Home
Components of the Sym application
The three main components of the Sym application are the content, the tools used to edit and manage the content and the libraries that provide the objects and functionality that are used to create and edit expressions.
Tools
In addition to the content of the application there are several tools available to assist you in creating and managing the content of a document, like the Document Explorer, Object Browser and Unit Test Runner.
The Clipboard Viewer
The Clipboard Viewer shows the last 20 expressions that were copied to the clipboard. It doesn't show other clipboard formats. The Clipboard Viewer can be shown by selecting Clipboard (Shift + F4) from the View menu.

Components of the Sym application
The three main components of the Sym application are the content, the tools used to edit and manage the content and the libraries that provide the objects and functionality that are used to create and edit expressions.
- Content
  Content windows include Document Modules, Object Modules and Unit Test Modules. With the exception of the Properties windows which are attached to modules, all of the windows in the Sym application can be dragged and docked in a variety of locations to provide a way to customize the layout of the main application window.
- Tools
  In addition to the content of the application there are several tools available to assist you in creating and managing the content of a document, like the Document Explorer, Object Browser and Unit Test Runner.
  - The Document Explorer
    The Document Explorer provides a tree view of the current document. A document can have any number of document modules. Each module is opened in a separate window and acts as a standalone page. In addition, the Document Explorer lets you select the libraries that are included in the document and to create Object modules and Unit test modules in the current document or in a library.
  - The Object Browser
    The object browser provides a way to find and view objects that are available in the current document. The browser displays all of the objects defined in the document and the libraries listed in the Libraries section of the Document Explorer.
  - The Clipboard Viewer
    The Clipboard Viewer shows the last 20 expressions that were copied to the clipboard. It doesn't show other clipboard formats. The Clipboard Viewer can be shown by selecting Clipboard (Shift + F4) from the View menu.
  - The Execution Details Viewer
    The Execution Details Viewer is used to debug code. When enabled, the Execution Details Viewer displays details about the code that runs when a command or unit test is executed. It shows the functions, clauses and variable bindings for each step in the execution process.
  - The Unit Test Runner
    The Unit Test Runner provides a centralize location to view, manage and run all of the unit tests in a document and its libraries. From the Unit Test Runner, you can run the unit tests in a single Unit Test Module, you can run all of the tests in a selection of modules or you can run all of the tests in the whole document.
  - The Error List
    The Error List displays error messages generated during the build process.
  - The Find and Replace Window
    The Find and Replace window provides a means to perform pattern-matching searches to locate expressions. The search is performed against all expressions in the current document and all expressions in the libraries listed in the Document Explorer. All expressions are included, including expressions in object definitions like the type definition, the properties, and the clauses. Unit test expressions are also included in the search results.
- Libraries
  There are a number of libraries that are available online that can be used with Sym documents.
- Dialogs

The Clipboard Viewer

The Clipboard Viewer shows the last 20 expressions that were copied to the clipboard. It doesn't show other clipboard formats. The Clipboard Viewer can be shown by selecting Clipboard (Shift + F4) from the View menu.

There are three buttons at the top of the Clipboard Viewer:

Delete - removes the active expression(s) from the list shown by the Clipboard Viewer.
Sort - moves the active expression(s) to the top of the Clipboard Viewer list. If there is more than one active expression, the expressions are shown in the list in the order they were selected.
Clear - removes all expressions from the list.

You can make any item in the list the active item by clicking on it. Multiple items can be selected using Ctrl + Click or Shift + Click. The active item(s) will be put in the document if you select Paste from any menu or press Ctrl + V.

You can also paste an expression into a document module by double clicking on any expression in the Clipboard Viewer. Open any type of module and select an expression in the content of the module. If you double-click on one of the expressions in the Clipboard Viewer, that expression is pasted into the module in place of the expression that was highlighted.

In some cases, commands can act on more than one expression. An example is the Substitute command where one expression defines a substitution that is applied to another expression. For this command, the clipboard is used as the temporary holding place for the subsitution expression(s) that are used in a command. See the The Substitute Command for details and an example.