ide

ide

1. The Explorer

   • The Explorer Filesystems tab presents a hierarchical view of directories and files that have been mounted for use in NetBeans. Files that are used by BBx or one of their accessory programs, such as AppBuilder, are identified by unique icons to the left of the name. Clicking on one of these files with the left mouse button selects it, while clicking with the right mouse button opens a popup menu displaying the operations available for that file.

2. The Source Editor

   • he Source Editor is a modern programmer's text editor that is optimized for writing Business BASIC source code. BBx program files in either text or tokenized format can be opened and edited. The Source Editor provides color syntax highlighting and sophisticated editing features such as advanced text find and replace, keyboard macros, word matching, abbreviation expansion, and quick navigation with bookmarks or Go To line number. Automatic popup code completion simplifies the use of BBj Object Syntax. Breakpoints can be set and saved from the Source Editor for convenience in later debugging sessions. The Source Editor is not connected with a BBj interpreter session and therefore does not require BBjServices to be running when it is used. It is the tool of choice when writing new code or making extensive changes to existing source files. When BBx source code is compiled, any resulting errors are displayed in the Source Editor via hyperlinks from the Compiler Output Window.

3. The Data File Viewer

4. The Debugger

   • The Debugger incorporates BBj debugging and editing tools into the NetBeans environment, adding the ability to work with multiple files and manage projects. The Debugger features color syntax highlighting and code completion like the Source Editor, although other advanced code editing features may not be available. Unlike the Source Editor, the Debugger is always connected to a BBj interpreter and performs automatic syntax error checking as code is modified. Programs can be executed in the Debugger via command line dot-stepping. Breakpoints can be inserted to control the flow, and variables can be monitored in the Watch Tab. The Debugger is the tool of choice for testing application code and making minor editing corrections.

5. The Compiler

   • The IDE allows the compiling of Business BASIC source code into three different token formats. If a development system has PRO/5 installed along with BBj, tokenized program files can be created in any of these formats. Text files and directories of files to be compiled are selected in the NetBeans Explorer. Choosing Compile/Compile All or Build/Build All from the menu feeds all the selected files or directories to the compiler of the desired token format. Any resulting errors are displayed as hyperlinks in the NetBeans Compiler Output Window. Double-clicking on an error hyperlink causes the original text source file to be automatically opened in the Source Editor, where the line containing the error is highlighted. See BASIS IDE Compiler for more information.