTEND
SCI_WORDRIGHT
SCI_WORDRIGHTEXTEND
SCI_HOME
SCI_HOMEEXTEND
SCI_LINEEND
SCI_LINEENDEXTEND
SCI_DOCUMENTSTART
SCI_DOCUMENTSTARTEXTEND
SCI_DOCUMENTEND
SCI_DOCUMENTENDEXTEND
SCI_PAGEUP
SCI_PAGEUPEXTEND
SCI_PAGEDOWN
SCI_PAGEDOWNEXTEND
SCI_EDITTOGGLEOVERTYPE
SCI_CANCEL
SCI_DELETEBACK
SCI_TAB
SCI_BACKTAB
SCI_NEWLINE
SCI_FORMFEED
SCI_VCHOME
SCI_VCHOMEEXTEND
SCI_DELWORDLEFT
SCI_DELWORDRIGHT
SCI_LINESCROLLDOWN
SCI_LINESCROLLUP
SCI_LINECUT
SCI_LINEDELETE
SCI_LINETRANSPOSE
SCI_LOWERCASE
SCI_UPPERCASE
</pre>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
These commands are also used when redefining the key bindings with the SCI_ASSIGNCMDKEY
message.
</p>
<h3>
Key Bindings
</h3>
<pre>
SCI_ASSIGNCMDKEY((short key,short modifiers), int message)
SCI_CLEARCMDKEY((short key,short modifiers))
SCI_CLEARALLCMDKEYS
</pre>
<p>
There is a default binding of keys to commands in Scintilla which can be overridden with
these messages. To fit the parameters into a message, the first argument contains the key
code in the low word and the key modifiers (possibly shift and control) in the high word. The
key code is from the VK_* enumeration, and the modifiers are a combination of zero or more of
SHIFT_PRESSED and LEFT_CTRL_PRESSED.
</p>
<h3>
Popup edit menu
</h3>
<pre>
SCI_USEPOPUP
</pre>
<p>
Clicking the wrong button on the mouse pops up a short default editing menu.
This may be turned off with SCI_USEPOPUP(0).
</p>
<h3>
Macro Recording
</h3>
<pre>
SCI_STARTRECORD
SCI_STOPRECORD
</pre>
<p>
Starts and stops macro recording mode.
</p>
<h3>
Printing
</h3>
<pre>
EM_FORMATRANGE
</pre>
<p>
On Windows EM_FORMATRANGE can be used to draw the text onto a display context which can
include a printer display context.
</p>
<h3>
Multiple Views
</h3>
<pre>
SCI_GETDOCPOINTER
SCI_SETDOCPOINTER(<unused>,document *pdoc)
SCI_CREATEDOCUMENT
SCI_ADDREFDOCUMENT(<unused>,document *pdoc)
SCI_RELEASEDOCUMENT(<unused>,document *pdoc)
</pre>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<h3>
Folding
</h3>
<pre>
SCI_VISIBLEFROMDOCLINE(int docLine)
SCI_DOCLINEFROMVISIBLE(int displayLine)
SCI_SETFOLDLEVEL(int line, int level)
SCI_GETFOLDLEVEL(int level)
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)
SCI_GETFOLDEXPANDED(int line)
SCI_TOGGLEFOLD(int line)
SCI_ENSUREVISIBLE(int line)
</pre>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
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.
There
are also two bit flags associated with each line. SC_FOLDLEVELWHITEFLAG
indicates that the line is blank and allows 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.
</p>
<p>
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).
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<h3>
Zooming
</h3>
<pre>
SCI_ZOOMIN
SCI_ZOOMOUT
SCI_SETZOOM
SCI_GETZOOM
</pre>
<p>
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.
</p>
<h3>
Long Lines
</h3>
<pre>
SCI_GETEDGECOLUMN
SCI_SETEDGECOLUMN(int column)
SCI_GETEDGEMODE
SCI_SETEDGEMODE(int mode)
SCI_GETEDGECOLOUR
SCI_SETEDGECOLOUR(int colour)
</pre>
<p>
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).
</p>
<h3>
Lexer
</h3>
<pre>
SCI_SETLEXER(int lexer)
SCI_GETLEXER
SCI_COLOURISE(int start, int end)
SCI_SETPROPERTY(char *key, char *value)
SCI_SETKEYWORDS(int keywordset, char *keywordlist)
</pre>
<p>
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.
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.
</p>
<p>
Settings can be communicated to the lexers using SCI_SETPROPERTY. Currently the "fold"
property is defined for the SCLEX_PYTHON, SCLEX_CPP, and SCLEX_SQL 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 is for HTML, 1 is for Javascript and 2 is for VBScript.
</p>
<h3>
Notifications
</h3>
<p>
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
with a structure containing information about the event.
</p>
<pre>
SCN_STYLENEEDED(int endstyleneeded)
</pre>
<p>
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.
</p>
<pre>
SCN_UPDATEUI
SCN_CHECKBRACE
</pre>
<p>
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.
</p>
<pre>
SCN_CHARADDED(int charadded)
</pre>
<p>
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.
</p>
<pre>
SCN_SAVEPOINTREACHED(int issavepoint)
SCI_SETSAVEPOINT
</pre>
<p>
Sent to the container when the savepoint is entered or left, allowing the container to
display a dirty indicator and change its menus. The first parameter is 1 when entering the
save point, 0 when leaving.
</p>
<p>
The container tells Scintilla where the save point is by sending the SCI_SETSAVEPOINT
message. This is usually done when the file is saved or loaded. As Scintilla performs
undo and redo operations, it will notify the container that it has entered or left the save
point, allowing the container to know if the file should be considered dirty or not.
</p>
<pre>
SCN_MODIFYATTEMPTRO
</pre>
<p>
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.
</p>
<pre>
SCN_DOUBLECLICK
</pre>
<p>
Mouse button was double clicked in editor.
</p>
<pre>
SCN_KEY
</pre>
<p>
Reports all keys pressed. Used on GTK+ because of some problems with keyboard focus. Not
sent by Windows version.
</p>
<pre>
SCN_MODIFIED
EN_CHANGE
SCI_SETMODEVENTMASK(int eventmask)
SCI_GETMODEVENTMASK
</pre>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
EN_CHANGE is fired when the text of the document has been changed for any reason. This
notification is sent using the WM_COMMAND message as this is the behaviour of the standard
edit control.
</p>
<p>
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).
</p>
<pre>
SCN_MACRORECORD
</pre>
<p>
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.
</p>
<pre>
SCN_MARGINCLICK
</pre>
<p>
Tells the container that the mouse was clicked inside a margin marked sensitive.
Can be used to perform folding or to place breakpoints.
</p>
<pre>
SCN_NEEDSHOWN
</pre>
<p>
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.
</p>
<h3>
Edit messages not supported by Scintilla
</h3>
<pre>
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
</pre>
<p>
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.
</p>
<h3>
Building Scintilla on Windows
</h3>
<p>
Scintilla and SciTE have been developed using Mingw32 GCC 2.9.5 and most testing has
occurred on executables produced by this compiler. It may also be compiled with Visual C++
which leads to smaller executables. It will no longer build with the older release of Mingw32
EGCS 1.1.2 which used a different set of Windows headers to GCC 2.9.5.
</p>
<p>
To compile with GCC, use make on the "makefile" file.<br />
</p>
<p>
To compile with VC++, use nmake on the "makefile_vc" file.
</p>
<p>
To compile with Borland C++ or C++ Builder, use make on the "makefile_bor" file.
</p>
<p>
Scintilla can also be linked into an application statically. To do this, the symbol
STATIC_BUILD should be defined and the function Scintilla_RegisterClasses called to
initialise Scintilla. The Sc1.exe target in the makefile demonstrates building a statically
linked version of SciTE.
</p>
<h3>
Building Scintilla with GTK+ on Linux
</h3>
<p>
On Linux, Scintilla and SciTE have been built with GCC and linked with GTK+ 1.2x. GTK+ 1.0x
will not work (and when it did it was very slow). The current make file only supports static
linking between SciTE and Scintilla. The gtk/makefile file is used to build SciTE, it can be
invoked as:<br />
make<br />
The SciTEGTK.properties file is better than the SciTEGlobal.properties for use on Linux/GTK+
as it specifies fonts that are likely to be installed. Under Linux, SciTE reads its
SciTEGlobal.properties file from the user's home directory.
</p>
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