# Eclipse platform plugin

Colorer Library introduces its plugin version for the Eclipse platform. Eclipse is a highly configurable and extensible IDE, written on Java. It provides a great API for plugging external components, allowing to use all it's powerful features. Colorer implements multiprogramming language editor with syntax highlighting for the Eclipse platform.

## Installation

To install Colorer for Eclipse you should have EclipseColorer-take5.x.x.x.zip package.

Get EclipseColorer

This package contains EclipseColorer plugin with sources, packed Colorer's HRC database and native library component. It contains sources both for native part and top-level Colorer Java API. Note, that it doesn't contains sources of the Colorer Library. If you want to rebuild native part of the plugin, you have to download latest Colorer Library development package.

Unpack content of plugin's package into `%ECLIPSEHOME%/plugins/` folder and restart Eclipse. Make sure you've extracted `net.sf.colorer/colorer/` folder. It contains HRC database, which is used by the plugin.

You can choose another way to install colorer - using build-in Eclipse Update Manager.

Create new location http://colorer.sf.net/eclipsecolorer/ using update manager, and Eclipse will allow you to automatically install EclipseColorer. Later you can use this way to simply and efficiently update colorer and check for its new versions.

If you already have development Colorer-take5 Library installed in your system (f.e. from full library package version), you can delete `colorer` directory and specify path to your `catalog.xml` file with one of the standard locations. This way is useful for HRC development and for sole HRC catalog location.

## Common features

Colorer for Eclipse IDE supports:

- Default Eclipse editor with syntax highlighting capabilities.
  This editor inherits from standard Eclipse Text Editor, thus allowing to use all default feature of Eclipse Editor. You can reuse all default short-cuts, all actions and so on. Note, that colorer knows nothing about Java Editor or CDT Editor, so you can't use their extended capabilities simultaneously with EclipseColorer.
- Paired constructions highlighting and matching.
- Shortcuts for pairs matching.
- Different color schemes.
- Choosing currently used file type in editor (list of all available types).
- Dynamic library reloading.
- Powerful and flexible outliner for all common languages.
- Errors list is included into the outliner view.
- Colored sources generation into HTML files (Available in the navigator's context menu).
- Replace tabs with spaces option.
- Soft linebreakes option.

## Customization

You can use `Windows/Preferences` menu option to open Eclipse configuration dialog. Entry `Colorer Library` contains several options, managing Editor's look and feel. These includes:

- Current editor line highlighting.
- Editor word-wrap setting.
- Editor tabulation size.
- Current coloring style (one of available).
- Background usage setting (Use default system background or current scheme's explicitly).

To use paired constructions matching, you can open a context menu, when the caret is placed on a paired region. There you can choose commands to find and position caret on the other pair, or to select all the text content between paired structures. These commands could be runned from toolbar buttons also.

If you want to customize icons used to display items in structure tree (outline), place them in `eclipse\plugins\net.sf.colorer_x.x.x\icons\outline\<schemename>` and name as your regions (use existing files for example).

If you want to customize icon for your file type, copy `<editor>` entry under `<extension point="org.eclipse.ui.editors">` entry and replace `id, name, icon, extensions` attributes with your values.