PL/I Views

The following shows examples of views that are available by default for the PL/I perspective.

PL/I Editor

The PL/I editor provides numerous features to help you write your code such as:

  • Background parsing underlines errors as you type, while hovering over the item gives information on the error.
    GUID-AA9C9E2E-3993-490E-BE44-BCF60B53F849-low.png
  • Content Assist provides context sensitive proposals for typing PL/I code in the editor.
    GUID-94063BE0-6003-4997-8910-086B9E5C2E3D-low.png
  • You can search for references to any variable in your code.
    GUID-2D4BF474-1877-4FDF-A1C0-7460BE27C9B5-low.png
  • The Outline view shows the structure of the file you are editing. This view enables you to navigate around the file. For example, if you want to go to a particular PL/I section or a data item in the Editor view, just click on it in the Outline view.
    GUID-1D13C726-1FDB-4B98-8B81-B80B5B39DEB4-low.png
  • You can use block selection to move blocks of text. Press Alt+Shift+A to switch to block selection mode, then click and drag to select.
    GUID-31B301C6-DBAF-4A3B-8098-CB00FC187129-low.png

PL/I Explorer

The PL/I Explorer view includes the following features to help you manage your projects:
  • For PL/I Project, Remote PL/I Project, and Mainframe PL/I Project types, PL/I Explorer adds category folders that automatically group together your project's PL/I programs and output files. These folders are not physical folders on the disk, but effectively headings for certain file types.
  • To simplify navigation around your project, you can hide some files that are part of the project, such as the .pliBuild, .pliProj, and .project files. In the PL/I Explorer, click GUID-6410CBD6-7549-4B26-8BFD-0BC6B24F1F6A-low.png and then click Customize View and choose from the options.
    Filters
    Choose types of content to hide in the PL/I Explorer:
    Option Description
    .*resources Any files of type .* such as .pliBuild, .pliProj.
    COBOL Copybook projects Any COBOL Copybook projects.
    Closed projects Resources in closed projects never display, you can hide all closed project icons GUID-478E2719-1787-445F-B89D-BF21C1076051-low.png too.
    Derived COBOL programs Programs that have been generated by COBOL preprocessors.
    Empty categories PL/I Projects that do not contain PL/I program files.
    Empty folders inside categories Folders mapped to PL/I Programs that contain no PL/I program files.
    Empty folders outside categories Folders not mapped to the PL/I Programs that contain no PL/I program files.
    Internal TD Project Internal Team Developer projects.
    Non-Micro Focus projects Non-Micro Focus projects.
    Non-PL/I projects Projects of types other than those under Micro Focus PL/I - for example AspectJ, Plug-in, or Update-site projects.
    RSE Internal Projects Projects generated by the RSE plug-in.
    Content
    Choose types of content to show in PL/I Explorer:
    Option Description
    Working Sets Working sets are subsets of workspace resources you can choose to show or perform options on. To define a working set, click Project > Build Working Set > Select Working Set > New.
    COBOL Elements Non-resource types that are PL/I-specific:
    1. x
    2. Category folders, including those for PL/I programs, and BMS macro source files.
    3. Icons for the different types of PL/I files.
    4. Overlays for build errors and warnings.
    5. Some context menu items.
    Resources PL/I projects, and PL/I programs. Has effect only if the COBOL Elements option is unchecked.
  • PL/I Explorer helps you fix problems by using icons to identify files and containers that cause build errors and warnings.
    • A file that generates a warning, and any containing folders and categories, is marked with a yellow warning sign. For example:
      GUID-D4C5C686-D2E9-41BE-A212-47AF6DB982F5-low.png
    • A file that causes an error, and any containing folders and categories, is marked with a cross. In this example the icons indicates a problem caused by opdemo.pli, and the folders are marked with error icons despite opdemo2.pli generating a warning:
      GUID-047F8134-0A0F-4EC5-9DDD-B3ECC176F3F5-low.png
    • A project that suffers from a dependency error is marked with a red exclamation point; its contents remain unmarked. In this example the project depends on another project that is closed, causing a build path problem:
      GUID-C227F027-0B77-4124-9743-C8AFFC621948-low.png