Editor Documentation¶
Existing document
\Pythonwin\contents.d
This file is split into four topic pages in PyWin32.chm.
Keyboard Bindings¶
Pythonwin has a new, flexible keyboard binding mechanism. Bindings (and even code) can be defined in a configuration file, stored in the pywin directory.
Many bindings are still builtin to Python using Window’s accelerators - see the Pythonwin menus for the specific keyboard shortcuts.
The default configuration file is named default.cfg. You can view this file with a text editor (eg, Pythonwin) This file has extensive comments, including how to create your own configuration based on the default. An example configuration which provides keyboard bindings similar to IDLE exists in IDLE.cfg, and this makes a good example of a custom configuration.
Please see default.cfg for a complete list, but the default bindings provided with Pythonwin are:
TABLE FORMATTING
@flagh Common Keystrokes | Description
@flag Alt+Q|Reformat the current paragraph/comment block. Note this does NOT reformat code correctly - use only within comment blocks!
@flag Ctrl+W|Toggle view whitespace.
@flag Alt+Expand the word at the cursor. Eg, pressing “st<Alt+/>” will complete based on all words in the current file - eg, “string” would be likely to result assuming the code has an “import string” statement. Pressing the key again expands to the next match.
@flag .|Auto expand the attribute. Eg, typing “string.” will display a listbox with the contents of the string module. Select an item with TAB or the mouse.
@flag Alt+I|Toggle focus to/from the interactive window.
@flagh Builtin Keystrokes | Keystrokes built into Scintilla
@flag Ctrl+Keypad+Plus|Zoom-in for the current window. Non True-Type fonts may require multiple presses.
@flag Ctrl+Keypad+Minus|Zoom-out for the current window. Non True-Type fonts may require multiple presses.
@flag Ctrl+Backspace|Delete the word to the left of the cursor.
@flag Ctrl+Z|Undo
@flag Ctrl+Y|Redo
@flag Ctrl+X|Cut
@flag Ctrl+C|Copy
@flag Ctrl+V|Paste
@flag Ctrl+A|Select All
@flag Ctrl+Shift+L|Delete the current line
@flag Ctrl+T|Transpose (swap) the current line with the line above
@flag Ctrl+U|Convert the selection to lower case
@flag Ctrl+Shift+U|Convert the selection to upper case
@flagh Editor Specific Keystrokes | Description
@flag F2|Move to the next bookmark.
@flag Ctrl+F2|Add or remove a bookmark on the current line.
@flag Ctrl+G|Prompt for and goto a specific line number.
@flag Alt+B|Adds a simple comment banner at the current location.
@flag Alt+3|Block comment the selected region.
@flag Shift+Alt+3|Uncomment the selected region.
@flag Alt+4|Uncomment the selected region (IDLE default keystroke)
@flag Alt+5|Tabify the selected region.
@flag Alt+6|Untabify the selected region.
@flag BackSpace|Remove selected region or one character or indent to the left.
@flag Ctrl+T|Toggle the use of tabs for the current file (after confirmation)
@flag Alt+U|Change the indent width for the current file.
@flag Enter|Insert a newline and indent.
@flag Tab|Insert an indent, perform a block indent if a selection exists, or accept an attribute selection.
@flag Shift-Tab|Block dedent the selection
@flag F6|Toggle view when editor splitter is open.
@flag Keypad-Plus|If the current line is a collapsed fold, expand it (see <t Folding>)
@flag Alt-Keypad-Plus|Expand all folds in the current file (see <t Folding>)
@flag Keypad-Minus|If the current line is an expanded fold, collapse it (see <t Folding>)
@flag Alt-Keypad-Minus|Collapse all folds in the current file. regardless of how deep the fold becomes. (see <t Folding>)
@flag Keypad-Multiply|Expand or collapse all top-level folds in the current file. No second level or deeper folds are changed. If the first fold in the file is collapsed, all top-level folds are opened. Otherwise, all top-level folds are collapsed (see <t Folding>)
@flagh Debugger Keystrokes | Description
@flag F9|Toggle breakpoint
@flag F5|Run (ie, go)
@flag Shift+F5|Stop debugging
@flag F11|Single step into functions
@flag F10|Step over functions
@flag Shift+F11|Step out of the current function
@flagh Interactive Window Specific Keystrokes | Description
@flag Ctrl+Up|Recall the previous command in the history list.
@flag Ctrl+Down|Recall the next command in the history list.
Source code folding in the editor¶
Thanks to Scintilla (http://www.scintilla.org), Pythonwin supports source code folding. Folding is the ability to collapse sections of your source-code into a single line, making it easier to navigate around large files. Any Python statement which introduces a new block can be folded either by clicking on the indicator in the folding margin (if enabled via the View->Options->Editor dialog), by selecting one of the folding keystrokes (see <t Keyboard Bindings>, or by using View->Folding menu.)
All find/replace or ‘goto linenumber’ functions work correctly when code is folded - the code is simply unfolded if necessary before the relevant operation.
You may configure Pythonwin so that all files have their top-levels folded when opened. Only the first level folds are collapsed using this function, so expanding the top-level fold reveals the entire class/method that was folded. Alternatively, you can use the Keypad-Multiply key to toggle the first level folds for the entire file at any time.
Tabs and indentation in the editor¶
The use of tabs and the meanings of the tab defaults is not completely clear. Unfortunately, this is very hard to fix without losing the smart indentation (eg, when indenting lists or function parameters). <nl>If the use of smart indentation has been disabled (the default is enabled) then the indentation should always follow your preferences, regardless of any existing indentation in the source.
Otherwise, the preferences for tab settings are only used when a new file is created. If smart-tabs are enabled and an existing file is opened, its first block is located, and the indentation it uses overrides the default. Thus, regardless of your preferences, if the first indent in the file is a tab, Pythonwin uses tabs for the entire file (and similarly, uses spaces if the first block is indented with spaces)
Things can appear to get wierd when editing a file with mixed tabs and spaces. Although mixed tabs and spaces in the same indent is evil, there are a number of source files that have certain classes/functions indented with spaces, and others that use tabs. The editor will not correctly adjust to the current block - whatever was used for the first block is used for the entire file.
Another common scenario where things go wrong is when pasting code into a new file. You create a new file (which sets the tabs to your defaults), then paste in a huge chunk of code that is indented differently. The editor is still using the defaults, which dont reflect the code that now exists in the buffer.
The “tab-timmy” shows up these problems very quickly, and you can quickly toggle the current tab settings by pressing Ctrl+T, or change the indent width by pressing Ctrl+U.
Source Safe Integration¶
Note you will need to restart Pythonwin for this option to take effect.
Before using the VSS integration, you must create a “mssccprj.scc” file in the directory, or a parent directory, of the files you wish to integrate. There are no limits on how many of these files exist. This is the same name and format as VB uses for VSS integration - a Windows INI file.
This file must have a section [Python] with entry “Project=ProjectName”. The project name is the name of the VSS project used to check the out the file. If the .scc file is in a parent directory, the correct relative VSS path is built - so if your file system matches your VSS structure, you only need a single .scc file in the VSS “root” directory.
For example, assuming you have the file c:srcmssccprj.scc with the contents:
[Python]
Project=OurProject
-eof-
The file c:srcsource1.py will be checked out from project OurProject, c:srcsubsource2.py will be checked out from project OurProjectsub, etc.