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Document Types Options

An Overview of Document Types

This page allows you to define document types and specify special options for document types. There are three types of document types in ExamDiff Pro:

• Default/Plain Text is the default document type that is assigned to all files that do not match any other document types. This document type cannot be deleted or renamed, and cannot participate in syntax highlighting and comment ignoring.
  
  
• System types are those types that come preinstalled with ExamDiff Pro. They cannot be deleted or renamed, but can be assigned to different file extensions. These document types can participate in syntax highlighting and comment ignoring.
  
  
• Custom types are those types that are user-created. They are the only types that can be deleted and renamed. These document types can participate in comment ignoring, but cannot participate in syntax highlighting.

Dialog Box Options

• Type name
  The name of the document type. Only user-created types can be renamed.
  
  
• Supported features
  A list of type-specific features supported for this document type. Supported features include:

  • basic syntax highlighting: highlights basic syntax elements like keywords and comments
  • advanced syntax highlighting: parses the file fully and highlights all relevant syntax elements
  • scope bar: support for displaying a scope bar
  • comments: support for ignoring comments (either defined by the syntax parser for built-in types or defined by a custom user-provided regular expression)

  Custom types only support ignoring comments, and the "Default/Plain Text" type supports none of these features.
  
  
• Extensions
  File extensions that the document type applies to.
  
  
• Tab size
  Sets the tab size (that is, the number of spaces in a tab) for the document type. This option only takes effect if Use document type settings is enabled.
  
  
• Enable syntax highlighting (built-in types only)
  Highlights certain syntax elements during comparison. Diff highlighting takes precedence over syntax highlighting, so syntax highlighting only takes effect on identical blocks. The colors used in syntax highlighting can be modified in the Display | Syntax Colors Options panel.
  
  
• Use syntax parser to detect comments (built-in types only)
  Use the built-in syntax parser for this document type to identify comments, that will be ignored if the Ignore Comments comparison option is enabled.
  
  
• Regular expression for comments (custom types only)
  The regular expression (if any) that defines comments for the document type. This option can only be set for custom types; system types use the same parsing algorithms that are utilized by syntax highlighting. Note that we use the term "comments" in a very broad sense; any single- or multi-line part of a text file can be considered a "comment" as long as it is defined by a regular expression.
  
  
  • Single line comments
    Single line comments (such as // in C++), use the following regular expression: [comment symbol].*?\n . For example, the regular expression for C++ style comments is //.*?\n . Note the non-greedy ? operator.
    
    
  • Multi-line comments
    Multi-line comments (such as /* */ in C), use the following regular expression: [start comment symbol].*?[end comment symbol] . For example, the regular expression for C-style comments is /\*.*?\*/ . Again, note the non-greedy ? operator.
    
    
  • Combining comments
    Different kinds of comments can be combined ("OR-ed") using the | character. For example, the regular expression /\*.*?\*/|//.*?\n ignores both C and C++ style comments.
    
    

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