Shareware Grab Bag/Shareware Grab Bag.iso/002/maxref.arc/TUTORIAL.TXT

Text File | 1986-04-05 | 14KB | 304 lines

                               -PAGE 1-                       TUTORIAL-I V0.2
Topics:   Notation | CTL-V

This is an interactive tutorial which will teach you how to use this editor.
Please read carefully through each page, and then follow the instructions.

There are two different kind of commands which you can give to the editor,
namely "control-commands" and "escape sequences." You can perform the first
by holding down the CONTROL ( ALT ) key and pressing another key simulta-
neously. You can specify the second by pressing the ESCAPE key once, and
then, afterwards,  another key.   We will use the following abbreviation
convention. CTL-x means holding down CONTROL and pressing key x, ESC-x
means pressing ESCAPE and then key x.

The purpose of an editor is to edit a document ( file ). You will always see
a screenful of information. Now you are looking at page ( screen ) 1 of this
tutorial. For your convenience, the header above specifies the page you are
on.    The command to advance to the next screen is CTL-V ( for vertical ).
Hold down the CONTROL key and press v or V, and page 2 will appear.

*End of Page 1*
                               -PAGE 2-                       TUTORIAL-I V0.2
Topics:   Paging | ESC-V


Now you have learned how to go to following pages. But note that one line
of the last page is still on top of the screen. This is to allow for your
easier recognition and more continuity between consecutive pages.


The next command to remember is the command to go back one page ( screen-
ful ) in your document. This will enable you to view a file page by page,
just like you can go through a real document, and page back. The command
is ESC-V. To go back to the previous screen ( the one you saw the when
you started this tutorial, and whose last line is the line you see on top
of this page ) press ESCAPE once.  Now you should see below the modeline an
inverse "ESC-" message. This means the editor has recognized that you wish
to input an escape sequence, and is waiting for its completion. When you
press  V , you will see the last page. After you have done this do a CTL-V
to come back here, and another one to go to page 3.

                               -PAGE 3-                       TUTORIAL-I V0.2
Topics:  Cursor | Modeline

The most important idea about the use of the editor which you will have to
understand is the cursor. The cursor is just like a pen which you use for
editing a document by hand. Most things you do ( like crossing out charac-
ters, writing etc. ) takes place on the character below the pen.

The cursor is like an electronic pen which you can move through your file.
Most things you do, like writing, takes place where your cursor is. The
cursor is always located at the character which is displayed in inverse
color, in this case it is in line 1, column 1 of this page. Look at it.

The modeline is the top line. It informs you about the name of the file that
you are editing ( in this case TUTORIAL.TXT ), its size, date, time and some
more things. Important now is that the number after COL tells you which column
the cursor is in on its line, and the number after it ( e.g. -- 10%-- ) tells
you at which percentage in tems of the size of the file the cursor is on.
0 % is the beginning, 100% the end of the file.
. , . , . , . , . , . , . , . , . , . , . , . , . , . , . , . , . , . , . ,
                               -PAGE 4-                       TUTORIAL-I V0.2
Topics:  Character Insertion | Wraparound

To insert text, simply type characters. These characters are inserted at the
cursor position. The cursor moves one right and all characters right of it
are shifted right, so as to make space for your new character. This is called
"insert" mode. Although it may require some adaptation, you will find "insert"
mode more economical and more error-proof than the typewriter-like overstrike
mode.

What happens if I want more than 80 characters on a line ? Well, in this case
the editor will change the < at the end of the line to !, open a new line
below, and continue the line on the newly opened line. It will treat the two
physical lines as one logical lines. For instance when you insert characters
on the start of a line, characters on such an extension-line are shifted right
just like the characters on the first line, and the character on the end of
the first line becomes the first character on the continuation line. This is
called wraparound. Now just type your name, and watch the described action.

                               -PAGE 5-                       TUTORIAL-I V0.2
Topics:  Cursor Movement | CTL-B | CTL-F | CTL-A | CTL-E

Your name has disappeared - of course, we are on another page. Please type it
again.

Of course you will also wish to insert text anywhere on this line, not only on
the cursor position ( the start of the line ). For this you will want to move
your cursor freely on this line.

CTL-B moves the cursor B-ackwards, CTL-F F-orwards. Make sure not to move out
of this line. You do not know other commands yet to get back to this paging.
This is not tragic, but will distort the nice "screen-ful" organization of
this tutorial.

CTL-A moves the cursor directly to the start of the line, CTL-E to the E-nd of
the line. Now move the cursor a little around, and insert some text at various
points ( e.g. insert your middle name ).


                               -PAGE 6-                       TUTORIAL-I V0.2
Topics:  Cursor Movement | CTL-N | CTL-P


The command to move down one line, to the N-ext line is CTL-N, the command to
move up one line, to the P-revious line is CTL-P.


Again, try to stay on this screen, because otherwise VIDEO-84 would try to
center the screen for you. The cursor would be in the middle of the screen,
but you would loose the nice tutorial paging,


Below is an incomplete sentence. Move down to the correct line, then to the
place where you wish to insert text, and insert it.

        It is a lot easier to fight mythan to fight computers,
        but it is a lot hrdr to ignore my thn my.


                               -PAGE 7-                       TUTORIAL-I V0.2
Topics:   Cursor Movement : Summary

You should remember the following commands by now:


CTL-V   go to the next page
ESC-V   go to the last page


CTL-A   go to the start of the line
CTL-E   go to the   end of the line


CTL-F   advance one character              |             CTL-P
CTL-B   retreat one character              |     CTL-B           CTL-F
CTL-P   go to the previous line ( up )     |             CTL-N
CTL-N   go to the     next line ( down )   |


                               -PAGE 8-                       TUTORIAL-I V0.2
Topics:  Character Deletion

There are two commands to delete one character: CTL-D and the DEL key.
CTL-D deletes the character at the cursor position, and DEL deletes the
character one before the cursor position. The first is more often used.
The second is handy when you insert a lot of text and want to correct the
typo(s) you just made, and are to lazy to move back and then delete.

These commands also work with the end of lines. They delete the lineend, and
thereby attach the second logical line to the first logical line.

Below is a line with some obvious errors. Use the cursor commands that you
already know to move the cursor there, delete the mistakes, and insert the
correct words.

        In the bginnning, God createdfsh



                               -PAGE 9-                       TUTORIAL-I V0.2
Topics:  Centering | CTL-L

Do you remember the warnings not to leave the page with other commands
than CTL-V and ESC-V ? This is because as soon as you move your cursor
to a character not on the screen, VIDEO-84 will update the screen such
that the cursor is in the center of the screen. This allows you to easily
work through a document while seeing the cursor without page commands.
Only in the case of the tutorial, this feature would throw you out of my
special page by page organization. Pages do not really exist - I had to
count lines to see how many lines I wished on a page.

CTL-L will center your cursor whereever you are in the file and rebuild the
screen. Try it when you have read through this page ( also try CTL-P and other
commands at the start of a page ). Then go down line by line, and try CTL-L
each line. You will see that the entire page shifts up one line ( since
you center now in another place. Do this until you see in the last line
the same thing you see now, and then go to the next page.

*Last Line of Page 9*
                              -PAGE 10-                       TUTORIAL-I V0.2
Topics:  Editing a File | CTL-X CTL-V

Now you know all the necessary action to manipulate a file. But where do you
get the file from ? There are two ways:

Firstly, you can specify when you start VIDEO-84 that you want to edit a
specific file. For example, if you type to the DOS prompt:
    A>VIDEO-84 TUTORIAL.TXT    (the general Format is: >VIDEO-84 filename.ext)
VIDEO-84 will read the command line, discover that you wish to edit a file
named TUTORIAL.TXT, and this is exactly what you are doing right now.
Secondly, when you are already inside VIDEO-84, you can wish to edit another
file. The command is   CTL-X  CTL-V, which stands for "extended command -
Visit a file." VIDEO-84 will ask you for its name ( use CTL-G if you changed
your mind and don't want to visit another file ) and confirmation to throw
away what you are editing at the moment (for your protection against mistakes)

If you want to create a new file instead of editing an existing file, just
specify a filename of a nonexisting file, and VIDEO-84 will create it for you.

                              -PAGE 11-                       TUTORIAL-I V0.2
Topics:  Saving and Writing | CTL-X CTL-S | CTL-X CTL-W | CTL-X CTL-Z

Now you can edit a file of your choice and manipulate it in any way you like.
But you still don't know how to save your work to the disk, so as to use
it for other things like printing, processing etc.

CTL-X CTL-S  will save your work as the filename which you see specified in
the first line ( presently it is A:TUTORIAL.TXT ). However, if you wish to
write your work to a file with a different name ( and thereby keeping the
original version of this file under the old name on disk ), you will have to
use the command CTL-X CTL-W. Just like when you visit a file, VIDEO-84 will
ask you for the new name under which to save your work.

! ATTENTION: DO NOT SAVE YOUR FILE NOW - YOU WOULD SAVE ALSO ALL
!            THE CHANGES YOU MADE DURING YOUR LEARNING SESSION !




                              -PAGE 12-                       TUTORIAL-I V0.2
Topics:  Documentation

Now you know enough to create and manipulate files in any way you like to.
Of course, there are more powerful commands, too, but the commands which this
file tought you, allow you to start using and familiarizing yourself with the
VIDEO-84. There are more powerful commands, but they are extras, nice ones
but only extras.
What other documentation can you get ? As you may remember, VIDEO-84 is an
EMACS-lookalike editor. Worst case EMACS information or any other EMACS-look-
alike editors ( like Perfect-Writer or MINCE ) have more information.
CTL-H ( or the help key on your keyboard ) will put you into a help mode,
which will remind you of all the available commands. Try it, then come back
with ESC. Of course, there is always the written documentation: the handbook,
the reference guide and the keyboard layout description which you can consult.
New information may be available from newsletters and magazines, or private
individuals distributing information. [If you decide to create new documenta-
tion, please contact the author who will make it available to all users,
which in the end will benefit all buyers.]

                              -PAGE 13-                       TUTORIAL-I V0.2
Topics:  More Advanced Commands

If you are familiar with all these commands, and you have exercised enough
with them, you can start using the more powerful commands. There is a second
tutorial available for these commands.

To give you an idea what you can do, here are some points:
        - move by word, or globally
        - search for text
        - search and replace text by other text (*)
        - switch buffers
        - use windows (*)
        - give arguments to functions
        - insert Control-Characters
        - kill and yank back lines, words or regions
        - format paragraphs (*)
        - define and invoke macro commands (*)
        - and many more things...

                              -PAGE 14-                       TUTORIAL-I V0.2
Topics:  Exiting from VIDEO-84 | CTL-X CTL-Z

I guess the best thing I can do for you now is to ask you to practice all the
commands which you have learned in this tutorial. Create some nonsense files
and play with the commands you know. It should take you no more than two
days of intensive practicing to know VIDEO-84 command sequences by heart.
Don't worry if it takes you longer, though. Es ist noch kein Meister vom
Himmel gefallen.

Probably you are tempted now to use all the arrow and function keys that your
keyboard offers : They are defined, and do the same things for you without
you having to remember the long sequences. But it will be to your advantage
to know exactly what you are doing. So don't use the fancy keys right from
the beginning.

Now I can finally tell you how to exit VIDEO-84. The command is CTL-X CTL-Z.
It will zap you right out of the editor, back to the DOS, after you confirm
as VIDEO asks you with CTL-Y.

                                GOOD LUCK
...and thank you for your choice,

Ivo Welch
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VIDEO-84
Version 0.7, (C) Ivo Welch, 1984

VIDEO-84 Tutorial
Version 0.2, (C) Ivo Welch, 1984

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Other companies mentioned in this document:

EMACS           is a trademark of MIT ??

Perfect Writer  is a trademark of Perfect Software

MINCE           is a trademark of Mark of the Unicorn