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Ravitz Editor 1.10 ASCII text editor for IBM/DOS systems (C) Copyright Ravitz Software Inc. 1989,1993 Ravitz Software Inc. BBS/FAX 606-268-0577 P.O. Box 25068 Lexington, KY 40524-5068 USA Compuserve Cary Ravitz [70431,32] Introduction ....................................................... 2 License 3 Installation ....................................................... 3 General Information 4 Help ............................................................... 6 Entering Text 6 Functions ......................................................... 7 Commands 10 Menus ............................................................. 11 Edit Command 12 Save Command ...................................................... 13 Quit Command 14 Name Command ...................................................... 14 Print Command 14 Marking An Area ................................................... 15 Operating On An Area Mark 17 Fill Area Functions ............................................... 19 Line Exclude Functions 20 Position Mark Functions ........................................... 24 Word Wrap Margins Command 25 Tab Command ....................................................... 25 Basic Flow Functions 26 Paragraph Reflow Functions ........................................ 28 Drawing Modes 28 Find Command ...................................................... 29 Change Command 31 Order Lines Command ............................................... 32 Line Number Command 32 Trash Buffer ...................................................... 33 Dos Shell Command 33 Windows and Split Screen .......................................... 34 Status Line 34 File and Device Names ............................................. 35 Memory Management 35 Housekeeping Details .............................................. 36 Mouse Handling 37 Displays .......................................................... 37 Tips 38 Messages .......................................................... 39 RBIN 43 Compatibility and Technical Information ........................... 44 What RE Cannot Do 46 User Support ...................................................... 47 p-2 Introduction --------------------------------------------------------- Ravitz Editor (RE) is an ASCII text editor for IBM/DOS computers. It is mid sized (46K to 64K) but very powerful, with integrated outlining and overviewing. RE has organizational aids that let you hide (exclude) lines to view and operate on program, outline, and document structures, sort lines, mark and return to positions, and view two files or parts of the same file at once. A change tracking system lets you review new and modified lines, and a trash buffer lets you recover deleted and changed lines. The user interface includes features such as: one character mnemonic functions, commands, and options; menus; mouse input; and an internal instant help system. RE includes find and change functions with options such as word, ignore excluded lines, look only in marked area, all, and show all. Its marked area functions include overlay, copy lines, delete, fill with block pattern, fill with line pattern, uppercase, shift horizontal, and shift vertical. Each of these functions may include or ignore excluded lines. There are also functions to help in writing documents such as word wrap, flow, flow with right justification, flow into list, and line drawing. RE is configurable via profiles that are installed within the EXE file. Keyboard usage, default values, macros, menus, panels, and help text may be defined with a profile and assembled into a new RE.EXE with REPROF. The macro facility has nestable macros with looping and conditional control. See REPROF.DOC for more information. p-3 License -------------------------------------------------------------- Ravitz Editor is provided as is. There are no warranties expressed or implied. You may use Ravitz Editor version 1.10 without charge. No further development of RE is planned, however if new versions are released they may require a registration charge for use. You may distribute RE if you keep the entire package together, unchanged, including this license explanation, and do not charge more than $10. You may include special profiles if they are clearly marked as such. Installation --------------------------------------------------------- The RE package consists of these files: RE.EXE program (not included - must be generated with REPROF) RE.DOC documentation REPROF.EXE profile assembler program REPROF.DOC profile documentation REPROF.1 default profile REPROF.2 alternate profile REPROF.MAC miscellaneous macros RBIN.EXE binary file handler utility README.* quick information To install RE copy the distribution files to your working disk or directory. Run "REPROF" from the DOS prompt. This will create RE.EXE. RE.EXE is a stand alone executable file. You can use it without any other file - help text is included within the EXE file. RE.DOC is this manual. You will need it for in-depth explanations that are not included in the program help text. You can print it with "COPY RE.DOC PRN" (49 pages). REPROF.EXE is the profile assembler. It assembles a profile to create a new RE.EXE, and can also regenerate the original RE.EXE. REPROF.1 and REPROF.2 are profiles that can be used as starting points for your personalization of RE. REPROF.DOC is the documentation, which may be printed with "COPY REPROF.DOC PRN" (41 pages). REPROF.MAC is a set of macros that may be useful. RBIN.EXE is a binary file handler utility that runs from inside RE. This file is not required to use RE. The README.* files are not needed to run RE, but they must accompany the rest of the files if you distribute the package. p-4 General Information -------------------------------------------------- The general flow of RE is: start the program; load a disk file into memory or start with no data; update the in-memory data; and output the data to disk. To start RE from the DOS prompt, type RE and press enter. This will start with an empty file. If you prefer to start with an old file, type RE and the file name at the DOS prompt. The display must be in 80 (or greater) column mode or RE will not start. If this is not the case, use the DOS MODE command to set it (MODE CO80, MODE BW80, or MODE MONO). To save your data and exit from RE, use the S (Save) and Q (Quit) commands, described below. You interface with RE in one of four ways. The first way is through the letter and number keys. The screen and computer memory will echo your input at the cursor location. The cursor is seen as a bright block behind a character or a highlighted underscored character (on a digital monochrome display). The second way is through function keys. These keys perform various often used functions. They include the cursor movement keys, the enter, insert, and delete keys, many alt and ctrl shifted keys, and others. These keys and their functions are described in the FUNCTIONS section. To get started, try the alt-n key (for a new line) and the cursor movement keys. Some function keys do two or three functions, sometimes depending on cursor position to distinguish which function to do and sometimes requiring multiple presses to do a specific function. Examples are split line / join lines and center / left side / right side. This minimizes the number of keys that you need to remember. The third way is through commands. You enter commands on the top line of the screen (the command line) and execute them by pressing the enter key. They include functions that require the entry of names, numbers, or options. Examples are edit a file, save a file, and find a string. These are described in the COMMANDS section. Important commands for getting started are: E file to edit a file; S to save a file; and Q to quit. The fourth way is menus. When a menu is displayed you can move the selection bar to any item with the cursor keys and select the item with the enter key. If one of the letters in an item is capitalized then that item can be immediately selected by pressing the letter. Esc backs out of the menu and PgUp and PgDn display the previous or next menu. Menu functions are referred to here with the key that displays the menu followed by the item name, for example f2-Directory. RE is described in this manual but the best way to learn RE is by using it. If an explanation is not clear, please try the function. Do not be afraid to experiment. p-5 A short RE session to create a new file looks like this. Function keys are enclosed in "(" and ")". From DOS: re program.pas (enter) start with an empty file (csr dn) (csr dn) move cursor to first blank line program add; (enter) enter text var i: integer; (enter) . begin (enter) . i:=16+4; (enter) . end. . (esc) s (enter) save file to program.pas q (enter) return to DOS. A short session to modify this file looks like this. From DOS: re program.pas (enter) start RE and read file (csr dn) (csr dn) (csr dn) move cursor (csr rt) (csr rt) (csr rt) . (csr rt) (csr rt) . (ins) toggle to insert mode ,j insert new text (csr dn) (csr dn) (alt-n) move cursor and insert new line j:=i+6; enter text (esc) sq (enter) save file to program.pas and quit. p-6 Help ----------------------------------------------------------------- RE's help system is invoked with f1-Help_system or alt-f1. The help item on each menu and alt-f1 from a menu start the help system on the page specific to the menu. The help system may be paged through with pgup, up, pgdn, and down or any specific page may be selected with its page letter. Esc or alt-f1 backs out of the help system. The help system has explanations for RE's functions and it will be useful to help learn and use RE. But it does not replace this reference. Entering Text -------------------------------------------------------- You enter text in RE just like most other programs - text is echoed at the cursor position and the cursor is moved in preparation for the next character. There are a few devices that help to make room for your text. These only work in the text area, not on the command line. The first is word wrap, which is a common feature that lets you enter text continuously. The word wrap feature inserts new lines and moves words that cross the margins so that the text fits within the margins. See WORD WRAP MARGINS COMMAND to set the word wrap margins. RE does word wrap only when you type a character in the right word wrap column and then type another character. After the first character has been entered, a "w" appears on the status line. Anything other than a character cancels the word wrap. The new line caused by a word wrap starts in the left word wrap column. You are not prevented from entering text outside the word wrap margins. In the word wrap state (after entering a character in the word wrap column), if the right word wrap column is at the edge of the screen then the cursor does not make its usual move, but if you continue on and cause the word wrap then the cursor is adjusted before entering the next character. This lets you keep the right margin at the edge of the screen. RE does an automatic horizontal screen scroll when two consecutive characters are typed at the right edge of the screen. After the first character is entered, an "s" appears on the status line and the cursor does not move. The second character will follow the first after the scroll. When you enter a character on the "Top ---" or "Bottom ---" line, a new line is automatically inserted and the cursor is moved to that line before the character is entered. p-7 Functions ------------------------------------------------------------ A function is executed by pressing its associated key or selecting the appropriate menu item. The following is a list of labeled function keys. The use of these keys is generally compatible with their use in other programs. The cursor movement keys (arrow keys) move the cursor one space in the direction indicated by the arrows. The cursor skips over the status line (line 2), and wraps around the screen in all directions. In typematic mode, horizontal cursor movement is three spaces at a time. The home key (or f4-Start_of_line) moves the cursor to the first nonblank character on a line. On a blank line the cursor will be moved to column 1. If the target column is off the current screen, the screen will scroll to show the cursor. The end key (or f4-End_of_line) moves the cursor to the space after the last nonblank character on a line. On a blank line, the cursor will be moved to column 1. The screen will scroll, if needed, to show the cursor. The forward and backward tab keys move the cursor to the next and previous tab position. The screen will scroll, if needed, to show the cursor. The tab positions are set with the T command, described in the TAB COMMAND section. These keys do not insert tab characters or blanks in the file. They only move the cursor. The backspace key deletes the character to the left of the cursor and moves everything that is on and to the right of the cursor one space left. The screen will automatically scroll if needed. The delete key deletes the character at the cursor position and moves everything that is to the right of the cursor one space left. Caps lock toggles between caps lock mode and lowercase mode. The insert key toggles between replace and insert mode. In replace mode text keys replace the character at the cursor. In insert mode text keys insert characters at the cursor, pushing the rest of the line to the right. The escape key toggles the cursor between the text area and the command line. If the cursor is in the text area then it is moved to the start of the command line. If the cursor is on the command line then it is moved to its last position in the text area or as close to that position as possible without scrolling the screen. The cursor can also be moved on or off the command line with the cursor up and down keys. p-8 The enter key either executes a command or moves the cursor to column 1 of the next line and scrolls the screen to column 1. If the cursor is on the command line and the command line is nonblank then enter executes the command. If the cursor is in the text area and the first nonblank character on the command line is 'F', 'f', 'C', or 'c' then enter executes the command. Otherwise enter causes the cursor return function described above. The page up key (or f4-scroll_Up) scrolls the screen view up. The number of lines scrolled is such that the cursor is moved to the bottom of the screen or one full screen minus one line if the cursor is already at the bottom or on the command line. The page down key (or f4-scroll_Down) is similar to page up, but it moves the screen view down. The ctrl-backspace key (or f1-delete_line) deletes the current line. This will not work on an excluded line. On the command line, ctrl-backspace blanks the line. The ctrl-home and ctrl-end keys (f4-Top_of_file, f4-Bot_of_file) scroll to the top and bottom of a file. The ctrl-left and ctrl-right keys (f4-scroll_lf_1, f4-scroll_rt_1) scroll the screen view left and right one column. The ctrl-page up and ctrl-page down keys (f4-scroll_up_1, f4-scroll_dn_1) scroll the screen view up and down one line. The break key (ctrl-break on a PC or fn-break on a PCjr) cancels printing, sorts, finds, changes, and macros. No other function in RE is interruptible. All other function keys are obtained by pressing and holding the alt key and then pressing one of the letter or number keys. Alt-a (f1-Ascii_code) lets you enter an ASCII code. After pressing alt-a, enter three digits, representing a number from 0 to 255. You must enter three digits. Use leading zeros to get numbers below 100. The character represented by this code will be put in your file as if you had typed it. The alt-a function lets you enter characters that, if typed from the keyboard, would cause various RE functions rather than being interpreted as characters. For example, ASCII 13 is interpreted as the enter key, but by entering alt-a 013, you may put it in your file. (note: Do NOT press alt while entering your ASCII code, and if you wish to use the numeric keypad instead of the top row numbers you must use the shift key or be in num lock mode.) Alt-e (f2-Edit_file) edits a file in a new edit session. The file name is specified by the cursor position. The cursor must be on a character in the file name, and the file name is delimited by blanks or the left or right end of the line. This function puts the corresponding edit command on the command line and therefore destroys any text on the command line. p-9 Alt-h (f3-Highlight_csr) highlights the cursor by causing it to blink. The highlighting will disappear after 10 blinks or at the next keystroke. Alt-k (f1-Erase_end_line) erases from the cursor to the end of the line. Alt-n (f1-New_line) adds a new blank line below the cursor. Alt-q (f2-Next_session) moves the screen to the next edit session in the session ring. Alt-r (f1-Reshow) redisplays the current line from the data in memory, if the cursor is on a text line. If the cursor is on a group of excluded lines, then these lines are shown (unexcluded). Alt-s (f1-Split/join) is the split/join function. If you press alt-s and there are nonblank characters on or to the right of the cursor, then the line will be split at the cursor position. This includes characters that have been pushed off the right of the screen. If there are only blanks on and to the right of the cursor then the line below the current line will be joined to the current line at the cursor position. Leading blanks on the joined line are removed. If a line to be joined will not fit, you will get an incorrect cursor position message. Alt-y (f3-Recall_cmd_up) moves the cursor to the command line and recalls commands. Your last sixteen commands are saved. Consecutive presses of alt-y restores them in reverse order. Alt-- (alt dash) (f4-scroll_Left) scrolls the screen view left, such that the current cursor column is moved to right edge of the screen. Alt-= (f4-scroll_Right) scrolls the screen view right, such that the current cursor column is moved to screen column 1. Alt-7 (f4-up_outline) moves the cursor up to the next line that starts on or to the left of the cursor. Alt-8 (f4-down_outline) moves the cursor down to the next line that starts on or to the left of the cursor. There are more functions described in the sections on area and position marks, the find and change commands, the exclude and flow functions, line drawing function, windows, memory management, and help. p-10 Commands ------------------------------------------------------------- Enter commands on the top line of the screen (this is also referred to as the command line). The esc key is a convenient way to move the cursor to the command line. The command will be executed when you press the enter key. If the cursor is on the command line and the command line is nonblank then enter executes the command. If the cursor is in the data area and the first nonblank character on the command line is 'F', 'f', 'C', or 'c' then enter executes the command. Otherwise enter causes the cursor return function. The length of the command line is the width of the screen. It does not scroll. In the command descriptions here "(" and ")" enclose optional parameters. "/" separates mutually exclusive parameters. Option characters may follow the command or may be attached to the command character ("S file Q" is the same as "SQ file"). The RE commands are: C - change - see CHANGE COMMAND D - DOS shell - see DOS SHELL COMMAND E - edit - see EDIT COMMAND F - find - see FIND COMMAND N - name - see NAME COMMAND O - order lines - see ORDER LINES COMMAND P - print - see PRINT COMMAND Q - quit - see QUIT COMMAND S - save - see SAVE COMMAND T - tabs - see TAB COMMAND W - word wrap margins - see WORD WRAP MARGINS COMMAND n - line number - see LINE NUMBER COMMAND. p-11 Menus ---------------------------------------------------------------- RE has 10 menus, accessed with f1 through f10. Menus 2 through 10 may also be accessed from the first menu. Help for each menu is available from the "help" item. When a menu is displayed you can move the bar cursor to any item with the cursor keys and select the item with enter. If one of the letters in an item is capitalized then that item can be selected by pressing the letter key. Esc backs out of the menu and pgup and pgdn display the previous and next menu. Each menu item represents an RE function, command, or macro (sequence of functions). If the function is available directly from a keystroke then the key is noted with a "<" ("Split/join <a-s" can also be invoked with the alt-s key). If a menu item includes a * then that item initializes an RE command. The * represents a string that you must enter (such as a file name). To execute the command press the enter key. ("dir_*" puts "ed " on the command line and returns control to you. If you enter *.pas and press enter you will get a list of .pas files). If an item is marked with a diamond then it represents a complex macro that may remove your current area mark or pending command. Displaying (or escaping from) a menu does not change the state of RE. Any displayed message remains and any transient state stays. Selecting an item is the same as using a function key. The Basic menu (f1) lets you select any other menu, the help system, or the basic editing functions such as split/join and new line. The File, Print, DOS menu (f2 or f1-File,print,dos) includes edit, save, quit, session selection, print, and DOS shell functions. General (f3 or f1-General) has general functions including marking an area or position, draw mode, and command recall. Position (f4 or f1-Position) has functions that let you set the cursor and screen position. Exclude (f5 or f1-eXclude) has line exclude functions. Document Processing (f6 or f1-Document_proc) contains document processing function such as flow, margins, tabs, date, and time. Find/Change (f7 or f1-fInd/change) has find and change functions. Modify Mark Contents (f8 or f1-Mod_mk_contents) has area mark functions that modify the contents of a mark such as shifting, centering, and uppercase. Copy, Delete, Fill Mark (f9 or f1-Copy,del,fill_mk) has area mark functions that copy, overlay, delete, or fill the mark. Order Lines (f10 or f1-Order_lines) contains line sorting functions. p-12 Edit Command --------------------------------------------------------- "E (file (C/G)(D)(N/T))" starts a new edit session and reads in the specified file (example: E PROGRAM.PAS lets you edit file program.pas). The file name may be a complete DOS file name with disk and path names (see FILE AND DEVICE NAMES for a complete description of RE's file name criteria). The C option says to check for a matching file name in the current files, and if found go to that session or if not found start a new session and read in the file. The G option is like the C option except it will fail if the file is not already in the session ring (G means go to file). The N option says to handle tabs characters as normal characters. The T option says to expand tab characters on input (this is the default). Tab characters that would cause a line to exceed 255 characters are not expanded, and cause a line(s) too long message. If the D option is chosen then instead of reading a file, RE creates a directory list. The specified file name is used as a mask to screen files for inclusion in the list. If there is no "*" or "?" in the file then "\*.*" or "*.*" is added to create the mask. If the D option is not chosen but the file (not the path) contains either "*" or "?" or ends with "\" or ":" then the D option is assumed. The file names in the directory list are sorted alphabetically (this can be turned off - see @SORTDIR in REPROF.DOC). Subdirectories in the file list are followed by "\*.*" and are sorted to the top of the list. Time and date formats are configurable (see @TIMEFORM and @DATEFORM). The file attributes are listed as "a" - archive bit set, "r" - read only, "h" - hidden, and "s" - system. Hidden and system files are normally not shown but may be included (see @SHOWHIDSYS). Alt-e may be used to edit a file or subdirectory from a file list. An edit session with a directory list is the same as an edit session with a file except the name on the status lines is not a valid name to save the session to. The files names may be used as a selection list or may be used to create BAT files that act on the files. To find a match, the C and G options require an exact match. This is easily tricked because a given file may be specified in many different ways (temp is the same as temp. or c:temp). The @exfilename patch lets you standardize file names to make this option much more difficult to trick. However, since DOS lets you use various utilities to refer to a given file with different names, the C option will never be foolproof. The @edcurfl patch lets you default to the C option. Alt-e or f2-Edit_file edits the file that the cursor is on. This lets you pick a file or subdirectory from a directory list. F2-Directory edits a list of files in the current directory. This is the same as the command "E *.*" or "ED". F2-edit_* sets up an edit command and f2-dir_* sets up a directory list command. p-13 Save Command --------------------------------------------------------- "S (file (Q)(B/D/I)(T/N))" saves the data for the current edit session (example: S PROGRAM.PAS saves the current data to file program.pas, regardless of the displayed file name, S saves the current data to the displayed file). The default file name is displayed on the status line. You may substitute a * for the file to refer to the displayed file. The Q option is the same as a Save command and then a Quit command except that the message resulting from a successful save appears after the quit is finished. If the save is not successful, then the quit is not done. The process used by RE for saving a file to a file that exists if the B (Backup) option is chosen or if no save type option is chosen is: delete the file with extension BAK; save the data to file with extension RE!; rename the original file with extension BAK; rename the file with extension RE! to specified file name. If the I (Indirect) option is chosen then the process is: save to .RE!; delete the original file; and rename .RE! to the specified file name. If the D (Direct) option is chosen then the file is written directly. This is not as safe as the other save types because the original file is destroyed before the new one is written. When saving to a file that does not exist, the save is always directly to that file. The T option says to compress the file with tab characters on output. The N option (the default) says to not do any tab compression. The Save command does not handle devices correctly (in general), so if you want to write to a device instead of a file, use the Print command. F2-Save, and f2-sAve_+_quit invoke the S and SQ commands. Some hardware / software setups (especially with disks formatted to more than 32M) give very slow saves with RE's safe save system due to very slow file renames. Using the D option should speed this up considerably. D can be made the default, see @DEFSAVETP in REPROF.DOC. p-14 Quit Command --------------------------------------------------------- "Q" cancels an edit session WITHOUT saving the data. If you have changed the data since your last save, then you will be prompted for confirmation of the Quit command. If there is only one edit session then RE is ended and you will receive the DOS prompt. F2-Quit does a Quit command. Name Command --------------------------------------------------------- "N file" resets the session file name. No change is made to any disk file. Only the default file name, used by the Save command and displayed on the status line, is changed. The Name command checks file name validity and does not allow the standard DOS device names but does not prohibit other device names or nonexistant paths. These will be caught only when you try to save the file. F2-name_* sets up a Name command. Print Command -------------------------------------------------------- "P (file/device (M)(X))" prints the current file, or an area mark in the current file if the M option is specified, to a file or device. PRN, the default DOS printer, is the default device. LPT2 and LPT3 print to the second and third printers. The X option says to not print excluded lines. Break cancels printing at the next opportunity. When printing to a printer or device, after printing each line, RE sends a carriage return and line feed (ASCII 13, 10) to the printer except if the last character of the last line printed is a form feed (ASCII 12) then the line feed is suppressed. If you specify a file then the data is written directly, without checking for available disk space or making a backup. If the Print command is successful then the new file is the same as if it had been created with a Save command. F2-print, f2-print_mark, f2-print_unex_mark invoke the Print command. p-15 Marking An Area ------------------------------------------------------ To define areas on which to do several functions, RE uses area marks. These marks define rectangular areas of text. Only one area mark may exist at any time. To use an area mark function, you must first mark an area of text. There are many ways to do this. Mark a character with alt-b or f3-mark_Block. Mark two corners of a block with alt-b or f3-mark_Block. Mark a line with alt-l or f3-mark_Line. Mark the first and last lines of a set with alt-l or f3-mark_Line. Mark a column with f3-mark_column. Mark the first and last columns of a group with f3-mark_Column. Mark the entire session with f3-mark_All. Mark a block from the cursor to column 1 or 255 with alt-b (f3-mark_Block) and then alt-l (f3-mark_Line). If the cursor is to the left of the mark when you press alt-l then the mark is filled out to column 1, otherwise it is filled out to column 255. Mark a block from the cursor to the top or bottom line with alt-b (f3-mark_Block) and then f3-mark_Column. If the cursor is to the above the mark when you do f3-mark_Column then the mark is filled out to the top line, otherwise it is filled out to the bottom line. Mark a block with the same columns as the previous mark but with a new set of lines with alt-l (f3-mark_Line) and then alt-b (f3-mark_Block). This is useful for flowing several different paragraphs to the same margins. If you have set word wrap margins to something other than 1 and 255 then alt-l alt-b sets these margins. Mark a full column mark with the same columns as the previous mark with f3-mark_column and then alt-b (f3-mark_Block). If you have set word wrap margins to something other than 1 and 255 then f3-mark_column alt-b sets these margins. Mark the set of lines from the cursor to the top or bottom of the file with alt-l (f3-mark_Line) and then f3-mark_column. If the cursor is above the initial mark when you do f3-mark_column then the mark is extended to the top of the file, otherwise it is extended to the bottom of the file. Mark a full column mark from the cursor to column 1 or 255 with f3-mark_column and then alt-l (f3-mark_Line). If the cursor is to the left of the initial mark when you press alt-l then the mark is extended to column 1, otherwise it is extended to column 255. p-16 A marked area is highlighted by either underscores or a blue or gray background (depending on the display and display mode). Alt-u (or f3-Unmark) unmarks an area mark. If an area mark exists and you attempt to create a new one, you will get the "Area mark already exists" message. When this message is present, and you repeat the function, the first area is unmarked and the requested function works as usual. F3-mark_block_resize, f3-mark_line_resize, f3-mark_column_resize are similar to the functions explained above, except that when there is a complete area and you use the resize functions, they will modify the area mark instead of giving the "Area mark already exists" message. F3-mark_block_resize updates one corner of the area mark. F3-mark_line_resize extends or shrinks the area mark to cover the current line, leaving the margins unchanged. F3-mark_column_resize extends or shrinks the area mark to cover the current column, leaving the covered lines unchanged. Shrinkage is done initially from the closest side or corner of the mark. Repeating the functions cycles through the possibilities of new area marks. p-17 Operating On An Area Mark -------------------------------------------- The following are the basic area mark functions. Alt-c (f9-Copy_lines) copies all lines in the area mark after the cursor line. Entire lines are copied, even if the area mark does not cover columns 1 to 255. Alt-d deletes the contents of an area mark. Full line marks are deleted and the lines removed. Blocks are deleted and the columns to the right of the mark are shifted left. F9-delete_lines and f9-delete_block do the same function but require a specific choice. Alt-g moves the cursor to the position mark and, on a consecutive press, to the area mark, and then on another press, to the bottom of the area mark. F4-go_Ar_mk_ul and f4-go_ar_mk_ll move the cursor to the upper left and lower left corners of the mark. Alt-i (f9-Insert) inserts the marked area at the cursor location, shifting current text to the right. If data will be pushed past column 255 (and therefore lost) then you are given an are your sure prompt. In general if the cursor position is such that the contents of the area mark would be changed by this operation then it is not allowed. An area can be inserted to the left of the mark if the cursor is aligned with the top of the mark. In this case the mark is moved to cover the same text as before the operation. Alt-m (f9-Move lines) moves all lines in the area mark after the cursor line. Entire lines are moved, even if the area mark does not cover columns 1 to 255. Alt-o (f9-Overlay) overlays the marked area at the cursor location. If data will be overlayed past column 255 then you are given an are your sure prompt. If the cursor position is such that the contents of the area mark would be changed by this operation then it is not allowed. F9-merge overlays the marked area at the cursor only where the target area is blank. If the cursor position is such that the contents of the area mark would be changed by this operation then it is not allowed. Alt-v horizontally centers the contents of an area mark within the area mark. Another (consecutive) press of alt-v moves the text to the left side of the area mark (line by line). A third consecutive press of alt-v moves the text to the right side of the area mark. F8-Center, f8-Left_side, and f8-Right_side provide the same function. Alt-4 (f9-blank) blanks the marked area. F8-Upper and f8-Lower uppercase and lowercase the text within the area mark. F8-upper_First uppercases the first letter of each word in the mark. p-18 F8-shift_up shifts text within the area mark up one line. If data will be lost at the edge of the mark then you will be given an are you sure prompt. Repeated presses do not give this prompt (after the first affirmative answer). F8-shift_down shifts text within the area mark down one line. Alt-9 (f8-shift_left) shifts text within the area mark left one column. Alt-0 (f8-shift_right) shifts text within the area mark right one column. Each of these functions has an equivalent function that operates only on unexcluded lines. They are available on the menus and are labeled with "unex". With the overlay and insert functions, only excluded lines from the marked area are ignored. Excluded lines in the target area are treated as usual. The horizontal and vertical shift functions, the upper and lower case functions, the fill functions, and the non-line area delete function may only be done when some part of the area mark is in the current window. If you try to delete a line area mark that is not in the current window, you will be prompted for confirmation. Area marks are also used in conjunction with the Find, Change, Print, and Order commands, and the flow, exclude, and fill functions. p-19 Fill Area Functions -------------------------------------------------- Alt-3 (F9-fill_nm_line) fills the marked area with a numeric line pattern. To fill an area mark from the cursor to the bottom of the mark with a line pattern, enter the pattern and press Alt-3. If the cursor is on a number then the number will be incremented in the cursor column on each succeeding line. Alt-5 (F9-fill_block_pat) fills the marked area with a rectangular pattern. To use this function, enter the fill pattern in the upper left corner of the mark, position the cursor on the lower right corner of the pattern, and press Alt-5. The cursor may not be on an excluded line during a fill function. For example: block pattern numeric line pattern z______ abc____ ____36. _A00007 _____70 ____x70 abcd___ _______ def____ _______ _______ _______ _______ efghij_ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ lmnopqr _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ cursor position: on z on f on 6 on 7 on 7 on 7 on l yields: zzzzzzz abcabca ____36. _A00007 _____70 ____x70 abcd___ zzzzzzz defdefd ____37. _A00008 _____80 ____x80 efghij_ zzzzzzz abcabca ____38. _A00009 _____90 ____x90 lmnopqr zzzzzzz defdefd ____39. _A00010 ____100 ____x00 lmnopqr zzzzzzz abcabca ____40. _A00011 ____110 ____x10 lmnopqr The next to last example gives a "Numeric fill overflow" message since RE will not overwrite the "x". Only blanks and 0..9 will be overwritten. These functions will ignore excluded lines if you use F9-fill_num_ln_pt_unex and F9-fill_block_pat_unex. The numeric line pattern fill is useful when using the line ordering command to preserve the original order of lines. Before doing any sorting, number all lines. Then to get the original order back, sort on these numbers. p-20 Line Exclude Functions ----------------------------------------------- The line exclude function is used to hide lines from the display. These lines are not deleted from the file, only from the display. A hidden line or set of lines is seen on the screen as a dashed line followed by the number of hidden lines. The leftmost nonblank column of each hidden line is marked with a plus sign on top of the dashed line. Alt-x (or f5-ex_mark_indent) is the exclude lines by indentation function. It is used both to exclude and reshow lines, depending on the position of the cursor and the margins of the area mark. To exclude or reshow a group of lines, first mark the lines with an area mark. Then position the cursor and press alt-x. If the cursor is inside the area mark then all lines whose leftmost nonblank character within the mark is at or to the right of the cursor are excluded (hidden). All other lines are shown. If the cursor is outside the mark then all lines in the mark are shown. Blank lines are excluded as if they had a nonblank character in column 256. F5-ex_Indent excludes the entire file by indentation (as if the entire file were covered with an area mark). F5-ex_mark_para is the exclude lines by paragraph function. It causes all lines that are nonblank within the area mark and are preceded by lines that are blank within the area mark to be shown and all others in the mark to be excluded. If you leave a blank line between each paragraph or subroutine, then this functions compresses the file view by showing only the first line in each paragraph or subroutine. F5-ex_Para excludes the entire file by paragraph. F5-show_Changes shows all modified and new lines (since the start of the session). This function acts on the entire file. F5-Show_all unexcludes the entire file. F5-show_Mark unexcludes all lines in the area mark. F5-ex_mark excludes all lines in the area mark. F5-Reverse_ex and f5-reverse_ex_mark reverse the excluded line status of each line in the file or mark. Alt-r (or f5-reshow) reshows all lines in a set of excluded lines. F5-ex_One_line excludes the line that the cursor is on. F5-unex_First_line and f5-unex_Last_line unexclude the first and last lines from an excluded group. F5-ex_children excludes all lines below the current line up to the next line that starts at or to the left of the start of the current line. Alt-6 excludes children on the first press and unexcludes them on a consecutive press. p-21 F5-unex_one_level reexcludes an excluded group by indentation with the cursor one character to the right of the start of the group. This is a macro that uses the area mark. F5-show_* and f5-show_mark_* set up find commands to exclude everything except the string that you enter. You must press enter after entering the string. F5-ex_unex_mark_indent works like alt-x except that it ignores excluded lines. F5-save_ex and f5-restore_ex saves and restores the excluded state of a session. The home and end keys look for the leftmost and rightmost characters in a set of excluded lines. All of the area mark functions work on excluded lines just like they work on normal lines, except that when you mark an excluded line, all of the lines in the set represented by the dashed line are included in the area mark. The alphanumeric keys, del, backspace, split/join, erase end of line, and enter ASCII code, do not work on excluded lines. Several RE commands have options that let you work with excluded lines or ignore the lines. See the X options of the Find, Change, Order, and Print commands. In addition, most of the area mark functions, except the text flow functions, have versions labeled "unex" that ignore excluded lines. The Find command is important to making best use of excluded lines because when a string is found, the line that it is on is unexcluded. The All, Show all, and Hide all options are useful in getting the proper lines excluded. The line exclude functions are very useful. Below is a list of some techniques that you may find helpful. The line exclude function lets you compress the view of a file by hiding lines that are low in the hierarchy of function. You should design your coding indentation method to take advantage of this function. To compress the view of your entire file, by excluding all lines that do not start in column 1, move the cursor to column 2 in the text area and do f5-ex_Indent. For example: (* proc1 .. *) ---> (* proc1 .. *) procedure proc1; +-+----------..-- 7 var i: integer; (* proc2 .. *) begin +-+----------..-- 6 i:=1; . end; (* proc2 .. *) procedure proc2; var i: integer; begin . end; p-22 BASIC programs may be similarly shown. For example, to show the subroutine structure of the program on the left: move the cursor to column 5 in the text area and do f3-mark_Column and then f3-mark_Line (or alt-l); position the cursor in the area mark on column 7; and press alt-x (or f5-ex_mark_indent). 1000 'MAIN ROUTINE ---> 1000 'MAIN ROUTINE 1010 GOSUB 2000 +----------------------..-- 4 1020 GOSUB 3000 2000 'GET DATA 1030 GOSUB 4000 +----------------------..-- 2 1040 STOP 3000 'CALCULATE RESULTS 2000 'GET DATA +----------------------..-- 2 2010 . 4000 'OUTPUT RESULTS 2020 . +----------------------..-- 2 3000 'CALCULATE RESULTS 3010 . 3020 . 4000 'OUTPUT RESULTS 4010 . 4020 . To add confidence to moves of large blocks of text, exclude the middle lines of the block. This lets you view the entire block while doing the move. Another use of the line exclude function is to help column manipulation. If you want to move columns of text, exclude all lines of the column except the first and last. Then it is easy to put an area mark around an entire column. Suppose you want to find the rightmost character in a group of lines. Mark the group with a line area mark and do f5-ex_mark. This excludes all lines in the group. Then press end to move the cursor to the blank after the rightmost character. Press alt-u, alt-b, cursor left, alt-b, cursor right, and alt-x. All lines with characters in the rightmost position will be unexcluded (this will not work if the rightmost character is in column 255). The line exclude function is also useful for matching BEGIN and END statements in the case of missing or extra END statements (in Pascal). Exclude statements between the lowest level BEGIN and END statements. Continue excluding statements between higher levels of BEGIN and END statements until you find your problem. You can also try the commands "fs begin" and then "fa end". If you want to re-exclude an excluded group of lines, but do not know what level of indentation to use: put the cursor on the line and press alt-l; press alt-r to reshow the lines but leave the area mark; choose a cursor position; and press alt-x. p-23 If you want to sort a section of an outline, retaining sub-topics with their title line, exclude the sub-topics (exclude by indentation) and sort with the X option or f10-ascend_ex. For example: title C --> title C --> title A --> title A line c1 +------- 3 +------- 1 line a1 line c2 title A title B title B line c3 +------- 1 +------- 2 line b1 title A title B title C line b2 line a1 +------- 2 +------- 3 title C title B line c1 line b1 line c2 line b2 line c3 p-24 Position Mark Functions ---------------------------------------------- The alt-p key places the position mark under the cursor. After the cursor is moved, the position mark is seen as a bright background (red on a color screen). The position mark may be placed in the text area only. The position mark may be reset at any time by pressing alt-p. To delete the position mark, put the cursor on top of the mark and press alt-p. When the position mark is in the current edit session, and the cursor is on an editable or excluded line, then the width and height from the position mark to the cursor (inclusive) are displayed on the status line in place of the file name. The alt-p and alt-g keys work together to provide a mark position and go to marked position function. Alt-p sets the position mark. To return to this position from anywhere within RE except the help system, press alt-g (or f4-go_Pos_mk). (A second press of alt-g or if there is no position mark moves the cursor to the area mark and then the bottom of the area mark.) If the cursor is not on the position mark then you may delete the mark by pressing alt-p twice. The first alt-p moves the position mark under the cursor, and the second deletes it. F3-set_Pos_mk, f3-remove_ps_mk, and f4-go_Pos_mk provide menu access to these functions. p-25 Word Wrap Margins Command -------------------------------------------- "W ((col1) col2)" sets the word wrap margins. If the columns are not present then 1 and 255 are assumed. If just one column is present then the left margin is set to 1. Word wrap margins may be set at the cursor position with f6-set_Left_margin and f6-set_Right_margin. And they may be set to 1 and 70 with f6-margin_1..70 or reset to 1 and 255 with f6-margins_Off. F6-Margins_*_* sets up a general W command. See ENTERING TEXT for a description of RE's word wrap function. When the word wrap margins are not 1 and 255, and you create an area mark with alt-l alt-b, then the mark will span the word wrap margins. Tab Command ---------------------------------------------------------- The T command lets you specify what kind of tabs you want to use. "T (setnumber)" sets the tab keys to use the specified tab set number. 1 is the default which is an automatic tab function. Tab set 2 has tabs at 1, 9, 17, ... Tab sets 3 through 10 are not defined. See the REPROF.DOC to set these up as desired. "T col1 col2 .." sets conventional tabs at col1, col2, etc. You must use at least two columns so that RE recognizes that you are not trying to set a tab set. "T A l c" sets the automatic tab looking at l lines (1..8) and maximum columns c (1..254). The default tab set 1 is A 4 8. In automatic tab mode, tab positions are determined by RE and are based on word starts on the current line and a number of lines above the current line. The tab positions are: columns 1 and 255 the start of every word on the current line the start of every word on the line above this if that position is not between one blank to the left of a word on the current line and one blank to the right of a word on the current line and so on for each examined line above this a set number of columns in both directions from the cursor p-26 Basic Flow Functions ------------------------------------------------- The flow and right justify functions flow (or reflow ) the words in a set of lines, so that they fill but do not exceed the space between two columns. Additionally, the first word may be positioned anywhere from column one to the right column. This allows for indentation of the first line of a paragraph, or outline numbers to the left of a flowed group. The flow into list function flows the words in a set of lines into a list so that each word is on a separate line. The alt-f key (or f6-flow_mark) is the flow function key. To flow a group of lines, set an area mark such that the lines to be flowed are contained between the upper and lower limits of area mark, and the left and right margins are set with the left and right sides of area mark. If you want a special position for the first word in the flow, move the cursor to this position (on the first line of the area mark). Then press alt-f. Alt-j and f6-rt_justify_mk work exactly like alt-f except that the text is right justified. Spaces are added evenly between words; then extra spaces are added at random after periods, exclamation points, and question marks; and then extra spaces are added randomly at other spaces. Spaces are never added to spaces that are to the left of the area mark. Alt-t (or f6-flow_mark_list) is the flow into list function. To flow the words in a group of lines into a list, set an area mark such that the left side of the mark is where you want the left margin of the list. Words that are wider than the mark will be split, so make the mark wide enough to handle all of the words (use alt-b alt-l to insure this). Then press alt-t. The flow functions will work only if the area mark is in the current window. If your area mark is only one column wide, then you will be prompted for confirmation. If you are flowing a number of paragraphs (with the same margins), use the alt-b alt-b key combination to set the first area mark and then the alt-l alt-b key combination to set successive area marks. The alt-l alt-b key combination preserves your margins, reducing the keystrokes needed to set up the required area mark. Or if you set the word wrap margins to other than 1 and 255, alt-l alt-b sets up the area mark to match those margins. Flow and right justify functions that add an extra space at the end of a sentence are available, but are not assigned in the default profile. See REPROF.DOC. p-27 Here are three examples of the flow functions. If you have a paragraph in broken format or with the wrong margins, such as: Ravitz Editor (RE) is a general purpose full screen ASCII text editor for the IBM Personal Computer family. It requires an 80 column (or greater), 256 Kbytes of memory, and DOS version 2.0 or higher. and you want it right justified between columns 7 and 70: move the cursor to the first line on column 7 and press alt-b; move the cursor to the last line on column 70 and press alt-b; press alt-j. The result is: Ravitz Editor (RE) is a general purpose full screen ASCII text editor for the IBM Personal Computer family. It requires an 80 column (or greater), 256 Kbytes of memory, and DOS version 2.0 or higher. If you prefer to indent the paragraph five spaces, follow the previous instructions, except before you press alt-j, move the cursor back to the first line on column 12. The result is: Ravitz Editor (RE) is a general purpose full screen ASCII text editor for the IBM Personal Computer family. It requires an 80 column (or greater), 256 Kbytes of memory, and DOS version 2.0 or higher. If you are doing a list, try the following. For this text: 2) Ravitz Editor (RE) is a general purpose full screen ASCII text editor for the IBM Personal Computer family. It requires an 80 column (or greater), 256 Kbytes of memory, and DOS version 2.0 or higher. Move the cursor to the first line on column 10 and press alt-b; move the cursor to the last line on column 70 and press alt-b; move the cursor to the first line on column 7; press alt-f. The result is: 2) Ravitz Editor (RE) is a general purpose full screen ASCII text editor for the IBM Personal Computer family. It requires an 80 column (or greater), 256 Kbytes of memory, and DOS version 2.0 or higher. p-28 Paragraph Reflow Functions ------------------------------------------- F6-Flow_para and f6-rt_Justify_para are macros that do everything necessary to flow a paragraph. They assume that paragraphs are delimited by blank lines, and mark the paragraph that the cursor is in or above based on either the word wrap margins or if the margins are 1 and 255 then based on the last area mark. The indentation of the first line is at the cursor position. After the paragraph is reflowed, the cursor is moved below it. The current area mark is removed by these functions. Drawing Modes -------------------------------------------------------- Alt-z rotates between the three drawing modes and normal mode. Starting from normal editing mode, one press of alt-z sets single line drawing mode. Another consecutive press sets double line drawing mode. Another consecutive press sets current character drawing mode. And one more consecutive press returns to normal editing. The drawing modes can only be set in the text area. In the line modes, the PC ASCII line character set is used. In current character mode, the character that the cursor is on when the mode is invoked is the drawing character. Drawing modes may also be set from the f3 menu. In the drawing modes, use the cursor keys to trace out lines. The drawing character is placed at the current cursor position and then the cursor is moved in the direction specified. In the line modes, joints with other line characters are done automatically (but only after the cursor is moved from a position, not when it is moved to a position). Any key other than the cursor keys and the set/reset position mark key returns you to normal editing mode. While there are only two line modes, boxes with mixed modes (for example double horizontal and single vertical, or double upper and left and single lower and right) may be created by switching line drawing modes at the corners. One note on using mixed line modes may be useful. If you have a double line and you want to T into it with a single line, bring the cursor up to the line and then move it back in the direction from which it came to complete the joint. ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ cursor line ║ cursor line ║ ─────── cursor line ─────── ───╨─── p-29 Find Command --------------------------------------------------------- With the find command you can have RE search for a word or other string. The form of the find function is "F string options". If your string contains blanks then enclose the string in apostrophes or quotes (' or "). When you press enter the search starts at the cursor position and continues to the last line (first line if you use options P or L). If the string is found then the cursor is placed at the start of the string. If the string is on an excluded line then that line is unexcluded. There are several options to let you modify the search. Each of these options is represented by one letter. Combinations of options may be entered after the find string or may be attached to the command letter. N lets you look for the next occurrence. This means that the search starts one space after the cursor position. P lets you look for the previous occurrence. This means that the search starts one space before the cursor position and the search is in the backward direction. F starts the search on the first line and column of the file. L starts the search on the last line and column of the file and causes a search in the backward direction. A finds (and unexcludes) all occurrences, and puts the cursor on the first occurrence. The number of finds is displayed on the "Found" message. If First, Last, Next, or Previous is specified, then that specifies the starting point of the search otherwise First is assumed. S (show all) excludes all lines of interest (the whole file or area mark, with or without excluded or unexcluded lines) that do not include the specified find string and unexcludes lines that include the string. The number of finds is displayed with the "Found" message and the cursor is put on the command line. If First, Last, Next, or Previous is specified, then that specifies the starting point of the search otherwise First is assumed. H (hide all) is like S (show all) except that it excludes all lines of interest that include the specified find string and unexcludes lines that do not include the string. C causes RE to check for a match of the capitalization of each letter in the find and file strings. Without this option, capitalization (of the find string and file strings) is ignored (by internally converting the strings to uppercase). For example, to find the string "RE" without finding the string "re", use the command "f RE c". p-30 M restricts the search to the current area mark. For example to find the string "the" only in the first 20 columns, use the command "m 1 20" to mark the columns, and then use the command "f the m" to do the search. Even with the M option, the search starts at the cursor and goes in the normal direction, so if the cursor is below an area mark and the search is in the forward direction, nothing will be found. W narrows the search by requiring that your string be surrounded by blanks or punctuation. This implies (loosely) that your string is a word. For example, if you use the command "f and w" then the next occurrence of the word "and" will be found while the "and" in "landing" will be ignored. Characters that do not delimit words are: #, $, %, 0..9, @, A..Z, a..z. All other characters are word delimiters. To change this choice see the @FINDWORD in REPROF.DOC. Any character may be contained within the word. B says to accept a string only if it is the beginning of a word. See the W option, above, for details on what is considered a word. E says to accept a string only if it is the end of a word. See the W option, above, for details on what is considered a word. U says to ignore unexcluded lines. X says to ignore excluded lines. The First, Last, Next, Previous options are mutually exclusive, and may not be combined in one find command. Show all, Hide all, and All are also mutually exclusive. The F7 menu gives a number of standard Find commands to choose from. After a Find command is executed, the find string and a set of options are displayed on the status line. These options are the ones that you entered in your find command, except that S, H, and A are not shown, F is changed to N, L is changed to P, and if you did not specify either N or P then N is added. The displayed string and options are used if you do a repeat find function. Press alt-1 (or F7-repeat_Find) to do the repeat find. The displayed string may also be referenced by using a * or blank for the string in an F command. The displayed options may be referenced by using *. The repeat find function is equivalent to the command "F * *" or "F*". Before alt-1 repeats the displayed find, it checks the command line for a Find or Change command. If it finds a Find command it executes that command instead of repeating the displayed find. If it finds a Change command then it executes the find associated with the change and updates the displayed change string (see the next section for more information on the Change command). The Hide all option unexcludes lines before excluding found lines. If you want to use it to successively exclude lines, use the X option also. Similarly, to use the S option to successively reshow lines, use the U option also. Break cancels a find command. p-31 Change Command ------------------------------------------------------- The Change command does the same search as the find function, and then replaces the string with another string. Its form is "C findstring changestring options". The change string is displayed beside the find string on the status line. The syntax and options of the Change command are the same as for the Find command, except that the Next and Previous options start the search at the current cursor position, not the next or previous space. The F7 menu gives a number of standard Change commands to choose from. The findstring of the Change command and the string of the Find command are the same quantity. So, for example, if you have found the string "hte" with the command "F hte", you may change it to "the" with the command "C * the". If you press alt-r (f1-Reshow) immediately after changing a string, the string will be un-changed. This will not work if you used the All, Show all, or Hide all option. If your change will not fit in 255 columns, you will get the "Line(s) too long" message and the change will not be done. Break cancels a change command. You may repeat a Change command with alt-2 or F7-repeat_Change. This is equivalent to the command "C * * *" or "C*". Before alt-2 repeats the displayed change, it checks the command line for a Find or Change command. If it finds a Find command it updates the current find string and options before doing the repeat change function. If it finds a Change command then that command is executed instead of repeating the displayed change. A special case of the Change command with the all options occurs when the find and change strings both have no nonblank characters, such as CA ' ' ''. In this case, nothing to the right of the last nonblank character on a line can change, so these changes are not reported in the change count. There is no "replace with query" command in RE. However, you can get the same effect by using the alt-1 (repeat find) and alt-2 (repeat change) functions. Use alt-1 to find each string and use alt-2 to change the ones that you want to change. p-32 Order Lines Command -------------------------------------------------- To reorder a group of lines, mark the lines with an area mark. Mark the columns on which to sort with the margins of the area mark. Then execute the O command. Two option selections are required. The first is one of the three options A (ascending), D (descending), and R (reverse). The second is one of the two options X (retain excluded lines with their parent line) and I (sort lines independently). Normally the sort is alphabetical, ignoring capitalization and punctuation on characters (for example "A" is the same as "a" and "á"). The C option causes the sort to be by ASCII code. RE's sorts are stable, that is, lines with equal sort value remain in the same order. This property lets you sort on multiple fields. To do this sort the least significant field first, then sort on the next least significant field, and so on to the most significant. With the A or D options, sorts may take a significant time, depending on the number of lines sorted, the number of columns in the mark, and the number of significant columns in the mark. Break cancels a sort at the next available break point. The f10 menu provides all Order possibilities. To sort sections of outlines, exclude the outline so that everything but the section titles are excluded. Then use the X option of the Order command. To modify the default collating sequence, see @SORTSEQ in REPROF.DOC. Line Number Command -------------------------------------------------- Any positive integer less than 60000 entered as a command will cause RE to move the cursor to that line number. "0" will scroll to the top of the file. p-33 Trash Buffer --------------------------------------------------------- When you modify a line in RE, the old line is kept, temporarily, in the trash buffer. To access the trash buffer, use f2-Trash_buffer. This will display the trash buffer as if it were a normal RE session. Text may be copied from the buffer by marking it and using any of the copy functions. To exit the trash buffer session, use alt-q, f2-Next_session, f2-Previous_session, or the Quit command. The trash buffer is a first in first out list with data added at the bottom and deleted at the top. In normal editing twenty lines are on the list. All area mark functions and Change All temporarily suspend the list size limit, so if you delete (for example) 100 lines with alt-d, then the list will have 120 entries at that point. If you need this data, get it back before any other editing because immediately prior to adding the next line to the list, it is reduced back to twenty lines. If RE runs short of memory in such a function, it will display the "Defragmenting memory" message and reinstate the twenty line limit. DOS shells and the f3-free_memory function also shrink the trash list to twenty lines. If you put the position mark or an area mark in the trash buffer, lines at or below the mark will not be deleted. You can quickly run out of space this way, because data is never deleted. While the trash buffer is the active session in RE, it does not accept or release trash. The trash buffer is never the only session in RE. If you have just one other session, and you quit out of that session, then RE returns you to DOS, even if the trash buffer is currently displayed in the inactive window. The trash buffer may be disabled - see @trashlines in REPROF.DOC. This will improve speed on large area mark functions. Dos Shell Command ---------------------------------------------------- "D (command)" invokes a DOS shell. If a command is specified then only that command is done and control is returned to RE. If the command leaves the cursor in the upper left corner of the screen then control is given to RE immediately. This can be accomplished from a BAT file by making the last command CLS followed by ASCII 26. Otherwise press enter to return to RE. If no command is specified then you must use the EXIT command from DOS to get back to RE. You must have at least 64K (4096 paragraphs) of free memory to use the D command. F2-dos and f2-dos_* set up DOS shell commands. The commands DI, DM, and DS invoke program interface DOS shells. These are currently used only by REPROF which can be called from the RE command line (DI REPROF) to assemble the current RE session into a new RE.EXE. See REPROF.DOC. Details of the interface will be made available later (if you have an immediate need, contact me). p-34 Windows and Split Screen --------------------------------------------- RE has two windows, A and B. When RE is started window A is active. Alt-w or f1-Window_a/b switches the active window. Window B behaves just like window A but A and B keep distinct positions for each file. The screen may show either window alone or both windows. F3-split_screen splits the screen at the cursor and leaves both windows visible. In this case, neither window can have less than three lines of text. When in split screen mode the inactive window reflects the current internal database - the current line is not updated until that line is saved to the internal database. F3-unsplit_screen makes the active window cover the entire screen. The keyboard cursor up and down keys automatically switch the active screen as they traverse the screen. The autoscroll cursor functions (used by the mouse and installable on the keyboard) scroll the window rather than switching windows. Status Line ---------------------------------------------------------- The second line on the RE screen is a status line. It is highlighted with a bright background. The cursor cannot be moved onto this line. If the screen is split then the status lines is above the active window and another status line with just a file name is above the inactive window. The status line includes: 25 columns for messages, file names, and the ruler If there is no other message then the active window letter (A or B) is displayed with either the file name or the ruler, depending on the cursor position and the position mark status. "c" if the keyboard is in caps lock mode or the current user defined shift state "i", "s", "w", "┼", "╬","*", or "x" if RE is in insert, autoscroll, word wrap, single line draw, double line draw, current character draw, or ignore excluded lines mode "u" if the session has not been changed The change state of a session is not updated until the cursor leaves a line, so typing in an unchanged session does not cause it to be changed immediately. "á" or "a" if there is an incomplete or complete area mark "p" if there is a position mark the cursor column the line number of the cursor if the cursor is on an editable or excluded line, or the line number of screen line 3 if the cursor is on the command line and line 3 is an editable or excluded line the ASCII code (decimal) of the character at the cursor position if the cursor is on an editable line or the command line the current find string the current change string the current find/change options If the file name, find string, or change string are too long for their status line fields, then the first and last parts of the strings are displayed, with a diamond in the middle. Only the display is changed. The full strings are kept within RE. p-35 File and Device Names ------------------------------------------------ RE enforces file and device name restrictions for the Edit, Save, Print, and Name commands. This insures that you do not create or input files named by DOS truncating an invalid file name. RE restricts all file and device names to DOS 2.0 file name standards. All such names are valid under subsequent versions of DOS. Later versions of DOS allow more flexibility in file names, but this can cause problems such as backward compatibility and uppercasing a file name producing an unexpected file. ".\" (current directory) and "..\" (parent directory) may be used at the start of a file name (..\re.doc) or immediately after a disk specifier (c:..\re.doc), but may not be used anywhere else. All paths are limited to 63 characters. If you have @exfilename set to ^yes then RE fully qualifies all file names that you input and all expanded paths are limited to 63 characters. The standard DOS devices (CON, NUL, AUX, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, PRN, LPT1, LPT2, and LPT3) are further restricted to have no disk, path, or extension. RE will not let you Edit, Save, or Name any of these devices. And you cannot Save with extensions RE!, BAK, COM, or EXE. Memory Management ---------------------------------------------------- Each line in the internal database requires (i+24) div 16 consecutive paragraphs (16 characters) where i is the number of characters included within the first and last nonblank characters. Lines that are seven or less characters take one paragraph. When RE finds that the available memory is less than about 2 Kbytes, it gives a free memory low warning. Various functions are disabled. When a new line cannot be stored in RE's internal data structure, a memory full error is displayed. Whenever RE is waiting for a keystroke it works at defragmenting the internal database. Occasionally you may have a free memory low warning that disappears spontaneously. You may force a complete defragmentation with f3-free_memory (but this is never necessary). When RE runs out of memory in the middle of an area function or while reading a file, it displays the message "Defragmenting memory" and completely defragments the internal database. It may do this up to four times in trying to complete a function. F3-free_memory defragments RE's internal database and displays the amount of free memory. Whenever RE does a complete memory defragmentation procedure, it also reduces the trash buffer to twenty lines. p-36 Housekeeping Details ------------------------------------------------- RE lets you edit any number of files at the same time (subject to memory limitations). To add a new file to those being edited, use the E command. To move between the different files use alt-q, f2-Next_session, or f2-Previous_session. To remove a file from the current files use the Q command (if desired, use the S command to save the file first). Whenever RE scrolls to a specific line that line is unexcluded. If the line is not on the screen then the line and cursor are put on the second line of the edit window. In order to prevent keyboard coasting, RE ignores certain repeated keystrokes when it cannot keep up with them. All keys that invoke functions (rather than text) except enter, are subject to suppression. Text is never suppressed. If you are using a keyboard macro program, put an unused function key (shift-f1 for example) before each repeated function key to prevent suppression. If you do not like the decoasting, see @DECOASTKB in REPROF.DOC. Some resident programs that take over the keyboard interrupt can disable RE's keyboard decoasting. RE displays the result of each keystroke, even if another keystroke is in the buffer waiting to be operated on. Together with the keyboard decoasting system, this lets you use the typematic function of the keyboard without worrying about getting ahead of the display. p-37 Mouse Handling ------------------------------------------------------- RE has native mouse handling via the Microsoft mouse interface (interrupt hex 33). You must install MOUSE.SYS or MOUSE.COM to get this handling. If you wish to use a mouse driver that feeds keystrokes to RE, you will probably need to disable RE's native mouse handling (see @MOUSE* in REPROF.DOC). The left mouse button is the same as the enter key except that if there is no pending command, the Basic menu is displayed. The right button is the same as the esc key. The middle button is unused but may be assigned. Mouse movement gives autoscroll cursor movement. If you get a two second delay on startup and after a DOS shell it is likely that your mouse hardware reset is causing this. This happens on some IBM PS/2s. On other systems there may be a shorter, but still annoying delay. See @MOUSE* in REPROF.DOC to change the reset to a software reset. Displays ------------------------------------------------------------- RE has four sets of display attributes. These are: monochrome for use on a digital monochrome display; color for use on a color display; black/white for use on an analog monochrome display; and lcd for use on laptop computers. RE cannot set the display mode, but it queries the current mode on startup or after a DOS shell and chooses its attribute set based on this. RE can operate under text modes with 80 to 255 columns and 6 to 80 lines. The standard modes that meet these requirements are CO80 (Color 80 column), BW80 (Black/White 80 column), and MONO (Monochrome 80 column). The mode may be set with the DOS MODE command, or other display control software, before running RE or from a DOS shell. If you use a PC Convertible with a liquid crystal display, set the display mode to MONO or BW80 before starting RE. RE will choose its lcd attributes instead of the normal mono or b/w attributes. If you attach a color display, set the mode to CO80 to get the normal color attributes. RE can detect the use of a PC Convertible but not other laptop computers. To use the LCD attributes in this case, add the ^setatlcd command to the startup macro in your profile and assemble it with REPROF (see REPROF.DOC). If you normally use a color monitor in black/white mode then the colors may not be very good. This is the default situation on a PCjr. To fix the problem add the line "MODE CO80" to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. This requires that the DOS file MODE.COM be on your boot disk. If you normally use an analog monochrome monitor in color mode, then the colors will be poor. This is the default situation with an IBM Portable PC and an IBM PS/2 or VGA with a monochrome monitor. To fix this problem add the line "MODE BW80" to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. This requires that the DOS file MODE.COM be on your boot disk. p-38 Tips ----------------------------------------------------------------- Here are a few tips that may help you with RE. If you use the DOS shell often and you have enough memory, put COMMAND.COM on a RAM disk, and "SET COMSPEC=D:\COMMAND.COM" in your AUTOEXEC.BAT. DOS shells will run faster this way. If you have a set of unequal length strings (one on each line) that need to be enclosed in quotes: put a one column block mark to the left of strings and fill it with quotes (use f9-fill_block_pat); overlay the column of quotes to the right of the strings (alt-o); extend the mark to the column to the left of the new quotes with f3-mark_column_resize and shift the strings to the right side of the mark with f8-Right_side (or alt-v alt-v alt-v); extend the mark to cover the right hand quotes with f3-mark_column_resize and shift the strings left with f8-Left_side. abcdef 'abcdef 'abcdef ' 'abcdef' 'abcdef' abc --> 'abc --> 'abc ' --> 'abc' --> 'abc' abcd 'abcd 'abcd ' 'abcd' 'abcd' To transfer text between files: edit both files at the same time; mark an area in one file; press alt-q to get to the second file; and then move, copy, overlay or insert (alt-m, alt-c, alt-o, alt-i) the area mark. If you have decided where to move a piece of text, but have not marked the text yet, press alt-p to mark your position, then mark the text, and press alt-g to return to that position. It is rarely necessary to unmark an area. When you get the "Area mark already exists" message, repeat the same function. The unmark will be done automatically and the new area mark will be started. For cursor movement, shifting text, inserting new lines, and the repeat find and change functions, the typematic function of the PC keyboard is very useful. RE prevents keyboard coasting on such functions (not on text), so generally you can hold a function key down until one more key press is needed. For a little practice, mark 100 lines of a file, and use the shift left (alt-9) or right (alt-0) function. If you want to type ahead on these keys, press shift-f1 (or any unused function key) between each key. If you accidentally overwrite a file with the Save command, do not forget that this file is still on your disk, with extension BAK. You can exit RE and fix your disk, or read in the BAK file and save it to the correct name. It is wise to save your files to disk often. There are many events that can cause RE to lose data such as power failure, memory errors, and problems caused by resident DOS extensions. RE does no automatic backups. p-39 Messages ------------------------------------------------------------- RE displays messages in the first 25 columns of the status line. In color mode, informational messages are in blue and error messages are in red. Critical error messages normally cause a beep, but are silent on an immediate repeat. A few of the messages may appear before the new DOS prompt when RE cannot be run or after RE is finished. The following is a list of messages. "Are you sure? (Y/N)" is a request for you to confirm your command. Type "y" or "Y" to confirm. Any other key cancels the command. You can cause this message several ways. Do a Quit command on a file that you have changed but have not saved. Enter an ASCII decimal 26 as a character. This character is the end of file mark, so be careful where you put it. This confirmation is disabled if you patch in new style ASCII files. Do an area mark function immediately after receiving an "Area mark already exists" or "Incorrect cursor position" message, or a line delete when the mark is completely off of the screen. It is then assumed that your area mark may not be as expected, and so you are asked for confirmation before the function is done. Do a flow or right justify function on a mark that is only one column wide. This is presumed to be a mistake but it will be done if you confirm it. Do an area insert, overlay, or shift that would cause nonblank characters to be lost. On destructive shifts, only the first of a series of identical shifts cause this prompt. "Area mark already exists" means that you are trying to create an area mark but one already exists. If you immediately retry your function then the area mark will be removed and the new one created. Or use alt-u to remove the current mark. "Cannot use display mode" is seen only on a DOS screen. It means that RE cannot work under the current display mode. The display must be in an alpha mode with between 80 and 255 columns. If you get this message after DOS shell, a new shell is started and you must change the mode before going back to RE. "Changed" tells you that your Change command or repeat change function is finished. If the All, Show all, or Hide all option was chosen and more than one string was changed, the number of changes, up to 10000, is displayed. "Default disk/dir changed" means that you have changed the default disk or directory from a DOS shell. This may cause problems if you have not fully qualified your file names. "Defragmenting memory" is a message that appears when a function is held up because RE is restructuring its internal database. p-40 "Disk/device error" means that RE has encountered a problem while reading from or writing to a disk or device. This can be a directory space problem, a non-existant drive or device (printer), a device error such as a printer that is not ready, or insufficient disk space on a Print command (Saves check for disk space before proceeding). "Disk write protected" means that your Save command has failed because the disk is write protected. You may remove the write protect tape on the disk or insert a new disk and execute the Save command again. "DOS error" usually means that on startup or after a DOS shell, DOS would not let RE get or recover its memory. This will generally happen only when you install a resident DOS extension from the shell. If you get this message, you will have little or no free memory to work with, and it is best to save your data and reboot your system. If a DOS shell command fails with message before the shell is invoked, it means that RE could not find the COMSPEC environment variable, which contains the location of the DOS command processor. "Drive not ready" means that there is not a disk in the requested drive or that the door is not closed. "Enter ASCII code" is the prompt from the alt-a function. "Found" tells you that your Find command or repeat find function is finished. If the All, Show all, or Hide all option was chosen and more than one string was found, the number of finds, up to 10000, is displayed. "Free memory (K)" tells you the amount of free memory, in kilobytes (1024 bytes). This number is truncated and so is usually a little less than the actual amount of available memory. "Free memory low" means that there is less than 2000 bytes of free memory. Certain functions will be disabled and give the insufficient free memory message. You can still do minimal editing, but beware of the memory full error message. "Incorrect Change string" means that the change string in a Change command or alt-2 (repeat change) function is not valid. "Incorrect command" means that the command that you are trying to run is not recognized. "Incorrect cursor position" means that the cursor is in an incorrect position for the function that you are trying. "Incorrect file name" means that the file name that you specified in an Edit, Name, Print, or Save command is not a valid file name or the file name in a Save command is not acceptable to RE (files with extensions BAK, COM, EXE, RE!). See FILE NAMES. p-41 "Incorrect Find string" means that the find string in a Find or Change command or alt-1 (repeat find) or alt-2 (repeat change) function is not valid. "Incorrect number" says that a number that you entered is not valid. For the alt-a function the number must be from 0 to 255 entered as a three digit number (with leading zeroes if needed). You can also get this message from a Tab, Wrap, or line number command. "Incorrect option" means that one of the options that you specified in a command is not valid or a pair of options conflict with each other (such as First and Last). This is often a side effect of a find or change string that includes a blank but is not delimited with quotes, or a missing blank after the command string. "Insert ?:, press enter" is a prompt that tells you to insert the diskette that you are using as the ? disk (where ? can be A, B, ...) and then press enter to tell RE to continue. "Insufficient disk space" means that there is not enough space on the disk to do the requested save. You may want to use the D option on the Save command which uses a minimum of space. "Insufficient free memory" means that the available memory is too low to do the requested function. The following functions require no memory: quit, save, blank area, and delete area. "Line(s) split" means that one or more lines were split at 255 columns during file input. "Line(s) too long" means that RE encountered a line that would exceed 255 columns if the requested operation was done. For this line, the operation was not done and the message is displayed. Some functions continue after encountering this problem (and may encounter another such line). "Mark is not in session" means that you are trying to do a Find, Change, or Print command with the M option (in area mark), but the area mark is in another file. "Mark is not in window" means that you are trying to change the contents of an area mark, but the area mark is not in the active window. This is not allowed in general, to help avoid accidental changes. For a line delete (alt-d on a line area mark) it is allowed, but you are prompted for confirmation. "Memory full - Data Lost" means that RE ran out of memory while executing a function. The function did not complete and the data needs to be fixed before saving the file. This message is displayed when RE cannot save the current line to the internal database. In this case changes to the line are removed. "No area mark" means that you are trying to do a function that requires an area mark, but none exists. "No files" means that your requested directory mask has no files. "No mark" is displayed when you press alt-g (go to mark) but there is no position mark or area mark. p-42 "Not found" means that your find string was not found. "Not in ring" says that the file that you are trying to go to is not in the current ring of files. "Numeric fill overflow" means that your numeric line fill function ran out of columns. The function was completed, but is missing digits to the left of the numbers. "Parameter too long" means that a command line parameter exceeds 80 characters, or 124 characters for a DOS command. "Press enter to continue" is given from a DOS shell when RE thinks that there is information on the screen that you may want to look at before you return to the RE screen. "Printed" means that RE has finished sending data to the printer. (The printer may still be working on the job.) "Replace file? (Y/N)" means that your Save or Print command (with a file explicitly specified) will overwrite a file and you must press "Y" to continue the operation. For Saves, this prompt will only be given for the D and I save types. With the B (default) save type, an overwritten file may be recovered from the .BAK file. "Saved" says that your data was successfully saved. "Saved - file replaced" says that your data was successfully saved to a non-default file name which was already on the disk. The old file was renamed with the .BAK extension. p-43 RBIN ----------------------------------------------------------------- RBIN is a utility that works only from within Ravitz Editor. It lets you edit binary files, such as .COM, .EXE, font, or printer control files, with RE. It is also useful to look at files as is, before tab, CR/LF, and EOF characters are processed. To do this, RBIN must do the file loading and saving. To load a file, use the command "DM RBIN filename". This loads the file with 64 bytes on a line followed by an ASCII 179 (vertical bar). The last line may have less than 64 bytes. "DM RBIN reclen filename" loads the file with reclen (1..254) bytes on a line. Once you have loaded a file, you have complete use of all RE functions. The Find command cannot find a string that is split across lines, so do not rely on finds. Before saving the file, each line must end with an ASCII 179, but there are no line length restrictions, so you may insert or delete characters in any line. To save the file, use the command "DM RBIN S (filename)". The file name is optional. To save and quit, use "DM RBIN SQ (filename)". All saves are done directly to the default or specified file, without checking for available disk space. The 64 byte default record length may be patched to any number under 255. To change the number to 16 bytes, run the command "dm rbin rbin.exe". Scroll to the bottom and look for the string "default record length byte:". Change the "@" to ASCII 016 (alt-a 0 1 6), and save the file with "dm rbin s". LIMITATIONS The RE find/change facility cannot find strings that cross the RBIN line breaks. File output does no disk space checking. p-44 Compatibility and Technical Information ------------------------------ RE will run on any IBM compatible MS-DOS computer, with an 80 column (or greater) monitor, in a memory space of 96K (or less for very small files). RE supports being windowed by DESQview but not by Windows. RE reads and writes standard ASCII text files. For a file to be properly read, it must have a CR/LF (hex 0D and 0A, in that order) at the end of each line except the last. EOF (hex 1A) is viewed as a file terminator but is not required. By default tab characters are expanded on input. The maximum line length is 255 characters. When a file is written, CR/LF is put at the end of each line including the last, and EOF is put at the end of the file. By default there is no tab compression on output. All trailing blanks on each line are removed when writing a file. If RE is modified to work with new style ASCII text files (see @FILETP in REPROF.DOC) then EOF is not viewed as a file terminator and when writing a file, the final CR/LF/EOF is left off. RE uses BIOS functions for the display interface except that screen updates are done by writing directly to the display buffer. If color screen update waits are in effect, port hex 3DA is polled. RE looks for DESQview and, if found, uses the DESQview selected screen buffer and forces immediate screen updates. RE finds the display mode and screen size by calling BIOS interrupt hex 10. The display mode must be a memory mapped text mode with active page 0. This is tested by writing to position 0,0 with BIOS and checking that memory location directly. The number of columns must be from 80 to 255. At least 10 lines are required but this is not checked. 25 lines are needed to fully display the default help text and no more than 80 lines are ever used. To run under Windows you must have Windows invoke a text mode. RE never changes the display mode, active page, or BIOS colors. BIOS functions are used for the keyboard interface. RE normally polls the keyboard (see the @POLLINPUT in REPROF.DOC). Unused time slices are returned to DESQview. By default the enhanced keyboard functions are not used, but they are available (see @ENHANCEDKB). The Microsoft mouse interface (interrupt hex 33) is used for mouse handling. Functions 0 or hex 21 for reset, 3 for button presses, and hex B for motion are the only functions used. All other input and output is done with DOS 2.0 extended file management functions, in binary mode if writing to a device. Interrupts hex 1B (BIOS break key handler), hex 23 (DOS break key handler), and hex 24 (DOS critical error handler) are taken over when RE is started from DOS or a DOS shell, and restored before returning to DOS or a DOS shell. This is done with DOS function calls. No other interrupts are taken. The system clock (address hex 0040:006C) is read directly. p-45 RE uses only memory below 1024K. Except as noted here, RE does not use extended or expanded memory or a spill file. All of DOS memory is used (up to 736K). Quarterdeck's VIDRAM, included with QEMM 386, converts EGA/VGA video memory to standard DOS memory, and RE can use this. If available, RE uses 4 pages (64K) of EMS memory, accessed through interrupt hex 67, functions hex 40, 41, 43, 44, 45. The memory is remapped after each DOS shell, so programs in the shell can use EMS. This can be disabled (see @nondosmem). RE looks for an XMS handler (HIMEM.SYS/EMM386.EXE, 386MAX.SYS, QEMM.SYS), with interrupt hex 2F functions hex 0 and 10. If found, RE takes up to four upper memory blocks, of at least 4K, using functions hex 10 and 11. This memory is not available to DOS shells. This can be disabled (see @nondosmem). If no XMS upper memory blocks are found and DOS is level 5.0 or greater, then RE will take up to to four DOS upper memory blocks instead, using functions hex 58 and 48. RE uses non-DOS memory (EMS, XMS UMB, DOS UMB) preferentially, so that DOS shells have maximum memory. With DOS 3.1 or lower, when you use one diskette drive as A: and B:, RE reads and writes to the DOS Communication Area single drive mode status byte (address hex 0050:0004). RE does a number things to help it work better when running under DESQview. Although RE polls the keyboard, unused time slices are returned to DV, so background tasks work well. RE writes to the DV selected screen buffer and forces screen updates with interrupt hex 10 function hex FF. This gives good windowing and clean screen updates. When under DV, the BIOS cursor tracks the nonblinking cursor or the menu bar cursor. This lets DV keep the right part of the screen displayed. If you keep at least forty columns in the window, the current menu choice will always be completely visible. Some old versions of DESQview, when invoked with XDV, use upper memory blocks without allocating them through XMS. This will clash with RE, unless you disable RE's XMS memory handling (see @nondosmem). DV 2.25 handles this correctly. RE.EXE and REPROF.EXE may be compressed with EXE file compressors such as PKLITE and LZEXE, but be aware that when installing a profile, REPROF generates a completely new and uncompressed RE.EXE. RE was written by Cary Ravitz and compiled with Borland's Turbo Pascal 6.0 and Turbo Assembler 2.0, but does not use the Turbo Pascal library or startup code. p-46 What RE Cannot Do ---------------------------------------------------- RE cannot do certain things that you might want it to. Here is a list of some of these: use virtual memory management (spill file, expanded memory) handle lines greater than 255 characters string marks - all area marks are rectangular (Use split/join to help with string moves.) have more than two windows screen split other than one horizontal split different lines excluded in the same file in different windows (But check out the save and restore excluded lines functions.) preserve trailing blanks when saving run in graphics screen modes p-47 User Support --------------------------------------------------------- Correspondence about this program may be sent via the support bulletin board, fax, Compuserve, or mail. BBS: 606-268-0577 1200..14400,N,8,1 24 hours/day To ask a question, prepare an ASCII text file with the details of your question. Then call the bulletin board and choose the upload question option. XMODEM file transfer protocol is required for this. Your question will be assigned a number (such as 1015) - remember this number. An answer file (with the assigned number) will be posted, usually within 24 hours on weekdays. To get an answer, call the bulletin board, choose the download option, then the answer option, and then enter the answer number. Compuserve: Cary Ravitz [70431,32] Fax: 606-268-0577 If your fax machine does not send the fax calling signal, the BBS will answer and hang up (about 30 seconds), then the call is routed to the fax. Faxes from outside the USA may be answered via letter. The fax may be unavailable sometimes. Mail: Ravitz Software Inc. P.O. Box 25068 Lexington, KY 40524-5068 USA