The editor provides language-sensitive coloring as a productivity aid for users who are editing program source. It is used in a variety of programming languages. Some coloring enhancements are also useful for editing data other than program source.

These enhancements allow programmers to immediately see simple programming errors, such as mismatched quotes or parentheses, unclosed comments, and mismatched logical constructs. The language-sensitive component allows you to take advantage of the editor's coloring capabilities for a number of programming languages simultaneously. Enhanced coloring is also a general productivity aid, because it improves your ability to locate text quickly.

The editor provides enhanced highlighting in these areas:

1. Programming language constructs, including:
   • Keywords for each individual language
   • Comments
   • Quoted strings (using both single and double quotes)
   • Compiler directives (C, COBOL, PL/I, and PASCAL only)
   • Special characters that the user chooses
2. Language-sensitive program logic features, such as logical blocks and IF/ELSE logic.
3. Any strings that match the previous FIND operation or that would be found by an RFIND or RCHANGE request.
4. Default color for the data area in non-program files.
5. The phrase containing the cursor in the data area.
6. Characters that have been input since the previous Enter or function key entry was pressed.