We hope you enjoyed Part 1 of this tutorial. This tutorial will take about
5 minutes, so let's go.
REPEATING COMMANDS
------------------
All SAIL commands can be given a numeric argument. For example, if you wish
to go to line 10 of the file, [Esc]-30 ^G.
= Enter [Esc]-30 ^G.
Did you get here? You would have if you entered the last command right.
= Enter [PgDn].
ABORTING COMMANDS
-----------------
Whenever you start a command that requests input and you want to stop it,
enter ^C. For example, you can use ^C to discard a numeric argument or the
beginning of a command that you don't want to finish.
= Type [Esc]-100 to make a numeric argument of 100, THEN TYPE ^C.
= Now enter the Down cursor.
How many lines did you move down? (Since you cancelled the 100, you
should have moved only one line down).
= Enter [PgDn].
MESSAGE LINE
------------
SAIL uses the last line of the screen (below the status line) as a
message line.
Sometimes you may do something which SAIL doesn't allow. If it is
something simple, such as typing a control key sequence which is not
associated with any command, SAIL will simply beep.
For some commands, SAIL will display information at the bottom of the
screen.
= Enter [PgDn].
INSERTING AND DELETING
----------------------
If you want to type text, just do it.
Characters which you can see, such as A, 7, *, etc. are taken by SAIL as
text and are immediately inserted. Type [Return] (the carriage-return
key) to insert a line separator.
You can delete the last character you typed by entering [BS].
You can also delete the character at the cursor by typing [Delete].
= Type a few characters then delete them with [Delete]. Don't worry
about this file being changed; you won't affect the master tutorial.
This is just a copy of it.
= Enter [PgDn].
= The following line goes off the right edge. Put the cursor in the line.
= Keep typing [Right]'s until the cursor goes off the right edge of the screen. Note the '<' and '>' at each edge. Keep typing [Right]'s and watch where SAIL decides to scroll the line.
This is one of those things easier to explain by example.
= Enter [PgDn].
GETTING MORE HELP
-----------------
There is so much available in SAIL that it would be a monumental task to
explain it all in a series of tutorials. The way to get help is to
press F1. Once you press F1, the following keys are valid:
1 to 9 On the main menu, selects the subject.
[Home] Goes back to the main menu.
[End] Ends Help and goes back to editing.
[PgUp] Displays the previous page.
[PgDn] Displays the next page.
= Enter F1. Remember to exit help, press [End].
If you cannot access help, please reread the installation
instructions. Possible problems are: (1) SAIL couldn't find
COMMAND.COM, (2) you didn't specify the PORT environment variable,
or (3) SAILHELP.EXE is not in the directory specified in PORT.
= Next press [PgDn].
CHANGING THE SCREEN COLORS
--------------------------
(Monochrome systems: please skip this section.) If you have a color
monitor, you can change the screen colors to match SAIL with your other
DOS programs. SAIL allows you to specify the color combinations used
for (1) the main text and (2) the status line.
To access the color installation screen, press F2. Once you press F2,
the following keys are valid:
[Up]/[Down] Changes the background color for the selected item.
[Left]/[Right] Changes the foreground color for the selected item.
[PgUp]/[PgDn] Selects the next item.
[Alt]-S Saves the color combinations.
[End] Ends the color installation screen.
= Enter F2. Remember that you can exit by pressing [End].
= Press [PgDn].
You'll probably find that if you use SAIL for a few days you won't be
able to give it up. Initially it may be hard to learn, but that is the
case with any editor, especially a powreful one that can do many, many
things. And SAIL can do almost everything.
= Enter [PgDn].
Acknowledgements
----------------
We would like to thank the following individuals and organizations, the
inventors of EMACS and uEMACS, which formed a basis for SAIL.
M.I.T., the organization originating EMACS.
Dave Conroy, originator of uEMACS.
Steve Wilhite, author of uEMACS V1.00.
George Jones, author of uEMACS V2.00.
Daniel Lawrence, author of uEMACS V3.61.
Thanks folks!!!! We learned a lot from you!!!!!!
SAIL has a user-friendly interface, extensive help, and color. SAIL
also has a SPEEDY CRT device driver. The documentation for SAIL is more
consistent, easier to understand, and the messages are more meaningful.
= Press [PgDn]
Future refinements planned for SAIL include a menu-driven interface,
regular expression and incremental search, and support for the EGA and
PS-2, as well as use in networking.
Thank you trying out SAIL.
We hope that you like SAIL and will use it in your daily work.
Contributing your energy by using our products makes our programming
efforts worthwhile.
Financial contributions make fine software such as SAIL possible. If
you like our editor, please register and we'll send you a printed copy
