Install TextPad

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Introduction

This document describes how to install and configure TextPad for use on a home computer. TextPad is already installed on CTC and lab machines under the CIS and CS directory. You can access this directory from the Start menu.

You can download a copy of TextPad for evaluation at home. There is no charge for the download, but you must pay for the software if you decide to keep it. A single user license costs only $27 US dollars. Your instructor is a licensed user.

Note that TextPad only runs on computers using Windows. If you want a good text editor that runs on other operating systems, and that is free, try jEdit.

If you need more help, you can consult TextPad's Support information. Or better yet, ask a classmate if they were able to get it set up.

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Installation Instructions

See TextPad's Installation Instructions and then use the additional configuration instructions below to finish the set up.

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Configuring TextPad

TextPad has a number of configuration options.

    Tab Settings

  1. Click on the Configure menu and then Preferences.

    2. The Preferences dialog appears with a tree on the left side.

  2. Expand the Documents Classes by clicking on the '+' sign.
  3. Expand the Java tree
  4. Click on Tabulation
  5. On the right side there should be two checkboxes labeled "Convert new tabs to spaces" and "Convert existing tabs to spaces when saving"; check both of the checkboxes.
  6. Press either the Apply or OK buttons.

    7. Configuring CheckStyle

  7. Download and unzip CheckStyle.
  8. In addition, download the grade_checks.xml file and place it in the directory to which you installed CheckStyle.
  9. Click on the Configure menu and then Preferences.

    10. The Preferences dialog appears with a tree on the left side.

  10. Click on the Tools node of the tree.

    11. You will see a Tools dialog with an Add drop-down menu.

  11. Click on the Add button and then Program....

    12. The Select a file dialog appears.

  12. Change the "Files of type:" setting to All Programs (*.*).
  13. Browse to where you installed CheckStyle, select the checkstyle-all-3.3.jar file and press the Open button.

    14. Note: you may need to change the version from 3.3 to a later one.

  14. Press either the Apply button.

    15. Checkstyle should now appear as a choice in the Tools menu.

  15. Expand the Tools menu and click on the Checkstyle tool.

    16. You should see a dialog like the following appear:

  16. Change the Command line to: java
  17. Change the Parameters line as follows:

    18. -jar "C:\path\to\checkstyle-all-3.3.jar" com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.Main -c "C:\path\to\grade_checks.xml" $File

    Substitute the path where you installed CheckStyle and grade_checks.xml for the \path\to\ shown above. Also, you may need to change the version number from 3.3 to a later one.

    Note that Windows allows spaces in directory names, which can cause problems for CheckStyle. The solution is to put double quotes around the paths as shown above.

  18. Check the checkboxes as shown.
  19. Set the Regular expression to match output to: ^\(\(\(.[^:]\)\|\([A-Za-z]:\)\)[^:]+\):\([0-9]+\):
  20. Set the Registers as shown.
  21. Press either the Apply or OK buttons.

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Using Checkstyle

To run CheckStyle, select the Tools menu followed by CheckStyle. This should list checkstyle errors on a Command Results page.

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Last Updated: August 25 2004 @12:46:16