Kate has several features that are useful for writing program code:
Line Numbers: Kate can add temporary line numbers to the beginning of each line in a file. Line numbers are useful for programmers when debugging a program. Click View. Select Show Line Numbers.
Syntax Highlighting: Kate highlights syntax for many programming languages, from C and C++ to HTML and JavaScript. Click Tools. Select Highlight Mode. By default, Normal mode is checked, which means no syntax highlighting. Select a category from Sources, Markup, Games, Scripts, or Other and select the language you are writing code in.
Word Wrap: Word wrap is on by default. You can turn it off by clicking Settings and selecting Configure Kate. Expand Editor (click the +). Click Editing. Uncheck the box by "Enable Word Wrap."
Indenting: You can indent or unindent a highlighted block of text using the Indent and Unindent items from the Tools menu. You can set the number of spaces to indent in Settings->Configure Kate. Expand Editor. Click Editing. Select a number for the "Tab and Indent Width" text box. You can also check "Replace tabs with spaces" if desired. You can set Kate to automatically indent within parentheses and brackets by clicking Indentation and checking "Automatically Indent."
Comments: Kate can add comments to your code, based on the language selected when Highlight mode is turned on. With no text highlighted, you can insert comment marks by clicking Tools and selecting Comment. You can then type the comment text. Or you can highlight some text and select Comment and Kate will comment out the code, using the method appropriate to the selected language. You can also uncomment existing comments by highlighting the comment and selecting Uncomment from the Tools menu.
