Scripting language support is pretty essential in a vibrant, novel editor. Like Vim and Emacs, הϵѻMCEdit has too support for such feature.

The language chosen for NeoMCEdit is S-Lang. It is a very light, yet powerful language, with very straightforward integration with the hosting application (meaning that it’s easy to develop).

API Functions Documentation

Below is a list of functions exported to the S-Lang interpreter (also available as PDF). The “cure_” prefix stands for “current editor”. All functions are in the mc namespace, i.e.: mc->func().

1. Movement – #1 function.

   • cure_cursor_move (offset)

     Moves the cursor offset bytes right or left (when offset is smaller than 0).

2. Getting offsets – #3 functions.

   • cure_cursor_offset (void)

     Returns an integer that is the cursor position in the buffer.

   • cure_get_bol (void)

     Gets an integer that is the offset of the beginning of current line.

   • cure_get_eol (void)

     Gets an integer that is the offset of the end of current line.

3. Getting data from buffer – #2 functions.

   • cure_get_left_whole_word (skip_space)

     Returns a string that is the word on left of cursor. If skip_space is true, then it jumps over a single block of white space if necessary.

   • cure_get_byte (byte_index)

     Returns the byte at given byte offset.

4. Editing functions – #3 functions.

   • cure_delete (void)

     Deletes the char under the cursor.

   • cure_backspace (void)

     Deletes the char left of cursor.

   • cure_insert_ahead (char)

     Inserts the given char right of cursor.

5. Dialog functions – #4 functions.

   • listbox (h, w, title, items)

     Displays the list with given size, title and items.

   • listbox_with_data (h, w, title, items, data)

     Displays the list with given size, title, items and the associated data elements.

   • listbox_auto (title, items)

     Auto sized listbox.

   • message (title,body)

     A press-any-key message dialog with given title and body text.

6. Action hooks – #2 functions.

   • set_action_hook (action_name, func_name, user_data)

     Hooks up the given function to the given action.

Standard Plugins Shipped With הϵѻMCEdit.

There are 4 plugins that are written in S-Lang language and shipped with הϵѻMCEdit:

1. grow_shrink_integer.plg.sl – implements the well known Vim feature – increasing and decreasing the number under cursor. Binds to ctrl-alt-a for increase and ctrl-alt-x for decrease by default. The bindings can be overidden by setting the following actions in ~/.config/mc/mc.keymap to a custom key combination (example):

   [editor]
   …
   GrowInteger = alt-a
   ShrinkInteger = alt-x”

2. capitalize.plg.sl - implements following actions:
   • Capitalize - upcases the first letter of word under the pointer; bound to alt-shift-c by default,
   • ToUpper – upcases the current word (ie. “aBc” becomes “ABC”); bound to ctrl-alt-u by default,
   • ToLower – lowercases the current word; bound to alt-shift-l.

3. commentify.plg.sl – implements commenting and uncommenting current line with /* … */. It currently supports only such C comments. Bound to alt-i by default. The name of the action is Commentify, so you can alter this binding by including the following in ~/.config/mc/mc.keymap to bind it to alt-c if you want (example):

   [editor]
   …
   Commentify = alt-c

4. better_marks.plg.sl – a plugin which resolves a considered issue with with MarkUp and MarkDown actions – it changes their behavior from:

   Starting selection at current position and moving vertically 
   up/down." 
   

   to:

   Selecting the whole line above or below and moving
   to that line."
   

   Unlike other plugins better_marks doesn’t define a new action. It only hooks up to the two mentioned, built-in actions and alters their behavior.

«plugin» Directory In «~/.config/mc»

To use the plugins, copy them from misc/ subdirectory of the source tree to a new directory: ~/.config/mc/plugin. All files with the *.sl extension in this dir will be read by הϵѻMCEdit at startup, setting up the plugins.

In case of any problems you may want to set the mc_loglevel variable to 2 or more in ~/.config/mc/init.sl file to see messages confirming loading of each of plugins.