The Menu

The main menu (the gray bar at the top of the IDE) provides access to all the functionality of the IDE. The menu is always available, except when a dialog is opened. If a dialog is opened, it must be closed first in order to access the menu.

In certain windows, a local menu is also available. The local menu will appear where the cursor is, and provides additional commands that are context-sensitive.

Accessing the menu

The menu can be accessed in a number of ways:

By using the mouse to select items. The mouse cursor should be located over the desired menu item, and a left mouse click will then select it.
By pressing . This will switch the IDE focus to the menu. The arrow keys can then be used to navigate in the menu. The key should be used to select items.
To access menu items directly, can be used to select a menu item. Afterwards submenu entries can be selected by pressing the highlighted letter, but without . E.g. is a fast way to display the goto line dialog.

Every menu item is explained by a short text in the status bar.

When a local menu is available, it can be accessed by pressing the right mouse button or .

To exit any menu without taking any action, press the key twice.

In the following, all menu entries and their actions are described.

The File menu

The menu contains all menu items that allow the user to load and save files, as well as to exit the IDE.

New: Opens a new, empty editor window.
New from template: Prompts for a template to be used, asks to fill in any parameters, and then starts a new editor window with the template.
Open: () Presents a file selection dialog, and opens the selected file in a new editor window. In the file list, entering the beginning of a file name will search for and select the respective file. To search for a directory, enter the first letter with a capital letter.
Print: print the contents of the current edit window.
Print setup: set up the printer properties.
Reload: Reload a file from disk.
Save: () Saves the contents of the current edit window with the current filename. If the current edit window does not yet have a filename, a dialog is presented to enter a new filename.
Save as: Presents a dialog in which a filename can be entered. The current window’s contents are then saved to this new filename, and the filename is stored for further save actions.
Save all: Saves the contents of all edit windows.
Change dir: Presents a dialog in which a directory can be selected. The current working directory is then changed to the selected directory.
Command shell: Executes a command shell. After the shell is exited, the IDE resumes. Which command shell is executed depends on the system.
Exit: () Exits the IDE. If any unsaved files are in the editor, the IDE will ask if these files should be saved.

Under the menu appear some filenames of recently used files. These entries can be used to quickly reload these files in the editor.

The Edit menu

The menu contains entries for accessing the clipboard, and undoing or redoing editing actions. Most of these functions have shortcut keys associated with them.

Undo: () Reverses the effect of the last editing action. The editing actions are stored in a buffer. Selecting this mechanism will move backwards through this buffer, i.e. multiple undo levels are possible. However, any selections that may have been made are not reproduced.
Redo: Repeats the last action that was just undone with Undo. Redo can redo multiple undone actions.
Cut: () Deletes the selected text from the window and copies it to the clipboard. Any previous clipboard contents are lost. The new clipboard contents are available for pasting elsewhere.
Copy: () Copies the current selection to the clipboard. Any previous clipboard contents are lost. The new clipboard contents are available for pasting elsewhere.
Paste: () Inserts the current clipboard contents in the text at the cursor position. The clipboard contents remain as they were.
Clear: () Clears (i.e. deletes) the current selection.
Select All: Selects all text in the current window. The selected text can then be cut or copied to the clipboard.
Unselect: Undo the selection.
Comment: Adds a line comment at the beginning of each selected line.
Uncomment: Removes the line comment from the beginning of each selected line.
Show clipboard: Opens a window in which the current clipboard contents are shown.

When running an IDE under Windows, the menu has two additional entries. The IDE maintains a separate clipboard which does not share its contents with the Windowsclipboard. To access the Windows clipboard, the following two entries are also present:

Copy to Windows: Copy the selection to the Windowsclipboard.
Paste from Windows: Insert the contents of the Windowsclipboard (if it contains text) in the edit window at the current cursor position.

The Search menu

The menu provides access to the search and replace dialogs, as well as access to the symbol browser of the IDE.

Find: () Presents the search dialog. A search text can be entered, and when the dialog is closed, the entered text is searched for in the active window. If the text is found, it will be selected.
Replace: () Presents the search and replace dialog. After the dialog is closed, the search text will be replaced by the replace text in the active window.
Search again: () Repeats the last search or search and replace action, using the same parameters.
Go to line number: () Prompts for a line number, and then jumps to this line number.

When the program and units are compiled with browse information, then the following menu entries are also enabled:

Find procedure: Not yet implemented.
Objects: Asks for the name of an object and opens a browse window for this object.
Modules: Asks for the name of a module and opens a browse window for this module.
Globals: Asks for the name of a global symbol and opens a browse window for this global symbol.
Symbol: Opens a window with all known symbols, so a symbol can be selected. After the symbol is selected, a browse window for that symbol is opened.

The Run menu

The menu contains all entries related to running a program,

Run: () If the sources were modified, compiles the program. If the compile is successful, the program is executed. If the primary file was set, then that is used to determine which program to execute. See section The IDE for more information on how to set the primary file.
Step over: () Run the program until the next source line is reached. If any calls to procedures are made, these will be executed completely as well.
Trace into: () Execute the current line. If the current line contains a call to another procedure, the process will stop at the entry point of the called procedure.
Goto cursor: () Run the program until the execution point matches the line where the cursor is.
Until return: Runs the current procedure until it exits.
Run directory: Set the working directory to change to when executing the program.
Parameters: Permits the entry of parameters that will be passed to the program when it is being executed.
Program reset: () if the program is being run or debugged, the debug session is aborted, and the running program is killed.

The Compile menu

The menu contains all entries related to compiling a program or unit.

Compile: () Compiles the contents of the active window, irrespective of the primary file setting.
Make: () Compiles the contents of the active window, and any files that the unit or program depends on and that were modified since the last compile. If the primary file was set, the primary file is compiled instead.
Build: Compiles the contents of the active window, and any files that the unit or program depends on, whether they were modified or not. If the primary file was set, the primary file is compiled instead.
Target: Sets the target operating system for which the program should be compiled.
Primary file: Sets the primary file. If set, any run or compile command will act on the primary file instead of on the active window. The primary file need not be loaded in the IDE for this to have effect.
Clear primary file: Clears the primary file. After this command, any run or compile action will act on the active window.
Compiler messages: () Displays the compiler messages window. This window will display the messages generated by the compiler during the most recent compile.

The Debug menu

The menu contains menu entries to aid in debugging a program, such as setting breakpoints and watches.

Output: Show user program output in a window.
User screen: () Switches to the screen as it was last left by the running program.
Add watch: () Adds a watch. A watch is an expression that can be evaluated by the IDE and will be shown in a special window. Usually this is the content of some variable.
Watches: Shows the current list of watches in a separate window.
Breakpoint: () Sets a breakpoint at the current line. When debugging, program execution will stop at this breakpoint.
Breakpoint list: Shows the current list of breakpoints in a separate window.
Evaluate
Call stack: () Shows the call stack. The call stack is the list of addresses (and filenames and line numbers, if this information was compiled in) of procedures that are currently being called by the running program.
Disassemble: Shows the call stack.
Registers: Shows the current content of the CPU registers.
Floating point unit: Shows the current content of the FPU registers.
Vector unit: Shows the current content of the MMX (or equivalent) registers.
GDB window: Shows the GDB debugger console. This can be used to interact with the debugger directly; here arbitrary GDB commands can be typed and the result will be shown in the window.

The Tools menu

The menu defines some standard tools. If new tools are defined by the user, they are appended to this menu as well.

Messages: () Shows the messages window. This window contains the output from one of the tools. For more information, see section The IDE.
Goto next: () Goes to the next message.
Goto previous: () Goes to the previous message
Grep: () Prompts for a regular expression and options to be given to grep, and then executes grep with the given expression and options. For this to work, the grep program must be installed on the system, and be in a directory that is in the PATH. For more information, see section The IDE.
Calculator: Displays the calculator. For more information, see section The IDE.
Ascii table: Displays the ASCII table. For more information, see section The IDE.

The Options menu

The menu is the entry point for all dialogs that are used to set options for the compiler and the IDE, as well as the user preferences.

Mode

Presents a dialog to set the current mode of the compiler. The current mode is shown at the right of the menu entry. For more information, see section The IDE.

Compiler

Presents a dialog that can be used to set common compiler options. These options will be used when compiling a program or unit.

Memory sizes

Presents a dialog where the stack size and the heap size for the program can be set. These options will be used when compiling a program.

Linker

Presents a dialog where some linker options can be set. These options will be used when a program or library is compiled.

Debugger

Presents a dialog where the debugging options can be set. These options are used when compiling units or programs. Note that the debugger will not work unless debugging information is generated for the program.

Directories

Presents a dialog where the various directories needed by the compiler can be set. These directories will be used when a program or unit is compiled.

Browser

Presents a dialog where the browser options can be set. The browser options affect the behavior of the symbol browser of the IDE.

Tools

Presents a dialog to configure the tools menu. For more information, see section The IDE.

Environment

Presents a dialog to configure the behavior of the IDE. A sub menu is presented with the various aspects of the IDE:

Preferences: General preferences, such as whether to save files automatically or not, and which files should be saved. The video mode can also be set here.
Editor: Controls various aspects of the edit windows.
CodeComplete: Used to set the words which can be automatically completed when typing in the editor windows.
Codetemplates: Used to define code templates, which can be inserted in an edit window.
Desktop: Used to control the behavior of the desktop, i.e. several features can be switched on or off.
Keyboard & Mouse: Can be used to select the cut/copy/paste convention, control the actions of the mouse, and to assign commands to various mouse actions.
Learn keys: Let the IDE learn keystrokes to be assigned to various commands. This is useful mostly on Linuxand Unix-like platforms, where the actual keys sent to the IDE depend on the terminal emulation.

Open

Presents a dialog in which a file containing editor preferences can be selected. After the dialog is closed, the preferences file will be read and the preferences will be applied.

Save

Saves the current options in the default file.

Save as

Saves the current options in an alternate file. A file selection dialog box will be presented in which the alternate settings file can be specified.

Please note that options are not saved automatically. They should be saved explicitly with the command.

The Window menu

The menu provides access to some window functions. More information on all these functions can be found in section The IDE

Tile: Tiles all opened windows on the desktop.
Cascade: Cascades all opened windows on the desktop.
Close all: Closes all opened windows.
Size/move: () Puts the IDE in Size/move mode; after this command the active window can be moved and resized using the arrow keys.
Zoom: () Zooms or unzooms the current window.
Next: () Activates the next window in the window list.
Previous: () Activates the previous window in the window list.
Hide: () Hides the active window.
Close: () Closes the active window.
List: () Shows a list of opened windows. From there a window can be activated, closed, shown and hidden. The list is searchable by file name.
Refresh display: Redraws the screen.

The Help menu

The menu provides entry points to all the help functionality of the IDE, as well as the means to customize the help system.

Contents: Shows the help table of contents
Index: (SHIFT-F1) Jumps to the help Index.
Topic search: (CTRL-F1) Jumps to the topic associated with the currently highlighted text.
Previous topic: (ALT-F1) Jumps to the previously visited topic.
Using help: Displays help on using the help system.
Files: Allows the configuration of the help menu. With this menu item, help files can be added to the help system.
About: Displays information about the IDE. See section The IDE for more information.

An experiment, built from development snapshots. Not the official Free Pascal or Lazarus documentation.