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ReadMe
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1992-09-06
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------------------------------ ReadMe for DBEdit --------------------------
As DBEdit has been constantly evolving since inception, it has been hard
to get everything into the manual. Every time I thought the editor was
finished, someone would say "How about doing..." (often enough, that
someone was me).
This document describes features of the editor that have not been covered
within the manual. Some knowledge of DBEdit is assumed and this text is
best read after, or in conjunction with, the manual.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
One Key
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
One Key is a method by which you can follow the logic of a program through
calls and returns via single keystrokes.
The keystrokes Ctrl 1 through Ctrl 4 may be used to initiate a Find Next
from the start of a program using a search string optionally based on the
word in the editor that currently contains the caret.
Obvious uses of this facility are procedure and function calls in BASIC and
the use of labels in Assembly. With this in mind, the first two search
strings in the "One Key" dialog box off the "Search" submenu are initially
defined as:
Ctrl 1: "<DEF$&" Find the definition of a Procedure or Function.
Ctrl 2: "<.&" Find the label referenced within Assembly code.
Wildcards for One Key
---------------------
In the search strings, the standard wildcards may be used (the examples use
"<" for start of line, and "$" for 0..many spaces). See the manual or
online help for more details on these. The case sensitivity flag is obeyed.
The extra wildcard "Current Word" (default value [&] ) may also be used.
DBEdit assumes the start/end of the line, or any of the following
characters indicate the bounds of the "current word":
( ) [ ] < > . , ; : ' " + - * / = and the space character.
One Key Examples
----------------
If the caret is within the word "PROCcancel" of the line:
IF Quit% THEN PROCcancel:PROCexit:END
and you press Ctrl 1, DBEdit will search for "<DEF$PROCcancel".
If the caret is anywhere along the word "SetSrchFlags" in the line:
BL SetSrchFlags ; Initialise search flags for find next
and you press Ctrl 2, DBEdit will search for "<.SetSrchFlags"
Returning from Searches
-----------------------
Once you have inspected the target of the find, the obvious requirement
is a single keystroke to return. Ctrl B accesses an eight level stack of
return points allowing you to freely look at procedures/functions/labels/
etc., and return to the previous position within the code instantly.
In the first example above, you might well want to inspect PROCexit after
you have seen the definition of PROCcancel. Press Ctrl B, move the
caret over to the P of PROCexit, and press Ctrl 1 again, and there it is.
The current position of the caret / work area is stored whenever a search
is initiated by whatever means, so you can also use Ctrl B to return from
incremental searches and "Find box" finds.
Personalisation of One Key searches
-----------------------------------
You may modify the search strings and "current word" wildcard character at
any time. The new values may be saved with the profile in the normal
fashion.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three D Icons
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
**** Make a backup of DBEdit before you try the following suggestions ****
DBEdit supports some of the 3D effects offered by RiscOS 3 and if you feel
competent, you can enhance these further by editing the template file
DBEdit also caters for the use of 3D selection buttons even under RiscOS 2.
Edit the !Sprites file using !Paint and change the sprite named "3d_no" to
"no" and "3d_yes" to "yes". Save the new !Sprites file then double click on
DBEdit's !Boot file to activate the new sprites.
Note: ALL tick and cross icons in RiscOS (not just within DBEdit) will now
use the new sprites.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copy Sequence Mode
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
To make the Copy mode (where the caret is split into two) more useful,
two new keystrokes have been added.
Once the mode has been entered in the normal fashion, as well as the Copy
key copying a single character, multiple characters may be copied via:
Shift Copy - All characters up to the end of the "current word" (as
described earlier in this document).
- If the first character to copy is a double quote, then DBEdit
will copy to the next double quote or end of the line.
Ctrl Copy - All characters to end of the line.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Colour Controls
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment text
------------
One of the guys at work wrote a program for listing source on the mainframe
at work, that incorporated what I thought was a neat idea. To make the
comments stand out from the other text, display them in a different colour.
The Profile box now contains an extra colour control titled "Comment text".
This works in the same way as the other colour controls in this dialog box,
and the REM line in the example window shows the chosen colour.
Once set, all lines beginning in column one with:
REM : - / ; \ ( or {
will be displayed in the different colour. To disable this feature, simply
set the "Comment text" the be the same as "Work Foreground".
Highlighted text
----------------
Originally, DBEdit chose the colour for the highlighted text based on a
built in table and according to the colours chosen for the foreground and
background of the work area. While I was adding the ability to select the
comment text colour, I decided to give user control over the highlight
colour as well.
As with the "Comment text" control in the Profile dialog box, there is also
a control "Highlighted text" so the highlight colour can be set.
Other combinations
------------------
I hope you will like the default colours I have set. Another possible
combination is "Comment text" in dark blue, and "Highlighted text" in red.
----------------------------- End of ReadMe -------------------------------