Editing ISPF (section)

==Editor==

The editor screen is formatted with 2 lines (info & command line) at the top (or bottom – user choice), a six character line number column in the left margin, and the remainder of the screen width being filled with the records of the dataset being edited.  Primary commands (which apply to the whole dataset) such as Find, Print, Sort, etc. are typed in the command line.  Line commands (which apply only to specific line(s)) such as copy, move, repeat, insert, exclude, delete, text flow, text split are entered by over-typing the line number fields with a one or two character code representing the command to be applied at that line followed by an optional number which further modifies the supplied command.

The editor has several key features:
*Context sensitive color highlighting for several languages and file types
*[[Code folding]] via the X or XX...XX(hide) line(s) command & indentation-selective reveals
*editor macro commands in REXX or compiled languages
*comparison with another dataset
*models of ISPF service calls
*context-sensitive Help available 
*recovery from lost sessions

The editor can also be invoked in a 'view' mode.  It behaves like the editor, but does not allow saving the data.  Edited files can also be saved under a different name, creating or replacing another file.

ISPF provides the 'editor interface' which lets an application program display arbitrary data in the familiar editor panel.  Thus many vendor packages use this familiar interface.