OS/2 Professional/OS2PRO194.ISO/os2/editor/elvis/question.doc

Text File | 1994-01-30 | 11KB | 265 lines

_1_3.  _Q_U_E_S_T_I_O_N_S & _A_N_S_W_E_R_S


1111)))) HHHHoooowwww ccccaaaannnn IIII mmmmaaaakkkkeeee eeeellllvvvviiiissss rrrruuuunnnn ffffaaaasssstttteeeerrrr uuuunnnnddddeeeerrrr DDDDOOOOSSSS????

       There are several things you can do.  The first thing
       to  do is get a good screen driver such as NANSI.SYS.
       This can speed up screen redrawing by as  much  as  a
       factor of eight!  The DOS-specific part of section 12
       tells you how to do this.

       You might also consider  reducing  the  size  of  the
       blocks  that  elvis  uses.   You'll need to recompile
       Elvis to do this.  The default BLKSIZE is  1024  byte
       for  the  DOS  version of Elvis, which means that for
       each keystroke that you insert, elvis must  shift  an
       average of about 500 bytes.  That's a lot to ask from
       a little old 5MHz 8088.  A BLKSIZE of 512 bytes might
       be more appropriate.

       If you're _r_e_a_l_l_y desperate for more speed, you  might
       want to make Elvis store its temporary files on a RAM
       disk.  However, this limits the size of the file  you
       can  edit,  and it eliminates any chance you may have
       had to recover your work after  a  power  failure  or
       system  crash,  but it might be worth it; you decide.
       To do this, add ":set dir=R:\" (or whatever your  RAM
       disk's name is) to the _e_l_v_i_s._r_c file.

       Next, consider turning off the "sync"  option.   When
       the  sync  option  is turned on, Elvis will close the
       temporary file and reopen it after every  change,  in
       order  to  force  DOS  to update the file's directory
       entry.  If you put ":set nosync"  into  the  _e_l_v_i_s._r_c
       file,  then  elvis  will only close the file when you
       start editing a different text file, or  when  you're
       exiting Elvis.  Consequently, there is no chance that
       you'll be able to recover your changes after a  power
       failure... so if you're going to this, then you might
       as well store the temp files on the RAM disk, too.


2222)))) WWWWhhhheeeerrrreeee''''ssss tttthhhheeee <<<<EEEEsssscccc>>>> kkkkeeeeyyyy oooonnnn aaaa DDDDEEEECCCC kkkkeeeeyyyybbbbooooaaaarrrrdddd????

       I don't know.  Maybe the <F11> key?  You could always
       use ":map!" to make some other key act like the <Esc>
       key.  If all else fails, use <Control><[>.


3333)))) IIIIssss tttthhhheeeerrrreeee aaaa wwwwaaaayyyy ttttoooo sssshhhhoooowwww wwwwhhhhiiiicccchhhh kkkkeeeeyyyyssss ddddoooo wwwwhhhhaaaatttt????

       Yes.  The command ":map" will show what each key does
       in  command  mode,  and  ":map!" (with an exclamation
       mark) shows what each key does in input mode.



                       June 13, 1992





13-2                QUESTIONS & ANSWERS                 13-2


       The table is divided into three  columns:  the  key's
       label,  the characters that it sends, and the charac-
       ters that Elvis pretends you typed.


4444)))) HHHHoooowwww ccccaaaannnn IIII mmmmaaaakkkkeeee EEEEllllvvvviiiissss ddddiiiissssppppllllaaaayyyy lllloooonnnngggg lllliiiinnnneeeessss lllliiiikkkkeeee tttthhhheeee rrrreeeeaaaallll vvvviiii????

       You can't yet.  The next version of Elvis  shouldsup-
       port this, though.


5555)))) IIII ccccaaaannnn''''tttt rrrreeeeccccoooovvvveeeerrrr mmmmyyyy tttteeeexxxxtttt  [[[[uuuunnnnddddeeeerrrr  MMMMSSSS----DDDDOOOOSSSS  oooorrrr  AAAAttttaaaarrrriiii  TTTTOOOOSSSS]]]]....
   AAAAccccccccoooorrrrddddiiiinnnngggg ttttoooo tttthhhheeee ddddiiiirrrreeeeccccttttoooorrrryyyy lllliiiissssttttiiiinnnngggg,,,, tttthhhheeee tttteeeemmmmppppoooorrrraaaarrrryyyy ffffiiiilllleeee iiiissss
   0000 bbbbyyyytttteeeessss lllloooonnnngggg....  WWWWhhhhaaaatttt wwwweeeennnntttt wwwwrrrroooonnnngggg????

       MS-DOS and TOS only update a file's  directory  entry
       when the file is closed.  If the system crashes while
       the file is still open, then  the  file's  length  is
       stored  as  0  bytes.  The ":set sync" option is sup-
       posed to prevent this; you probably turned it off  in
       the interest of speed, right?

       Under MS-DOS [I don't know  about  TOS],  you  should
       delete   the  empty  temporary  file,  and  then  run
       CHKDSK/F.  This _m_i_g_h_t find the data that belonged  in
       the  empty  file,  and  place it in a new file with a
       name like "000001.CHK" -- something like  that.   You
       can  then try to extract the text from that temporary
       file by giving the  command  "elvprsv  -R  000001.chk
       >goodnews.txt".   If  you're  lucky,  then  your text
       might be in GOODNEWS.TXT.


6666)))) WWWWhhhhaaaatttt iiiissss tttthhhheeee mmmmoooosssstttt ccccuuuurrrrrrrreeeennnntttt vvvveeeerrrrssssiiiioooonnnn ooooffff EEEEllllvvvviiiissss????

       Each version of Elvis that is released to the  public
       has  a  version  number  of  the  form  "number point
       number".  As I write this, the most  current  version
       of elvis is 1.6.

       The intermediate steps between one  release  and  the
       next are labeled with the _n_e_x_t version number, with a
       letter  appended.   For  example,   after   1.4   was
       released,  I started working on 1.5a.  I am currently
       working on 2.0a.  When Elvis reaches a stable  state,
       I'll call it 2.0 and release it.

       Sometimes a beta-test version of elvis will be avail-
       able  via  anonymous FTP from m2xenix.psg.com, in the
       directory "pub/elvis/beta".


7777)))) IIII oooonnnnllllyyyy ggggooootttt eeeexxxxeeeeccccuuuuttttaaaabbbblllleeeessss,,,, bbbbuuuutttt nnnnoooowwww IIII wwwwaaaannnntttt tttthhhheeee  ssssoooouuuurrrrcccceeee  ccccooooddddeeee....
   WWWWhhhheeeerrrreeee ccccaaaannnn IIII ggggeeeetttt iiiitttt????



                       June 13, 1992





13-3                QUESTIONS & ANSWERS                 13-3


       If you have access to the Internet, then  you  should
       be  able  to fetch it from one of the public archives
       such  as  ppppllllaaaaiiiinnnnssss....nnnnooooddddaaaakkkk....eeeedddduuuu.   It  is  accessible  via
       anonymous   FTP,   or   via  an  email  server  named
       "[e-mail]".  Elvis is  located
       in the directory "/pub/Minix/all.contrib".

       I will also offer it to the  C  Users'  Group.   They
       sell C source code for us$8 per diskette (or slightly
       more outside  North  America).  Their phone number is
       [phone], and their address is:

               The C Users' Group
               PO Box 3127
               Lawrence KS 66046-0127



8888)))) IIIIssss tttthhhhiiiissss sssshhhhaaaarrrreeeewwwwaaaarrrreeee,,,, oooorrrr ppppuuuubbbblllliiiicccc ddddoooommmmaaaaiiiinnnn,,,, oooorrrr wwwwhhhhaaaatttt????

       It is not public domain; it  is  copyrighted  by  me,
       Steve  Kirkendall.   However, this particular version
       is freely redistributable, in either source  form  or
       executable  form.   (I  would  prefer  that  you give
       copies away for free, complete with the  full  source
       code... but I'm not going to force you.)

       It is not shareware; you aren't expected to  send  me
       anything.  You can use it without guilt.

       It is not "copylefted."   I  hold  a  copyright,  but
       currently  I have not added any of the usual restric-
       tions that you would find on copylefted software.  If
       people  start doing really obnoxious things to Elvis,
       then I will start adding restrictions  to  subsequent
       versions,  but  earlier  versions  won't be affected.
       (So far, everybody has been pretty good about this so
       no restrictions have been necessary.)


9999)))) CCCCaaaannnn IIII rrrreeeeuuuusssseeee ppppaaaarrrrttttssss ooooffff yyyyoooouuuurrrr ssssoooouuuurrrrcccceeee ccccooooddddeeee????

       Yes.  Please be careful, though, to  make  sure  that
       the  code  really is mine.  Some of the code was con-
       tributed by  other  people,  and  I  don't  have  the
       authority  to  give  you  permission  to use it.  The
       author's name can be  found  near  the  top  of  each
       source  file.  If it says "Steve Kirkendall" then you
       may use  it;  otherwise,  you'd  better  contact  the
       author first.

       Please don't remove my name from the source code.  If
       you  modify  the  source,  please make a note of that
       fact in a comment near the top of  the  source  code.



                       June 13, 1992





13-4                QUESTIONS & ANSWERS                 13-4


       And, finally, please mention my name in your documen-
       tation.


11110000))))CCCCaaaannnn EEEEllllvvvviiiissss wwwwoooorrrrkkkk wwwwiiiitttthhhh nnnnoooonnnn----AAAASSSSCCCCIIIIIIII ffffiiiilllleeeessss????

       Elvis can't edit binary files because it can't handle
       the NUL character, and because of line-length limita-
       tions.  However, it is 8-bit clean so you  should  be
       able to edit any European extended ASCII file without
       any surprises.

       Elvis has also been  modified  to  work  with  16-bit
       character  sets.  Yongguang Zhang ([e-mail])
       has created a Chinese version of Elvis that uses  16-
       bit characters and runs under cxterm (Chinese X-term)
       on     X-windows     systems.      Junichiro     Itoh
       ([e-mail])  has  modified  Elvis to edit
       Japanese text under MS-DOS.






































                       June 13, 1992