Editing the adapl

As mentioned in the introduction, you can edit ADAPL source files (.ada) in simple text editors like Windows NotePad, TextPad (offers line numbering) or Axiell Designer, and recompile it from a DOS command prompt or from within Axiell Designer, but you can also do everything from within the ADAPL Debugger.

The ADAPL Debugger cannot be opened as a stand-alone tool, it can only open automatically from within an Adlib application when executing an adapl compiled in debug mode. So if you want to use this software as your ADAPL development environment, you'll have to get to this stage first.
When an adapl is being executed in the ADAPL debugger and you're stepping through it, you should not make any changes to the code. Only when the execution of the adapl ends, yet remaining opened in the ADAPL Debugger, can you sensibly start making changes to the code. You can edit the code like you would in a normal text editor. Use the options from the Edit menu to:

Undo your last change
Redo an undo
Cut selected text
Copy selected text
Paste copied text
Delete the next character
Select all text
Find a word
Find next occurrence of the word you were searching for with Find
Replace one text with another

From the File menu you can save your changes. This menu also offers the option to open another ADAPL source file, or other text file, if you need to have a look at that. Choose File > Open to open another file on the current tab; choose File > New to open another file on a new tab, or to create a new file on a new tab (in which case you must provide the new file name before it will be opened).
File > Exit will close the ADAPL debugger. After closing the ADAPL Debugger, it will only open again after restarting your Adlib application.

Build > Compile (Ctrl+F7) will recompile the adapl present on the currently active tab: it will be compiled in debug mode. When, during your current Adlib session, this adapl is executed again, it will automatically be reloaded so that you are always using/testing the latest version.
Note that when you recompile your adapl outside of the ADAPL Debugger, you will always have to close and restart your Adlib application to load the new version of the compiled adapl into memory.