Get Involved/development/IDE configuration/Kate

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Kate is the feature-packed text editor from KDE.

A screen recording version is available https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBWVTKEVkOU

kdesrc-build

Make sure kdesrc-build works correctly. Make sure ~/.config/kdesrc-buildrc contains the lines:

cmake-options -G "Kate - Unix Makefiles" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug
# Build with LSP support for everything that supports it
compile-commands-linking true
compile-commands-export true

Using kdesrc-build build a module. E.g.

kdesrc-build kcalc

kate

See the web page "Building Kate from Sources on Linux" https://kate-editor.org/build-it/

The web page talks about how to build kate using kdesrc-build and how to configure kate.

In kate enable the plugins: Project Plugin, LSP Client, Build Plugin, GDB.

Some of the features available in kate:

• LSP Client Symbol Outline
• Right click in text editor on a C++ identifier > LSP Client > Go to Declaration/Find References/ Switch Source Header F12/ Symbol Info/ Search and Go to Symbol Ctrl+Alt+P/ Format/ Rename/ Switch to diagnostics tab/ Quickfix This menu is also available from kate main menu > LSP Client.
• kate main menu > Tools > External Tools > Git > git blame/ gitk
• kate main menu > Tools > External Tools > Tools > Clang Format Full File/ Search KDE/Qt API/ JSON/XML Format Full File.

Build and debug

With the ".kateproject" file

cd ~/kde/src/kcalc
ln -s ~/kde/build/kcalc/.kateproject ~/kde/src/kcalc/.kateproject
kate . &

• Build. kate main menu > Build > Select Target... > Target Set > Working Directory should be "~/kde/build/kcalc", all of the CMake targets should be listed, > OK button. "Build Output" tool view > "Output" is shown. kate main menu > Build > Build Default Target.
• Debugger. kate main menu > Debug > Targets > Target 1. kate main menu > View > Tool Views > Show Debug View > Settings tab > Executable > select "~/kde/build/kcalc/bin/kcalc". Click on source code line, from kate main menu > Debug > Toggle Breakpoint. kate main menu > Debug > Start Debugging. kate main menu > Debug > Continue/ Step Over/ Step In/ Step Out.

Without the ".kateproject" file

If we do not have a ".kateproject" file. Then:

• Build. kate main menu > Build > Select Target... > Target Set > Working Directory should be "~/kde/build/kcalc" > OK button. "Build Output" tool view > "Output" is shown. Change to tab "Target Settings" from tool view "Build Output" > double click on cell "Dir:" > select "~/kde/build/kcalc", press Enter. kate main menu > Build > Build Default Target.
• Debugger. kate main menu > Debug > Targets > Target 1. kate main menu > View > Tool Views > Show Debug View > Settings tab > Executable > select "~/kde/build/kcalc/bin/kcalc". Click on source code line, from kate main menu > Debug > Toggle Breakpoint. kate main menu > Debug > Start Debugging. kate main menu > Debug > Continue/ Step Over/ Step In/ Step Out.