Using TextPad to run external Tool

[Derek Roberts]

I've been trying to set up TextPad to run ModelSim's Verilog compiler and take me to the source of errors (as the Help File says it should be able to).

The compiler is invoked from a makefile via Microsoft nmake; this works fine. The output is correctly captured and displayed in the command window.

Typical output looks like this:

Model Technology ModelSim SE/EE vlog 5.4a Compiler 2000.04 Apr 17 2000
-- Compiling module linecard
ERROR: ..\fpga1\linecard.v(588): near ",": expecting: ENDMODULE
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: 'vlog' : return code '0x1'
Stop.

However double clicking on an error produces the message

D:\....modelsim\ERROR: \fpga1\linecard.v contains an invalid path

II have 4 problems:

(1) I can't tell whether TextPad is complaining about the relative path, or whether it's silently adding the (588) to the file name and complaining about that. No matter what I've tried to keep numbers and brackets out of the file name, it complains with the same message, and is printing a leading '' in the file name (which it shouldn't), so I assume it's the relative path, so how do I fix that ?

(2) I can't see how to get at the line number, since it's part of the same token that the file name is being parsed out of.

(3) The help file doesn't explain how the "registers" are filled: I assume its something to do with the parentheses in the regular expression spec.

(4) I get the distinct impression that despite pressing 'OK' after changing the regular expression, TextPad only updates it after closing and restarting it, since I''ve put ridiculous expressions in and got no change in error message.

The last attempt I used was

^\(Error\:\|Warning\:\) \(.[^()0-9]\) \([0-9]+\):

Version TextPad 4.2.2 (fif that matters)

It would be really nice in trying to set this up, if when it printed an error message, it gave the values of the 3 'registers'. One could then see whether one's regular expression was doing the right thing or not.

Thanks to anyone who can help,

Derek Roberts