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Configuration

TDE uses three external files: tde.cfg, tde.hlp and tde.shl (in UNIX the dot is at the front). These files are read from the home directory (the global file) and/or the current directory (the local file). The home directory is determined by the environment variables TDEHOME or HOME, or the same path as TDE itself, whichever exists first (however, in order for HOME to be used in DOS or Windows, tde.cfg must already exist in it). The default tde.cfg and tde.hlp files can be found in the config directory (without any dot for UNIX); the default tde.shl is called tdedist.shl in the source distribution (its tde.shl includes TDE's own highlighting).

tde.cfg
This file defines what key performs what function (including macros) and the initial state of the editor (mode settings and colors). It can also define upper and lower case letters and the sort sequence. Please see the default file for more information. It is loaded globally first and then locally (i.e. both locations, not one or the other).
tde.hlp
This file contains the screen(s) displayed when Help is pressed. It is at most 50 lines, with at most 100 characters per line; any more than this will be ignored. Lines need not be the same length, as all lines will be space-padded to the length of the longest. Two screens are present, one for the normal help and another for read-only files; separate the two with a `<<<>>>' sequence. If tde.hlp doesn't exist locally it will be read globally. A local file need only define one type of screen; the other will still be read globally.
tde.shl
This file supplies the colors used for syntax highlighting and the information required to assign those colors to a particular file. It searches for the language locally first and then tries globally. Note that when a local language is found, all the patterns are prefixed with the current directory.

Syntax Highlighting

The colors always come first in the file. They are global for all languages. Colors are defined in the same manner as in the configuration file (see config/tde.cfg). Following are all the recognized colors, with their default color in brackets.

background
The default background color for all the following (blue).
normal
The color for any text that is not explicitly highlighted (yellow).
bad
The color for invalid components, such as malformed numbers, character literals containing too many characters, or unterminated string and character literals (bright red).
keyword
The color of keywords (white).
comment
The color of comments (grey).
function
The color of function names (bright green).
string
The color of string literals (bright cyan).
character
The color of character literals (bright cyan).
integer
The color of numbers (in decimal, without a point; bright cyan).
binary
The color of binary (base 2) numbers (bright cyan).
octal
The color of octal (base 8) numbers (bright cyan).
hex
The color of hexadecimal (base 16) numbers (bright cyan).
real
The color of numbers with a decimal point (bright cyan).
preprocessor
The color of preprocessor statements (cyan).
symbol
The color of any non-alphanumeric that is otherwise unrecognized (white).

The language definitions follow the colors. Each definition is started with language and continues until the next language or EOF. The following keywords can be used to define a language (where `[]' indicates an optional component and `|' indicates one or the other):

language name [from] parent
Associates name with the syntax highlighting information. This is what is used to select a particular syntax highlight (see SyntaxSelect). If parent exists, this language will inherit all of parent's language definitions.
pattern wildcards
Must follow immediately after language. It is a space-separated list of wildcards to identify a language from a file's extension (or name, or even path).
case match | ignore
Determines if keywords will be case sensitive or insensitive. The default is match.
startword list
inword list
innumber list
A list (or range) of characters that may start a word (or, more correctly, an identifier), be found within a word and be found within numbers.
comment string
comment string1 string2
Indicates string will begin a line comment (stops at the end of the line), or that string1 and string2 will begin and end a block comment (can extend across multiple lines). Each string can be up to four characters and there can be two of each type of comment.
function char
Identifiers that are followed by char (allowing for whitespace, but not across line boundaries) are given the function color.
preprocessor char2 [spanline char]
Lines that begin with char2 (one or two characters) are given the preprocessor color. If the line ends in char, the preprocessor will continue on the next line.
binary char2- | -char2
octal char2- | -char2
hex char2- | -char2
Define the format of binary, octal and hexadecimal numbers. The first form indicates a prefix (such as C's `0x123'), the second a suffix (such as assembly's `123h').
string c1 [c2] [spanline char] [newline]
character c1 [c2] [num] [spanline char] [newline]
Define the starting and closing characters of string and character literals. If c2 is missing, it is taken the same as c1. spanline indicates the literal will continue onto the next line if this line ends in char; newline indicates that it will continue onto the next line, regardless. num is the maximum number of characters permitted in a character literal. The default is one; if it is zero, character functions identically to string.
escape char
When char is encountered within a string or character literal, the following character is skipped over.
keyword list
The words in list will be displayed in the keyword color. Note that all of the color keywords can be used in this fashion (when list starts with a character from startword).
color list
Use color to display the words in list.
InflateTabs
LTabSize
Macro
PseudoMacro
PTabSize
UserMenu
The same as the configuration file, although macros must be defined using a two-key combination.