BBEdit Setup

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PCGen BBEdit Syntax Language Module File

Once you have BBEdit installed, get "PCGenLSTLanguageModule.plist" (link above) to be copied into the "<User>/Library/Application Support/BBEdit/Language Modules" directory. After that you need to create a document type for PCGen.

1) Start BBEdit

2) Configure -> Preferences -> Languages

3) Select "Languages"

3) "Add..." suffix mapping for extension ".lst" and map to "PCGen LST".

4) "Add..." suffix mapping for extension ".pcc" and map to "PCGen LST".

5) Enable -> Editor Defaults -> Syntax Coloring

6) Close Preferences

Now you need to make some further adjustments for your new document type.

1) Configure -> Preferences

2) Document Classes -> PCGen -> Font: Set the font to a monospace font so everything will line up nicely (I use Courier)

3) Tabulation: Set the default tab spacing to 6 spaces and set the Indent size to 6 spaces

After this you need to make some further adjustments to the general settings of TextPad

1) View - Make sure the following are checked:

  A)  Highlight the line containing the cursor (*extremely* helpful)
  B)  Horizontal scroll bar
  C)  Line numbers (makes talking to each other about where to find stuff easier)
  D)  Vertical scroll bar
  E)  Visible white space:Paragraphs, Spaces, Tabs

2) Associated Files - add "*.lst" and "*.pcc" and "*.pcg" so that Explorer will automatically start Textpad when you double click those file types.

3) File Name Filters

  A)  Click the New button
  B)  Enter a name/description ("PCGen" works well here)
  C)  Enter our three favorite wildcards "*.lst" and "*.pcc" and "*.pcg" separated by commas
  D)  Click Apply

4) Set your preferred font colors/backgrounds for each keyword and visible spaces. I recommend something bright and garish for the Keyword 6 as that is what is being used for deprecated tags.

Ok, that's pretty much it for getting BBEdit set up. A final thought... you'll also want to turn *off* word wrapping as the .lst file lines can get really long and trying to determine three line down if you've actually started a new line or not the with word-wrapping turned on is a quick route to insanity...