Editor Color tab on Options dialog

This tab of the Options dialog controls optional colorization of source code in the IDE editor (and in any lisp-edit-panes that are used in applications).

Colorize on Open File: If this is checked, then colorization is done automatically when a file is opened in the IDE editor (or when an application calls load-file on a lisp-edit-pane). It is off by default because it significantly delays the opening of files, especially larger files. See colorize-on-load-file. As an alternative in the IDE, there are commands on the Edit menu menu for colorizing on demand only.

Colorize on Typing: If this is checked, then colorization is done as source code is edited if any colorization has been done in that editor buffer (or other lisp-edit-pane) already. (In the IDE, a new buffer is also marked as already-colorized if Colorize on Open File was enabled when the buffer was created.) See colorize-on-typing.

The other eight options determine whether particular types of source code elements are colorized at all, and the color to use for each type. Click a check-box to toggle whether something is colorized, and click the square color button to change the color that is used for that type of element when it is colorized at all. If you would rather set the specific RGB integer values textually instead of using the color dialog, you could do this in the list of all CG configuration options that is shown in the Inspector by the Tools | Inspect System Data | CG Configuration Options menu command; the ten options all begin with the word "color".

If the default color scheme results in too much colorization, then you may prefer (for example) to disable colorization for the various types of external non-user symbols, but continue to color comments and strings. Colorization will also be faster when fewer things are colorized. On the other hand, colorizing external non-user symbols can point out when you are about to unintentionally redefine a CL symbol or when you have misspelled a CL or Allegro symbol.

See also colorize-source-code.

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This page was not revised from the 8.1 page.
Created 2010.1.21.