Automatic language selection

If you choose not to set the language explicitly, the editor can automatically determine the language of the part being edited. The language is determined by looking at the first nonblank string in the file. In cases where ambiguity exists between languages, as in the case C and JCL (both may start with //) or PL/I and REXX (both may start with a /* comment), the last qualifier of the data set name may be used to determine the language. Rules for automatic language recognition are as follows:

Assembler

Asterisk in column 1 or a recognized opcode of CSECT, DSECT, MACRO, TITLE, START or COPY.

Note: *PROCESS in column 1 is recognized as PL/I.

BookMaster®

First character is . or : in column 1.

C

Any of these:

First string is #
First string is // and data set type is not .CNTL, .JCL, or ISPCTLx
First string is /* and data set type is .C

COBOL

First nonblank is a * or / in column 7.

HTML

First nonblank character is <, and the first tag in the document that is not a comment is either a <!DOCTYPE HTML> tag or a <?HTML> tag.

ISPF DTL

First nonblank character is <, and the document is not identified as an HTML or XML document.

ISPF Panel

First string is ) in column 1, followed by a panel section name, or the first string is % in column 1.

ISPF Skeleton

) in column 1 in a file that does not seem to be a panel.

JCL

Any of these:

//anything followed by the word COMMAND, DD, ELSE, ELSEIF, EXEC, IF, INCLUDE, JCLLIB, JOB, OUTPUT, PROC, SET, XMIT, or any word beginning with the characters 'MSG'
//* in column 1
// in column 1, and the data set type is .CNTL, .JCL, or ISPCTLx
Any of these in column 1:
*$
/*JOBPARM
/*MESSAGE
/*NETACCT
/*NOTIFY
/*OUTPUT
/*PRIORITY
/*ROUTE
/*SETUP
/*SIGNOFF
/*SIGNON
/*XEQ
/*XMIT

Pascal

First string is (*, or the first string is /* and the data set name ends in .PASCAL.

PL/I

First string is % or /* or the first string is *PROCESS in column 1. The use of carriage control characters in column one may cause PL/I detection to fail. For data sets names with a final qualifier starting with "PL", automatic language detection is retried ignoring column one if the first nonblank characters occur in column one, and no language can be detected. See REXX, C, and Panel for more information.

REXX

First string is a /* comment containing REXX, or the first string is a /* comment, and the data set type is .EXEC or .REXX.

SuperC

Either of these in column 3 or 4:

ISRSUPC -
ASMFSUPC -

XML

First nonblank character is <, and the first tag in the document that is not a comment is either a <!DOCTYPE XML> tag or a <?XML> tag.

Other

First word is PROC, CONTROL, ISPEXEC, or ISREDIT.

HILITE AUTO selects a language based on the first nonblank line, and in some cases, the last qualifier of the data set name.

ISPF only scans up to the first 72 bytes in each line to determine the language. If the data that would identify the language is past the 72nd column, the language may be determined incorrectly.