The Chip Studio editor

The Chip Studio editor

The Chip Studio editor, button by button

The editor is the writing desk inside Chip Studio — the place chip code gets written. It looks plain on purpose: everything it does is one click or one key away, and this page names each thing in the order you will meet it.

These pages live in the Docs view. This wiki's home is the Docs view — the main documentation window. Press Pop out at the top of the Docs view and the wiki detaches into its own window, open at the page you were reading, so you can keep it beside the editor or the chat while you work. Pop back in — in the popped window or in the Docs view holding its place — returns it to the Docs view, same page. The pop-out is always another window entirely — the app's own second window — never a panel inside this one; if a window host ever blocks it, the Docs view says so and offers a direct link that opens the wiki in a new window instead.

The file list. On the left is the list of the chip's files. root.py sits at the top — the main file, the one Navi runs. Click any file to open it. Buttons under the list add a new file, rename the open one, or delete it (root.py cannot be deleted — every chip needs its main file). A dot beside a file's name means “changed, not saved yet”. Everything in the list travels with the chip: forge the chip and all the files go inside the picture.

Full screen. The button in the toolbar with the four corners makes the editor fill the whole app window — room to think on a big chip. Press it again, or press Esc, to shrink it back. Your place in the code does not move either way.

Reading the code. The editor colors the code — names, words, and numbers each get their own color, so the shape of a line is visible at a glance. Thin vertical lines (indent guides) show where a block starts and ends. Click the small arrow beside a block to fold it away; click again to bring it back. Folding is only for your eyes — a save always keeps the whole file.

Finding things. Find searches the open file, and can replace what it finds. Find in all files searches every file in the chip and lists the hits as file and line — click a hit to jump straight there. The Outline list names every function and class in the file; pick one to jump to it. The command palette also has go to line for when you know the number.

The red squiggles. A wavy red line under code means the chip is missing something it needs — a file with no run(), say. The bar under the editor says what is wrong, in words. Fix the words and the line goes away.

More than one cursor. Hold Alt and click to plant another cursor. Type once and every cursor types at once — handy for renaming a word in ten places. The palette's “clear extra cursors” puts you back to one.

The command palette. The Commands button opens one box that lists everything the editor can do. Type a few letters of the thing you want, press Enter, and it happens. If you forget where a button lives, the palette knows.

Minimap, zoom, wrap. The thin strip on the right is a tiny picture of the whole file — click it to jump. Zoom makes the letters bigger or smaller. Wrap folds long lines onto the screen instead of letting them run off the side.

Saving. On a chip that already exists, the editor saves by itself while you work — watch the dot beside the file's name disappear. Ctrl+S saves right now. On a brand-new chip, Forge chip is the save.