The key features of PascalGladiator have not been documented beyond a simple mention in a list, until now!
Reference Library.
This may be my favorite feature in PascalGladiator because of the hours it saves me switching to Safari to view the Apple reference library online or digging around the interfaces. Simply by contextual clicking on a selected word (and choosing “Look up … in reference”) it will query all the Carbon interfaces for functions of type definitions that match the string and show you a preview of where it exists. This is extremely useful for checking function parameters and record fields etc…
Eventually I would like this feature to resemble Xcode’s with actual HTML pages from the Apple reference as well, but that is for later. For now the system is fast and does exactly what you need.
Contextual Menu.
This was nearly the entire reason I decided to make PascalGladiator instead of using Xcode – the ability to navigate symbols by contextual clicking. I’m also proud to say contextual symbol navigation is better than Xcode!
First is basic navigation, by clicking on a symbol and choosing “Go to … in myfile.pas” you jump to that symbol. If there are multiple symbols with the same name they will all be displayed.
Second, if the symbol you select in an object or class an additional item “Go to object members of …” which lets you jump to any methods of the class. Also, the item “Go to class hierarchy for …” which lets you jump to any of the super-classes of the selected class.
Targets.
PascalGladiator lets you choose an unlimited number of targets for each project. Currently supported are Applications (bundles with nibs) and Dynamic Libraries. I was working on framework and static libraries but the work was not completed after having linker/FPC problems. I will come back to this.
Targets let you specify search paths for source files, libraries and frameworks, change FPC compiler settings and specify basics like output and input locations.
To create a new project use the action menu in the toolbar below the project browser.
Go to Symbol.
I got this idea from TextMate after seeing how useful it was and my own problem of always performing searches to find symbol definitions in a file. This is certainly faster and brings you exactly to the right location instead of jumping around searching.
Command-shift-T and you’re there.
Class Browser.
This feature needs some work but is still good for reference, but not so much navigation like was intended. Basically you get a list of all the classes in the project and upon selecting one you see the sub-classes and methods, along with a source line and file location. Good for overviewing the project and looking at method parameters.
This feature will see improvement in versions to come.