Getting started with the z Systems LPEX Editor

To open a file in the z Systems® LPEX Editor, select the file and click Open with > z Systems LPEX Editor.

To set the z Systems LPEX Editor as the default editor, click General > Editors > File Associations. When you make this association, you can double-click a file to open it in the z Systems LPEX Editor.

If one of the following conditions is true, the file opens in read-only mode:
  • If you open an MVS file that is locked on the MVS Files subsystem, the editor opens it in read-only mode and issues a locked file warning. A file might be locked because it is already open by another user or process.
  • If an MVS file contains characters that cannot be correctly converted from one encoding (code page) to another and then back to the original encoding, the file is opened in read-only mode and the characters that cannot be converted correctly are highlighted.
  • If the Browse action is used to open the file.
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.

Editor profile

The look and function of the editor, depends on the type of editor profile preference defined. The list of available editor profiles allows the editor to be configured to adopt the keyboard and command features of several editors. The default editor profile is the lpex profile. To determine the editor profile currently being used, open the Preferences window and select LPEX Editor. To change the editor profile, select a profile from the list of editor profiles. For a list and description of the available editor profiles, see Editor profiles.

If you are used to using ISPF to work with source files, setting the editor profile to ispf causes the z Systems LPEX Editor to behave more like ISPF with some limitations. For more information about the ispf profile, see Enabling the ISPF editor profile.

Customizing the editor

To open the Preferences window:
  • On Windows: Window > Preferences
  • On macOS: IBM® Developer for z/OS® > Preferences
  • From the editor: right-click and select Preferences
You can customize the z Systems LPEX Editor to suit your preference:
  • To customize standard editor options such as appearance, saving, and printing, choose LPEX Editor.
  • To customize editor options that are specific to z/OS, choose LPEX Editor > z Systems LPEX Editor.
For more information about setting preferences for the z Systems LPEX Editor, see Setting z Systems LPEX Editor preferences.

Hexadecimal editing

To enable hexadecimal editing, right-mouse click and click Source > Hex Edit Line. After the hex editing function is enabled, you can select lines in the file and the hex representation is shown at the bottom of the editor in a table format. There are two rows, the first being the highlighted text and the second the hex value of the line. You can change the hex values in the table and the change is reflected in the text. Changes made to the character text are also reflected in the hex representation of the text. To disable hex editing, click Esc.

Status bar

The status bar at the bottom of the workspace provides the following information about files that are open in the editor:
  • The edit mode indicator displays Insert or "Overwrite.
  • The line:column indicator displays the line and column position of the edit cursor.