Editing

Eclipse provides some powerful editor functionality to help you be more productive and efficient when writing code in the editor. Here are a few examples of functionality which is available in the COBOL editor:

Alternative Editors

Most of the time, the default editor used when you double-click a file is the editor that is required to edit the file. However, when it is not, you can right-click the file and click Open With to select one of the other available editors.

One of the more commonly-used non-default editors is the COBOL Copy View editor, which shows the entire COBOL program with all the COPY statements resolved along with the effects of any REPLACE or COPY REPLACING statements. COBOL Copy View is a read-only editor, and you can open it by pressing F4 while in the COBOL editor or by selecting Open in COBOL Copy View from the context menu of the editor. To navigate back to the standard editor, press F4 again.

Multiple Editors

In Eclipse you can have the same file opened in two or more separate editors at the same time. For example, you can have both a standard COBOL editor open and the COBOL Copy View, and changes made in the standard editor are reflected in the COBOL Copy View as you type.

A file can be opened in as many editors as you like - Eclipse can cope with more than 100 editors. To view multiple editors at the same time, you can rearrange the editor window - click on the editor tab that is currently visible and drag it to the edge of the editor area - a highlighted frame shows how the window will be repositioned when you drop it.