alien.png Settings screen -- Editor tab
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editor 1 (settings).png
Figure 5. General tab of the editor section in the settings screen.

The editor section of the settings screen, let's you decide how the editor of CA3 (edit child) looks like. First the general tab sheet.

Font
 
Font  
What kind of font do you want to use in the editor? Recommended is COURIER NEW. Be sure to at least use a FIXED font width. This is for the readability of your source, it just looks better with a fixed font and is better for your eyes since reading that will take not as much energy when every letter / word has a fixed space to each other.  
 
Size  
The size of the font you want to use. Recommended is 8-12. Try not to get the font size any larger, check the Font section why (readability).  
 
Preview  
When you change the font and or font styles, the changes will be directly applied to the preview box. In that way you can decide whether or not you like the current settings, before making the changes 'for real'.  
 
Use auto indent  
TASM requires every command to have at least one white space at the beginning of the line. Normally you use a TAB character for that. That's just for the readability. When you check this option, CA3 will enter the white spaces at the beginning of the line you pressed enter into the new line. With an example this is better to explain:  
 
MyLabel:  
   ld a,4  
   ld b,6  
   call MyProc [Enter]  
   |  
 
The | indicates the cursor position after you've pressed enter at the position where the [enter] text is. That's auto indent. Recommended!  
 
 
Default font color  
This is the color for the default font used in the editor. More about this in the Colors tab of this editor screen. Recommended font colors are Black and White (Black for foreground and White for background).  




editor 2 (settings).png
Figure 6. Color tab of the editor section in the settings screen.

Since the editor of CA3 has a syntax highlighting routine in it, we thought it would be nice to make these colors customizable. And that's what you can set right here.

Element
 
Select an element  
Click on one of the listed elements to change the color of that element. As you can see here, I've selected the binary number element. Directly after you select an element, the little color palette will show the current colors and styles for the selected element. When you enable the Default foreground the color used for a binary number will be the color selected for the font in the General tab of this settings screen. The same goes for the Default background only then it (of course will be for the background color of the element).  
Also you can select a font style to be used for the element. If you check the .org in the preview editor, you'll notice it's bold. That element has both the default fore- and background color, but has the bold option checked.  
To select a certain color, use LEFT MOUSE CLICK for a foreground color and RIGHT MOUSE CLICK for a background color.