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Customising the editor: monospace font and black theme

I don't know how to make the code editor in Mathematica present the code in a real 'monospace' font, with a dark, customizable theme (syntax highlighting). This is something that keeps me away from working with Mathematica as my primary programming environment.

I mean, I like Mathematica, but I only use it as I used Derive in my old high-school days: as a powerful tool for symbolic mathematics, plus some nice 2D and 3D plots.

I would like to use Mathematica as my main framework for scientific programming, meaning:

  • A customizable editor (in the terms I expressed at the beginning of this post).
  • Separating code (files with functions and routines) from execution (console).
  • A debugging environment.

Notebooks are OK, but can I have a classical programming environment?

Could you please help me with this basic question?
POSTED BY: Vicent Giner-Bosch
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Alec Graves
Alec Graves
Posted 5 months ago

Hi, I have many of the same problems: the notebook GUI editor is missing some critical features that I would like as a developer. I really need rainbow brackets for a lisp-like language such as WL, and monospace with a nice dark theme is important to me as well.

If I am writing large programs or libraries in WL, I really need a separate text editor. My choices for this are:

  1. Any JetBrains IDE with halirutan's WL plugin: This plugin has a custom WL grammar and really well integrates with JetBrains' signature parsing for syntax highlighting and autocomplete. This option is also free for academic students with a .edu email.
  2. Sublime Text with its official WL plugin: This is the fastest text editor for WL I have used. I love using this for quick editing.
  3. VS Code with its official WL plugin: I have not personally used it, but it is probably the best-supported option and is seemingly widely used internally at WRI by their developers. This option is free.

There is also an Eclipse plugin, but I do not know how to use it.

In general, the plugin installs a parser or a grammar that allows an editor to highlight code and autocomplete function names.
POSTED BY: Alec Graves
Alec Graves
Alec Graves
Posted 5 months ago

You can also modify the default theme and font for notebooks to make a custom dark theme with monospace. See this community post for more details.
POSTED BY: Alec Graves
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