Any of the objects within a command file can hold different background and font color attributes. Syntax highlighting only affects the way your code is displayed in the editor. The programs are still saved as straight ASCII text files. To view the available syntax schemes, select the "Edit Syntax Scheme" button, or select "Options > Edit Syntax Scheme..." from the menu bar.
To change any settings for the R:BASE scheme, select "R:BASE" from the Scheme Editor window, and then the Edit button. The following dialog will appear. The Common, Comments, Full Line, Strings, Numbers, Identifiers, and Keywords tabs are used to assign font color and style attributes based words and characters within the file. To edit any object for the R:BASE syntax scheme, select the tab from the lower panel to view the options available. Selecting the "Edit" or "Style" button within the appropriate tab will display options to edit the color, font, style, background, and size of that scheme object. To load a custom scheme from an existing R:BASE Editor environment, use the "Merge" button to merge the settings into the current scheme.
Within the Extensions tab, file extensions associated with the R:BASE scheme may be viewed. When a file with the listed extension is opened in R:BASE Editor the defined syntax highlighting will be assigned the the file contents. The Add, Remove, Copy, and Edit buttons allow for custom extensions to be used.
Common
The Common tab is tied to the Blocks tab above, where starting and ending block delimiters may be defined. Block delimiters are applicable to other programming languages, but not R:BASE.
Comments
Comments in R:BASE are informative statements that are used in files to explain the various routines, constructs, and/or program logic used in the program. The comments help to make the program more readable and understand the code more clearly. Whenever R:BASE encounters a comment, the string is ignored.
R:BASE recognized single-line comments and multi-line comments. Single line comments are written in one line only. They begin with two hyphen characters "--" and extend to the end of the line. R:BASE recognizes the beginning of the comment and ignores everything that follows it. Multi-line comments or block comments are the comments enclosed between open and close squiggly brackets "{" and "}", or the asterisk preceding a set of parentheses "*()". Everything inside the block that starts with "{" and ends with "}" or starts with "*(" and ends with ")" is ignored by R:BASE. The multi-line comments can be used on one line, but can extend to multiple lines.
Strings
String can include comment description, caption, title, message, variable using TEXT, NOTE, WIDETEXT, WIDENOTE, alias name, DSN-less connection string, function or procedure with external function declarations (CDECL and STDCALL), etc.
Numbers
Numbers represent values containing one or more 0-9 characters. Different styles may be applied for integer, float, and hexadecimal numbers.
Identifiers
Identifier describes the word used for objects (database, table, column, index, view, stored procedure, form, report, label, correlation, cursor, owner, user, password, alias, arguments, etc.), variables, values for command parameters (plugin, label, component ID, etc.), file names (external form, application, command file, etc.), and folder names.
Keywords
Keywords are specific words which are reserved by R:BASE for its own use. These are mainly commands, functions, data types, parameters for commands and functions, etc. Keywords should not be used to name tables, columns, variables, or any other identifier.
