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Prima::Edit(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation Prima::Edit(3)

Prima::Edit - standard text editing widget

        use Prima qw(Edit Application);
        my $e = Prima::Edit->new(
                text         => 'Hello $world',
                syntaxHilite => 1,
        );
        run Prima;

The class provides text editing capabilities, three types of selection, text wrapping, syntax highlighting, auto indenting, undo and redo function, search and replace methods.

The module declares "bt::" package, that contains integer constants for selection block type, used by blockType property.

The text is stored line-wise in "{lines}" array; to access it use get_line method. To access the text chunk-wise, use get_chunk method.

All keyboard events, except the character input and tab key handling, are processed by the accelerator table ( see Prima::Menu ). The default "accelItems" table defines names, keyboard combinations, and the corresponding actions to the class functions. The class does not provide functionality to change these mappings. To do so, consult "Prima::AccelTable" in Prima::Menu.

The class addresses the text space by (X,Y)-coordinates, where X is visual cluster offset and Y is line number. The addressing can be 'visual' and 'logical', - in logical case Y is number of line of text. The difference can be observed if wordWrap property is set to 1, when a single text string can be shown as several sub-strings, called chunks.

Cluster shaping and word wrapping can play a role here. Consider f.ex. text "offset is zero", that for the sake of the example can wrapped by width and displayed as two lines, "offset" and "is zero". Here, the font substitutes "ff" text with a single ligature glyph. Here, for example, coord("f") will be (0,1) in all coordinates, but coord("z") is different:

X coordinate is a character offset from character line number Y. These coordinates are identical with and without "wordWrap" flag. This coordinate is used for direct text manipulation.

Example: coord("z") is (0,10);

X coordinate is a glyph cluster offset from character line number Y. These coordinates are identical with and without "wordWrap" flag. This coordinate is used for cursor and selection API.

Example: coord("z") is (0,9);

Y coordinates is a wrapped line index. "chunkMap" internal array is addresses in logical coordinates. X coordinate is a glyph cluster offset from the line start. This coordinate is used mostly internally.

Example: coord("z") is (1,3);

Called when syntax highlighting is requires - TEXT is a string to be parsed, and the parsing results to be stored in RESULT_ARRAY_REF, which is a reference to an array of integer pairs, each representing a single-colored text chunk. The first integer in the pairs is the length of a chunk, the second - color value ( "cl::XXX" constants ).

Selects if the auto indenting feature is on.

Default value: 1

Defines type of selection block. Can be one of the following constants:
Normal block, where the first and the last line of the selection can be partial, and the lines between occupy the whole line. CUA stands for 'common user access'.

Default keys: Shift + arrow keys

See also: cursor_shift_key

Rectangular block, where all selected lines are of same offsets and lengths.

Default key: Alt+B

See also: mark_vertical

Rectangular block, where the selection occupies the whole line.

Default key: Alt+L

See also: mark_horizontal

Selects visual position of the cursor
Selects visual horizontal position of the cursor
Selects visual vertical position of the cursor
Selects cursor behavior when moved horizontally outside the line. If 0, the cursor is not moved. If 1, the cursor moved to the adjacent line.

See also: cursor_left, cursor_right, word_left, word_right.

Governs the typing mode - if 1, the typed text is inserted, if 0, the text overwrites the old text. When "insertMode" is 0, the cursor shape is thick and covers the whole character; when 1, it is of default width.

Default toggle key: Insert

Selects the color for number highlighting
Selects the color for highlighting the single-quoted strings
Selects the color for highlighting the double-quoted strings
Array of scalar pairs, that define words to be highlighted. The first item in the pair is an array of words; the second item is a color value.
Array of scalar pairs, that define characters to be highlighted. The first item in the pair is a string of characters; the second item is a color value.
Array of scalar pairs, that define character patterns to be highlighted. The first item in the pair is a perl regular expression; the second item is a color value.

Note: these are tricky. Generally, they assume that whatever is captured in (), is highlighted, and that capturing parentheses match from the first character onwards. So for simple matches like " (\d+) " (digits) or " (#.*) " this works fine. Things become more interesting if you need to check text after, or especially before the capture. For this you need to make sure that whatever text is matched by a regexp, need not move "pos" pointer as the regexes are looped over with "\G" anchor prepended (i.e. starting each time from the position the previous regex left off), and with "/gc" flags (advancing " pos " to the match length). Advancing the "pos" will skip color highlighting on text after the capture but before end of the match - so you'll need look-ahead assertions, " (?=pattern) " and " (?!pattern) " (see "Lookaround Assertions" in perlre ).

For example, we have a string " ABC123abc ", and we want to match 123 followed by abc. This won't work

        hiliteREs => [
                '(123)abc',cl::LightRed,
                '(abc)', cl::LightGreen 
        ]
    

while this will:

        hiliteREs => [
                '(123)(?=abc)',cl::LightRed,
                '(abc)', cl::LightGreen 
        ]
    

If you need to look behind, the corresponding assertions " (?<=pattern) " and " (?<!pattern) " could be used, but these are even more restrictive in that they only support fixed-width looks-behinds (NB: " \K " won't work because of " \G " either). That way, if we want to match 123 that follow ABC, this won't work:

        hiliteREs =>  [
                '(ABC)',cl::LightBlue,
                '(?<=[ABC]+)(123)',cl::LightRed,
        ]
    

while this will:

        hiliteREs =>  [
                '(ABC)',cl::LightBlue,
                '(?<=[ABC]{3})(123)',cl::LightRed,
        ]
    
Selects block marking state. If MARK is 1, starts the block marking, if 0 - stops the block marking. When MARK is 1, BLOCK_TYPE can be used to set the selection type ( "bt::XXX" constants ). If BLOCK_TYPE is unset the value of blockType is used.
Array of arrays with integer pairs, X and Y, where each represents a visual coordinates in text. Used as anchor storage for fast navigation.

See also: add_marker, delete_marker

A boolean flag that shows if the text was modified. Can be used externally, to check if the text is to be saved to a file, for example.
Horizontal offset of text lines in pixels.
Selects whether the selection is canceled as soon as the cursor is moved ( 0 ) or it persists until the selection is explicitly changed ( 1 ).

Default value: 0

If 1, no user input is accepted. Manipulations with text are allowed though.
Accepts two pair of visual coordinates, (X1,Y1) the beginning and (X2,Y2) the end of new selection, and sets the block according to blockType property.

The selection is null if X1 equals to X2 and Y1 equals to Y2. has_selection method returns 1 if the selection is non-null.

Manages the selection start. See selection, X1 and Y1.
Manages the selection end. See selection, X2 and Y2.
Governs the syntax highlighting. Is not implemented for word wrapping mode.
Maps tab ( \t ) key to "tabIndent" amount of space characters.
Provides access to all the text data. The lines are separated by the new line ( \n ) character.

See also: textRef.

If set, indicates RTL text input.
If set, text may be rendered at better quality with ligation and kerning, however that comes with a price that some ligatures may be indivisible and form clusters (f.ex. ff or ffi ligatures). Cursor cannot go inside of such clusters, and thus one can only select them, delete as whole, or press Del/Backspace on the cluster's edge.
Provides access to all the text data. The lines are separated by the new line ( \n ) character. TEXT_PTR is a pointer to text string.

The property is more efficient than text with the large text, because the copying of the text scalar to the stack stage is eliminated.

See also: text.

Selects the first line of the text drawn.
Sets limit on number of stored atomic undo operations. If 0, undo is disabled.

Default value: 1000

Selects the way the tab ( \t ) character is recognized in the user input. If 1, it is recognized by the Tab key; however, this disallows the toolkit widget tab-driven navigation. If 0, the tab character can be entered by pressing Ctrl+Tab key combination.

Default value: 0

Selects the way the new line ( \n ) character is recognized in the user input. If 1, it is recognized by the Enter key; however, this disallows the toolkit default button activation. If 0, the new line character can be entered by pressing Ctrl+Enter key combination.

Default value: 1

Contains string of character that are used for locating a word break. Default STRING value consists of punctuation marks, space and tab characters, and "\xff" character.

See also: word_left, word_right

Selects whether the long lines are wrapped, or can be positioned outside the horizontal widget inferior borders. If 1, syntaxHilite is not used. A line of text can be represented by more than one line of screen text ( chunk ) . To access the text chunk-wise, use get_chunk method.

Adds visual coordinated X,Y to markers property.
Removes REPEAT times a character left to the cursor. If the cursor is on 0 x-position, removes the new-line character and concatenates the lines.

Default key: Backspace

Removes the selection block

Default key: Alt+U

Returns 1 if the logical locking is on, 0 if it is off.

See also lock_change.

Copies the selected text, if any, to the clipboard.

Default key: Ctrl+Insert

Copies the selected text and inserts it into the cursor position, according to the blockType value.

Default key: Alt+C

Moves cursor to the bottom line

Default key: Ctrl+End

Moves cursor to the top line

Default key: Ctrl+Home

Default key: Ctrl+PageDown

Moves cursor to the end of text.

Moves cursor to the beginning of text.

Default key: Ctrl+PageUp

Moves cursor REPEAT times down

Default key: Down

Moves cursor to the end of the line

Default key: End

Moves cursor to the beginning of the line

Default key: Home

Moves cursor REPEAT times left

Default key: Left

Moves cursor REPEAT times right

Default key: Right

Moves cursor REPEAT times up

Default key: Up

Moves cursor REPEAT pages down

Default key: PageDown

Moves cursor REPEAT pages up

Default key: PageUp

Performs action of the cursor movement, bound to ACCEL_TABLE_ITEM action ( defined in "accelTable" or "accelItems" property ), and extends the selection block along the cursor movement. Not called directly.
Cuts the selected text into the clipboard.

Default key: Shift+Delete

Removes the selected text.

Default key: Alt+D

Delete REPEAT characters from the cursor position

Default key: Delete

Removes LINES of text at LINE_ID.
Removes the chunk ( or line, if wordWrap is 0 ) at the cursor.

Default key: Ctrl+Y

Removes CHUNKS ( or lines, if wordWrap is 0 ) of text at CHUNK_ID
Removes marker INDEX in markers list.
Removes text to the end of the chunk.

Default key: Ctrl+E

Removes TEXT_LENGTH characters at X,Y physical coordinates
Paints the syntax-highlighted chunk taken from LINE_ID line index, at X, Y. COLOR is used if the syntax highlighting information contains "cl::Fore" as color reference.
Stops the block selection session.
Tries to find ( and, if REPLACE_LINE is defined, to replace with it ) SEARCH_STRING from (X,Y) visual coordinates. OPTIONS is an integer that consists of the "fdo::" constants; the same constants are used in Prima::Dialog::FindDialog, which provides graphic interface to the find and replace facilities of Prima::Edit.

Returns X1, Y, X2, NEW_STRING where X1.Y-X2.Y are visual coordinates of the found string, and NEW_STRING is the replaced version (if any)

If set, the search is case-sensitive.
If set, SEARCH_STRING must constitute the whole word.
If set, SEARCH_STRING is a regular expression.
If set, the search direction is backwards.
Not used in the class, however, used in Prima::Dialog::FindDialog.
Returns chunk of text, located at CHUNK_ID. Returns empty string if chunk is nonexistent.
Return length of a chunk in clusters
Finds the line number the CHUNK_ID belongs to, return first chunk of that line and how many chunks the line occupies.
Returns the width in pixels of "substr( TEXT, FROM, LENGTH)". If FROM is larger than length of TEXT, TEXT is padded with space characters. Tab character in TEXT replaced to tabIndent times space character. If RETURN_TEXT_PTR pointer is specified, the converted TEXT is stored there.
Returns line of text, located at INDEX. Returns empty string if line is nonexistent.
Return length of a line in clusters
Returns two integers, representing the line at INDEX in wordWrap mode: the first value is the corresponding chunk index, the second is how many chunks represent the line.

See also: physical_to_logical.

Return the text currently selected.
Returns boolean value, indicating if the selection block is active.
Inserts REPEAT empty lines at LINE_ID.
Inserts @TEXT strings at LINE_ID
Inserts TEXT at the cursor position. If HIGHLIGHT is set to 1, the selection block is canceled and the newly inserted text is selected.
Increments ( 1 ) or decrements ( 0 ) lock count. Used to defer change notification in multi-change calls. When internal lock count hits zero, "Change" notification is called.
Maps visual X,Y coordinates to the logical and returns the integer pair. Returns same values when wordWrap is 0.
Maps logical X,Y coordinates to the visual and returns the integer pair.

Returns same values when wordWrap is 0.

Maps visual X,Y coordinates to the physical text offset relative to the Y line

Returns same X when the line does not contain any right-to-left characters or complex glyphs.

Maps test offset X from line Y to the visual X coordinate.

Returns same X when the line does not contain any right-to-left characters or complex glyphs.

Starts block marking session with "bt::Horizontal" block type.

Default key: Alt+L

Starts block marking session with "bt::Vertical" block type.

Default key: Alt+B

Copies the selected text and overwrites the text next to the cursor position, according to the blockType value.

Default key: Alt+O

Copies text from the clipboard and inserts it in the cursor position.

Default key: Shift+Insert

Performs deferred widget panning, activated by setting "{delayPanning}" to 1. The deferred operations are those performed by offset and topLine.
Changes line at LINE_ID to new TEXT. Hint scalars OPERATION, FROM and LENGTH used to maintain selection and marking data. OPERATION is an arbitrary string, the ones that are recognized are 'overtype', 'add', and 'delete'. FROM and LENGTH define the range of the change; FROM is a cluster offset and LENGTH is a length of changed text.
Splits a line in two at the cursor position.

Default key: Enter ( or Ctrl+Enter if wantReturns is 0 )

Selects all text
Begins the block selection session. The block type if BLOCK_TYPE, if it is specified, or blockType property value otherwise.
Adjusts the selection inside the block session, extending of shrinking it to the current cursor position.
Moves cursor REPEAT words to the left.
Moves cursor REPEAT words to the right.

Dmitry Karasik, <dmitry@karasik.eu.org>.

Prima, Prima::Widget, Prima::Dialog::FindDialog, examples/editor.pl

2025-07-04 perl v5.40.2

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