Fundamental mode is the basis for all source code editing modes in peppy. All of the text editing functions that are common to more than one mode are generally placed in Fundamental mode. If you’re familiar with object oriented programming concepts, Fundamental mode is the superclass of the other text editing modes.
There are different hierarchies of major modes in peppy, but the primary hierarchical tree starts from Fundamental mode. Major modes that are used to edit text files descend from Fundamental mode, and therefore are part of this hierarchy.
Hierarchies are important because many of the commands available in Peppy are based on the major mode of the current file. Actions are only presented to you in the menubar and toolbar if they’re appropriate to the major mode. For instance, when editing text files, it doesn’t make sense to include actions used to edit images.
The major mode hierarchy starting with Fundamental mode includes Python mode, C++ mode, Bash mode, and all the other modes used to edit source code. Fundamental mode is the more general major mode, so all actions available for Fundamental mode are available to Python mode, for instance. However, Python mode actions are not available to Fundamental mode.
Peppy uses the wxPython component called the StyledTextCtrl for its user interface, which is based on the source code editing component called Scintilla. Scintilla and the StyledTextCtrl supply the highlighting, syntax coloring, code folding, line numbers, word wrapping, and many more built-in features. Additionally, due to the cross-platform nature of both wxPython and Scintilla, peppy operates in very similarly across the three major classes of operating systems supported by wxPython: unix-like systems, Windows, and Mac OS X.