theDANE — the Danish Advanced Native Editor

A fast, native Windows code editor with syntax highlighting, intelligent code reformatting, and a built-in hex editor.

© 1999–2026 Kim Bo Madsen / Components4Developers DK. All rights reserved.

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Feature Overview

Editor — Syntax highlighting for 11 languages · context-aware code completion · bracket and pair matching · code folding · bookmarks (numbered and unnumbered) · multi-caret editing with distribute paste · smart double-click selection expansion · block indent/unindent · line operations (move, duplicate, join, delete, comment toggle) · find & replace with regex and Find All results panel · rich clipboard copy (HTML + RTF + plain text) · unlimited undo/redo · zoom

Code Reformatter — BNF-driven reformatter for Pascal with per-rule formatting directives · token-based reformatter for SQL, XML, JSON, HTML, JavaScript, C#, and CSS with per-language configuration · named profiles per language with import/export · full configuration editor

Hex Editor — Dual-pane hex/ASCII view · data inspector with 24 numeric and string formats (editable) · find in hex or text · full undo/redo · pane-aware copy with rich clipboard support (hex string or text, with colors in HTML/RTF) · theming with 8 built-in style sets

Theming — 4 application themes (theDANE Dark, theDANE Light, Windows Dark, Windows Light) · per-language editor style sets (Visual Studio, Monokai, GitHub, Notepad++, and more) · all preferences remembered between sessions

Workspace — Tabbed editing with tear-off/re-dock floating windows · recent files · Windows Explorer shell integration (right-click → Open / Open as Hex) · single-instance multi-file opening · optional splash screen · SHA-256 integrity verification

Built With — Native Win32/Win64 Delphi application · no runtime dependencies · kbmVCL component suite · launches in under a second

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Getting Started

When you start theDANE, a splash screen appears briefly while the application loads. Click anywhere on the splash to dismiss it early. The main window then opens with a fresh empty editor tab, ready to type. If you prefer to skip the splash entirely, toggle it off under Help → Show Splash on Startup.

To open an existing file, use File → Open (Ctrl+O). The language is auto-detected from the file extension — you can always override it from the Language menu.

Opening Files from Windows Explorer

You can register theDANE with Windows Explorer via Help → Add Explorer Integration. Once registered, right-clicking any file (or selection of files) in Explorer shows a theDANE cascading menu with two options:

• Open in theDANE — opens the file in a text/code editor tab
• Open as Hex in theDANE — opens the file directly in the hex editor

theDANE is a single-instance application: if it is already running, files opened from Explorer are added as new tabs in the existing window rather than spawning additional copies. This works seamlessly even when you select multiple files in Explorer and open them all at once — each file gets its own tab.

To remove the Explorer integration later, use Help → Remove Explorer Integration. No administrator rights are required for either operation.

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The Screen Layout

The main window is divided into four areas, from top to bottom:

1. Toolbar Strip

A horizontal strip at the very top of the window containing three dropdown controls and a settings button:

Control	What it does
Profile dropdown	Shows the active reformatter profile for the current language, e.g. Profile (Pascal): Default *. Pick a different profile to instantly change how Reformat works.
⚙ button	Opens the profile settings editor for the active profile.
Theme dropdown	Switches the entire application theme (window chrome, menus, dialogs, tabs, status bar). Your choice is remembered between sessions.
Style dropdown	Switches the editor color scheme for the current language. Each language has its own set of style presets (e.g. Visual Studio, Monokai, GitHub). Also remembered per-language.

2. Tab Strip

A row of document tabs directly below the toolbar. The active tab is highlighted; all others are dimmed. Each tab shows the filename, or "Untitled" for new documents. A ● dot appears before the name when the file has unsaved changes.

What you can do with tabs:

• Click a tab to switch to it.
• Right-click a tab for a popup menu: Close, Close All, Close Other Tabs, Close Tabs to the Left, Close Tabs to the Right.
• Drag a tab out of the strip to tear it off into a floating editor window that you can position anywhere on screen.
• Drag a floating editor window back onto the tab strip (or onto another editor) to re-dock it as a tab.

3. Editor Area

The central workspace. Depending on the file content, this is either a code editor or a hex editor.

In code editor mode, the area contains:

• A gutter on the left — shows line numbers, bookmark indicators, fold markers (▸/▾), and search-match markers.
• The code area — your syntax-highlighted source code with bracket matching, caret highlighting, and selection.
• A Find Results panel (bottom, hidden by default) — appears when you use Find All, listing every match with line number and preview. Double-click a result to jump to it.

In hex editor mode, the area contains:

• An offset column on the left — the byte address of each row.
• A hex pane in the center — byte values shown as two-digit hexadecimal numbers.
• An ASCII pane on the right — text representation of the bytes (non-printable bytes shown as dots).
• A Data Inspector panel (right side, hidden by default) — toggle with Ctrl+I to see the bytes at the cursor interpreted in 24 different numeric and string formats.

4. Status Bar

Code editor mode: cursor position (line and column), insert/overwrite mode (INS or OVR), the file path (or "Untitled"), the active language name, and the current zoom level as a percentage.

Hex editor mode: byte offset (hex and decimal), insert/overwrite mode, total file size in bytes, and the file path.

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Working with Files

Creating and Opening

Action	How
New empty tab	File → New or Ctrl+N
Open a file	File → Open or Ctrl+O
Open a file as hex	File → Open as Hex
Reopen a recent file	File → Reopen Recent — lists the last 10 files you opened, plus a Clear Recent Files option

When you open a file, theDANE detects the language from the extension and applies the appropriate syntax highlighter, code completion set, and reformatter profile automatically.

Saving

Action	How
Save	File → Save or Ctrl+S
Save with a new name	File → Save As

If you close a modified file, theDANE prompts you to save first.

Closing

Action	How
Close current tab	File → Close or Ctrl+F4
Close all tabs	Right-click any tab → Close All
Close other tabs	Right-click a tab → Close Other Tabs
Close tabs to the left	Right-click a tab → Close Tabs to the Left
Close tabs to the right	Right-click a tab → Close Tabs to the Right
Exit theDANE	File → Exit

Supported File Types

Language	Extensions
Pascal / Delphi	.pas .dpr .dfm .inc
SQL	.sql
XML	.xml .xsd
JSON	.json
HTML	.html .htm
JavaScript / TypeScript	.js .ts
C#	.cs
CSS	.css
Markdown	.md .markdown
Key/Value (INI)	.ini .conf .properties .env

Files with unrecognized extensions open with no syntax highlighting (plain text mode). You can set the language manually from the Language menu at any time.

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Menu Reference

File Menu

Item	Shortcut	Description
New	Ctrl+N	Create a new empty editor tab
Open...	Ctrl+O	Open a file from disk
Open as Hex...	—	Open a file directly in hex editor mode
Save	Ctrl+S	Save the current file
Save As...	—	Save with a new filename
Close	Ctrl+F4	Close the current tab
Reopen Recent	—	Submenu listing the last 10 opened files, with a Clear Recent Files option at the bottom
Exit	—	Close the application

Edit Menu

Item	Shortcut	Description
Undo	Ctrl+Z	Undo the last change
Redo	Ctrl+Y	Redo the last undone change
Cut	Ctrl+X	Cut selection to clipboard
Copy	Ctrl+C	Copy selection to clipboard
Paste	Ctrl+V	Paste from clipboard
Select All	Ctrl+A	Select the entire document

Search Menu

Item	Shortcut	Description
Find...	Ctrl+F	Open the Find dialog
Replace...	Ctrl+H	Open the Find & Replace dialog
Find Next	F3	Jump to the next match
Find Previous	Shift+F3	Jump to the previous match
Go to Line...	Ctrl+G	Jump to a specific line number

Format Menu

Item	Shortcut	Description
Reformat	Ctrl+T	Reformat the document using the active profile
Profiles	—	Submenu: New, Clone, Rename, Delete, Set as Default, Import, Export, Edit Settings
Reformatter Settings...	—	Open the raw configuration for the active profile

View Menu

Item	Shortcut	Description
Show Gutter	—	Toggle the line-number gutter
Show Status Bar	—	Toggle the bottom status bar
Zoom In	Ctrl++	Increase font size
Zoom Out	Ctrl+-	Decrease font size
Reset Zoom	Ctrl+Num *	Return to default font size
Editor Style	—	Submenu listing color schemes for the current language
Hex View	Ctrl+Shift+H	Toggle between code editor and hex editor for the current file

Language Menu

Lists all available languages: None, SQL, XML, JSON, HTML, Pascal, C#, JavaScript, CSS, Markdown, Key/Value. Selecting one changes the syntax highlighting, code completion, and reformatter profile for the current editor.

Help Menu

Item	Description
About theDANE...	Shows the splash image, application title, tagline, and copyright
Show Splash on Startup	Toggle: show or skip the splash screen on launch (checked = show)
Add Explorer Integration...	Register theDANE in the Windows Explorer right-click menu for all file types
Remove Explorer Integration	Unregister theDANE from the Explorer context menu

The Explorer integration items are mutually exclusive — only the one relevant to the current state is shown.

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Editing Code

Basics

theDANE behaves like any standard text editor: type to insert, use arrow keys to move, click and drag to select. A few things that make it feel productive from the start:

• Auto-indent — press Enter and the new line indents to match the surrounding context.
• Insert / Overwrite — toggle with the Insert key. The status bar shows INS or OVR so you always know which mode you are in.
• Block indent / unindent — select one or more lines and press Tab to indent or Shift+Tab to unindent the entire block. The selection is preserved so you can repeat the operation.
• Bracket matching — when the cursor is adjacent to a bracket, parenthesis, or language-level pair like begin/end, the matching counterpart is highlighted in both positions.

Selecting Text

Standard click-and-drag or Shift+Arrow selection works as expected. theDANE also offers some powerful extras:

Smart double-click — rapid successive double-clicks expand the selection through increasing scopes:

1. Word — standard alphanumeric word (letters, digits, underscores)
2. Extended Word — connected identifiers like MyObject.Property or path/segment
3. Full Line — selects the entire current line (offered before inner block when the enclosing block spans multiple lines)
4. Inner Block — content inside the nearest enclosing pair (between the brackets, not including them)
5. Outer Block — same region but including the bracket/pair characters
6. Next Enclosing Pair — expand outward to the next nesting level
7. Full Line(s) — fallback: select all lines covered by the current selection
8. Select All — the entire document

Scope selection is also available from the right-click Select Scope submenu: Expand Selection, Shrink Selection, Word, Extended Word, Inner Block, Outer Block, Line. Expand Selection uses Ctrl+W, Shrink Selection uses Ctrl+Shift+W, and Line uses Ctrl+L.

Multi-Caret Editing

Place additional cursors by holding Alt and clicking at different positions. Or create a vertical column of cursors by holding Alt+Shift and pressing Up or Down. Everything you type — characters, deletions, pastes — happens at all cursor positions simultaneously.

Distribute Paste: when pasting with multiple cursors active and the clipboard contains exactly the same number of lines as there are cursors, each clipboard line is pasted to its corresponding cursor.

Copying with Formatting

When you copy text from the code editor (Ctrl+C), theDANE places three formats on the clipboard simultaneously: plain text, HTML with inline styling, and RTF. The receiving application automatically picks the richest format it supports, so syntax-highlighted code pastes with full colors and font styles into Word, Google Docs, WordPress, Outlook, LibreOffice, and other rich-text targets. Plain-text editors like Notepad receive the unformatted text as before.

The colors and styles used in the rich copy match whatever editor style set is currently active — if you are using Monokai, the pasted code will carry Monokai colors; switch to GitHub Light and the next copy will carry those colors instead.

Line Editing

Action	Shortcut
Select entire line	Ctrl+L
Delete line(s)	Ctrl+Shift+K
Duplicate line or selection	Ctrl+D
Move line up	Alt+Up
Move line down	Alt+Down
Insert blank line below	Ctrl+Enter
Insert blank line above	Ctrl+Shift+Enter
Join lines	Ctrl+J
Toggle line comment	Ctrl+/
UPPERCASE	Ctrl+Shift+U
lowercase	Ctrl+U

Word and Text Deletion

Action	Shortcut
Delete word to the left	Ctrl+Backspace
Delete word to the right	Ctrl+Delete

Pair Navigation

Action	Shortcut
Jump to matching pair	Ctrl+B
Jump and select to matching pair	Ctrl+Alt+B

Ctrl+B moves the cursor to the matching counterpart without selecting anything. Ctrl+Alt+B selects the entire region between and including both pair delimiters.

This works with all paired constructs the highlighter understands: (), [], {}, begin/end, if/end, XML open/close tags, and more.

Document Navigation

Action	Shortcut
Jump to start of file	Ctrl+Home
Jump to end of file	Ctrl+End
Select to start of file	Ctrl+Shift+Home
Select to end of file	Ctrl+Shift+End
Go to Line	Ctrl+G

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Code Completion & Auto-Suggestion

theDANE provides context-aware code suggestions powered by each language's highlighter.

How It Works

• Press Ctrl+Space to open the suggestion popup manually at any time.
• With Auto Trigger on Type enabled, the popup appears automatically as you type identifier characters (a–z, _, etc.) or after typing a . (dot).
• The list filters live as you continue typing — only matching entries remain visible.
• If you triggered manually and only one match remains, it is inserted automatically.

Navigating the Popup

Key	Action
Up / Down	Move through the list
Page Up / Page Down	Scroll the list
Enter or Tab	Accept the selected suggestion
Escape	Dismiss without accepting

Typing a non-identifier character (space, parenthesis, semicolon, etc.) also dismisses the popup.

What Gets Suggested

Each language highlighter builds its own suggestion list. For example:

• Pascal — keywords, directives, and identifiers found in the surrounding code (±100 lines around the cursor)
• SQL — keywords, data types, and built-in functions for the active dialect
• C# — language keywords, common constructs, and identifiers from surrounding code
• JavaScript / CSS — language keywords and common constructs

Enabling / Disabling

Both Code Completion and Auto Trigger on Type can be toggled from the right-click Options submenu inside the editor.

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Finding & Replacing

Find (Ctrl+F)

Opens an inline find dialog. Type your search term and press Enter or click Find Next. Options:

• Case Sensitive — match exact uppercase/lowercase
• Whole Word — match only when surrounded by non-word characters
• Regular Expressions — use regex pattern syntax
• Direction — search Forward or Backward through the document

Find All

Searches the entire document and displays results in a Find Results panel at the bottom of the editor. Each entry shows the line number, column, and a preview of the line. Double-click any entry to jump to it. Matches are also marked with indicators in the gutter.

Replace (Ctrl+H)

Opens the find-and-replace dialog. You can replace matches one at a time or use Replace All to replace every occurrence in the document at once. A count is shown when Replace All finishes.

Quick Navigation

Shortcut	Action
F3	Repeat the last search forward
Shift+F3	Repeat the last search backward
Ctrl+G	Go to a specific line number

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Bookmarks

Bookmarks let you mark important lines so you can jump back to them quickly.

Unnumbered Bookmarks

Action	Shortcut
Toggle bookmark on current line	Ctrl+F2
Jump to next bookmark	F2
Jump to previous bookmark	Shift+F2
Clear all bookmarks	Ctrl+Shift+F2

Numbered Bookmarks (0–9)

Action	Shortcut
Set/clear numbered bookmark 0–9	Ctrl+Shift+0 through Ctrl+Shift+9
Go to numbered bookmark 0–9	Ctrl+0 through Ctrl+9

A line can have either one numbered or one unnumbered bookmark, not both. Bookmark indicators appear in the gutter. All bookmark operations are also available from the right-click Bookmarks submenu.

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Code Folding

Foldable regions (functions, blocks, XML elements, etc.) are detected automatically by the language highlighter.

• Fold markers appear in the gutter as small triangles: ▾ (expanded) or ▸ (collapsed). Click one to toggle.
• Collapsed regions show a ⋯ indicator on the fold line; the hidden lines are simply not rendered.
• Fold Selection — select a range of lines and fold them manually, even if they are not a natural language block.
• Unfold Selection — expand folds within the selected range or at the caret line.
• Collapse All — fold every detected region in the document at once.
• Expand All — unfold every region.

All folding operations are available from the right-click Code Folding submenu.

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Themes & Color Schemes

Application Themes

The theme controls the entire application appearance — window chrome, menus, common dialogs, toolbar, tabs, and status bar.

Theme	Description
theDANE Light	Custom Nordic parchment palette (default)
theDANE Dark	Custom Nordic Forge dark palette
Windows Dark	Standard Windows 10 dark theme
Windows Light	Standard Windows light theme

Switch themes from the Theme dropdown in the toolbar. Once you select a theme it becomes your default and is restored on next launch.

Editor Style Sets

Independently from the theme, each language has its own set of style sets that control syntax coloring inside the editor. Choose from the Style dropdown in the toolbar.

Typical options across languages: Visual Studio, Visual Studio Dark, GitHub, Monokai, Notepad++, Google, theDANE, theDANE Dark. Some languages have extras — for example SQL includes an SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio) style.

Your chosen style set is stored per language and persisted between sessions. This means you can use Monokai for Pascal, GitHub for JSON, and Visual Studio Dark for SQL, and theDANE remembers all of them.

When viewing a file in hex editor mode without a syntax highlighter, the Style dropdown shows the hex editor's own style sets (Delphi, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Dark, Monokai, theDANE, theDANE Dark, GitHub, Notepad++).

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Code Reformatter

Press Ctrl+T (or Format → Reformat) to automatically reformat the current document according to configurable style rules. The reformatter settings dialog can also be opened directly with Ctrl+Shift+R from the right-click Options submenu.

Two Engines

Token-based reformatter — available for SQL, XML, JSON, HTML, JavaScript, C#, and CSS. Operates on the token stream with configurable indentation and whitespace settings.

BNF-driven reformatter — available for Pascal/Delphi. This is a significantly more powerful approach: the source is parsed into a full syntax tree using a BNF grammar, and then re-emitted according to per-rule formatting directives. This gives fine-grained control over exactly how every language construct — every begin, end, if, then, procedure — is laid out.

Pascal Reformatter: Configuration Reference

The Pascal reformatter is configured through a plain-text settings file (managed via profiles — see next section). The settings are divided into categories:

Indentation & Casing

Setting	Description	Default
IndentSize	Spaces per indent level	2
UseTabs	Use tab characters instead of spaces	False
SmartTab	Align continuations to context (e.g. opening paren column)	False
AlignToParenOnWrap	Align wrapped argument lines to opening parenthesis	True
KeywordCase	Keyword casing: 0=No change, 1=UPPER, 2=lower, 3=Capitalize	2
DirectiveCase	Compiler directive casing (same values as KeywordCase)	2

Blank Lines

Setting	Description	Default
PreserveBlankLines	Keep blank lines from original source	True
PreserveSourceLineBreaks	Keep original line breaks in multi-line constructs	True
MaxPreservedBlankLines	Collapse consecutive blank lines to at most this many	2
BlankLineBeforeComments	Insert blank line before standalone comments	False
StructuralBlankLines	Insert blank lines between different declaration types	False
BlankLineBeforeMultiLineBlocks	Add blank line before blocks that exceed the threshold	True
MultiLineBlockThreshold	Minimum source lines to trigger the above	3

Line Wrapping

Setting	Description	Default
MaxLineLength	Auto-wrap threshold in columns (0 = disabled)	0
WrapMinGain	Minimum characters saved to justify a wrap	10

Preprocessor Directives

Setting	Description	Default
IndentPreprocessorDirectives	Indent code inside {$IFDEF} blocks	False
PreprocessorIndentSize	Spaces per preprocessor indent level (0 = use IndentSize)	0

Trailing Comment Alignment

Setting	Description	Default
TrailingCommentAlignment	None / Local / Global	None
TrailingCommentMinSpaces	Minimum spaces before a trailing comment	2
TrailingCommentColumn	Fixed column for alignment (0 = auto)	0

Per-Rule Formatting

Every BNF grammar rule or keyword can have its own formatting directives. The settings file uses a simple rulename: directive, directive, ... syntax:

begin: BreakBefore, BreakAfter, IncrementIndent
end: DecrementIndent, BreakBefore, BreakAfter
if: SpaceAfter
then: SpaceBefore, BreakAfter
else: BreakBefore, BreakAfter
procedure: BreakBefore, BlankLinesBefore=1

The full set of available directives:

Directive	What it does
BreakBefore / BreakAfter	Insert a line break before or after
BlankLinesBefore=N / BlankLinesAfter=N	Insert N blank lines
IncrementIndent / DecrementIndent	Change the indent level for child content
ForceIndentLevel=N	Set indent to an absolute level
SpaceBefore / SpaceAfter	Insert a space
NoSpaceBefore / NoSpaceAfter	Suppress automatic spacing
SmartIndent=N	Dynamic or fixed column offset for Smart Tab
WrapMode	Control wrapping behavior for parenthesized content
AllowWrapAfter / AllowWrapBefore	Mark a legal wrapping point
NoWrap	Prevent wrapping here
WrapIndent=N	Override indent for wrapped continuation
SaveAlignment / RestoreAlignment	Save/restore column alignment (e.g. for try/except)
ApplyIndentToLeadingComments	Align comments above a construct to its indent level

Debug

Set DebugEnabled: True in the profile to write a detailed log of every reformatter decision to a file (default BNF_DEBUG.log in the application folder). Useful when fine-tuning rules to understand why a construct is formatted a certain way.

Token-Based Reformatter: Configuration Reference

The token-based reformatter is used by SQL, XML, JSON, HTML, JavaScript, C#, and CSS. Each language has a set of common settings shared across all token reformatters, plus language-specific options.

Common Settings (All Token-Based Languages)

Setting	Description	Default
IndentSize	Spaces per indent level	2
UseTabs	Use tab characters instead of spaces	False
KeywordCase	Keyword casing: 0=No change, 1=UPPER, 2=lower, 3=Capitalize	Varies per language

SQL Settings

Setting	Description	Default
KeywordCase	Casing for SQL keywords (SELECT, FROM, WHERE, etc.): 0=No change, 1=UPPER, 2=lower, 3=Capitalize	1 (UPPER)
IdentifierCase	Casing for table and column names: 0=No change, 1=UPPER, 2=lower, 3=Capitalize	0 (No change)
BreakOnJoin	Start a new line before JOIN clauses	True
BreakOnAndOr	Start a new line before AND/OR in WHERE clauses	True
BreakOnOn	Start a new line before ON in JOIN conditions	False
BreakBeforeComma	Place commas at the start of lines (leading-comma style) instead of at the end	False
SmartParens	Avoid line breaks inside function-call parentheses	True

XML Settings

Setting	Description	Default
AttributesOnNewLine	Place each attribute on its own line	False
SpaceBeforeSelfClose	Add a space before /> in self-closing tags	True
CloseTagOnNewLine	Place closing tags on a new line	False
IndentContent	Indent element content inside parent tags	True
IndentAttributes	Indent attributes when placed on new lines	True
AttributeIndentSize	Spaces to indent attributes (overrides IndentSize for attributes)	4

JSON Settings

Setting	Description	Default
Compact	Remove all non-essential whitespace (minify)	False

HTML Settings

Setting	Description	Default
BreakAttributes	Place each attribute on its own line	False

JavaScript Settings

Setting	Description	Default
BraceOnNewLine	Place opening braces on a new line (Allman style) instead of same line (K&R style)	False
SpaceBeforeParen	Add a space before parentheses in control structures (if ( vs if()	True

C# Settings

Setting	Description	Default
BraceOnNewLine	Place opening braces on a new line (Allman style, standard for C#)	True

CSS Settings

Setting	Description	Default
BraceOnNewLine	Place opening brace on a new line	True
IndentProperties	Indent property declarations inside rule blocks	True

All these settings can be edited through the profile settings editor (the ⚙ button in the toolbar, or Format → Profiles → Edit Profile Settings). Changes are stored in the active profile's .cfg file and take effect immediately on the next reformat.

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Reformatter Profiles

Profiles let you save and switch between different formatting configurations. Each language has its own independent set of profiles. Reformatter profiles are available for Pascal, SQL, XML, JSON, HTML, JavaScript, C#, and CSS. Languages without a reformatter (Markdown, Key/Value) do not appear in the profile system.

Creating and Managing Profiles

All profile operations are under Format → Profiles:

Action	Description
New Profile	Creates a new profile with the language's default settings
Clone Profile	Duplicates the current profile under a new name
Rename Profile	Renames the current profile
Delete Profile	Removes the current profile
Set as Default	Marks the current profile as the default for this language (shown with *)
Import Profile...	Loads a .cfg file into the profile list
Export Profile...	Saves the current profile to a .cfg file
Edit Profile Settings...	Opens the raw configuration text in a dialog for full manual editing

The ⚙ button in the toolbar is a shortcut to Edit Profile Settings for the active profile.

Where Profiles are Stored

Profiles are plain-text .cfg files, one per profile, organized by language:

Documents\ReformatterProfiles\Pascal\Default.cfg
Documents\ReformatterProfiles\Pascal\My Company Style.cfg
Documents\ReformatterProfiles\SQL\Default.cfg
...

Because they are simple text files, you can easily back them up, share them with colleagues, check them into version control, or copy them between machines.

Switching Profiles

Use the Profile dropdown in the toolbar to switch between profiles for the current language. The default profile (marked with *) is applied automatically when you open a file in that language.

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SQL Dialect Support

The SQL highlighter supports multiple dialects, each adding its own set of keywords, data types, and built-in functions:

Dialect	Highlights
ANSI SQL-92 through SQL-2016	Progressive standards — core SQL, CTEs, window functions, JSON support
Oracle	PL/SQL blocks, PACKAGE, CURSOR, NVL, DECODE, SYSDATE, DUAL
MS SQL Server	T-SQL, TRY/CATCH, RAISERROR, TOP, NVARCHAR, TRAN
PostgreSQL	PL/pgSQL, ILIKE, RETURNING, SERIAL, ARRAY, LATERAL
MySQL	AUTO_INCREMENT, LIMIT, ENGINE, CHARSET, ENUM
SQLite	AUTOINCREMENT, VACUUM, PRAGMA, ATTACH, GLOB

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Hex Editor

Open any file in hex mode via File → Open as Hex, or toggle the current file with View → Hex View (Ctrl+Shift+H).

Layout

The hex editor has a traditional three-column layout:

• Offset column (left) — the byte address of each row
• Hex pane (center) — bytes shown as two-digit hexadecimal values
• ASCII pane (right) — text representation (printable characters shown as-is, non-printable replaced with dots)

Press Tab to switch the active pane between hex and ASCII. The cursor and selection appear in both panes simultaneously, but the active pane is highlighted more prominently.

Editing Bytes

• In the hex pane: type hex digits (0–9, A–F) to overwrite byte values.
• In the ASCII pane: type printable characters to overwrite.
• Insert / Overwrite modes: toggle with the Insert key, just like the code editor.
• Full undo/redo — multi-byte edits are grouped into a single undo step.
• Cut / Copy / Paste work as expected.

Pane-Aware Copy

The right-click context menu adapts based on which pane your cursor is in:

Active Pane	"Copy" produces...	Second copy option
ASCII pane	Printable text	Copy as Hex
Hex pane	Hex string (e.g. 4B 42 4D)	Copy as Text

When copying from the hex pane, theDANE places rich clipboard formats (HTML + RTF) alongside the plain text, so pasting into Word or other rich-text applications preserves the hex dump layout with byte-class coloring — null bytes, ASCII printables, high bytes, and region highlights all retain their colors from the active style set.

Data Inspector

Toggle with Ctrl+I. A panel appears on the right side showing the bytes at the cursor position interpreted as 24 different formats:

Category	Formats
Byte	Binary, Octal, Hex, UInt8, Int8
16-bit	UInt16 LE, UInt16 BE, Int16 LE, Int16 BE
32-bit	UInt32 LE, UInt32 BE, Int32 LE, Int32 BE, Float32 LE, Float32 BE
64-bit	UInt64 LE, UInt64 BE, Int64 LE, Int64 BE, Double LE, Double BE
Strings	ASCII, UTF-8, UTF-16 LE

All numeric fields are editable: type a new value and press Enter to write it back into the file. Multi-byte writes are grouped into a single undo step. The inspector panel is resizable via a splitter.

Zoom: you can adjust the font size of the Data Inspector independently — right-click inside the inspector panel and choose Increase Font Size or Decrease Font Size. This setting is persisted between sessions.

Hex Editor Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+Shift+H	Toggle hex view on/off for the current file
Ctrl+C	Copy (format depends on active pane)
Ctrl+X	Cut
Ctrl+V	Paste
Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+Y	Redo
Ctrl+A	Select All
Ctrl+F	Find (hex or text)
F3	Find Next
Shift+F3	Find Previous
Ctrl+G	Go to Offset
Ctrl+I	Toggle Data Inspector panel
Tab	Switch between Hex and ASCII pane
Insert	Toggle Insert / Overwrite mode
Ctrl++	Zoom in
Ctrl+-	Zoom out
Ctrl+Num *	Reset zoom
Ctrl+Mouse Wheel	Zoom in/out

Finding Bytes

Press Ctrl+F in the hex editor to open a find dialog with two search modes:

• Hex bytes — enter space-separated hex values (e.g. 4D 5A 90 00)
• Text (UTF-8) — enter a text string to search for in the raw byte stream

Matches are found forward from the cursor. Use F3 / Shift+F3 to repeat the search forward or backward.

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Right-Click Context Menu (Code Editor)

Right-clicking inside the code editor shows a structured context menu:

Top level:

• Copy · Cut · Paste · Undo · Redo
• Find... · Replace...
• Jump to Matching Pair (Ctrl+B)
• Jump and Select to Matching Pair (Ctrl+Alt+B)

Select Scope submenu:

• Expand Selection (Ctrl+W) · Shrink Selection (Ctrl+Shift+W)
• Word · Extended Word · Inner Block · Outer Block · Line (Ctrl+L)

Edit submenu:

• Delete Line(s) (Ctrl+Shift+K) · Duplicate (Ctrl+D)
• Move Line Up (Alt+Up) · Move Line Down (Alt+Down)
• Insert Line Below (Ctrl+Enter) · Insert Line Above (Ctrl+Shift+Enter)
• Join Lines (Ctrl+J) · Toggle Line Comment (Ctrl+/)
• UPPERCASE (Ctrl+Shift+U) · lowercase (Ctrl+U)
• Go to Line (Ctrl+G)

Bookmarks submenu:

• Toggle Bookmark (Ctrl+F2)
• Toggle Numbered Bookmark → 0–9 (Ctrl+Shift+0..9); go to with Ctrl+0..9
• Next Bookmark (F2) · Previous Bookmark (Shift+F2)
• Clear All Bookmarks (Ctrl+Shift+F2)

Code Folding submenu:

• Fold Selection · Unfold Selection
• Collapse All · Expand All

Reformat:

• Reformat (Ctrl+T)
• Reformat Settings...

Options submenu:

Option	Description
Show Gutter	Toggle line numbers and fold markers
Show Status	Toggle the status area at the bottom of the editor
Show ScrollBars	Toggle scrollbar visibility
Show Tabs	Render tab characters as visible arrows
Show Line Breaks	Render line endings as visible markers
Show Spaces	Render spaces as visible dots
Show Control Chars	Render control characters
Read Only	Lock the file against editing
Insert Mode	Toggle insert/overwrite
Code Completion	Enable or disable the suggestion popup system
Auto Trigger on Type	Automatically show suggestions as you type
Use Tabs	Insert real tab characters (vs. spaces)
Tab Size	Sub-menu: 2, 4, or 8
Smart Tabs	Context-aware indentation alignment
Configure Reformat... (Ctrl+Shift+R)	Open the reformatter settings editor

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Complete Keyboard Shortcut Reference

File

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+N	New file
Ctrl+O	Open file
Ctrl+S	Save
Ctrl+F4	Close tab

Editing

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+Y	Redo
Ctrl+X	Cut
Ctrl+C	Copy
Ctrl+V	Paste
Ctrl+A	Select All
Ctrl+L	Select Line
Ctrl+D	Duplicate line/selection
Ctrl+J	Join lines
Ctrl+/	Toggle line comment
Ctrl+Shift+U	UPPERCASE
Ctrl+U	lowercase
Ctrl+Shift+K	Delete line(s)
Ctrl+Backspace	Delete word left
Ctrl+Delete	Delete word right
Alt+Up	Move line up
Alt+Down	Move line down
Ctrl+Enter	Insert line below
Ctrl+Shift+Enter	Insert line above
Tab	Indent selection / insert tab
Shift+Tab	Unindent selection
Insert	Toggle Insert / Overwrite
Shift+Insert	Paste (alternative)
Ctrl+Insert	Copy (alternative)
Ctrl+W	Expand Selection (progressive scope)
Ctrl+Shift+W	Shrink Selection

Navigation

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+G	Go to Line
Ctrl+B	Jump to matching pair
Ctrl+Alt+B	Jump and select to matching pair
Ctrl+Home	Jump to start of file
Ctrl+End	Jump to end of file
Ctrl+Shift+Home	Select to start of file
Ctrl+Shift+End	Select to end of file

Find & Replace

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+F	Find
Ctrl+H	Replace
F3	Find Next
Shift+F3	Find Previous

Bookmarks

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+F2	Toggle bookmark
Ctrl+Shift+0..9	Toggle numbered bookmark
Ctrl+0..9	Go to numbered bookmark
F2	Next bookmark
Shift+F2	Previous bookmark
Ctrl+Shift+F2	Clear all bookmarks

Zoom

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl++	Zoom in
Ctrl+-	Zoom out
Ctrl+Num *	Reset zoom
Ctrl+Mouse Wheel	Zoom in/out

Code Completion

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+Space	Open suggestion popup
Enter or Tab	Accept suggestion
Escape	Dismiss popup
Up / Down	Navigate suggestions
Page Up / Page Down	Scroll suggestions

Reformatting

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+T	Reformat document
Ctrl+Shift+R	Open reformatter settings

Hex Editor

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+Shift+H	Toggle hex view
Ctrl+I	Toggle Data Inspector
Tab	Switch hex/ASCII pane

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Settings & Persistence

theDANE remembers your preferences automatically:

Setting	Where stored
Application theme	Windows Registry (HKCU\Software\theDANE)
Editor style set per language	Windows Registry
Recent files (last 10)	Windows Registry
Hex inspector font size	Windows Registry
Show splash on startup	Windows Registry
Explorer shell integration	Windows Registry (HKCU\Software\Classes)
Reformatter profiles	Documents\ReformatterProfiles\ (portable .cfg files)

No configuration files need to be edited manually to get started — everything is managed through the UI.

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Verifying File Integrity

Each release of theDANE is accompanied by a theDANE.sha256 file containing the SHA-256 hash of the executable. This lets you confirm that the .exe you downloaded is the exact file that was published — unmodified and uncorrupted.

Open a terminal in the folder containing theDANE.exe and run one of the following commands:

PowerShell:

(Get-FileHash theDANE.exe -Algorithm SHA256).Hash

Command Prompt:

certutil -hashfile theDANE.exe SHA256

Compare the output with the contents of theDANE.sha256. If the two strings match exactly, the file is authentic.

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Version History

1.0.0.13

New Features

• Rich clipboard copy — Ctrl+C in the code editor now places HTML and RTF alongside plain text, so syntax-highlighted code pastes with full colors into Word, Google Docs, WordPress, Outlook, and other rich-text applications
• Rich clipboard copy in the hex editor — copying from the hex pane produces a colored hex dump with address, hex bytes, and ASCII sidebar
• SQL reformatter keyword casing — new KeywordCase setting with four modes (no change, UPPER, lower, Capitalize), replacing the old boolean toggle
• SQL reformatter identifier casing — new IdentifierCase setting to control casing of table and column names independently from keywords
• SQL reformatter conditional AND/OR breaks — BreakOnAndOr setting now controls whether AND/OR in WHERE clauses start a new line
• CSS reformatter conditional property indentation — IndentProperties setting now controls whether properties inside rule blocks are indented
• Full token-based reformatter configuration reference added to this documentation

Bug Fixes

• Fixed Pascal reformatter losing its BNF configuration when switching profiles
• Fixed SQL highlighter not recognizing CHARACTER SET as a compound keyword
• Fixed reformatter adding an extra blank line at the end of the document on each reformat
• Fixed crash (index out of bounds) when using backspace or delete across lines in certain editing scenarios
• Fixed crash when opening profile settings for Markdown or Key/Value languages
• Fixed "seasick" text rendering where characters could appear vertically misaligned with certain style sets
• Fixed reformatter profile save/load writing duplicate entries for base settings
• Fixed several SQL and CSS reformatter settings that were defined but had no effect

1.0.0.5

Initial public release.

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Advanced: Under the Hood

This section is for those curious about the technology and architecture behind theDANE.

Built With

theDANE is written entirely in Object Pascal (Delphi) using the VCL (Visual Component Library) framework. It compiles to a native Win32/Win64 executable with no external runtime dependencies.

kbmVCL Components

The editing engine, syntax highlighters, and reformatter are provided by the kbmVCL component suite from Components4Developers. The key components used are:

Component	Role
TkbmVCLSyntaxMemo	The core editor control — handles text editing, multi-caret, undo/redo, selection, code folding, bracket matching, code completion, bookmarks, and rendering
TkbmVCLHexEditor	The hex editor control — dual-pane byte editing, data inspector, find, and undo
kbmSyntaxMemoTypes	Tiered line storage layer — adaptive string/rope representation per line, tiered list for the line collection

Syntax highlighters (one per language):

Unit	Language
kbmSyntaxHighlighterPascal	Pascal / Delphi — includes a full BNF grammar and reformatter
kbmSyntaxHighlighterSQL	SQL — multi-dialect keyword sets (ANSI, Oracle, MSSQL, PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite)
kbmSyntaxHighlighterXML	XML — tags, attributes, entities, CDATA, DOCTYPE, processing instructions
kbmSyntaxHighlighterJSON	JSON — keys, strings, numbers, booleans, escape sequences
kbmSyntaxHighlighterHTML	HTML — with embedded CSS/JS awareness
kbmSyntaxHighlighterJavaScript	JavaScript / TypeScript — template literals, regex, JSX-aware
kbmSyntaxHighlighterCSharp	C#
kbmSyntaxHighlighterCSS	CSS — selectors, properties, values, units
kbmSyntaxHighlighterMarkdown	Markdown
kbmSyntaxHighlighterKeyValue	INI / Properties / .env files

Reformatter infrastructure:

Unit	Role
kbmSyntaxHighlighterReformatter	The BNF-driven and token-based reformatter engines
kbmSyntaxHighlighterReformatterProfiles	Profile management (load, save, import, export, clone)
kbmSyntaxHighlighterReformatterSettings	Reformatter settings editor UI and style sets
kbmRichClipboard	Rich clipboard builder — generates CF_HTML, CF_RTF, and CF_UNICODETEXT for syntax-colored copy

Application Units

Unit	Role
theDANE.dpr	Main project file — startup sequence, single-instance management, VCL style resource linking
uMain.pas	Main form — tab management, menus, toolbar, profile system, theme switching, shell integration, single-instance file handoff
uEditor.pas	Editor frame — wraps TkbmVCLSyntaxMemo, manages file I/O, status updates
uThemeManager.pas	VCL style loading, switching, and runtime color queries for legacy controls
uProfileSettings.pas	Profile configuration editor dialog
uSplash.pas	Splash screen with timed display, fade-out animation, and optional quick-start mode

Performance: Handling Large Files

theDANE is designed to remain responsive even with very large files and extremely long lines. Several architectural decisions make this possible:

Viewport-only rendering. The paint cycle only processes lines that are actually visible on screen. The editor tracks a TopLine (the first visible line) and computes how many lines fit in the current window height. Only those lines — plus a small buffer — are measured, styled, and drawn. Scrolling simply updates TopLine and repaints. This means a 100,000-line file renders no slower than a 100-line file, because only ~40–60 lines are painted per frame regardless of file size.

Incremental syntax highlighting. The lexer does not re-tokenize the entire file on every keystroke. Instead, each line caches its end-of-line lexer state (e.g. "inside a block comment", "inside a string"). When a line is edited, only that line and any following lines whose start-state might have changed are re-lexed. For typical edits deep in a file, this means just 1–3 lines are re-processed. A full re-lex is only triggered when switching languages or loading a new file.

On-demand fold scanning. Code folding regions are scanned within a configurable window around the viewport (default: 500 lines above and below). Folds outside this window are not tracked, keeping memory use and scan time bounded. The scan range shifts as you scroll, and previously scanned regions are cached until the viewport moves beyond a threshold.

Tiered line storage. Internally, lines are managed by a unified storage layer that adapts its representation to the content. Short, ordinary lines are stored as simple native strings with reference-counted copy-on-write semantics — insertions and deletions are just list splices with minimal overhead. When a line grows beyond a configurable threshold (default 4 KB), the storage transparently promotes it to a tiered rope-like structure, which keeps insert, delete, and substring operations efficient even on extremely long lines (e.g. minified JavaScript or large single-line JSON). If the line later shrinks below half the threshold, it is automatically demoted back to a simple string to avoid unnecessary overhead. The same tiered principle is applied to the line list itself, so inserting or deleting lines in the middle of a million-line file does not trigger large block moves. This dual-tier approach means theDANE handles both typical source files and pathological edge cases — huge files, enormous single lines — without requiring any manual configuration.

Limitations at Scale

While the editor handles large files well, a few features have inherent scaling characteristics worth knowing about:

Pair matching searches the entire file when looking for a matching bracket or begin/end. For files with tens of thousands of deeply nested constructs, a pair match at the top of a very large file may take a noticeable moment. In practice this is rarely an issue because most pair jumps involve nearby constructs.

Code folding is bounded by the fold scan distance (default 500 lines around the viewport). Fold markers for regions that start or end far outside this window may not appear until you scroll closer. You can increase the scan distance if needed, at the cost of slightly higher CPU use during scrolling.

Find All searches the entire file linearly and highlights every match in the gutter. On very large files (hundreds of thousands of lines), Find All may take a moment to complete.

Theme System

The four application themes are implemented as VCL Style packages (.vsf files). The VCL style engine skins every standard control — including common dialogs like File Open and File Save — through TStyleManager.SystemHooks.

Custom .vsf files can be deployed in two ways:

1. External: place .vsf files in a styles subfolder next to the .exe. They are discovered and loaded automatically at startup.
2. Embedded: compile .vsf files into a Windows resource (.res) and link them into the executable at build time.

A handful of legacy controls that the VCL style engine cannot reach (the TTabSet control and some programmatically created labels) are themed manually by querying color values from the active style at runtime through helper functions in uThemeManager.

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theDANE — the Danish Advanced Native Editor · forged by kbm · Components4Developers