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<a name="The-Preferences-Dialog"></a>
<p>
Next:&nbsp;<a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="GPS-Themes.html#GPS-Themes">GPS Themes</a>,
Up:&nbsp;<a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Customizing-and-Extending-GPS.html#Customizing-and-Extending-GPS">Customizing and Extending GPS</a>
<hr>
</div>

<h3 class="section">16.1 The Preferences Dialog</h3>

<p><a name="preferences-dialog"></a><a name="index-preferences-639"></a>This dialog, available through the menu <code>Edit-&gt;Preferences</code>, allows you to
modify the global preferences of GPS. 
To enable the new preferences, you simply need to confirm by pressing
the <code>OK</code> button. To test your changes, you can use the <code>Apply</code>
button. Pressing the <code>Cancel</code> button will undo all your changes.

   <p><a name="index-screen-shot-640"></a><img src="preferences-general.jpg" alt="preferences-general.jpg">

   <p>Each preference is composed of a label displaying the name of the
preference, and an editing area to modify its value. If you leave to mouse
over the label, a tool tip will be displayed giving an on-line help on the
preference.

   <p>The preferences dialog is composed of several areas, accessible through the
tabs at the left of the dialog. 
Each page corresponds to a set of preferences.

     <ul>
<li><b>Themes</b>

     <p>This page allows you to quickly change the current settings for GPS, including
preferences, key bindings, menus<small class="dots">...</small>; See <a href="GPS-Themes.html#GPS-Themes">GPS Themes</a> for more
information on themes. It is only displayed when there are themes registered.

     <li><b>General</b>

          <dl>
<dt><i>Default font</i><dd><a name="index-font-641"></a><a name="index-background-color-642"></a>The default font used in GPS. The background color you select for this
preference will set the background color for all consoles and most views (the
ones that display their data as trees, mostly). To change the background color
of editors, see the preference Edit/Fonts&amp;Colors/Default.

          <br><dt><i>Fixed view font</i><dd><a name="index-font-643"></a>The fixed (monospace) font used in views like the outline view, the bookmark
view, <small class="dots">...</small>; As much as possible, this font should use a fixed width for
characters, for a better rendering

          <br><dt><i>Character set</i><dd><a name="index-character-set-644"></a><a name="index-ISO_002d8859_002d1-645"></a>Name of character set to use when reading or writting text files. 
GPS uses UTF-8 and Unicode internally, which can handle any character in
any language. However, your system will generally not support Unicode natively,
and thus the contents of the files should be translated from the file system
encoding to unicode.

          <p>This preference indicates the file system encoding in use. It defaults to
ISO-8859-1, which corresponds to western european characters.

          <br><dt><i>Display splash screen</i><dd><a name="index-splash-screen-646"></a>Whether a splash screen should be displayed when starting GPS.

          <br><dt><i>Display welcome window</i><dd><a name="index-welcome-dialog-647"></a>Whether GPS should display the welcome window for the selection of the project
to use.

          <br><dt><i>Show text in tool bar</i><dd><a name="index-tool-bar-648"></a>Whether the tool bar should show both text and icons, or only icons.

          <br><dt><i>Auto save</i><dd><a name="index-auto-save-649"></a>Whether unsaved files and projects should be saved automatically before
calling external tools (e.g. before a build).

          <br><dt><i>Save desktop on exit</i><dd><a name="index-desktop-650"></a>Whether the desktop (size and positions of all windows) should be saved when
exiting. 
If you are working with a project created automatically by GPS, the desktop
will not be saved.

          <br><dt><i>Save editor in desktop</i><dd><a name="index-desktop-651"></a>Determines when source editors should be saved in the desktop: <code>Never</code>,
<code>Always</code>, or when a source file is associated with the current project
(<code>From_Project</code>).

          <br><dt><i>Multi language builder</i><dd>The multi-language builder to be used in case a multi-language or non Ada
project has been loaded.

          <p>By default, <code>gprbuild</code> will be used. Alternatively, its prototype
<code>gprmake</code> can be selected to help the transition, although we do not
recommend it at this stage.

          <p>Finally, if you want to force the use of gnatmake, even for projects
that contain other sources, you can use the <code>gnatmake</code> setting. Note
that Gnatmake will only consider Ada files.

          <br><dt><i>Jump to first location</i><dd><a name="index-location-652"></a>Whether the first entry of the location window should be selected
automatically, and thus whether the corresponding editor should be
immediately open.

          <br><dt><i>Wrap around on next/previous</i><dd><a name="index-location-653"></a>Whether using the <code>Next Tag</code> and <code>Previous Tag</code> actions/menus
should wrap around to the beginning when reaching the end of the category. 
The default is to wrap around, as was done in previous GPS versions.

          <br><dt><i>Auto close Locations view</i><dd><a name="index-location-654"></a>Whether the Locations view should be closed automatically when it becomes
empty.

          <br><dt><i>Hyper links</i><dd><a name="index-hyper-mode-655"></a>Whether to display hyper links in the editors when the Control key is pressed. 
See <a href="Navigating-with-hyperlinks.html#Navigating-with-hyperlinks">Navigating with hyperlinks</a>.

          <br><dt><i>Clipboard size</i><dd><a name="index-clipboard-656"></a>This controls the size of the list where all the entries copied into the
clipboard through <code>Edit-&gt;Copy</code> and <code>Edit-&gt;Cut</code> are saved. This list
is navigated through the menu <code>Edit-&gt;Paste</code> and
<code>Edit-&gt;Paste Previous</code>, as described earlier in this guide.

          <br><dt><i>Tool bar style</i><dd><a name="index-tool-bar-657"></a>How the tool bar should be displayed: not at all, with small icons or with
large icons

          <br><dt><i>Show status bar</i><dd><a name="index-status-bar-658"></a>Whether the status bar at the bottom of the GPS window should be displayed. 
This status bar contains one or more progress bars while GPS is executing long
actions like a build or a search. These progress bars can be used to monitor
the progress of those actions.

          <p>If you wish to save vertical screen space, you can hide this status
bar. The progress bars will no longer be visible. Instead, you can
display the Task Manager through the <code>Tools-&gt;Views-&gt;Tasks</code> menu,
to get similar information.  This manager can then be put on the right
or left side of the GPS window, for instance just below the Project
View.

          <br><dt><i>Remove policy when fixing code</i><dd><a name="index-code-fix-659"></a>Prefered way to fix code when parts have to be removed. 
<code>Always_Remove</code> means that the code will be removed by GPS. 
<code>Always_Comment</code> means that the code will always be commented out. 
<code>Propose_Both_Choices</code> will propose a menu with both choices.

          <br><dt><i>Tip of the Day</i><dd><a name="index-tip-of-the-day-660"></a>Whether GPS will display a <i>Tip of the Day</i> dialog at start up.

     </dl>

     <li><b>Windows</b>

     <p><a name="index-MDI-661"></a><a name="index-Multiple-Document-Interface-662"></a>This section specifies preferences that apply to the <i>Multiple Document
Interface</i> described in <a href="Multiple-Document-Interface.html#Multiple-Document-Interface">Multiple Document Interface</a>.

          <dl>
<dt><i>Opaque</i><dd><a name="index-opaque-663"></a>If True, items will be resized or moved opaquely when not maximized.

          <br><dt><i>Destroy floats</i><dd><a name="index-float-664"></a>If False, closing the window associated with a floating item will put the item
back in the main GPS window, but will not destroy it. If True, the item is
destroyed.

          <br><dt><i>All floating</i><dd><a name="index-float-665"></a>If True, then all the windows will be floating by default, i.e. be under the
control of your system (Windows) or your window manager (Unix machines). This
replaces the MDI.

          <br><dt><i>Short titles for floats</i><dd><a name="index-float-666"></a>If True, all floating windows will have a short title. In particular, base
file names will be used for editors instead of full names.

          <br><dt><i>Background color</i><dd><a name="index-color-667"></a>Color to use for the background of the MDI.

          <br><dt><i>Title bar color</i><dd><a name="index-color-668"></a>Color to use for the title bar of unselected items.

          <br><dt><i>Selected title bar color</i><dd><a name="index-color-669"></a>Color to use for the title bar of selected items.

          <br><dt><i>Show title bars</i><dd>If Always, each window in GPS will have its own title bars, showing some
particular information (like the name of the file edited for editors), and
some buttons to iconify, maximize or close the window. This title bar is
highlighted when the window is the one currently selected.

          <p>If Never, the title bar is not displayed, to save space on the screen. The
tabs of the notebooks will then be highlighted.

          <p>If Central Only, then only the windows in the central area (ie the part that
gets preserved when switching perspective, mostly editors) will have a title
bar. All other windows will not show the title bar. This is often a good way
to save space on the screen: the title bar is useful for editors since it
gives the full name of the file as well as provide an easy handle for drag
and drop operations, whereas the other views do not change position as much
and it is better to save space on the screen by not displaying their title.

          <br><dt><i>Notebook tabs policy</i><dd>Indicates when the notebook tabs should be displayed. If set to "Never", you
will have to select the window in the Window menu, or through the keyboard. 
If set to "Automatic", then the tabs will be shown when two or more windows
are stacked.

          <br><dt><i>Notebook tabs position</i><dd>Indicates where the notebook tabs should be displayed by default. It is
possible to select the position of tabs individually for each notebook
by right-clicking in any of their tabs and chosing a new position in the
contextual menu. This position will be saved as part of the desktop and
restored the next time you restart GPS. However, if you change the value
of this preference, all notebooks will reset the position of their tabs
to match the new value of the preference.

     </dl>

     <li><b>Editor</b>
<a name="index-editor-670"></a>
          <dl>
<dt><i>General</i><dd>
               <dl>
<dt><b>Strip blanks</b><dd><a name="index-strip-blanks-671"></a>Whether the editor should remove trailing blanks when saving a file.

               <br><dt><b>Line terminator</b><dd><a name="index-line-terminator-672"></a>Choose between <i>Unix</i>, <i>Windows</i> and <i>Unchanged</i> line terminators when
saving files. Choosing <i>Unchanged</i> will use the original line terminator
when saving the file; <i>Unix</i> will use LF line terminators;
<i>Windows</i> will use CRLF line terminators.

               <br><dt><b>Display line numbers</b><dd><a name="index-display-line-numbers-673"></a>Whether the line numbers should be displayed in file editors.

               <br><dt><b>Display subprogram names</b><dd><a name="index-Display-subprogram-names-674"></a>Whether the subprogram name should be displayed in the editor's status bar.

               <br><dt><b>Tooltips</b><dd><a name="index-tooltip-675"></a>Whether tool tips should be displayed automatically.

               <br><dt><b>Tooltips timeout</b><dd><a name="index-tooltip-timeout-676"></a>Time (in milliseconds) before displaying tooltips.

               <br><dt><b>Highlight delimiters</b><dd><a name="index-highlight-delimiter-677"></a>Determine whether the delimiter matching the character following the
cursor should be highlighted. The list of delimiters includes: <code>{}[]()</code>

               <br><dt><b>Autosave delay</b><dd><a name="index-autosave-delay-678"></a><a name="autosave-delay"></a>The period (in seconds) after which an editor is automatically saved,
0 if none.

               <p>Each modified file is saved under a file called <code>.#filename#</code>, which is
removed on the next explicit save operation.

               <br><dt><b>Right margin</b><dd><a name="index-right-margin-679"></a>The right margin to highlight. 0 if none. 
This value is also used to implement the <code>Edit-&gt;Refill</code> command.

               <br><dt><b>Block highlighting</b><dd><a name="index-block-highlighting-680"></a>Whether the editor should highlight the current block. 
The current block depends on the programming language, and will include
e.g. procedures, loops, if statements, <small class="dots">...</small>

               <br><dt><b>Block folding</b><dd><a name="index-block-folding-681"></a>Whether the editor should provide the ability to fold/unfold blocks.

               <!-- @item Automatic syntax check -->
               <!-- @cindex automatic syntax -->
               <!-- Whether GPS should automatically check syntax in background for the source -->
               <!-- files that are being edited. -->
               <br><dt><b>Speed Column Policy</b><dd><a name="index-speed-column-policy-682"></a>When the Speed Column should be shown on the side of the editors:
                    <dl>
<dt><code>Never</code><dd>The Speed Column is never displayed.

                    <br><dt><code>Automatic</code><dd>The Speed Column is shown whenever lines are highlighted in the editor, for
example to show the current execution point, or lines
containing compilation errors, <small class="dots">...</small>;
It disappears when no lines are highlighted.

                    <br><dt><code>Always</code><dd>The Speed Column is always displayed.

               </dl>

               <br><dt><b>Use Windows ACL</b><dd>This is a Windows specific preference which is disabled by default. When
enabled GPS will use the ACL to change the file's write permission. Note
that ACL can't be used on network drives.

               <br><dt><b>External editor</b><dd><a name="index-external-editor-683"></a>The default external editor to use.

               <br><dt><b>Custom editor command</b><dd><a name="custom-editor-command"></a>Specify the command line for launching a custom editor. 
It is assumed that the command will create a new window/terminal as needed. 
If the editor itself does not provide this capability (such as vi or pico under
Unix systems), you can use an external terminal command, e.g:

               <pre class="smallexample">                    xterm -geo 80x50 -exe vi +%l %f
</pre>
               <p>The following substitutions are provided:
                    <dl>
<dt><code>%l</code><dd>line to display

                    <br><dt><code>%c</code><dd>column to display

                    <br><dt><code>%f</code><dd>full pathname of file to edit

                    <br><dt><code>%e</code><dd>extended lisp inline command

                    <br><dt><code>%p</code><dd>top level project file name

                    <br><dt><code>%%</code><dd>percent sign ('%')
</dl>

               <br><dt><b>Always use external editor</b><dd>True if all editions should be done with the external editor. This will
deactivate completely the internal editor. False if the external editor
needs to be explicitly called by the user.

               <br><dt><b>Smart completion</b><dd><a name="index-smart-completion-684"></a>When enabled, GPS loads on startup all the information needed for the
Smart completion to work.

               <br><dt><b>Smart completion timeout</b><dd>The timeout, expressed in milliseconds, after which the Smart completion
window appears automatically after entering a triggering character, such as '.'

          </dl>

          <br><dt><i>Fonts &amp; Colors</i><dd><a name="index-font-685"></a><a name="index-color-686"></a>
               <dl>
<dt><b>Default</b><dd>The default font, default foreground and default background colors used
in the source editor.

               <br><dt><b>Block</b><dd>Font variant and colors used to highlight blocks (subprograms, task, entries,
...) in declarations.

               <br><dt><b>Type</b><dd>Font variant and colors used to highlight types in declarations.

               <br><dt><b>Keywords</b><dd>Font variant and colors used to highlight keywords.

               <br><dt><b>Comments</b><dd>Font variant and colors used to highlight comments. 
Setting the color to white will set a transparent color.

               <br><dt><b>Annotated  Comments</b><dd>Font variant and colors used to highlight annotated comments. 
Only relevant to Ada currently. Annotated comments are comments immediately
followed by a special character, e.g. <code>#[]</code>. 
Setting the color to white will set a transparent color.

               <br><dt><b>Strings</b><dd>Font variant and colors used to highlight strings. 
Setting the color to white will set a transparent color.

               <br><dt><b>Current line color</b><dd>Color for highlighting the current line. Leave it to blank for no highlighting. 
Setting the color to white will set a transparent color.

               <br><dt><b>Draw current line as a thin line</b><dd>Whether to use a thin line rather than full background highlighting on the
current line.

               <br><dt><b>Current block color</b><dd>Color for highlighting the current source block.

               <br><dt><b>Delimiter highlighting color</b><dd>Color for highlighting delimiters.

               <br><dt><b>Search results highlighting</b><dd>Color for highlighting the search results in the text of source editors.

               <br><dt><b>Cursor color</b><dd>Color used for the cursor in editors and interactive consoles

               <br><dt><b>Cursor aspect ratio</b><dd>Defines the size of the cursor, relatively to characters. 100 means the
cursor will occupy the same size as a character, 10 means it will only
occupy 10% of the size occupies by a character.

          </dl>

          <br><dt><i>Ada</i><dd><a name="index-Ada-687"></a>
               <dl>
<dt><b>Auto indentation</b><dd><a name="index-indentation-688"></a>How the editor should indent Ada sources. 
None means no indentation; Simple means that indentation from the previous
line is used for the next line; Extended means that a language specific
parser is used for indenting sources.

               <br><dt><b>Use tabulations</b><dd><a name="index-tabulation-689"></a>Whether the editor should use tabulations when indenting. 
Note that this preference does not modify the &lt;Tab&gt; key which will still
insert Tab characters. Consider also the <code>/Edit/Insert Tab With Spaces</code> key
shortcut which can be mapped (to e.g. &lt;Tab&gt;) via <a href="The-Key-Manager-Dialog.html#The-Key-Manager-Dialog">The Key Manager Dialog</a>. Finally, another alternative is to reconfigure the default key
binding for the automatic indentation action: by default, it is mapped to
&lt;Ctrl-Tab&gt;
and can be changed to &lt;Tab&gt; by modifying the <code>/Edit/Format Selection</code>
action from <a href="The-Key-Manager-Dialog.html#The-Key-Manager-Dialog">The Key Manager Dialog</a>.

               <br><dt><b>Default indentation</b><dd><a name="index-indentation-level-690"></a>The number of spaces for the default Ada indentation.

               <br><dt><b>Continuation lines</b><dd><a name="index-continuation-line-691"></a>The number of extra spaces for continuation lines.

               <br><dt><b>Declaration lines</b><dd><a name="index-declaration-line-692"></a>The number of extra spaces for multiple line declarations. 
For example, using a value of 4, here is how the following code would be
indented:

               <p><a name="index-example-693"></a>
               <pre class="smallexample">                    variable1,
                        variable2,
                        variable3 : Integer;
</pre>
               <br><dt><b>Conditional continuation lines</b><dd><a name="index-conditional-line-694"></a>The number of extra spaces used to indent multiple lines conditionals
within parentheses.

               <p>For example, when this preference is set to 1 (the default), continuation
lines are indented based on the previous parenthesis plus one space:

               <p><a name="index-example-695"></a>
               <pre class="smallexample">                    if (Condition1
                        and then Condition2)
                    then
</pre>
               <p>When this preference is set to 3, this gives:

               <p><a name="index-example-696"></a>
               <pre class="smallexample">                    if (Condition1
                          and then Condition2)
                    then
</pre>
               <br><dt><b>Record indentation</b><dd><a name="index-record-indentation-697"></a>The number of extra spaces for record definitions, when the <code>record</code>
keyword is on its own line.

               <p>For example, when this preference is set to 3 (the default), the
following sample will be indented as:

               <p><a name="index-example-698"></a>
               <pre class="smallexample">                    type T is
                       record
                          F : Integer;
                       end record;
</pre>
               <p>When this preference is set to 1, this gives:

               <p><a name="index-example-699"></a>
               <pre class="smallexample">                    type T is
                     record
                        F : Integer;
                     end record;
</pre>
               <br><dt><b>Case indentation</b><dd><a name="index-case-indentation-700"></a>Whether GPS should indent case statements with an extra level, as used in the
Ada Reference Manual, e.g:

               <p><a name="index-example-701"></a>
               <pre class="smallexample">                    case Value is
                       when others =&gt;
                          null;
                    end case;
</pre>
               <p>If this preference is set to <code>Non_Rm_Style</code>, this would be indented as:

               <p><a name="index-example-702"></a>
               <pre class="smallexample">                    case Value is
                    when others =&gt;
                       null;
                    end case;
</pre>
               <p>By default (<code>Automatic</code>), GPS will choose to indent with an extra
level or not based on the first <code>when</code> construct: if the first
<code>when</code> is indented by an extra level, the whole case statement will
be indented following the RM style.

               <br><dt><b>Casing policy</b><dd>The way the editor will handle the case settings below. 
<code>Disabled</code> no auto-casing will be done;
<code>End_Of_Line</code> auto-casing will be done when hitting &lt;Enter&gt; key;
<code>End_Of_Word</code> auto-casing will be done word-by-word while typing;
<code>On_The_Fly</code> auto-casing will be done character-by-character while typing. 
For the <code>End_Of_Line</code>, <code>End_Of_Word</code> and <code>On_The_Fly</code> policies
it is always possible to force the casing of the current line by pressing the
indentation key (&lt;Ctrl-Tab&gt; by default).

               <p>It is also possible to disable the casing for a single character
(action <code>No Casing/indentation on Next Key</code>, default &lt;Ctrl-Q&gt;) or
temporarily (action <code>Toggle Auto Casing/indentation</code>,
default &lt;Alt-Q&gt;).

               <br><dt><b>Reserved word casing</b><dd>How the editor should handle reserved words casing. 
<code>Unchanged</code> will keep the casing as-is;
<code>Upper</code> will change the casing of all reserved words to upper case;
<code>Lower</code> will change the casing to lower case;
<code>Mixed</code> will change the casing to mixed case (all characters to
lower case except first character and characters after an underscore
which are set to upper case);
<code>Smart_Mixed</code> As above but do not force upper case characters to
lower case.

               <br><dt><b>Identifier casing</b><dd>How the editor should handle identifiers casing. 
The values are the same as for the <i>Reserved word casing</i> preference.

               <br><dt><b>Format operators/delimiters</b><dd>Whether the editor should add extra spaces around operators and delimiters
if needed. 
If enabled, an extra space will be added when needed in the following cases:
before an opening parenthesis;
after a closing parenthesis, comma, semicolon;
around all Ada operators (e.g. <code>&lt;=</code>, <code>:=</code>, <code>=&gt;</code>, <small class="dots">...</small>)

               <br><dt><b>Align colons in declarations</b><dd>Whether the editor should automatically align colons in declarations and
parameter lists. Note that the alignment is computed by taking into account
the current buffer up to the current line (or end of the current selection),
so if declarations continue after the current line, you can select
the declarations lines and hit the reformat key.

               <br><dt><b>Align associations on arrows</b><dd>Whether the editor should automatically align arrows in associations
(e.g. aggregates or function calls). See also previous preference.

               <br><dt><b>Align declarations after colon</b><dd>Whether the editor should align continuation lines in variable declarations
based on the colon character.

               <p>Consider the following code:

               <p><a name="index-example-703"></a>
               <pre class="smallexample">                    Variable : constant String :=
                      "a string";
</pre>
               <p>If this preference is enabled, it will be indented as follows:

               <p><a name="index-example-704"></a>
               <pre class="smallexample">                    Variable : constant String :=
                                 "a string";
</pre>
               <br><dt><b>Indent comments</b><dd>Whether to indent lines containing only comments and blanks, or to keep
these lines unchanged.

               <br><dt><b>Align comments on keywords</b><dd>Whether to align comment lines following <code>record</code> and
<code>is</code> keywords immediately with no extra space.

               <p>When enabled, the following code will be indented as:

               <p><a name="index-example-705"></a>
               <pre class="smallexample">                    package P is
                    --  Comment
                    
                       [...]
                    end P;
</pre>
               <p>When disabled, the indentation will be:

               <p><a name="index-example-706"></a>
               <pre class="smallexample">                    package P is
                       --  Comment
                    
                       [...]
                    end P;
</pre>
               </dl>

          <br><dt><i>C &amp; C++</i><dd><a name="index-C-707"></a><a name="index-C_002b_002b-708"></a>
               <dl>
<dt><b>Auto indentation</b><dd><a name="index-indentation-709"></a>How the editor should indent C/C++ sources. 
None means no indentation; Simple means that indentation from the previous
line is used for the next line; Extended means that a language specific
parser is used for indenting sources.

               <br><dt><b>Use tabulations</b><dd><a name="index-tabulation-710"></a>Whether the editor should use tabulations when indenting. If True,
the editor will replace each occurrence of eight characters by a tabulation
character.

               <br><dt><b>Default indentation</b><dd><a name="index-indentation-711"></a>The number of spaces for the default indentation.

               <br><dt><b>Indent comments</b><dd>Whether to indent lines containing only comments and blanks, or to keep
these lines unchanged.

          </dl>

     </dl>

     <li><b>Debugger</b>
<a name="index-debugger-712"></a>
          <dl>
<dt><i>Preserve State on Exit</i><dd><a name="index-breakpoint-713"></a>If this preference is enabled, the debugger will automatically save breakpoints
when it exists, and restore them the next time the same executable is debugged. 
This is a convenient way to work on an executable, where the typical usage
looks like compile, debug, compile, debug, <small class="dots">...</small>

          <p>When the preference is enabled, the debugger will also preserve the contents
of the data window whenever it is closed. Reopening the window either during
the same debugger session, or automatically when a new debugger is started
on the same executable, will recreate the same boxes within the data window.

          <br><dt><i>Debugger Windows</i><dd><a name="index-debugger-windows-714"></a>This preference controls what happens to debugger-related windows, like the
call stack, the data window, the tasks view,..., when the debugger is
terminated. There are three possible behavior:
               <ul>
 <li>Close Windows

               <p>In this case, all these windows are closed. This saves memory and space on
the screen, but you will need to explicitly reopen them and put them in the
right location on the desktop the next time you start a debugger session.

               <li>Keep Windows

               <p>In this case, the windows are cleared, but kept on the desktop. When you
start a new debugger session, the windows will be automatically reused. This
ensures that you won't have to reopen and reposition them, but takes space
on your screen

               <li>Hide Windows

               <p>The windows are cleared, and hidden. When you start a new debugger session,
they are automatically made visible again and reused. This also ensures you
will not have to reopen and reposition them, but requires a bit of memory. 
If you move some windows around while these windows are hidden, they might
reappear in unexpected location the next time, although you then just have
to move them.

          </ul>

          <br><dt><i>Break on exceptions</i><dd><a name="index-breakpoint-715"></a><a name="index-exception-716"></a>Specifies whether a breakpoint on all exceptions should be set by
default when loading a program. This setup is only taken into account
when a new debugger is initialized, and will not modify a running
debugger (use the breakpoint editor for running debuggers).

          <br><dt><i>Execution window</i><dd><a name="index-execution-717"></a><a name="index-tty-718"></a>Specifies whether the debugger should create a separate execution
window for the program being debugged.

          <p>Note that this preference cannot be taken into account for the current
debug session: you need to terminate the current debug session and restart
a new one.

          <p>If true, a separate console will be created. Under Unix systems, this
console is another window in the bottom part of the main window; under
Windows, this is a separate window created by the underlying gdb, since
Windows does not have the notion of separate terminals (aka ttys).

          <p>Note that in this mode under Windows, the <code>Debug-&gt;Interrupt</code> menu
will only interrupt the debugged program with recent versions of gdb. 
If you are using older versions of gdb, you need to hit
&lt;Ctrl-C&gt; in the separate execution window to interrupt it while it is
running. Note also that this separate execution window uses the default
system-wide console properties (the size of the window, the
colors...). It is possible to change those properties using e.g. the
default console menu (top-left of the console) on Windows XP.

          <p>If false, no execution window will be created. The debugger assumes that the
program being debugged does not require input, or that if it does, input
is handled outside GPS. For example, when you attach to a running process,
this process already has a separate associated terminal.

          <br><dt><i>Show lines with code</i><dd>Specifies whether the source editor should display blue dots for lines
that contain code. If set to <i>False</i>, gray dots will be displayed instead
on each line, allowing breakpoint on any line. Disabling this option provides
a faster feedback, since GPS does not need to query the debugger about which
lines contain code.

          <br><dt><i>Detect aliases</i><dd><a name="index-aliases-719"></a>If enabled, do not create new items when an item with the same address is
already present on the canvas.

          <br><dt><i>Assembly range size</i><dd><a name="index-range-size-720"></a>Number of assembly lines to display in the initial display of the assembly
window. If the size is 0, then the whole subprogram is displayed, but this
can take a very long time on slow machines.

          <br><dt><i>Current assembly line</i><dd>Color used to highlight the assembly code for the current line.

          <br><dt><i>Color highlighting</i><dd><a name="index-color-721"></a>Color used for highlighting in the debugger console.

          <br><dt><i>Clickable item</i><dd>Indicates color to be used for the items that are click-able (e.g pointers).

          <br><dt><i>Changed data</i><dd>Indicates color to be used to highlight fields in the data window that have
changed since the last update.

          <br><dt><i>Memory color</i><dd>Color used by default in the memory view window.

          <br><dt><i>Memory highlighting</i><dd>Color used for highlighted items in the memory view.

          <br><dt><i>Memory selection</i><dd>Color used for selected items in the memory view.

          <br><dt><i>Item name</i><dd>Indicates the font to be used for the name of the item in the data window.

          <br><dt><i>Item type</i><dd>Indicates font to be used to display the type of the item in the data window.

          <br><dt><i>Max item width</i><dd>The maximum width an item can have.

          <br><dt><i>Max item height</i><dd>The maximum height an item can have.

     </dl>

     <li><b>External Commands</b>
<a name="index-helper-722"></a><a name="index-external-commands-723"></a>
          <dl>
<dt><i>List processes</i><dd>Command used to list processes running on the machine.

          <br><dt><i>Remote shell</i><dd><a name="index-remote-shell-724"></a>Program used to run a process on a remote machine. You can specify arguments,
e.g. <code>rsh -l user</code>

          <br><dt><i>Remote copy</i><dd><a name="index-remote-copy-725"></a>Program used to copy a file from a remote machine. You can specify arguments,
e.g. <code>rcp -l user</code>

          <br><dt><i>Execute command</i><dd><a name="index-execution-726"></a>Program used to execute commands externally.

          <br><dt><i>HTML Browser</i><dd><a name="index-html-727"></a>Only used under Unix, not relevant under Windows where the default HTML
browser is used. 
Program used to execute view HTML files, for instance the documentation. 
Empty by default, which means that GPS will try to find a suitable HTML
browser automatically. Only change the value if GPS cannot find a HTML
browser, or if the browser found is not your preferred one.

          <br><dt><i>Print command</i><dd><a name="index-print-728"></a><a name="index-a2ps-729"></a><a name="index-PrintFile-730"></a><a name="Print-Command"></a>External program used to print files.

          <p>This program is required under Unix systems in order to print, and is set to
<code>a2ps</code> by default. 
If <code>a2ps</code> is not installed on your system, you can download it
from <a href="ftp://ftp.enst.fr/pub/unix/a2ps/">ftp://ftp.enst.fr/pub/unix/a2ps/</a>, although other printing programs
such as <code>lp</code> can be specified instead.

          <p>Under Windows systems, this program is optional and is empty by default, since
a built-in printing is provided. An external tool will be used if specified,
such as the PrintFile freeware utility available from
<a href="http://www.lerup.com/printfile/descr.html">http://www.lerup.com/printfile/descr.html</a>

     </dl>

     <li><b>Search</b>
<a name="index-search-731"></a>
          <dl>
<dt><b>Confirmation for "Replace all"</b><dd><a name="index-replace-732"></a>Enable or disable the confirmation popup for the replace all action.

          <br><dt><b>Close on Match</b><dd><a name="index-search-733"></a>If this option is enabled, the search window will be closed when a match is
found.

          <br><dt><b>Select on Match</b><dd><a name="index-search-734"></a>If this option is enabled, the focus will be given to the editor when a match
is found.

          <br><dt><b>Preserve Search Context</b><dd><a name="index-search-735"></a>If this option is enabled, the contents of the "Look in:" field will be
preserved between consecutive searches in files. 
</dl>

     <li><b>Browsers</b>
<a name="index-browsers-736"></a>
          <dl>
<dt><i>General</i><dd>
               <dl>
<dt><b>Selected item color</b><dd><a name="index-color-737"></a>Color to use to draw the selected item.

               <br><dt><b>Background color</b><dd><a name="index-color-738"></a>Color used to draw the background of the browsers.

               <br><dt><b>Hyper link color</b><dd><a name="index-color-739"></a>Color used to draw the hyper links in the items.

               <br><dt><b>Selected link color</b><dd><a name="index-color-740"></a>Color to use for links between selected items.

               <br><dt><b>Default link color</b><dd><a name="index-color-741"></a>Color used to draw the links between unselected items.

               <br><dt><b>Ancestor items color</b><dd><a name="index-color-742"></a>Color to use for the background of the items linked to the selected item.

               <br><dt><b>Offspring items color</b><dd><a name="index-color-743"></a>Color to use for the background of the items linked from the selected item.

               <br><dt><b>Vertical layout</b><dd><a name="index-vertical-layout-744"></a>Whether the layout of the graph should be vertical (<i>True</i>) or
horizontal (<i>False</i>). This setting applies to most browsers (call graph
for instance), but does not apply to the entities browsers.

          </dl>

          <br><dt><i>File Dependencies</i><dd>
               <dl>
<dt><b>Show system files</b><dd><a name="index-Ada-745"></a><a name="index-C-746"></a>Whether the system files (Ada runtime or standard C include files) should be
visible in the browser.

               <br><dt><b>Show implicit dependencies</b><dd><a name="index-implicit-dependency-747"></a><a name="index-dependency-748"></a>If False, then only the explicit dependencies are shown in the browser. 
Otherwise, all dependencies, even implicit, are displayed.

          </dl>

     </dl>

     <li><b>VCS</b>
<a name="index-vcs-749"></a>
          <dl>
<dt><i>Implicit status</i><dd><a name="index-Implicit-status-750"></a>Whether a status action can be launched as part of another action. For
example to get the revision numbers of new files after an update
command. If the network connection with the repository is slow
disabling this command can speed-up the VCS actions.

          <br><dt><i>ClearCase module</i><dd><a name="index-ClearCase-module-751"></a>Whether the built-in ClearCase (see <a href="Version-Control-System.html#Version-Control-System">Version Control System</a>)
module is activated or disabled.

          <br><dt><i>Default VCS</i><dd><a name="index-Default-VCS-752"></a>The default VCS to use when the project does not define a VCS.

     </dl>

     <li><b>Visual diff</b>
<a name="index-visual-diff-753"></a><a name="index-file-comparison-754"></a>
Note that in order to perform visual comparison between files, GPS
needs to call external tool (not distributed with GPS) such as <samp><span class="command">diff</span></samp>
or <samp><span class="command">patch</span></samp>. These tools are usually found on most unix systems, and
may not be available by default on other OSes. Under Windows, you can
download them from one of the unix toolsets
available, such as msys (<a href="http://www.mingw.org">http://www.mingw.org</a>) or
cygwin (<a href="http://www.cygwin.com">http://www.cygwin.com</a>).

          <dl>
<dt><i>mode</i><dd><a name="index-diff-755"></a>How GPS displays visual diffs between two files:

               <dl>
<dt><b>Side_By_Side</b><dd>Editors are displayed side-by-side; new editors are created as needed

               <br><dt><b>Unified</b><dd>No new editor is created, and changes are displayed directly in the reference
editor.

          </dl>

          <br><dt><i>Diff command</i><dd><a name="index-g_t_002du-756"></a><a name="index-g_t_002dc-757"></a>Command used to compute differences between two files. 
Arguments can also be specified. The visual diff expects a standard diff
output with no context (that is, no <code>-c</code> nor <code>-u</code> switch). 
Arguments of interest may include (this will depend on the version of diff
used):

               <dl>
<dt><b>-b</b><dd>Ignore changes in amount of white space.

               <br><dt><b>-B</b><dd>Ignore changes that just insert or delete blank lines.

               <br><dt><b>-i</b><dd>Ignore changes in case; consider upper and lower case letters equivalent.

               <br><dt><b>-w</b><dd>Ignore white space when comparing lines.

          </dl>

          <br><dt><i>Patch command</i><dd><a name="index-patch-758"></a>Command used to apply a patch. Arguments can also be specified. 
This command is used internally by GPS to perform the visual comparison on
versioned files (e.g. when performing a comparison with a version control
system).

          <p>This command should be compatible with the <samp><span class="command">GNU patch</span></samp> utility.

          <br><dt><i>Use old diff</i><dd><a name="index-old-diff-759"></a>Use the old version of the visual comparison.

          <br><dt><i>Diff3 command</i><dd><a name="index-diff3-760"></a>This item is only displayed if the preference <i>Use old diff</i> is disabled. 
Command used to query a 3-way diff. See <i>Diff command</i> for a description
of the parameters.

          <br><dt><i>Default color</i><dd>This item is only displayed if the preference <i>Use old diff</i> is disabled. 
The color used to indicate lines on which there is a difference, in the
"reference" editor.

          <br><dt><i>Old color</i><dd>This item is only displayed if the preference <i>Use old diff</i> is disabled. 
The color used to indicate spaces used by lines not present in one of the
editors in a 3-way diff and present in the other editors.

          <br><dt><i>Append color</i><dd>This item is only displayed if the preference <i>Use old diff</i> is disabled. 
The color used to display the lines that are present in an editor but not in the
reference editor.

          <br><dt><i>Remove color</i><dd>This item is only displayed if the preference <i>Use old diff</i> is disabled. 
The color used to display the lines that are present in the reference editor
but not in other editors.

          <br><dt><i>Change color</i><dd>This item is only displayed if the preference <i>Use old diff</i> is disabled. 
The color used to display the lines that have changed between the reference
editor and the other editors.

          <br><dt><i>Fine change color</i><dd>This item is only displayed if the preference <i>Use old diff</i> is disabled. 
The color used to highlight fine differences within a modified line.

          <br><dt><i>Context length</i><dd><a name="index-context-length-761"></a>This item is only displayed if the preference <i>Use old diff</i> is enabled. 
The number of lines displayed before and after each chunk of differences. 
Specifying -1 will display the whole file.

     </dl>

     <li><b>Messages</b>
<a name="index-messages-762"></a>
          <dl>
<dt><i>Color highlighting</i><dd><a name="index-color-763"></a>Color used to highlight text in the messages window.

          <br><dt><i>Color highlighting</i><dd><a name="index-errors-764"></a>Color used to highlight lines causing compilation errors/warnings in the
source editors. When this color is set to white, the errors/warnings are
not highlighted. (<a href="Compilation_002fBuild.html#Compilation_002fBuild">Compilation/Build</a>)

          <br><dt><i>File pattern</i><dd><a name="index-file-pattern-765"></a><a name="index-location-766"></a>Pattern used to detect file locations and the type of the output from the
messages window. 
This is particularly useful when using an external tool such as a compiler
or a search tool, so that GPS will highlight and allow navigation through source
locations. This is a standard system V regular expression containing from two
to five parenthesized subexpressions corresponding to the file, line, column,
warnings or style error patterns.

          <br><dt><i>File index</i><dd><a name="index-file-index-767"></a>Index of filename in the file pattern.

          <br><dt><i>Line index</i><dd><a name="index-line-index-768"></a>Index of the line number in the file pattern.

          <br><dt><i>Column index</i><dd><a name="index-column-index-769"></a>Index of the column number in the file pattern.

          <br><dt><i>Warning index</i><dd><a name="index-warning-index-770"></a>Index of the warning identifier in the file pattern.

          <br><dt><i>Style index</i><dd><a name="index-column-index-771"></a>Index of the style error identifier in the file pattern.

     </dl>

     <li><b>Project</b>
          <dl>
<dt><i>Relative project paths</i><dd><a name="index-relative-project-path-772"></a>Whether paths should be absolute or relative when the projects are modified.

          <br><dt><i>Fast Project Loading</i><dd><a name="index-fast-project-loading-773"></a>If the project respects a number of restrictions, activating the preference
will provide major speed up when GPS parses the project. This is especially
noticeable if the source files are on a network drive.

          <p>GPS assumes that the following restricitions are true when the preference
is activated. If this isn't the case, no error is reported, and only minor
drawacks will be visible in GPS (no detection that two files are the same
if one of them is a symbolic link for instance, although GPS will still
warn you if you are trying to overwrite a file modified on the disk).

          <p>The restrictions are the following:
               <ul>
<li>Symbolic links shouldn't be used in the project. 
  More precisely, you can only have symbolic links that point to files
  outside of the project, but not to another file in the project

               <li>Directories can't have source names. 
  No directory name should match the naming scheme defined in the
  project. For instance, if you are using the default GNAT naming scheme,
  you cannot have directories with names ending with ".ads" or ".adb"

          </ul>

          <br><dt><i>Load Xref info on project load</i><dd><a name="index-load-xref-info-on-project-load-774"></a>Whether the Xref information should be automatically loaded into memory when
a new project is loaded. See <a href="Support-for-Cross_002dReferences.html#Support-for-Cross_002dReferences">Support for Cross-References</a>.

          <br><dt><i>Hidden directories pattern</i><dd><a name="index-hidden-directories-pattern-775"></a>A regular expression used to match hidden directories. Such directories
are not displayed by default in the project view, and are not taken into
account for VCS operations working on directories.

     </dl>

     <li><b>Outline</b>
<a name="Outline-Preferences"></a>
          <dl>
<dt><i>Font</i><dd>
You can choose a specific font for the outline view. Typically, this will
be used to use a slightly smaller font than in the editor, so that you can
see more entities at once on the screen.

          <br><dt><i>Show Profiles</i><dd>
For some of the languages, in particular Ada, GPS can display the profile
(list of parameters) for the subprograms. This can be used to differentiate
between overloaded entities (ie entities with the same name). Disabling
this preference will only show the entity name.

          <br><dt><i>Sort alphabetically</i><dd>
If this preference is activated, the entities will be sorted alphabetically
in the outline view. If disabled, they will be displayed in the order they are
found in the source file.

          <br><dt><i>Link with Editor</i><dd>
If this option is set, the current subprogram will be selected in the outline
view every time the cursor position changes in the current editor. This
option requires some computation for GPS, and you might want to avoid the
slow down by disabling it.

          <br><dt><i>Show file name</i><dd>
If this option is set, the outline view will show the name of the file on its
first line, and indent slightly all following lines. If this option is unset,
this will save some screen real estate, but you will have to look at the
current editor to see what file is descrived in the Outline View.

     </dl>

     <li><b>Documentation</b>
<a name="Documention-Preferences"></a>This section specifies preferences that apply to the
<i>Documentation Generator</i>. <a href="Documentation-Generation.html#Documentation-Generation">Documentation Generation</a> for more
information.

          <dl>
<dt><i>Process body files</i><dd>
If this preference is enabled, implementation files will be processed. 
Otherwise, only the specification files will.

          <br><dt><i>Show private entities</i><dd>
By default, no documentation is generated for private entities. 
Enabling this preference will change this behavior.

          <br><dt><i>Call graph</i><dd>
If enabled, the documentation tool will compute and take advantage of source
references to e.g generate call graph information. 
Activating this option will slow down the documentation generation process.

          <br><dt><i>Up-to-date files only</i><dd>
If enabled, only files having up-to-date cross references information will be
documented.

          <br><dt><i>Comments filter regexp</i><dd>
A regular expression used to filter to comments found in the source code before
using them for generating documentation. For example "^!.*" will remove all
comments starting with '!'.

          <br><dt><i>Spawn a browser</i><dd>
If enabled, a browser is spawned after each documentation generation to view
the generated files. This browser is not spawned if disabled.

          <br><dt><i>Find xrefs in comments</i><dd>
If enabled, GPS will try to find references to entities in comments, and
 generate links to them when generating the documentation.

     </dl>

     <li><b>Coverage Analysis</b>
<a name="Coverage-Analysis-Preferences"></a>
          <dl>
<dt><i>Coverage toolchain</i><dd>
Select which coverage toolchain (<code>gcov</code> or <code>xcov</code>) to use from
the <code>Tools-&gt;Coverage</code> menu.

     </dl>

   </ul>

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gnat-gps-doc 5.0-6 / usr / share / doc / gnat-gps / html / The-Preferences-Dialog.html
