3.2.6.1 The Editor Feature Set

Here are just a few of the features offered by the editor, as implemented in POV-Ray for Windows:

Color Syntax Highlighting.

Language-specific keywords, comments, and strings are colored differently to set them apart from plain text.

Keyword Completion.

Language-specific keywords can be automatically expanded or cycled through by pressing the TAB key while the caret is at the end of a partial keyword.

CodeList.

A pop-up list of keywords will appear if you press Ctrl + Space anywhere in the editor window. If the edit caret is over a partial keyword, the list will be scrolled appropriately.

User Choice Regarding End-Of-Line Behaviour.

Some users prefer the ability to place the edit caret beyond the end of line, while other users dislike this behaviour. You can choose either.

Fully Customizable Keyboard Mappings.

Keystrokes can be added and removed to emulate popular keyboard mappings, like Brief and Epsilon. Over 120 individual commands are able to be assigned to the keyboard.

Keystroke Macros.

Users can record a series of keystrokes and assign a keystroke to play back the keystrokes repeatedly. Up to 10 macros may be recorded. These are preserved across editing sessions.

Drag and Drop Text Manipulation.

Highlighted text can be dragged and dropped between any window supporting OLE text Drag and Drop. Text may be copied or moved.

Column Selection and Manipulation.

Columns of text can be selected with the mouse and then manipulated. Empty columns (columns with a width of zero characters) can be selected, causing subsequent typing and deletion to occur over multiple lines at the same time.

Multiple Split Views.

Users can create up to four separate views of the same edit buffer. Each view can be scrolled independently.

Unlimited Undo/Redo.

All edit actions are fully undoable and redoable. A limit can be set on the number of edit actions that may be undone.

Auto Indentation.

Once a language is chosen, as the user enters code, CodeMax will automatically indent lines to following the scoping rules of the language.

Optional Auto-Save.

If turned on, changed files are saved periodically.

Optional Auto-Reload of Changed Files.

The editor will optionally automatically reload an editor file that was changed by an external program while POVWIN didn't have the focus. It can also prompt you as to whether or not you want it reloaded (which is the default behaviour).

Brace Matching

Pressing the Ctrl + ] key while the edit caret is on a '[', '(' or '{' will cause the caret to jump to the matching ']', ')' or '}', and vice-versa.

Block Indent/Undent

Pressing the TAB or Shift + Tab keys will indent or unindent a selected block of text.

Tabify/Untabify

You can convert text that was formatted with hard TAB characters into space-expanded form, and vice-versa.

Customizable Colors.

All editor colors (including the background) are customizable. POVWIN also provides two 'quick set' defaults - white text on a black background and black text on a white background.

Smart Case Preservation in Replace Operations.

During search and replace, you can optionally have the replaced text retain its original case.

Enhanced MRU (Most Recently Used files) List

POVWIN's MRU list not only recalls the filenames of recently opened files, it also remembers the the line, column, language, tab and indent settings.

Keyword Expansion and CodeList

This feature allows fast insertion of standard keywords either by typing a partial match and hitting TAB, or by using Ctrl + Space to bring up a complete list.