This chapter describes the SlickEdit Core user interface. Much of the power of SlickEdit Core comes from using the keyboard to invoke operations. See Using the Mouse and Keyboard for more information.
Note
SlickEdit® Core does not modify the Eclipse screen layout, so this information is intended only as a brief overview. See "Workbench User Guide" in the Eclipse Help for more details about the Eclipse layout.
The workbench is the area where the workspace, projects, and programs are contained. Use the workbench to manage and edit all projects in various perspectives, views, or editors. Work may only occur in one workbench at a time.
The workspace is a collection of projects. A project contains all resources such as source files, subfolders, icons, and generated code.
A perspective in Eclipse is a set of views and editors. For example, the Java perspective has a much different set of views than the Debug perspective. You can customize each perspective's layout by dragging and dropping.
Use the SlickEdit Core editor to create and change projects, folders, files, and classes. To edit files and classes in SlickEdit Core, first associate those files or classes with the editor or open the source file using the editor.
To associate files to edit, complete the following steps:
From the main menu, click Window → Preferences.
Expand General, then expand Editors and select File Associations.
From the File Types list, select the desired file type. Or, to add an extension, click Add.
From the Associated Editors list, select the desired editor.
To make this the default editor for this file type, click the Default button.
Click OK.
Source files can be opened with the SlickEdit Core editor in the following ways:
To open a source file in the workspace, from the Navigator view, select the desired file. Right-click the file, then select Open.
To open a file using a specific editor, from the Navigator view, select the desired file. Right-click the file, then select Open With.
To open a file that is outside of the workspace, from the main menu, click File → Open.
To the right of the editor is the Overview Ruler for showing the location and type of various annotations in the current file. The Overview Ruler will show almost any annotation contributed to Eclipse by any plug-in. This includes build errors, tasks, bookmarks, breakpoints, and many others.
The Overview Ruler can be used to quickly jump to an annotation, either by using the vertical scroll bar of the editor, or simply by clicking on the annotation marker. Scrolling to an annotation may not be accurate if Soft Wrap is on. To see a preview of an annotation you can hover your mouse over the marker in the ruler. The Overview Ruler is customizable by right-clicking on the ruler and selecting Preferences, or by going to Window → Preferences → General → Editors → Text Editors → Annotations. You can select which annotations get shown in the ruler, and also what colors are used for the markers.
Though the Overview Ruler is shown by default, you can disable it by right-clicking on the ruler and selecting Hide. You can also do this by un-checking Display → Overview Ruler.
SlickEdit® Core provides the ability to switch from the SlickEdit Core editor to several other Eclipse editors, for the current buffer. These commands are provided in the right-click context menu of the editor:
Switch to Java Editor - Changes to the JDT editor. Visible only for Java files.
Switch to C/C++ Editor - Changes to the CDT editor. Visible only for C/C++ files.
Switch to PHP Editor - Changes to the PDT editor. Visible only for PHP files.
Switch to Ant Editor - Changes to the Eclipse Ant
build.xmleditor. Visible only forbuild.xmlfiles.Switch to Plug-in Manifest Editor - Changes to the Eclipse
plugin.xmleditor. Visible only forplugin.xmlfiles.
Similarly, you can also switch from any Eclipse editor to the SlickEdit Core editor for the current buffer. To do this, use the Switch To SlickEdit, accessible from the right-click context menu in the Eclipse editor.
SlickEdit Core adds some new menus to the main menu. It also adds new items to existing menus. Some SlickEdit Core menus, such as the Format menu, are not visible unless the active editor is SlickEdit.For more information on the menu items added by SlickEdit Core, see Menus, Dialogs, and Views.
Views are windows that show various types of information that you can move around and dock within Eclipse. See SlickEdit Core Views for information.
The status area for a perspective and an editor displays text messages. It indicates if the current mode is insert, overwrite, or replace, and if a file is read-only. The editor status area also displays the line and column number for the cursor location.
Although SlickEdit® Core shares a heritage with our stand-alone editor, SlickEdit, dialogs within SlickEdit Core may contain options that are not available when the functionality is not applicable to the Eclipse environment. By the same token, some SlickEdit commands may not be available.
See Menus, Dialogs, and Views for descriptions of the menus and dialog specific to SlickEdit Core.
To activate the SlickEdit® Core command line, press Esc in CUA emulation, Ctrl+A in Vim emulation, or Alt+X in GNU Emacs emulation.
See SlickEdit® Command Line for more information.