Setting language-specific tab stops and rulers

With VS Code, you can add tab stops and rulers in the editor depending on the language that you are using. You can customize the IBM Z Open Editor settings based on your own personal perference or organization standards.

Setting tab stops for COBOL and HLASM

You can set tab stops for COBOL, HLASM and JCL program files with IBM Z Open Editor so that the cursor stops when you press the Tab key.

To configure COBOL tab stops, add zopeneditor.cobol.tabstops in settings.json and provide an array of 0-based column numbers to your user or workspace settings:

"zopeneditor.cobol.tabstops": [
    0,
    6,
    7,
    11,
    15,
    19,
    72
]

The default tab stops setting for COBOL is 0, 6, 7, 11.

For HLASM program files, use zopeneditor.hlasm.tabstops.

For JCL program files, use zopeneditor.jcl.tabstops.

Setting language-specific rulers

You can set rulers for COBOL, PL/I, HLASM, REXX, and JCL, which are shown as grey lines, in the editor.

See the following example to set rulers for COBOL in settings.json:

"[cobol]": {
    "editor.rulers": [
        0,
        6,
        7,
        11,
        15,
        19,
        72
    ]
}

You can also set the following rulers:

• PL/I: "[pl1]": {"editor.rulers": [array]}
• HLASM: "[hlasm]": {"editor.rulers": [array]}
• REXX: "[rexx]": {"editor.rulers": [array]}
• JCL: "[jcl]": {"editor.rulers": [array]}

where array is an array of numbers representing the column numbers at which you want a ruler to appear.