Getting started with the PL/I Editor

To open a file in the PL/I Editor, select the file and click Open with > PL/I Editor.

To set the PL/I Editor as the default editor for PL/I file types, click General > Editors > File Associations. When you make this association, you can double-click a file to open it in the PL/I Editor.

If one of the following conditions is true, the file opens in read-only mode:
Note: Saving an MVS file when some of the line lengths exceed the record length limit opens a file truncation warning. Continuing with the save results in truncated lines.

Customization of the editor

To customize the PL/I Editor to suit your preference, choose Window > Preferences > PL/I. For more information about setting preferences for the PL/I Editor, see Setting PL/I Editor preferences.

Editor presentation toolbar

You can control several aspects of the appearance of files in the editor by using the editor presentation toolbar:

Status Bar

The status bar is at the bottom of the workbench and provides the following information about files that are open in the editor:
  • The read/write indicator displays Writable or Read-Only.
  • The edit mode indicator displays Insert or "Overwrite.
  • The line:column indicator displays the line and column position of the edit cursor.
  • The toolbox icon displays the status of tooling.
    • Tooling enabled - blue toolbox indicates that tooling is enabled. All PL/I Editor functions are enabled.
    • Tooling disabled - gray toolbox indicates that tooling is disabled. These functions can be disabled by user preference, because a file is unavailable, or because of an invalid file extension. The following PL/I Editor functions are unavailable when tooling is disabled: hover information, Refactor actions, Open Declaration, Open Call Hierarchy.
    • Tooling out of sync - blue toolbox with warning icon indicates that tooling is out of sync because of a syntax error in the file. This warning is displayed when syntax errors are introduced into an open file. This warning icon is subject to change frequently as you edit a file. The following PL/I Editor functions are unavailable or have limited function: hover information data might be out of sync; Refactor actions are unavailable; Open Declaration might work, but the location you jump to might be out-of-sync; Open Call Hierarchy is unavailable.
    • Tooling failed - blue toolbox with error icon indicates that tooling is still initializing or failed to initialize because of a syntax error. This error occurs when a file that contains syntax errors is opened. The following PL/I Editor functions are unavailable: hover information, Refactor actions, Open Declaration, Open Call Hierarchy.

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