Editing
The BlackAdder editor is based on Neil
Hodgson's Scintilla editor, which is also available for Linux
and Windows as a stand-alone editor, called SciTE
(http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html).
This editor has a few very nice features.
The syntax highlighting for Python (and many other languages) is
nearly instantaneous. It also offers auto-indent. This means
that you never have to press TAB to indent another level—
the editor knows when to indent based on the contents of the
previous line.
You can also fold in functions and
classes. In the gray vertical bar on the left of the editor
pane, there are small horizontal lines, akin to minus signs.
These correspond to class,
def and other block statements. You can
click on the minus sign, and suddenly the whole block disappears
under its first line, and a thin line is drawn over the width of
the pane, indicating the fold:
The Scintilla editor component has other
interesting features, such as Python tooltips, but these weren't
integrated in the beta version of BlackAdder I used to write
this book.