The Quartus® Prime Text Editor is a flexible tool that you can use
to enter text-based designs in AHDL, VHDL, Verilog HDL, and
Tcl languages. Right-click
commands, auto-complete text entry, and error checking features
allow you to easily create Text Design Files
(.tdf),
VHDL Design Files
(.vhd),
Verilog Design Files
(.v),
SystemVerilog Design Files
(.sv), and
Tcl Script Files (.tcl).
You can also generate a .tcl file from a Quartus® Prime project,
and then edit it in the Quartus® Prime Text Editor. You can freely
combine .tdf, .vhd, and .v files with other types of design
files in a hierarchical project. Additionally, you can create or
edit Assembly Files (.a,
.asm),
C/C++ Include Files (.h), C Source Files
(.c),
C++ Source Files (.cpp),
and ASCII files, including those created for or by the
Quartus® Prime software. Code element templates provide an easy way to
enter code and increase the speed and accuracy of design entry.
If you choose not to use the Quartus® Prime Text Editor, the Quartus
II software allows you to define your preferred text editor in the
Options dialog
box. Before using an external text editor, you must first close all
files open in the Quartus® Prime Text Editor; otherwise, the external
text editor you select does not open properly.
With the Quartus® Prime Text Editor, you can take advantage of
unique features to help you debug your Quartus® Prime project. For
example, the Messages window
allows you to locate and highlight design file errors in the
Quartus® Prime Text Editor.
The text editor indicates errors that occur during compilation with
a yellow circle at the line number in the design file where the
error occurred. Hovering your mouse over the yellow circle displays
a tooltip with a description of the error.
You can dock or undock the text
editor window from the main Quartus® Prime window by clicking the
Detach Window or
Attach Window icon, which
gives you additional flexibility when you create and debug design
files. Each time you save a file, the Quartus® Prime Text Editor
creates a backup file in the same directory as the open file as
<file
name>.bak.
In the Quartus® Prime Text Editor, if the node text is tappable, you
can click the Add Node to
SignalTap II Logic Analyzer command on the shortcut menu,
and then choose to add the selected node to a new SignalTap II File
(.stp),
or to an existing .stp file
that appears on the shortcut menu.
You can customize the Quartus® Prime Text Editor with options on the
Headers & Footers
Settings page, the Preferred
Text Editor page, or the Text
Editor page, in the Quartus® Prime software. The following are
descriptions of popular editing features available in the Quartus
II Text Editor:
-
Find, Find Next, and Replace commands allow you to search
for words or regular and matching case expressions and make
replacements to the entire file, or to selected text.
-
Increase Indent or Decrease
Indent commands allow you to increase or decrease the indent of
a single line or section of text.
-
TheTab size (in
spaces) option allows you to specify the number of
spaces represented by each indent. You can also replace tab
occurrences with spaces with the Insert space on Tab option on the
Text Editor page, and the
Replace Tabs
With Spaces command on the Edit menu.
-
TheInsert File
command allows you to insert the entire contents of any text file
into the current file.
- The Quartus® Prime Text Editor allows you to set different colors
for various code element categories, for example, VHDL, Verilog,
and Tcl reserved syntax keywords.
- The Insert
Template command allows you to insert a code
template for any AHDL statement or
section, any supported VHDL, SystemVerilog, or Verilog HDL
construct, Tcl commands, or megafunctions into the current file.
Additionally, to ease the specification of timing constraints in
the TimeQuest Timing Analyzer, the Quartus® Prime Text Editor supports
Synopsys Design Constraints (SDC) templates.
- The Fonts
page allows you to change the size, style, and font of text.
The Quartus® Prime Text Editor supports only monospace fonts that range
in size from 8 to 48 points.
- The Quartus® Prime Text Editor allows you to set different colors
for various code element categories, for example, VHDL, Verilog,
and Tcl reserved syntax keywords. On the Colors page,
you can customize which colors to use for the different code
elements.
- The
Autocomplete
Text command allows the Quartus® Prime Text Editor to predict the
syntax word, delimiter, or keywordthat
you want to type as you enter text. As you type, a list of possible
words appears in a drop-down list.
- Smart highlighting helps you to easily identify matched keywords
in a document. When you highlight a text string, the Quartus® Prime
Text Editor highlights all occurrences of the selected text in the
document. On the Colors page, you can
customize which colors to use for highlighting text.
- The Find
Matching Delimiter command allows you to locate
start-of-section, end-of-section, and other syntax delimiters. For
example, if you select an opening parenthesis, the text editor can
find the next closing parenthesis.
- The Go
To command allows you to jump to a specified line of
text.
- You can use bookmarks to mark frequently accessed lines in a file. With the
Toggle Bookmark, Jump To Next Bookmark,
and Jump To Previous Bookmark commands, you can set a bookmark on
a line in a file, and then later jump to that line from anywhere in the file. The
Clear All Bookmarks command allows you to delete all bookmarks
in an open file.
- The Duplicate View command helps you edit and compare files by duplicating a Quartus® Prime
Text Editor window.The Split Windowcommand allows you to split
the active Quartus® Prime Text Editor window into two panes. Youcan view the windows in a
vertical or horizontal orientation.