Syntax Coloring

Source code is colored in the DVT editor. Some language constructs are colored based on a syntactical analysis of the code, while others require a more elaborate semantic analysis, as detailed in the table below. Semantic coloring is only performed when the source code is compiled.

Category	Requires compilation	Details
Arguments	y	Function arguments
Comment Hyperlinks
Comment Pragmas	y	Compilation is required for Custom Pragmas
Comments
Constants	y	Const fields, enum members and predefined constants like TRUE, FALSE
Default		Any word which does not belong to other categories
Define Groups		Syntactical category tag of a define as or define as computed macro
Events	y
Expansion Literals
Expansion Replacements
Fields	y	Struct fields and union fields
HDL Paths
Javadoc Tags
Keyphrases		Combination of keywords: “is a”, “keep for each”
Keywords
Labels	y
Methods	y	Methods and time consuming methods
Numbers
Ports - Input, Inout	y
Ports - Output	y
Preprocessing		Preprocessing #macros
Replacement Terms		Constructs like <any>, <exp>, <type>
Section Start/End		Begin or end of code section <’ and ‘>
String Literals
Task Tags
Types	y	scalar types, units, structs
Template Identifiers
Time Units		Time units like ms, ns or ps
Variables	y

You can change the coloring style for each of the categories. Go to Window ‣ Preferences ‣ DVT ‣ e Language ‣ Editor ‣ Syntax Coloring, select the category you wish to modify from the list and set the color and font style.

A code sample in the Syntax Coloring preference page helps you preview the changes instantly. The default style is shown below:

Note

Inside macro definitions and macro calls, only syntactic coloring is performed.