I suspect we are boring the cr@p out of everyone else but
> I wouldn't regard those two as different
Well, I suppose. I see a big difference between "if you see the string
'GETMAIN' or "FREEMAIN' or "ATTACH' highlight it" and "highlight any line that
beings with .*" but yeah, diff'rent strokes ...
Abe used the term macro in the two different contexts: "I added more macros [to
the list that includes GETMAIN]" and "I was disappointed that macro .* comments
don't work." (Gross paraphrasing of Abe on my part.) Notepad++ refers to both
capabilities as keywords, so that supports your view.
> I suppose that might be done by modifying the core code of Notepad++
> itself, but I doubt that's what you did.
Correct. IIIRC Notepad++ is gnu free but not open source. I could be wrong. In
any event, that is not what I did. I used a supported customization-type
facility.
It's done in XML. Here is what my actual formatting customization looks like:
<NotepadPlus>
<UserLang name="HLASM" ext="zasm" udlVersion="2.1">
<Settings>
<Global caseIgnored="yes" allowFoldOfComments="no" foldCompact="no"
forcePureLC="1" decimalSeparator="0" />
<Prefix Keywords1="no" Keywords2="no" Keywords3="no" Keywords4="no"
Keywords5="no" Keywords6="no" Keywords7="no" Keywords8="no" />
</Settings>
<KeywordLists>
<Keywords name="Comments">00* 01 02 03 04</Keywords>
<Keywords name="Numbers, prefix1"></Keywords>
...
<Keywords name="Keywords1">A AD ADB ADBR ADR ADTR ADTRA AE AEB AEBR
AER AFI AG AGF ...
...
<Keywords name="Keywords4">ABEND ALESERV ASASYMBM ATTACH ATTACHX ...
Charles
-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Assembler List [mailto:ASSEMBLER-LIST@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
Behalf Of Paul Gilmartin
Sent: Monday, June 5, 2023 9:54 AM
To: ASSEMBLER-LIST@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Notepad++ language formatting
On 6/5/23 09:30:05, Charles Mills wrote:
> There are potentially three meanings for "macro" in this thread.
>
> 1. Part of what the formatting does is highlight z/OS macro names in the
> code. So if you code GETMAIN it knows that is a keyword, not some random
> token. There is a list of z/OS macro names in the file that makes that magic
> work.
>
> 2. Part of what the formatting does is highlight comments. If you code *
> Clear R2 then it knows to format that in green italics. HLASM has macro
> comments that begin with .* and unfortunately Notepad++ does not have any
> ability to recognize comments based on their first TWO characters. You just
> can't do that in a formatting file.
I wouldn't regard those two as different -- just the same operation,
possibly using different colors.
> 3. @Gil apparently assumed there were some sort of macros in the formatting
> process itself. A macro to recognize a comment or something like that. Nope,
> it does not work that way. There are no macros in the formatting file itself.
I suppose that might be done by modifying the core code of Notepad++
itself, but I doubt that's what you did.
If I were doing such a repetitive operation in XEDIT or ISPF, I would
use external code in REXX, EXEC2, CLIST, ..., commonly called a
"macro". Has Notepad++ have such a facility for encapsulating
routine repetitive operations, apparently not called a "macro"
but something else. In what language might it be coded, even as
for XEDIT or ISPF I'd use REXX or CLIST?
