Your site can use any number of preprocessors in your program compilation process.
Preprocessors translate nonstandard syntax into syntax that compilers can support. The effect of
using preprocessors is to extend the syntax that can be used to write programs. By using
the content assistance extension point, you can create a plug-in that adds proposals for nonstandard
syntax into the content assistance window for supported editors.
About this task
Supported Editors:
COBOL Editor
JCL Editor
PL/I Editor
z Systems® LPEX Editor
You can contribute categories and computers to content
assistance:
A category is a group of proposals. The editors include two built-in categories:
Default Proposals and Template Proposals. You can use the content assist extension point to create a
contributed, or user-written, category. Users can browse among categories by repeatedly pressing
Ctrl+Spacebar. The name of the next available category is displayed in the status area of the
content assist window.
Restriction: The content assist window in the z Systems LPEX Editor does not have a status
area.
A computer contributes syntax proposals, such as
a programming statement, a variable, or a code template, to a category.
A computer can contribute proposals to the built-in categories or
to a contributed category. A computer can also contribute context
information and additional information for a proposal. Context
information is displayed in a hover pane above the current
line of code when a user presses Ctrl+Shift+Spacebar and offers a
code completion proposal. Additional information displays
in a pop-up pane in the content assist window.
The following figure illustrates the content assist window.Figure 1. Content assist window. The proposal pane on the
left displays a list of Template Proposals. The additional information
pane on the right displays the contents of the DATA DIVISION template.
The status area indicates that the next available category of proposals
is Default Proposals.
Procedure
For information about creating and installing a plug-in
that creates a preprocessor extension, see these topics:
