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Kate

KDE's advanced text editor.

Kate is the feature-packed text editor from KDE.

A screen recording is available showing how to use Kate with kdesrc-build: KDE's Kate and kdesrc-build tutorial

kde-builder setup

Make sure that ~/.config/kde-builder.yaml contains the line:

cmake-generator: "Kate - Unix Makefiles"

kdesrc-build setup

Make sure that ~/.config/kdesrc-buildrc contains the lines:

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

Kate

Kate provides its own tutorial on setting up Kate for kdesrc-build development: Building Kate from Sources on Linux.

In Kate, go to Settings -> Configure Kate... -> Plugins and enable:

  • Project Plugin
  • LSP Client
  • Build & Run
  • Kate Debugger

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.
  • Tools > External Tools > Git
    • git blame
    • gitk
  • Tools > External Tools > Tools
    • Clang Format Full File
    • Search KDE API
    • Search Qt API
    • JSON Format Full File
    • 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 . &

To build the project from within Kate:

  • Build > Select Target... > Target Settings tab
    • Set the Working Directory of the project to "~/kde/build/kcalc". This will cause all of the CMake targets to be listed.
  • Build > Build Default Target.

To use the Kate debugger:

  • Debug > Targets > Target 1.
    • View > Tool Views > Show Debug View > Settings tab > Executable > select "~/kde/build/kcalc/bin/kcalc".
    • Click on a source code line.
    • Debug > Toggle Breakpoint.
    • Debug > Start Debugging.

To start debugging, you can use the options:

  • Debug
    • Continue
    • Step Over
    • Step In
    • Step Out

Most of these options should show up on the Kate toolbar.

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.
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