Mixing in Calcpad, Show compiled and errors

Every feature of the Calcpad language stays reachable from a sheet.

>> lines and calcpad fences

A line that starts with >> is handed to the engine as written. So is everything between a calcpad fence:

n: 3 | number of bays
bay: 2.5 m | bay width
>> total = 0 m
```calcpad
#for i = 1 : n
    total = total + bay
#loop
```
len: total * 1 -> m

n = 3    number of bays
bay = 2.5 m    bay width
total = 0 m
total = total + bay = 0 m + 2.5 m = 2.5 m
total = total + bay = 2.5 m + 2.5 m = 5 m
total = total + bay = 5 m + 2.5 m = 7.5 m
len = total · 1 = 7.5 m · 1 = 7.5 m

Sheet lines and raw lines share one worksheet, so they alternate freely: a raw block reads the variables defined by sheet lines above it and defines variables that sheet lines below it use. Prose, quantities, formulas and raw Calcpad can come in any order. To make that work without remembering renames, an identifier in a raw line that the sheet defines is spelled the way the sheet spells it (phi in a raw line is φ). That includes the name that a >> #UI line assigns. Text after a ' or " in a raw line is left alone.

A raw block inside a sheet block keeps the block’s indentation rules like any other line.

The ribbon uses >> for anything with no sheet form: the data grid and the other #UI input forms (an entry, drop-down, radio or checkbox has a sheet form, L: ? 6 m), $Map colour maps, directives and macros. Those buttons carry a small >> mark and a tooltip saying so. See The Calcpad language.

Python

A fenced block with the language python is a Python block. It is explained in Python blocks.

Show compiled and Convert to Calcpad

On the Resources tab:

• Show compiled opens a panel beside the editor with the Calcpad text the sheet becomes. Its line numbers are the sheet’s lines.
• Convert to Calcpad replaces the sheet with that text. It is one way: there is no conversion back to a sheet.

A worked example is in Your first sheet. Both views give Calcpad as a person would write it, so the sheet is also a way to learn the Calcpad language.

Errors

The engine’s errors, the report’s “on line [n]” links, the error banner, the scroll anchors and the editor’s lint markers all report the sheet line, whatever kind of line it was. An undefined name, for example:

bad: foo + 1

Error in "bad = foo + 1" on line [1]: Undefined variable or units: "foo".

The text of an engine message still quotes the compiled Calcpad line (bad = foo + 1), which is what Show compiled displays. The compiler’s own problems, such as mixed tab and space indentation, an else with no if, an empty block, an unclosed $$ or a bad plot line, are markers on their lines too. “Unused variable” hints are not shown for sheets, since every quantity is shown.

Format Document

Format Document (Shift+Alt+F) prettifies a sheet: one space around :, | and -> and after ;, a blank line before each heading, runs of blank lines collapsed, and the colons of a run of quantity lines aligned. Expressions, prose, >> lines, fences and formulas are not touched, and formatting twice changes nothing.

Other editor help works on the names a sheet defines: Go to definition (F12), find references, hover (shows the defining line and the Calcpad spelling), and colouring by role.