LEXX is a

text editor A text editor is a type of computer program that edits plain text. An example of such program is "notepad" software (e.g. Windows Notepad). Text editors are provided with operating systems and software development packages, and can be used to c ...

which was probably the first to use ''live parsing'' and colour

syntax highlighting Syntax highlighting is a feature of text editors that is used for programming language, programming, scripting language, scripting, or markup language, markup languages, such as HTML. The feature displays text, especially source code, in differe ...

for marked-up text and programs. It was written by

Mike Cowlishaw Mike Cowlishaw is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. and sometime visiting professor at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick. He is a retired IBM Fellow, and was a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and ...

of IBM in 1985. The name was chosen because he wrote it as a tool for lexicographers, during an assignment for Oxford University Press's 'New Oxford English Dictionary' (NOED; the second edition of the

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

). The program ran (and still, in 2018, runs) on mainframes under

VM/CMS VM (often: VM/CMS) is a family of IBM virtual machine operating systems used on IBM mainframes System/370, System/390, zSeries, System z and compatible systems, including the Hercules emulator for personal computers. Design The heart o ...

. LEXX's design was based on several other editors written by the same author (such as STET) augmented by the ability to dynamically parse text and display colour on the new colour terminals that had recently become available (PC-based, and stand-alone such as the IBM 3279). It is programmable using dynamically-loaded compiled commands (usually written in

PL/I PL/I (Programming Language One, pronounced and sometimes written PL/1) is a procedural, imperative computer programming language initially developed by IBM. It is designed for scientific, engineering, business and system programming. It has b ...

) or using interpreted commands (usually written in

REXX Rexx (restructured extended executor) is a high-level programming language developed at IBM by Mike Cowlishaw. Both proprietary and open-source software, open source Rexx interpreter (computing), interpreters exist for a wide range of comput ...

— hence the 'XX' in 'LEXX'). LEXX uses dynamically-loaded parsers which assign classes of elements (tokens formed from character strings) to fonts and colours. It allows indention to be used to format and show the structure of the file being edited, and other formatting options allow (for example) the hiding of selected classes of text, such as tags. A collection of screenshots is available. LPEX ('Live Parsing Editor") is a reimplemented derivative of the LEXX concept, originally produced for

OS/2 OS/2 is a Proprietary software, proprietary computer operating system for x86 and PowerPC based personal computers. It was created and initially developed jointly by IBM and Microsoft, under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci, ...

and AIX. It now also runs on Windows, Linux, and the Java JVM.LPEX for Eclipse summary
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References

External links

* * * *{{citation , url=http://www.navo.hpc.mil/usersupport/IBM/XLF/vatools/en_US/lpex/index.htm , title=Introducing the LPEX Editor , publisher=IBM , year=1998 , accessdate=2008-10-08 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030514070253/http://www.navo.hpc.mil/usersupport/IBM/XLF/vatools/en_US/lpex/index.htm , archive-date=2003-05-14 , url-status=dead Text editors IBM mainframe software VM (operating system)