Buffers and windows

Ada-ASSURED is a multi-buffer, multi-window editor. Files are read into buffers and displayed in windows. You are already displaying a given buffer in multiple windows. You can, of course, create as many windows and buffers as you wish.

Command new (menu: File/New   X: Shift+F2   NT: Ctrl+N) creates a new buffer. Buffers of syntactic category compilation contain Ada code whereas buffers of syntactic category TEXT consist of uninterpreted text.

Invoke command new. Enter xyz in the field labelled ``Buffer Name''. Select syntactic category TEXT. Make sure that Yes is selected for the New Window option. Then click on OK.

To illustrate that the text is not interpreted as Ada code, enter:

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,

Of course TEXT buffers can also be used to enter Ada code. Delete the poem and enter:

with text_io;
use text_io;
procedure demo is begin goto a; end;

The Ada syntax checker, formatter, and style enforcer are all available, on demand, in TEXT buffers.

Invoke command parse-buffer (menu: Text/Parse Buffer   X: Alt+^P   NT:Ctrl+Shift+P) to check for syntax errors. Consult the message in the status pane and correct any typos.

Invoke command format (menu: Text/Format) to format the file and check for style violations.

The MESSAGES view is also supported for TEXT buffers, albeit that the output is not kept up to date as the buffer is edited, but is produced only on demand.

Use command change-view (menu: View/Change View   key: F3) to get a new window for buffer xyz in the MESSAGES view. Make sure that Yes is selected for the New Window option.

Invoke command format (menu: Text/Format) in the BASEVIEW of buffer xyz to update the MESSAGES view.

The syntactic mode of a buffer can be changed using command coerce-buffer (X menu: View/Buffers/Coerce Buffer   NT menu: Window/Coerce Buffer). Thus, you can use Ada-ASSURED with full Ada language sensitivity at one moment, and with no language sensitivity the next.

Use command coerce-buffer to change buffer xyz to syntactic mode compilation. Confirm that the buffer now has full language sensitivity.

Use command coerce-buffer to change buffer xyz back to syntactic mode TEXT.