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NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 1
NED(tm) v1.5x User's Guide
,
_ /_ __. __ _ , , , __. __ _
_/_)_/ /_(_/|_/ (_</_(_(_/_(_/|_/ (_</_
DEFINITION OF SHAREWARE
Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try
software before buying it. If you try a Shareware program
and continue using it, you are expected to register.
Individual programs differ on details -- some request
registration while others require it, some specify a
maximum trial period. With registration, you get anything
from the simple right to continue using the software to
an updated program with printed manual.
Copyright laws apply to both Shareware and commercial
software, and the copyright holder retains all rights,
with a few specific exceptions as stated below. Shareware
authors are accomplished programmers, just like
commercial authors, and the programs are of comparable
quality. (In both cases, there are good programs and bad
ones!) The main difference is in the method of
distribution. The author specifically grants the right to
copy and distribute the software, either to all and
sundry or to a specific group. For example, some authors
require written permission before a commercial disk
vendor may copy their Shareware.
Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of
software. You should find software that suits your needs
and pocketbook, whether it's commercial or Shareware. The
Shareware system makes fitting your needs easier, because
you can try before you buy. And because the overhead is
low, prices are low also. Shareware has the ultimate
money-back guarantee -- if you don't use the product, you
don't pay for it.
DISCLAIMER - AGREEMENT
Users of NED(tm) v1.5x must accept this disclaimer of
warranty:
"NED v1.5x IS SUPPLIED AS IS. THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL
WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT
LIMITATION, THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND OF
FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. THE AUTHOR ASSUMES NO LIABILITY
FOR DAMAGES, DIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL, WHICH MAY RESULT
FROM THE USE OF NED v1.5x.
GOOD DATA PROCESSING PROCEDURE DICTATES THAT ANY PROGRAM
BE THOROUGHLY TESTED WITH NON-CRITICAL DATA BEFORE
RELYING ON IT. THE USER MUST ASSUME THE ENTIRE RISK OF
USING THE PROGRAM. ANY LIABILITY OF THE AUTHOR WILL BE
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 2
LIMITED EXCLUSIVELY TO PRODUCT REPLACEMENT OR REFUND OF
THE REGISTRATION FEE TO REGISTERED USERS."
NED v1.5x is a "shareware program" and is provided at no
charge to the user for evaluation. Feel free to share it
with your friends, but please do not give it away altered
or as part of another system. The essence of "user-
supported" software is to provide personal computer users
with quality software without high prices, and yet to
provide incentive for programmers to continue to develop
new products. If you find this program useful and find
that you are using NED v1.5x and continue to use NED
v1.5x after a reasonable trial period, you should make a
registration payment of $50 to DAVID L. DIGHT. The $50
registration fee will licence one copy for use on any one
computer at any one time. You must treat this software
just like a book. An example is that this software may be
used by any number of people and may be freely moved from
one computer location to another, so long as there is no
possibility of it being used at one location while it's
being used at another. Just as a book cannot be read by
two different persons at the same time.
Commercial users of NED v1.5x must register and pay for
their copies of NED v1.5x within 30 days of first use or
their licence is withdrawn. Site-Licence arrangements
may be made by contacting DAVID L. DIGHT.
Anyone distributing NED v1.5x for any kind of
remuneration must first contact DAVID L. DIGHT at the
address below for authorisation.
This authorisation will be automatically granted to
distributors recognized by the Association of Shareware
Professionals (ASP) as adhering to its guidelines for
shareware distributors, and such distributors may begin
offering NED v1.5x immediately (However DAVID L. DIGHT
must still be advised so that the distributor can be kept
up-to-date with the latest version of NED v1.5x).
You are encouraged to pass a copy of NED v1.5x along to
your friends for evaluation. Please encourage them to
register their copy if they find that they can use it.
All registered users will receive a copy of the latest
version of the NED v1.5x system. If you do pass on a copy
please make sure you include all the system files with
documents. The file NEDIT.EXE is a self-extracting execu-
table archive and contains all files with this release.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 3
*********************************************************
NED(tm) v1.5x (C) Copyright 1987-92 David L. Dight
All Rights Reserved.
P.O. Box 280, Kings Cross, N.S.W. 2011
AUSTRALIA. +61 2 3314521, CIS:100033,2563
_______
____|__ | (R)
--| | |-------------------
| ____|__ | Association of
| | |_| Shareware
|__| o | Professionals
-----| | |---------------------
|___|___| MEMBER
When you register you receive a 250 page manual and the
latest version of NED and utilities as well as info about
new versions when they occur and support. See the
Software Registration Form at the end of the manual or
REGISTER.FRM with the release.
IBM, PC-XT, PC-AT, PS/2, PC-DOS, MDA, CGA, EGA and VGA
are registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation. MS-DOS is a registered trademark of
Microsoft Corporation. Compaq 386 is a registered
trademark of Compaq Corporation. Epson FX is a registered
trademark of Epson America Incorporated. Hercules is a
registered trademark of Hercules Computer Technology. HP
LaserJet is a registered trademark of the Hewlett-Packard
Company.
Revision 1.5.x.1 08/01/1992.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 4
*********************************************************
NED v1.5x User's Guide
Table of contents
Introduction 6
i Introduction 6
ii How to Use this Manual 7
iii Notational Conventions 7
Chapter 1. Installing NED 9
1.1 Package Contents 9
1.2 System Requirements 9
1.3 Installation 9
Chapter 2. Getting Started 11
2.1 Creating or Editing a File 11
2.2 The Editing Screen 11
2.3 Entering Text 12
2.4 Getting Help 13
2.5 Basic Movement Keys 13
Chapter 3. Learning More 15
3.1 Using the Command Area 15
3.2 Managing Multiple Files 16
3.3 Text Editing Functions 17
3.4 Using Block Mode 18
3.5 Using Word Wrap 19
3.6 The Status Screen 20
3.7 Searching, Replacing and Matching 21
3.8 Quitting NED 23
3.9 The Backup System 24
Chapter 4. Advanced Features 26
4.1 Configuring NED 26
4.2 Using File Lists 30
4.3 File Display Mode 31
4.4 Creating and Using Macros 33
4.5 Printing a File 34
4.6 Using the Print Spooler 35
4.7 Using the Calculator 36
4.8 Using the ASCII Tables 37
4.9 Using Colours 43/50 line modes. 37
Chapter 5. System Reference 40
5.1 Command Reference 40
5.2 Function Reference 55
5.3 Configuration Reference 73
5.4 Block Mode Reference 80
5.5 File Display Reference 83
5.6 Regular Expression Reference 85
5.7 Printer Command Reference 89
Chapter 6. Tutorials 92
6.1 Introduction 92
6.2 Tutorial One - A DOS menu system 92
6.3 Tutorial Two - Programming with NED 99
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 5
Appendix A. Messages 106
Index 113
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 6
*********************************************************
NED v1.5x User's Guide
i Introduction
NED is a high performance text editor specifically
designed for programmers and people who need to use an
editor regularly. It is simple to use and robust yet
fully featured for the serious user. NED has an intuitive
'feel' encouraging experimentation and confidence whether
you are just learning about editors or you are a 'power'
user. Here are just some of the reasons you'll find NED
one of the best editors you've ever used:
1. Edit multiple files. Up to nine (9) files may be
edited at once. You can move between open files with a
single keystroke.
2. Expansion of wildcard file specifications from
command line and the use of File Lists. NED allows you to
predefine a list of files to edit. If you are working on
a multi-moduled system this feature will save you time
specifying file names. You can also browse through drives
and directories for files to open.
3. On line Calculator, ASCII tables and help screens.
4. Fast. NED has been designed to make maximum use of
your video hardware and to be as fast as possible.
5. Full support for Hercules, EGA and VGA adaptors
including 43 and 50 line modes.
6. Special functions such as brace/bracket matching,
field copying, character case flip, date/time and
filename insertion into your file. These make editing
easier, quicker and more productive.
7. Embedded print commands and print while you work
spooler.
8. Powerful Regular Expression Language makes searching
and replacing easier and more effective.
9. Shell to DOS. NED is compact enough to allow you to
run most applications when in the shell. Execute DOS
commands from within NED.
10. The editing environment is fully configurable with
CONFIG.NED.
11. Block copy, cut and paste from within lines to an
entire file. Block functions allow formatting of the
block, or copying blocks to the search expression.
12. NED allows you to prepare text for use with desk top
publishing systems with features like word wrap left,
right and centre justify, escape, tab and control
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 7
character insertion.
13. Functionality. NED has the most exhaustive function
capability of any editor on the market.
14. Clear, concise, easy to read and fully cross-
referenced User's Guide.
15. Keyboard macros. You may record, save and use up to
20 macros at any one time. Macros save time by reducing
repetitive keystrokes.
The User's Guide will help you get the most out of NED.
ii How to Use this Manual
NED is designed for both the first time and the
experienced user. Different parts of this manual are
intended for users with different needs.
Chapter 1 Installing NED explains how to install NED on
your machine. It also explains NED's minimum system
requirements and the package contents.
Chapter 2 Getting Started describes the basics of using
NED such as how to create a file, understanding the
editing screen, entering text and getting help. It is
designed as an introduction to both NED and editing in
general.
Chapter 3 Learning More describes how to use the command
area, manage multiple files, advanced text editing
functions, block mode commands, word wrap, search for and
replace text.
Chapter 4 Advanced Features describes the NED's more
advanced features such as configuring NED, File Lists,
keyboard Macros and printing.
Chapter 5 System Reference provides a full reference
manual for all of NED's commands, function keys,
configuration statements, printer commands, File Display
keys, Block Mode keys and the Regular Expression
Language.
Chapter 6 Tutorials provides two 'hands on' tutorials on
using NED.
Appendix A Messages lists all the messages that you may
encounter using NED with a brief comment on each. READ.ME
File on the system disk documents corrections and
enhancements made to both the program and the user's
guide after the user's guide was printed.
iii Notational Conventions
This section describes the notational conventions used
throughout this manual.
placeholders Items in italics are placeholders for
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 8
types of information you must supply, for example
pathname, macrofile, number, to and from. Other
words appear in italics for emphasis.
[optional items] Items enclosed by bold square
brackets are optional.
repeating items... Three bold dots following an item
indicate that items of the same form may be repeated
a number of times.
{item1|item2} This indicates that you have a
choice between two or more items. Bold brackets
enclose all the choices and the bold vertical bars
separate the choices. One of the items must be
chosen, unless all the choices Are optional.
examples These will be indented and will
appear in a non-proportional typeface.
screen examples These appear in the lineprinter font
and are enclosed in a box.
<keyname> The angle brackets indicates the
function key <keyname> that is to be entered. For
example: <Enter>.
KEYNAME This refers to a function key
(KEYNAME) when it is mentioned within a paragraph.
For example: "if you press ENTER...".
ALT This represents the alternate key(s).
ALT N means the ALT key must be pressed with the
'n' key to generate ALT N.
SHIFT This represents either the left or
right shift key. In some cases it will be preceded
by a LEFT or RIGHT specification.
CTRL or ^ These symbols represent the control
key(s). SECTION 1.0 These will appear in small
capitals and refer to chapter sections where more
information about a topic may be found.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 9
*********************************************************
NED v1.5x User's Guide
Chapter 1 Installing
1.1 Release Contents
Files in this release:
NEDIT.EXE(*) Self-extracting archive
READ.ME Read this file first. It contains the
latest info on this release.
NED.EXE Main program
NHELP.EXE Help system
NCAL.EXE On-line Calculator/ASCII tables
FASTPRN.EXE Document printing utility (see below)
VIRCHK.EXE Executable virus scanner (see below)
CONFIG.NED Example configuration file
SAMPLE.MCR Sample Macro file
NED.DOC User's guide
VENDOR.DOC Distributors, vendors and ASP vendor information
DISTRIB.DOC Application for distribution licence
LICENSE.DOC Licensing agreement for individual use
SYSOP.DOC Info about posting NED on BBS's
WHATUGET.DOC Describes what you get when you register
REGISTER.FRM Software registration form
OMBUDSMN.ASP ASP ombudsman statement
PACKING.LST This list in a seperate file
(*) PKSFX (R) Self Extract Utility Version 1.1 Copyright
1989-1990 PKWARE Inc. All Rights Reserved. PKSFX Reg.
U.S. Pat. and Tm. Off.
1.2 System Requirements
IBM XT, AT, PS/2 or Compaq 386 or 'compatible'.
PC-DOS/MS-DOS 2.0 or later.
Minimum 256Kb installed RAM.
MDA, CGA, EGA, VGA, Hercules or compatible adapter and
monitor.
At least one floppy-disk drive (two are recommended or a
hard-disk and a floppy-disk drive).
Printer (optional).
1.3 Installation
It is best to have the drive:\directory that NED exists
on your PATH so that you may use NED in what ever
directory you are in. This is also necessary for using
the Help screens and for the Calculator and ASCII tables.
The PATH tells DOS where to look for executable files
which in this case are NED, NHELP, NCAL In the above
example,
PATH=C:\;C:\DOS;C:\UTILS
If you normally have your programs in the directory
'C:\UTILS' and you wish to work in a number of other
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 10
directories then having NED in a directory which is on
the PATH means you don't have to worry about where NED
resides.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 11
*********************************************************
NED v1.5x User's Guide
Chapter 2 Getting started
2.1 Creating or Editing a File
The DOS command line syntax for NED is:
ned [file1 file2 ... filen]
Where file may be either a pathname, wildcard
specification or an 'At' file (e.g. @files.ned). The
following DOS command lines provide examples:
ned sample.c
ned sample.c c:\mydir\test.prg *.bat
In the first example, 'sample.c' is loaded. In the second
example NED will load up 'sample.c' to start with. If
sample.c doesn't exist, you will be prompted:
Ok to Create (Y/N) ?
If you answer yes you may begin entering text, if you
answer no, NED will exit you to DOS. The remaining files
('c:\mydir\test.prg' and all matching *.bat) will be
added to your File List and may be opened later using the
OPEN command. Of course you only have to specify one
filename on the command line.
NED accepts any valid DOS wildcard specification. As NED
loads, it attempts to place every matching filename in
the File List. If no matches can be found, the
specification is left as a filename. You may have up to
512 filenames in the File List from one or more
wildcards. You can increase this number with the DIRMAX
statement in CONFIG.NED.
You can only edit text files with NED. If you attempt
editing other types of files the results are
unpredictable. NED will try to load 256 characters to
each line if no carriage return/line feeds are found. If
a line is longer than 256 characters, NED will split the
line at 256 characters. NED will continue to split the
line until the remainder is less than 256.
If you try to save a file that was loaded in this manner
it will be completely corrupted. If you need to load a
formatted word-processor document, save or convert the
file to ASCII format before loading it with NED.
2.2 The Editing Screen
The screen is divided into two main 'windows'. The first
is known as the System window, and the second as the Edit
window. The System window is designed to display the most
relevant information you need when editing a file. From
left to right, the top line displays:
Busy/Idle symbol - is an hour glass when NED is busy,
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 12
e.g. when reading a file and is shutters when NED is
awaiting a command.
Filename - the filename/pathname of the current area. If
changes have been made, is in bold. If area is not open,
'(area unopened)' is displayed.
Area map - the current area if open is in bright bold
attribute and other open areas are in bold attribute.
Areas not open are in normal attribute.
Available memory - as a percentage free.
IWCNS - Auto-indent (I), Word-wrap (W), Caps-lock (C),
Num-lock (N) and Scroll-lock (S) toggles. Bold if on.
Line and Column - of cursor.
The second line is the command area. When you press the
ESC key the cursor moves to this line. All commands and
parameters are entered and shown here. The ruler display
appears on this line when the cursor is in the Edit
window. This displays each tab as a 'T' starting from the
current left hand column of the Edit window. The right
hand margin is displayed as a 'R' and when the right hand
margin is over a tabstop, it is displayed as the 'P'
over 't' character. The following is an example of the
default settings:
....T...T...T...T...T...T...T...T...T...T...T...T...T...T
...T...R...T...T...T...
The third line shows any confirmation, warning or error
messages to the left and an abbreviated version of the
contents of the scrap buffer to the right. See Appendix A
for a description of NED's messages.
The rest of the screen is known as the Edit window and is
devoted to the file you are editing. If the file is
longer than twenty two lines, the first twenty two are
shown. If it is less than twenty two or the Edit window
is positioned at the end of the file, a small bold tilde
(~) appears on every unused line to the end of the
window.
2.3 Entering Text
Entering text is just like using a typewriter. Most of
the keys on a typewriter correspond to keys on your
keyboard. Unlike many editors, NED allows you to enter
text where ever the cursor is located, even if this is
off the end of a line. This feature is convenient for
programming when formatting and commenting code. NED
automatically fills the gap created with spaces. The Edit
window is a maximum 256 characters wide and will scroll
when necessary since NED only allows you to edit in an 80
character window at one time. The maximum number of lines
you can edit is 10240 if the MAXLINES statement is set to
this value in CONFIG.NED, see section 4.1 and 5.3 for
details. The default setting is 5120 lines. To open a new
line press ENTER. To open a new line above the current
line press CTRL ENTER. NED has an auto indentation
feature. When on, and you press ENTER, NED places the
cursor under the first non-whitespace character of the
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 13
previous line. See the ENTER and ALT I functions in
SECTION 5.2 for further details on Auto indent.
Insert mode is toggled using the INS key. When in insert
mode, entered text pushes all characters in front of the
cursor including the entered character forward. In insert
mode the cursor appears as a half block. The default is
overtype mode where entered text replaces the original
characters on the line. The cursor appears as a quarter
block. Various functions make use of the insert mode
including TAB, ALT F and BS.
To erase a mistake, backspace (BS) over the character or
move the cursor left and press DEL. If you are in insert
mode, BS has the reverse effect of inserting so that text
is dragged left towards the cursor (deleting the
character to the left of the cursor).
NED allows high-bit characters (e.g. ruling graphics) to
be entered in a file. You can use the ALT generation
method (ALT <ASCII number of key on numeric pad>) and a
few Ctrl generated characters (e.g. CTRL G, CTRL D).
However some Ctrl keys have special functions. For
example to enter an escape character into your file press
CTRL ESC since the ESC key is used to enter or exit
Command mode.
The TAB key is worth special mention. Under normal
operation this moves the cursor one tabstop to the right
(default four spaces) and SHIFT TAB moves the cursor one
tabstop to the left. If insert is on and hard-tab is off,
a tabstop is inserted at the cursor (the corresponding
number of spaces pushing text right) and the SHIFT TAB
deletes a tabstop (dragging text left). However, if the
hard-tab toggle is set (ALT T) tab characters (chr 9) are
entered instead.
2.4 Getting Help
To get help press the F1 key. NHELP.EXE must be in the
current directory or on the PATH. A brief page index is
given and you can type the page-number you need or you
can browse using the PGDN or PGUP keys. Alternatively,
you can issue the HELP command which takes an optional
starting page number, for example:
<Esc>H5<Enter>
will take you to the fifth help screen. Further help can
be found in the function/command reference sections of
this manual.
2.5 Basic Movement Keys
NED gives you a 'window' on the file you are working on.
Within the window the cursor may be positioned to enter
or edit text. In addition to the LEFT, RIGHT, UP and DOWN
keys the following positioning keys may be used:
HOME start of line
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 14
END end of line
CTRL RIGHT next word
CTRL LEFT previous word
ALT A goto column 1
ALT Z goto column 256
ALT S goto start window
ALT E goto end window
ALT N next line
ALT P previous line
CTRL PGDN bottom of window
CTRL PGUP top of window
When the end of the window is reached the screen will be
scrolled either up or down. You can also re-position the
window leaving the cursor in the same relative position
with the following keys:
PGDN next page (+22 lines)
PGUP previous page (-22 lines)
CTRL HOME start of file
CTRL END end of file
See section 5.2 for more information on these and other
movement keys.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 15
*********************************************************
NED v1.5x User's Guide
Chapter 3 Learning More
3.1 Using the Command Area
NED accepts commands in two ways. Firstly, certain keys
are assigned functions and are consequently called
function keys. These include all the 'F' keys (e.g. F1,
CTRL F3), and the ALT keys (e.g ALT F, ALT A). The other
way is through the command area. These commands require
either a parameter or confirmation.
Pressing ESC takes the cursor from where ever you are in
the Edit window to the 2nd line (known as the command
area). NED accepts a set of single letter commands which
represent the full word of the command. This is known as
command selection mode. You may browse through these by
pressing the up/down arrows or you may simply press the
letter of the command. For example if you press:
<Esc>O
NED responds:
Open:
by printing the full name of the command followed by a
colon and placing the cursor after the colon. NED then
waits for an optional parameter. Some commands need
parameters. Entering parameters is just like using the
editor. You may use INS, DEL or BS and some of the other
editing keys to type your parameter. Once you have
entered the parameter you must press ENTER again. The
command is then executed.
For commands that don't need parameters you must still
press ENTER again to confirm the command. You may abort
the command during parameter entry by pressing ESC. This
will return you to command selection mode. If you press
ESC again you will be returned to the Edit window. You
can return directly to the Edit window by pressing CTRL
ENTER instead of ENTER when executing a command. NED
remembers the last command you entered so on re- entering
Command mode you may press ENTER to execute the same
command again. NED also remembers the last parameter you
entered. You may retrieve this with the F3 key in
parameter entry mode.
Some commands have special keys. The OPEN command lets
you browse through files in the File List with the up or
down arrows. The SPECIFY command allows you to use or
edit the last search specification by pressing the up
arrow. A similar function is provided with the REPLACE
command. The OPEN, MACRO and BACKUP commands allow you to
enter the File Display mode through the F1 key, see
section 4.3 and 5.5 for more information on this mode. If
you change to an unopened area the cursor will be
confined to the command area. You can only edit in an
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 16
opened area.
Finally NED allows some of the normal editing commands to
be executed from Command mode. For example you can use
most of the window positioning keys (like PGUP or PGDN).
3.2 Managing Multiple Files
NED allows you to edit up to nine files at once by
assigning each new file a new area number. To open a new
file, use the OPEN command. Enter the filename or
pathname of the file you wish to open. Alternatively, you
can use the up or down arrows to browse the File List or,
you can enter File Display mode by pressing F1 in order
to browse directories for a file to open.
If you have entered your own filename and the file does
not exist, you will prompted to create it as described in
section 2.1 above. If you have files in the File List you
don't have to enter any parameter. NED will take the next
file from the File List and open it (CTRL F1 is a short
cut for this operation).
Each open file is treated individually. NED only allows
you to physically edit one at a time. Other open files
are suspended. You can of course transfer text from one
area to another and similarly use the same search
expressions across all open files. There are a number of
ways to change to another area. You can use the AREA
command which accepts a number from 1 to 9 as a
parameter. With no parameter AREA simply changes to the
next area. You can use ALT 1 to ALT 9 which corresponds
to those area numbers. Finally, you can use the Status
screen described in section 3.6 below. If you change to
an unopened area NED will automatically take the cursor
to the command area.
The WRITE command will force a write to disk even if
there have been no changes made to the file and keep the
area open (SHIFT F10 is a short cut for this operation).
The END command will write the file to disk if there have
been changes and then close the area. The END and WRITE
commands take an optional pathname parameter which allows
you to write the file to a different name.
When you have finished with an area you can close it with
the CLOSE command. The area is free to be re-opened with
another file. You can only edit as many files as can fit
into memory. When memory is getting low, the percentage
of available memory, displayed in the System window, will
flash. You should save your files and close some down to
free up more memory.
The LAUNDRY command is very useful when editing multiple
files. This command saves any files you have open that
have changed. Once all files have been written, you are
returned to your initial area. If you wish to
periodically save your work files (regular saving is
recommended) then this command saves you the trouble of
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 17
having to work out which files need to be saved. If you
want to selectively save changed files, the LAUNDRY
command takes an optional 'p' parameter that forces the
prompt:
Save this file (Y/N) ?
to appear at every changed file. You may answer
accordingly.
3.3 Text Editing Functions
Apart from the general inserting/deleting characters from
a file, NED provides many other useful editing functions.
You can split a line into two lines at the cursor with
SHIFT F3. Two lines may be joined together at the cursor
or the end of the line with F3.
You can copy one character from the line above at the
current cursor position using ALT F (called field copy).
Using SHIFT ALT F does the same except it copies from the
line below. If the insert mode is on, the copied
character is inserted into the current line.
ALT M flips the case of a character (Eg 'm' to 'M' or 'M'
to 'm'). Left SHIFT ALT M flips to upper case only, Right
SHIFT ALT M to lower case only. ALT G flips the case of
the whole line.
Text can be justified within a line. ALT L left
justifies, ALT C centres a line and ALT R right
justifies. If the line is greater than 80 characters
long, centre and right justify work over the entire 256
character width.
ALT D will erase to the end of the line and ALT B will
erase to the beginning. ALT K will completely erase the
line (leaving it blank).
ALT W will delete the next word and ALT Q will delete the
previous word. A word is defined as a character or group
of characters separated by one or more characters of the
Interword Delimiter set. The default delimiter is a
space. The set can be modified with the INTERWORD
command.
SHIFT F2 deletes or cuts the current line to the scrap
buffer. If the cursor is not moved between successive
strokes of SHIFT F2, deleted lines will be appended to
scrap. You can therefore delete an entire block of text
to scrap by repeating this keystroke. However if the
cursor is moved, the next stroke of SHIFT F2 will firstly
destroy the existing contents of the buffer before
cutting the new line to scrap. An abbreviated version of
the contents of the scrap buffer is displayed at the
bottom of the System window.
You can copy a line to scrap without deleting it with
CTRL F3. To restore from the scrap buffer use F2. The
entire contents of the scrap will be inserted under the
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 18
current line. CTRL F2 will insert the scrap above the
current line.
Edits made within a line can be undone with the ALT U
key. This means that the line is restored to its original
state before you changed it. You may restore the changes
you have made to the line before you first pressed ALT U
by pressing ALT U again. There are several restrictions
with ALT U. Firstly, no changes can be undone once you
move to another line. Secondly, certain functions reset
the line so that only further edits may be undone. These
functions are split and join line entry of the Block Mode
entry of Command mode entry of Status screen shell to DOS
insert filename and insert date/time.
3.4 Using Block Mode
Block Mode allows you to manipulate blocks of text more
efficiently than on a line by line or character by
character basis. NED views blocks of text in two ways.
The multi line (inter-line) block handles each line as
one unit. A block may contain one or more lines which can
be copied, deleted or inserted. The in-line (intra-line)
block handles each character separately. A block may
contain one or more characters which may be copied,
deleted or inserted within any one line.
If you cut an intra-line block and then restore it, NED
will insert the block within the current line. If you cut
an inter-line block (containing one or more lines) and
restore it, NED will insert the block under the current
line.
To enter Block mode press F4. The cursor will change to
an underscore. You may then outline a block of text using
most of the cursor movement functions. The outlined block
will be displayed in Reverse Video. When you have
outlined the block, the following functions are
available:
Key Block action
DEL or - cut to scrap
INS or + copy to scrap
TAB move right a tabstop
SHIFT TAB move left a tabstop
SPACE move right a space
BS move left a space
L left justify
C centre justify
R right justify
S copy to the SPECIFY string, intra-line only
* copy to last command parameter F3, intra-
line only
F4 exit block leaving cursor at start of block
ESC exit block mode leaving cursor end of block
The TAB and SHIFT TAB keys move the block to the previous
or next tabstop. The SPACE and BS keys move the block
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 19
right or left a space. The L, C and R keys left, centre
or right justify the block treating each line
individually.
The 's' function allows you to search for a string from
the file elsewhere in the file without having to re-type
it. The string is also copied to last parameter function
F3 in the parameter entry mode.
The '*' function is also useful when a string from the
Edit window is needed as a parameter in Command mode. See
the Block Mode reference section 5.4 below for more
details on these keys.
When text has been cut or copied to scrap, NED will
display an abbreviation of the scrap to the right of line
3 of the screen. If the scrap is inter-line, NED will
display a 'paragraph' (ASCII 20) character in bold at the
end of the block. If the block is intra-line, this
character will not appear.
With both types of scrap, NED will attempt to display as
much of the block as it can. If the width of the block is
greater than the display area or there are a number of
lines in the block, NED will display the first 20
characters of the block, a '/' character in bold, then
the last 20 characters of the block.
3.5 Using Word Wrap
You can enter text continually without the need to press
ENTER by using word wrap. To turn word wrap on or off
press ALT V. When on, 'W' appears in bold attribute on
the top line between the free memory % and the line
counter.
If you type text past the right hand margin, NED wraps it
from the beginning of the previous word to the beginning
of a new line below. The default right hand margin is 65.
You can specify a new right hand margin with the 1MARGIN
command. See section 5.1 for details.
Some keys behave differently when word wrap is on. If you
are within a line, ENTER will split the line at the
cursor position, taking the cursor to the new line. If
you are at the end of a line it behaves as normal. If you
want to open a new line without splitting the current
line, use CTRL M. When word wrap is off, this key splits
the current line as above.
The DEL key joins the next line to the current line when
the cursor is at the end of the line. If the cursor is
past the end of the line, the next line is joined at the
cursor position.
If you are at the beginning of a line, and you are in
insert mode, and you press BS, the current line will join
itself to the end of the previous line. The Block Mode
'c' function and 'r' function use the right hand margin
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 20
setting when word wrap is on.
You may can specify whether NED starts up with word wrap
on or off with the WORDWRAP statement in CONFIG.NED. This
statement optionally takes a right hand margin setting.
The default setting is:
WORDWRAP=0,65
See section 5.3 for more details on this statement.
3.6 The Status Screen
The Status screen is designed to provide up to date
information on the file(s) you are working on as well as
other system information. It can be viewed by pressing
the F10 key. From left to right the information displayed
is as follows:
Area if open in bold attribute if current has an
arrow next to it.
File Name current name for file
Size in bytes at last write
Lines number of lines in file
Last Write date/time of last write
Changes Y/N if file has been changed since last write
All nine areas are scanned. Empty areas display the
message "(area unopened)". If you have made changes to a
file, 'Y' will appear under the 'Changes' column in
blinking bold attribute.
If a file was opened that could not fit entirely into the
edit buffer, the 'Lines' value will also appear in
blinking bold attribute. You may also use the Status
screen to select another area to work in. You can use the
up or down arrows or type the number of the area you wish
to use. Only open areas may be selected this way. The
following is an example of the remainder of the Status
screen:
Auto-detab OFF Hard-tab OFF
Auto-entab OFF Interword chars ,;:.
Backup dir C:\BAK Maximum lines 1200
Current dir C:\NEDTUT Page layout 66,3,3,0
Spooler OFF File List FILES.NED
Strip ON Timeslice 128
Free memory 446006, 389904 largest block
Date/Time Tuesday 01/01/88 12:00 am
Serial # ?????????
This displays the current settings of NED. The current
directory is the directory you were in when you started
NED. The backup directory will display "current
directory" if no backup directory is specified. The first
number of free memory is the total remaining bytes
available for editing. The largest block is the largest
contiguous block of memory that can be allocated by DOS.
A minimum 64Kb contiguous block is required to shell to
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 21
DOS.
Unless the space character is embedded within other
interword characters, it may be difficult to recognize,
particularly if it is at the beginning or end of the set.
Maximum lines is the maximum number of lines you may have
in any one file. You can only change it by modifying the
MAXLINES statement in CONFIG.NED and reloading NED. The
timeslice value is the amount of time allocated between
the keyboard and the printer when spooling. The larger
the timeslice, the more time the keyboard will receive.
The following table summarizes the functions available
with the Status screen.
Key Action
UP previous area
DOWN next area
HOME first area
END last area
1 - 9 goto area 1 to 9
ESC return to your file
3.7 Searching, Replacing and Matching
NED allows you to search for and optionally replace text.
To search for text you must first use the SPECIFY
command, followed by one of the search keys (F8, SHIFT F8
or CTRL F8). To replace text you must first SPECIFY the
text to look for and then use the REPLACE command to tell
NED what you wish to change the text to.
The SPECIFY command accepts a string of characters to
search for, for example:
<Esc>Sfor<Enter>
tells NED you wish to look for the word 'for'. To begin
searching, press one of the following keys:
Key Search
F8 down from cursor
SHIFT F8 up from cursor
CTRL F8 down from top of file
NED then displays the Current Search Expression while
searching. If the pattern cannot be found NED will
display the following:
(pattern) not found
SPECIFY also accepts a string that conforms to the
Regular Expression Language. Regular expressions are a
way of representing text patterns in a symbolic
shorthand. The symbols used to define these expressions
fall into five categories:
Symbols that match a specific character
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 22
Symbols that match any character
Symbols that match a character's position on the line
Symbols that match any of a set of characters or anything
except a set of characters
Symbols that let you match the previous symbol any number
of times
An expression may contain one or more of any of the
language symbols. These symbols and their usage are
described in the Regular Expression Language Reference
section 5.6 below. For example, the command:
<Esc>S^[\s\t]*for<Enter>
will search for the word 'for' preceded by any number of
blank characters (spaces or tabs) from the start of the
line. The carat (^) symbol refers to the start of a line
the square brackets ([]) enclose a character set or class
containing in the above example spaces (\s) or tabs (\t)
the asterisk (*) in this example tells NED to search for
the preceding character class any number of times. NED
has a convenient alternative method for specifying a
search string by using the 's' function in Block Mode.
This function only works with intra-line blocks. See
sections 3.4 and 5.4 for details on Block Mode.
The REPLACE command allows you to specify a string which
will replace one or more occurrences of the SPECIFY
expression (target pattern). By default NED will replace
the next occurrence of the target pattern. For example,
the command:
<Esc>Sfor<Enter>RFOR<Enter>
will replace the next occurrence of 'for' with 'FOR'. It
is likely that you will wish to replace all occurrences
of the target pattern in your file. In this case, append
a ',g' (global) to the replacement parameter. For
example:
<Esc>Sfor<Enter>RFOR,g<Enter>
will replace all occurrences of 'for' with 'FOR' in the
current file. You may only wish to replace a number of
occurrences of the target pattern. In this case append
the ',number' you wish to replace. For example:
<Esc>Sfor<Enter>RFOR,3<Enter>
will replace the next three occurrences of 'for' with
'FOR' in the current file. Each time a target pattern is
found, NED will prompt:
Replace (Y/N) ?
If you answer 'y' NED will replace the string if 'n', NED
will continue searching if you press ESC, NED will
terminate the command. You may suppress the above prompt
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 23
by appending a ',n' to the replacement parameter. For
example:
<Esc>Sfor<Enter>RFOR,g,n<Enter>
will replace all occurrences of 'for' with 'FOR' without
prompting.
Finally, the REPLACE command can be used to remove text
from your file by omitting the replacement string.
For
example:
<Esc>Sfor<Enter>R,g<Enter>
will remove all occurrences of 'for' in the current file.
Brace matching NED provides a function that is
particularly useful for checking complex bracketed
expressions in programs. The brace matching function F5
attempts to match opening and closing brace {}, square
bracket [], angle bracket <> or parentheses ()
characters.
First you must move the cursor to the character you wish
to match and then press F5. If the character is an
'opener' NED will search down the file for a closing
character, otherwise NED will search upwards for an
opening character. If no match is found NED will display
the message:
Match Not Found !
This means that your expression is not correctly closed.
If this is a program expression you will more than likely
generate a compile/run-time error. If a match is found,
NED will move the cursor to the matching character.
3.8 Quitting NED
There are two ways to quit NED. If you have only one open
file and wish to save changes made in it, use the END
command, otherwise you should use the QUIT command. The
END command will save the file and close the area. If the
current area is the only area open, you will be returned
to DOS, or else NED will move you move to the previous
open area.
The QUIT command goes through all the open areas checking
to see if any changes have been recorded in them. If no
changes have been made to an area, NED will simply close
it and proceed to the next area. If a change has been
recorded, the message:
(S)ave (A)bort or (C)ancel ?
is displayed. You can press 's' to save, 'a' to abort the
file, or 'c' to cancel the command. If you want to save
all changed areas without being prompted, issue the 's'
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 24
parameter. For example:
<Esc>Qs<Enter>
Alternatively if you do not want to save any changed
areas and you don't wish to be prompted, issue the 'a'
parameter. For example:
<Esc>Qa<Enter>
3.9 The Backup System
When you save a file other than a new file, NED first
renames the existing file on the disk by inserting an
underscore (_) in front of the extension and moving the
other characters to the right. For example:
MYPROG.PRG
becomes:
MYPROG._PR
and the third character (if any) of the extension is
lost. The new file is then written to the old filename.
If the file has no extension NED uses .BAK for the backup
name.
A useful feature of this system is if you edit a backup
file, a second backup will be created with two leading
underscore characters, and so on. The backup system
allows you to distinguish backups with the same filename
but different extensions, thus keeping separate backups
for these files. For example, if you edit the following
files:
NED.C
NED.H
the backups become:
NED._C
NED._H
Because backup files may clutter your work directory, NED
allows you to specify an alternative drive/directory in
which to place backup files with the BACKUP command. For
example:
<Esc>Bc:\bak<Enter>
will set the backup directory to c:\bak. If this does not
exist you will be prompted to create it. You may select
an existing backup drive/directory for your backup files
with the File Display mode by pressing F1 instead of
entering a drive/directory, for example:
<Esc>B<F1>
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 25
Use your movement keys to high-light a drive/directory
and then press CTRL ENTER to select it. See sections 4.3
and 5.5 for details on File Display and section 5.1 for
details on the BACKUP command. You may can specify your
backup directory in the start-up configuration file
CONFIG.NED. When ever you start NED, the backup directory
will be set. See the BACKUP statement in section 5.3 for
details.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 26
*********************************************************
NED v1.5x User's Guide
Chapter 4 Advanced Features
4.1 Configuring NED
NED can be configured to suit your particular machine and
editing needs. This is done with a short text file called
CONFIG.NED which is scanned each time NED is loaded. If
this file is not found in the current directory NED will
look along the PATH. If it still cannot be found NED will
load with its default settings. CONFIG.NED consists of
single line statements in the
form:
OPTION=setting
where setting is either a switch (e.g. ON or OFF) or a
string such as pathname. See section 5.3 Configuration
Reference for a list and syntax of the valid commands.
You may save the current settings of NED whilst editing
with CTRL F4 which writes a new CONFIG.NED file in the
current directory.
The following description outlines the way to set up
NED's environment. Firstly at the DOS prompt type:
ned config.ned<Enter>
if the message:
Ok to Create ? (Y/N)
appears type 'Y' to create it. Now press CTRL F4 to write
the default settings to CONFIG.NED. NED will display the
message:
CONFIG.NED written to disk
Now issue the QUIT command by typing:
<Esc>Q<Enter>
This will return you to DOS. The file you have just
created contains the default CONFIG.NED settings. Now at
the DOS prompt type:
ned<Enter>
You don't need to specify a filename. This is because
when you use CTRL F4 to write CONFIG.NED, the FILE
statement is set to the current filename which in this
case was CONFIG.NED. See the description below. The first
line is a comment line. You may add comments on a
separate line using the following characters as the first
character of the line:
\ ' " *
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 27
The next line is the AUTOINDENT statement. This tells NED
whether to indent the cursor under the text of the line
before when you press ENTER. This saves you from having
to move the cursor over if the text you are entering is
indented from the left margin. If you wish this feature
to be set off leave it as it is. Otherwise, change it to
'ON'. The line should then read:
AUTOINDENT=ON
The next statement that usually appears in CONFIG.NED is
the BACKUP statement, but since we are working from the
default settings, NED has not included it. This statement
tells NED to place backups in a directory other than the
current one. If you wish to use this feature then enter
the following:
<Enter>BACKUP=\BAK
This directs NED to open a new blank line and insert the
text 'BACKUP=\BAK'. If the directory \BAK does not exist,
NED will prompt you to create it next time NED is loaded.
The next line contains the COLOUR statement. If you have
a monochrome adapter (e.g. MDA, HERCULES) you should
delete the COLOUR statement. To do this press the
following keys:
<Down><Shift F2>
This will delete the line, and the lines below will move
up to close the gap. If you have a colour monitor (e.g.
CGA, EGA or VGA) change the COLOUR statement to:
COLOUR=7,1,1,3
this tells NED to use white on blue characters in the
Edit window and blue on cyan characters in the System
window.
The next line is the DATEFMT statement. This configures
the date format used in NED. The default format is:
DATEFMT=DMY/
Which displays the date as dd/mm/yyyy. If you wish to use
the American date format, change the statement to read as
follows:
DATEFMT=MDY-
Which displays the date as mm-dd-yyyy.
The next two statements instruct NED to automatically
detab a file when it is loaded or entab a file when it is
written. For the purposes of our setup skip these
statements by pressing the down arrow twice. The next
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 28
statement will read:
FILE=CONFIG.NED
The FILE statement tells NED to load up the specified
filename if NED is not given a filename to open on the
DOS command line.
This statement told NED to load CONFIG.NED the second
time you started up. We can leave this statement as is.
The FIRSTCOL statement allows you to specify whether you
wish the first column of the Edit window to be referred
to as '0' or '1'. If you are creating screen layouts you
may prefer to change it to:
FIRSTCOL=0
The GOTO statement allows you to specify the starting
line and column of the cursor in the first that NED
loads. This defaults to:
GOTO=1,1
When you save CONFIG.NED with CTRL F4, NED will record
your current position in the current file to this
statement.
The HARDTAB statement instructs NED to insert the tab
character instead of moving the cursor a tabstop when you
press the TAB key. The statement will be:
HARDTAB=OFF
If you want to know more about this feature, see SECTIONS
5.3, and 5.2 for a description of the TAB key.
The INTENSITY statement sets the bold colours in the edit
and System windows. If you have a monochrome adapter
(e.g. MDA, HERCULES) you will have to delete this
statement by placing the cursor on the statement and
pressing SHIFT F2. If you have a colour monitor change
the INTENSITY statement to the following:
INTENSITY=12,15
this tells NED to use Bright red intensity in the Edit
window and Bright white intensity in the System window.
Finding the right colour and bold attributes for your
needs may be a case of trial and error, so try a few
combinations and select the one that you like. See
section 4.9 for more details on configuring colours. The
next statement instructs NED to start up in either insert
or overtype mode. If you prefer to work in insert mode
(we recommend this), change the INSERT statement to read
as follows:
INSERT=ON
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 29
The INTERWORD statement allows you to specify which
characters are used to separate words. This defaults to a
space. Change the statement to read as follows:
INTERWORD=; ,
The LAYOUT statement will read as follows:
LAYOUT=66,3,3,0
This sets the default print page layout to a page length
of 66 lines, top and bottom margins of 3 lines and no
left margin. If you have different page layout
requirements, see sections 4.5 and 5.1 for more details.
The MAXLINES statement sets the number of lines you can
edit in a file. This defaults to 5120 lines. Most text
files are less than 1200 lines so change this statement
to read:
MAXLINES=1200
The MODE statement allows you to specify the screen type
you wish to use with NED. If you are using a Monochrome
Display Adaptor (MDA) or a Hercules adaptor then the mode
statement should be changed to:
MODE=MDA
or:
MODE=HERCULES
If you have an EGA or VGA adaptor then the MODE statement
will be set to 'EGA'. If you wish to use NED in 43 line
mode then change the statement to:
MODE=EGA43
If you have a VGA and you wish to use the 50 line mode
then change the statement to:
MODE=VGA50
The RULER statement tells NED whether the ruler display
defaults to on or off. If you wish the ruler to be off,
change the statement to read as follows:
RULER=OFF
The SNOW statement is for Colour Graphics Adapters only.
If you have a CGA change this statement to read:
SNOW=OFF
The SORT statement allows you to specify how directory
entries in the File Display mode are sorted. This
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 30
defaults to DIRECTORY order. You can also choose from
EXTENSION, SIZE, DATE or FILE (alphabetically). You will
probably find the EXTENSION sort the most useful since it
will group similar file types. Change the statement to
read:
SORT=EXTENSION
The SPOOL statement allows you to set background printing
on or off and optionally adjust the amount of CPU time
(timeslice) given to the printer. The larger the
timeslice, the less time the printer gets. It is best to
test the default timeslice before adjusting it. If you
wish to use the spooler by default change the statement
to read:
SPOOL=1,128
See section 4.6 for more details on tuning the print
spooler.
The STRIP statement tells NED to strip trailing
whitespace characters from each line when writing a file
to disk. This statement should read:
STRIP=ON
The TABSET statement sets the tabstops for the TAB key.
This defaults to a tabstop every four spaces. Unless you
wish to use different tab settings leave this as it is.
The WORDWRAP statement instructs NED to start up with
word wrap on or off. You may optionally specify the right
hand margin for word wrap. This statement should read:
WORDWRAP=0,65
If you wish word wrap to be on by default, change the
statement to read:
WORDWRAP=1,65
You may optionally specify a different right hand margin
if don't wish to use the default margin. Now to save your
new configuration, press:
<Esc>E<Enter>
The END command writes the file and returns you to DOS.
The next time you load, NED will reflect your new
configuration.
4.2 Using File Lists
A File List is a list of filenames or pathnames that can
be used by the OPEN command. File Lists are a useful way
of specifying large numbers of files for editing. NED
creates this list from the file specifications on the DOS
command line. There are three types of specifications and
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 31
any or all of them may be given on the DOS command line.
These are:
Single filename (e.g. MYFILE.PRG)
Wildcard specification (e.g. *.PRG or ??FILE.C)
'At' filename (e.g. @FILES)
For example:
ned myfile.prg *.prg @files<Enter>
will add MYFILE.PRG, all matching *.PRG files and all
filenames that are contained in the file FILES.NED (.NED
is the default extension for 'At' files) to the current
File List. NED will then attempt to open the first file
in the list, which in this example is MYFILE.PRG. To
browse the list, type ESC O and then use the up or down
arrows. You may then ENTER on the file you wish to open
or just escape again with no effect. Alternatively you
may open the next file in the list with CTRL F1. You can
change the File List in File Display mode as described in
the next section
If the File List has been changed, when you exit NED it
will be written to a file called FILES.NED. Next time you
wish to use those files you can specify the File List on
the command line with the '@' character:
ned @files<Enter>
You can save the File List to another name with the XSAVE
command, see section 5.1 for details. For example:
<Esc>Xmyfiles<Enter>
will save the current File List to the file MYFILES.NED.
Now, next time you wish to use that File List simply
type:
ned @myfiles<Enter>
If you change the File List using the File Display mode,
NED will update MYFILES.NED because you specified the
'At' file on the command line.
4.3 File Display Mode
The File Display mode is a useful directory browsing
system that allows you to locate files to open. You can
also use it to browse, edit or add files to the File
List.
The File Display mode is primarily designed for use with
the OPEN command but may also be used with END, WRITE,
USE and BACKUP commands. To enter File Display mode type
the following:
<Esc>O<F1>
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 32
Using this method will take you to the directory area.
You can specify a wildcard file specification on the
command line before you press F1. NED will only display
files that match the wildcard, for example:
<Esc>O*.bat<F1>
This command instructs the File Display mode to display
only matching '*.bat' files. You may then select one you
wish to open or press ESC to return to your file. When
you enter File Display mode, you will notice to the left
of the screen a 'pad' which will display the contents of
the File List (if any). To the right will be all the
files and subdirectories of the current directory (the
directory area). Files are in lower case, subdirectories
and drives are bold and in upper case. The top line will
display the full pathname of the current directory to the
left the number, total size of the files in the directory
and the directory sort type to the right.
Over the first entry will appear a reverse video selector
bar. You may move this with most of the normal cursor
movement keys. As you high-light a file, the bottom line
will display its size in bytes and the date/time it was
last updated. You may re-sort the directory by pressing
ALT:
Key Sort
D Directory order
F Alphabetically
S File size
T Time/date
X File extension
The sort type may also be set in CONFIG.NED, see the SORT
statement in section 5.3 for details. If you press ENTER
over a drive or subdirectory, NED will change to the
drive or directory and display its contents. If you press
ENTER over a file, NED will attempt to open it, returning
you to the command area.
The filename you returned on is copied to the last
parameter string F3 so you may use it in your next
command. If you press ESC you will be returned to the
command area with no change.
If you press INS over a file, its name is copied to the
end of the File List. If you press INS over the '.' entry
the entire directory is copied to the File List. If the
'.' entry is not present, use the '\'.
You can move between the directory area and the File List
window with the TAB key or you can enter the File List
directly from the Edit window by pressing SHIFT F1. In
the File List window, you may browse the files with most
of the cursor movement keys. To open a file press ENTER
over a filename. If you press DEL over a file, the file
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 33
is removed from the list. If you press CTRL K the entire
list is deleted and you are moved over to the directory
area.
You may have up to 512 entries in the File List. When
there are more than 18 entries in the list, a scroll bar
will appear to the right of the list indicating your
position in the list.
When in the File List window, the bottom line will
display the number of the current entry out of the total
number of entries and the drive/directory in which the
file resides.
If you press ESC you will be returned to the command
area. Any changes made to the File List will be retained.
You can save the File List when in the File List window
by pressing CTRL F4. This will write the list to a file
called FILES.NED in the current directory. If you want to
save the File List to your own filename, use the XSAVE
command.
4.4 Creating and Using Macros
Macros allow you to record a series of keystrokes and
assign them to a function key. This can save you a
considerable amount of time if you find you are repeating
the same keystrokes continually. Macros that you create
may be saved away to a file and restored at will. You can
have up to twenty predefined macros at any one time.
These keys are mapped between ALT F1 to ALT F20 (ALT F11
20 = SHIFT ALT F1-10). There is of course no limit to the
number of macro files you can have.
To begin recording a macro press F7. NED will prompt you
to enter a macro key to assign the keystrokes to and
enter a key between ALT F1-20. You may record up to 128
keystrokes per macro. As you record your macro, the
current keystroke number is displayed in the message
area. To finish recording press F7 again.
The MACRO command is an alternative starting point that
allows you to name the macro as well as record it. For
example you would type:
<Esc>MFile opener<Enter><Alt F1><Ctrl F1>
<Ctrl F1><Ctrl F1><F7>
to record a macro called 'File opener' to ALT F1. You may
also use this command to name or rename an existing
macro. To rename the above macro append the 'r' option.
For example:
<Esc>MOpen next 3 files,r<Enter>
will rename ALT F1 to 'Open next 3 files'.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 34
To save a macro set to disk use the KEEP command. Restore
a macro set with the USE command. See section 5.1 for
details on these commands. To view all the macro names,
keys and number of keystrokes press SHIFT F7 (Macro
Report).
Since you can record keystrokes from both the edit and
command windows, macros will be sensitive to the window
you start the macro from. SHIFT ESC forces the cursor to
move from the command area to the Edit window if the
current area is open. Consider the following example:
<Esc>O<Enter><Enter><Enter><Esc>
If this macro is started from the Edit window, the next
two files in the File List will be opened. If however,
the macro is started from the command area, an 'o' and
four blank lines will suddenly appear in your file. If
the macro is recorded as follows:
<Shift Esc><Esc>O<Enter><Enter><Enter><Esc>
the macro will work correctly from either window because
SHIFT ESC only works in one direction. If the above macro
was run from Command mode in an unopened area it will
also work correctly since the cursor will remain in
Command mode.
An example macro file is supplied with the system called
SAMPLE.MCR. Load this file up using the USE command and
press SHIFT F7 to see what these macros do.
4.5 Printing a File
NED provides the facility to print a part or all of the
current file. NED will always print via the PRN device.
To print a file use the PRINT command as follows:
<Esc>P<Enter>
For details on printing part of a file. See the PRINT
command in section 5.1.
NED allows you to embed printer commands in your file.
These must always be preceded by a period '.' and must
start at the left of a blank line. No other text except
printer commands may appear on the line. If text does
appear it will be ignored. NED distinguishes printer
command lines from normal lines and knows not to print
them. The commands correspond to the Epson FX printer
command set. For example:
.bf
Hello
.bo
tells the printer to print what follows in bold so that
'Hello' is printed in bold. The next command turns the
bold printing off.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 35
If these commands are not sufficient or your printer
implements them differently, you can send special escape
sequences with the .e command. E.g.:
.eg
sends the escape sequence to turn on bold printing to the
printer. See section 5.7 for details on all the embedded
printer commands.
NED defaults to printing 60 lines per page (print pages
are 66 lines) leaving 3 lines at the top and the bottom
and then issues a form feed when it has finished. To
allow for different sized forms and for the situation
where you don't want top and bottom margins or where you
want a left margin, NED has the YLAYOUT command. This
command allows you to specify the form length, top,
bottom and left margins, for example:
<Esc>Y66,0,0,10<Enter>
will set the print page to 66 lines with no top or bottom
margins and a left margin of ten characters. This allows
you to print a file with no perforation skips on standard
continuous paper and have a one inch left margin so you
can bind the printout. If you have A4 paper, the command:
<Esc>Y70,6,3<Enter>
will set the form length to 70 lines, with a 6 line top
margin, a 3 line bottom margin and no left margin. See
section 5.1 for further details on the YLAYOUT command.
NED also allows you to set your default page layout in
CONFIG.NED with the LAYOUT statement, see section 5.3 for
details.
4.6 Using the Print Spooler
When a file is printed it may be sent directly to the
printer or sent via the spooler. When printing directly,
you must wait until the printer has finished before
continuing editing. When printing via the spooler, you
can continue editing your files in foreground mode while
NED prints the file in background. The spooler can handle
up to nine files in its queue. Each time a file is sent
to the spooler it is added to the end of the queue. As
the printing of a file is completed, all remaining files
are moved up one place in the queue. The spooler
continues printing until no more files remain in the
queue.
To print in background mode the spooler must first be set
on. Use CTRL F6 to toggle the spooler on or off or use
the SPOOL statement in CONFIG.NED to default it on or
off.See section 5.3 for details.
Once the spooler is active, use the PRINT command to send
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 36
files to the spooler. This only takes a moment and you
are then returned to editing your file(s). The VSPOOL
command allows you to control the spooler while it is
active. You can pause or resume background printing or
remove one or all files from the spooler. To pause
background printing when the spooler is active, use the
following command:
<Esc>Vp<Enter>
Repeat the above command to resume printing. To remove
all files from the spooler queue including the active
spool file use the 'k' parameter. For example:
<Esc>Vk<Enter>
You may selectively remove a file from the spooler queue
by specifying its position in the queue. You can enter
the queue number for the file you wish to remove for
example:
<Esc>V2<Enter>
You may also browse through the queue with the up or down
arrows. This will display the number and name of each
file in the queue. You may then press ENTER on the file
you wish to remove. See section 5.1 for more details on
the VSPOOL command.
4.7 Using the Calculator
The Calculator emulates most of the functions of the
average hand held model. It uses the standard 'infix'
method of operand/operator/operand (e.g 2 + 3). The
Calculator is invoked with the SHIFT F6 key. The program
NCAL.EXE must be either in the current directory or
reside on the PATH.
The Calculator has provision for hexadecimal and decimal
numbers. Use the space bar to toggle between these two
modes. When you toggle between modes the currently
displayed number will be converted accordingly. NED
automatically selects the NUM-LOCK on your numeric keypad
allowing you to use it for number entry. To enter the
hexadecimal A to F use CTRL A to F.
If you miskey a number you can backspace (BS) over it and
re-type it or press 'e' to re-enter the whole number. Use
'c' to clear all (CE) operands and operators. If the
number calculated is too large to be displayed the
calculator will show the message:
Overflow
When you have finished press ESC to return to your file.
You can use the calculator from DOS by typing:
NCAL<Enter>c
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 37
Note that the 'c' must be pressed after ENTER.
4.8 Using the ASCII Tables
These tables provide the full set of ASCII characters in
decimal, hexadecimal and the ASCII character. For
example:
DEC HEX CHR
42 2A *
The ASCII tables are invoked with the F6 key. The program
NCAL.EXE must be either in the current directory or
reside on the PATH. You can view other pages with the
arrow keys HOME takes you to the first page END to the
last page. Press ESC to return to your file. The F1 key
toggles between character names and the literal character
on the first page of the tables. For example, ASCII 3
will appear as the clear smiley face character or as
'SOH'. You can use the ASCII tables from DOS by typing:
NCAL<Enter>a
Note that the 'a' must be pressed after ENTER.
4.9 Using Colours
If you have a CGA, EGA, VGA or compatible adapter you can
configure NED to make full use of colour. You may preset
the colours you wish to use with two statements in the
start up file CONFIG.NED. These are the COLOUR and
INTENSITY statements. NED allows different colour
settings for the edit and System windows.
The COLOUR statement accepts four numbers between 0 and
7. The first two are the foreground and background
attributes for the Edit window. The last two specify the
foreground and background colours for the System window.
The INTENSITY statement accepts two numbers between 0 and
15 although to work properly should be between 8 and 15.
The first sets the bold attribute for the Edit window and
the second sets the bold attribute for the System window.
The numbers correspond to the colours as follows:
No. Colour No. Colour
0 Black 8 Dark grey
1 Blue 9 Light blue
2 Green 10 Light green
3 Cyan 11 Light cyan
4 Red 12 Light red
5 Magenta 13 Light magenta
6 Brown 14 Yellow
7 White 15 Bright white
For example:
COLOUR=7,1,0,1
INTENSITY=12,14
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 38
sets white on blue characters with red intensity in the
Edit window and black on white characters with a yellow
intensity in the System window
COLOUR=7,4,1,3
INTENSITY=14,15
sets white on red characters with yellow intensity in the
Edit window and white on cyan characters with a bright
white in the System window.
NED uses the intensity attribute in the Edit window with
the cursor. When the cursor is within a line it will be
the same colour as a character it is under. If however it
is off the end of the line, the colour changes to the
INTENSITY setting. In the first example above this will
be Bright red. This is a useful feature as it shows you
where you have entered text. For example if there are
spaces on the end of a line or if there is text to the
right of the Edit window, the cursor will appear in the
normal attribute. See section 5.3 for more details on the
COLOUR and INTENSITY configuration statements. You may
also select the colours within NED with the ALT 0 key.
When you press this key, NED waits for a number from 1 to
6 which corresponds to the following settings:
1 Edit window foreground
2 Edit window background
3 System window foreground
4 System window background
5 Edit window intensity
6 System window intensity
Once you have pressed ALT 0, NED will accept any number
between 1 and 6 and increments the appropriate colour (0-
7 or 0-15 for INTENSITY) rolling the colour number over
if necessary (7 to 0 or 15 to 0). If you wish to save the
colours after you have been through this process press
CTRL F4 to save CONFIG.NED. See section 5.2 for details
on this function. Press the ESC key or any other key to
return to editing your file.
4.10 Using 43/50 Line Modes
If you have an EGA or VGA adapter, NED permits editing in
43 and 50 line modes respectively. To toggle between 25
and 43/50 line modes use ALT =. See section 5.2 for
details on the ALT = function. If you want to use 43 or
50 line modes by default change the MODE statement in
CONFIG.NED to the following:
MODE=EGA43
or:
MODE=VGA50
depending on your video adapter. If you specify EGA or
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 39
VGA you will be able to switch to 43 and 50 line modes
respectively, with ALT =.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 40
*********************************************************
NED v1.5x User's Guide
Chapter 5 Reference Sections
5.1 Command Reference
Introduction
This section gives a full description of commands
available from Command mode. Items not surrounded by the
square brackets are compulsory parameters. The space
between the command letter and the parameter is intended
for clarity only. No leading space should be typed when
entering the parameter. Conversely when a comma (,)
appears in the parameter specification it should be typed
literally.
AREA Change to a new area
Syntax: A [number]
The AREA command allows you to specify an optional area
number to change to. If no area number is given the next
area is chosen. You may browse through the areas with the
up/down arrows.
When you change to another area, the filename/pathname of
the new area is copied to the last parameter string, so
that you may restore it with F3 and edit it for your next
command parameter. Alternatively, you may select another
area with the ALT 1 to 9 keys or the Status screen by
pressing F10 and selecting the area you want. See section
5.2 for further details.
BACKUP Specify the backup directory
Syntax: B drive:\directory
When a file is written to disk the original filename is
renamed to the ._?? extension. The leading underscore
allows you to distinguish edited files that have the same
filename but have different extensions. If no backup
directory is specified, the backup file will be written
to the current directory. This however can clutter your
work directory making it difficult to find files. The
BACKUP command allows you to specify an alternative
drive:\directory in which to place the backup file. This
is useful to keep back-ups 'out of harms way'. If the
drive:\directory does not exist, NED will prompt:
Create BACKUP Directory (Y/N) ?
If you answer 'y', NED will attempt to create the
directory. You may use the File Display mode to select a
directory by pressing F1 in parameter entry mode. When in
File Display mode, CTRL ENTER selects the high- lit
directory since ENTER merely moves you to the high- lit
directory. See section 5.5 for further details on File
Display mode.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 41
This command can also be specified in CONFIG.NED, see
section 5.3 for details.
CLOSE Closes an area
Syntax: C [number]
This command closes an area. If no area number is given
the current area is closed. You may close other areas
from the current area by specifying its number. For
example:
<Esc>C3<Enter>
will attempt to close area number 3. If the specified
area is not open, NED displays the message:
Area Not Open !
If changes have been made to the area, NED prompts you
with:
Changes will be lost, Confirm (Y/N) ?
if you answer no the operation is aborted. If yes the
changes are discarded and the area is freed. All memory
associated with the area is returned to the system pool
and the area is available for use again with another
file.
DETAB Detab a file
Syntax: D
This command replaces tab characters (chr 9) with spaces
(chr 32) using the current tabstop settings as a
template. This means that where a tab character is found
in a line, its proximity to next tabstop is calculated
and the appropriate number of spaces inserted to bring it
into alignment.
Some lines may want to expand to greater than 256
characters in which case they are truncated. In large
files the DETAB command will consume more memory to
accommodate the increased size of the file. This command
is useful when you read a file from another editor that
contains tabs. Make sure that you set NED's tabstops to
match the file's tab settings otherwise you will have
text alignment problems after expansion.
NED can be set to automatically detab when a file is
opened with the DETAB statement in CONFIG.NED or with the
CTRL F10 function toggle, see sections 5.3 and 5.2 for
details. See the TABSET command below for details on
setting tabstops. See the NTAB command for the reverse of
this command.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 42
END Finish editing a file
Syntax: E [pathname]
When this command is issued, the file is firstly checked
to see if it has changed. If so, it is written to disk.
The area is then closed and NED will attempt to move to
another open area.
If no open area can be found, NED will return you to DOS.
If, however the spooler is active, NED will display the
message:
Background is busy
and will not exit to DOS. An optional pathname may be
specified to which the file will be written thus
preserving the original file. If the pathname exists, NED
will prompt:
File Exists ! Overwrite (Y/N) ?
If you answer 'y' NED will overwrite the file, if 'n',
the command is aborted. You may also use the File Display
mode to select a file to overwrite by pressing F1. When
the command has completed NED will display the message:
<number> lines written
FILL Fill a line with a character
Syntax: F character,number
This command takes the character and fills it from the
current line and column of the cursor the number of
times. Any valid characters may be used including
characters generated using the ALT keypad method (e.g.
ruling graphics).
Characters will not be filled to a width greater than 256
nor will they be filled at the cursor if it is off the
end of a line. In the latter case FILL appends at the end
of the line.
If you gave an invalid fill parameter or the fill will
not fit in the current line, NED will display the
message:
Bad Fill Spec or Not Valid to Fill
If the fill is successful, NED displays the message:
'<char>' Filled number Times
For example:
<Esc>F*,70<Enter>
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 43
will fill the '*' character 70 times from the cursor.
GOTO Goto a line
Syntax: G line[,column]
This command moves the cursor to the specified line, and
optional column of the current area. The line cannot be
greater than the number of lines in the current area and
the column cannot be greater than 256. If an invalid line
or column is specified, the cursor remains in its
original position, and NED will display the following
message:
Bad Line Number !
This command is also available in CONFIG.NED, see section
5.3 for details.
HELP Load help system
Syntax: H [startpagenum]
This command attempts to load the help system. NHELP.EXE
must be either in the current directory or reside on the
PATH.
The HELP command takes an optional starting page number,
for example:
<Esc>H5<Enter>
will take you to the fifth help screen. See the F1 key
reference in section 5.2 for more details.
INTERWORD Specify interword delimiter(s)
Syntax: I character...
NED distinguishes a word as any character or group of
characters surrounded by one or more characters from the
interword delimiter set. The default is a space. The
interword delimiter set allows you to tailor your
definition of a word so you can break up complicated
expressions. NED needs to know these characters in order
to provide functions like next/previous word and deleting
words. For example many programming languages use the
comma to separate function parameters. In this case you
would specify:
<Esc>I ,<Enter>
Changes to the delimiter set made with this command can
be saved to CONFIG.NED by using the CTRL F4 key. Note
that to use the space as a character it must be embedded
before or in the middle of the other characters or else
CONFIG.NED must be written to disk with the strip flag
set to off with the CTRL F7 key. See section 5.2 for
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 44
details on CTRL F4 and CTRL F7 section 5.3 for details on
the INTERWORD statement in CONFIG.NED.
JEJECT Eject page from printer
Syntax: J [numpages]
This command ejects a page from the printer. You may
optionally specify a number of pages to eject. For
example:
<Esc>J3<Enter>
will eject three pages from the printer. Rather than
sending the form feed character, NED sends the number of
line feeds corresponding to the page length set in the
YLAYOUT command or the LAYOUT statement in CONFIG.NED.
The default page length is 66 lines.
KEEP Save a macro file
Syntax: K [macrofile]
The KEEP command saves the current macro set to disk. If
the macro set is new you must specify a macrofile. If no
macrofile is given or the filename is invalid, NED will
display the message:
Invalid MACRO file or filename
If the macro set has been previously loaded and no
macrofile is given, NED will update the existing macro
file. You may also specify a new name to save an existing
macro set to. The default extension is for a macro file
is .MCR.
LAUNDRY Saves files that have changed
Syntax: L [p]
This command checks all the open areas to see if any
changes have been made in them. If so, NED saves each
file to disk. The optional 'p' parameter may be specified
which will prompt:
Save this file (Y/N) ?
for each file that has changed. After you answer, NED
proceeds with the checking. When completed you are
returned to the area you started in. This command is
useful if you are working on a number of files, when
saving each file individually is cumbersome.
MACRO Name and record a keyboard Macro
Syntax: M [title[,r]]
This command allows you to record a keyboard macro. It is
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 45
an alternative to the F7 key. It allows you to name the
macro before you begin recording. For example you would
type:
<Esc>MFile opener<Enter>
to begin recording a macro called 'File opener'. After
you have pressed ENTER, NED will prompt you to enter a
macro key between ALT F1-20 (ALT F11-20 = SHIFT ALT F1
10) to assign the macro to. If you enter a key that is
not between ALT F1-20, NED displays the message:
Key entered Not a valid MACRO key !
If a valid macro key is pressed, the cursor is taken out
of the command area to begin recording. Make sure you are
in an open area when recording and using a macro. When
you have finished recording press the F7 key. You may
also use this command to name or rename an existing
macro. Repeat the above process except append the 'r'
option. For example:
<Esc>MFile opener,r<Enter>
will prompt you for the macro key and then assign the
name 'File opener' to it.
You can view the names of macros with the SHIFT F7 key
(Macro Report screen). The purpose of being able to name
macros is so that you can view this screen and hence be
able to remember the function of macros you create and
save. See section 5.2 for details on the F7 and SHIFT F7
keys.
NTAB Replace spaces with tabs
Syntax: N
This command replaces spaces (chr 32) with tab characters
(chr 9) using the current tabstop settings as a template.
This means that when a number of spaces are found
corresponding to the space number value of the nearest
tabstop these are replaced by a tab character. The NTAB
command will release some memory that being the memory
taken up by the spaces converted.
NED can be set to automatically entab a file when it is
saved with the NTAB statement in CONFIG.NED or with the
CTRL F9 toggle key, see sections 5.2 and 5.3 for details.
See the TABSET command below for details on setting
tabstops and see the DETAB command above for the reverse
function.
OPEN Open a file for editing
Syntax: O [pathname]
This command opens a file for editing in the next
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 46
available area. If there are no free areas, NED will
display the message:
No Free Areas left !
In its simplest form, OPEN accepts the pathname of the
file to open. For example:
<Esc>Omyfile.prg<Enter>
will attempt to open the file 'myfile.prg'. If the file
does not exist NED will prompt you with:
Ok to Create (Y/N) ?
If you answer 'y' you may proceed to enter text,
otherwise you will be returned to command selection mode.
If no parameter is given, the next file in the File List
is opened if a File List exists. CTRL F1 (quick open)
will open the next file in the File List as a short-cut
to this operation. If there are no further files in the
File List, NED will display the message:
End of File List reached
You may browse the File List in parameter entry mode with
the up/down arrows and then ENTER on a file to open. If
you hold down either the up or down arrows, when the top
or bottom of the File List is reached, NED will wrap
around to the other end of the list. You may also enter
File Display mode with the F1 key which takes you to the
directory window and ENTER on the file you wish to open.
You may specify a wildcard parameter and then press the
F1 key to display only those files in the wildcard set.
For example:
<Esc>O*.c<F1>
will enter File Display mode displaying only matching
'*.c' files. You can then ENTER on the file you wish to
open or ESC back to Command mode. See section 5.5 for
more details on the File Display mode. NED will attempt
read the entire file into the area. If the file is has
more lines than the maximum lines allowed, NED will
prompt:
Buffer full, Continue ? (Y/N)
If you want to edit this file, you should answer 'n' to
this prompt which will abort the command and return to
the previous open area. You should then save your files
if necessary, open CONFIG.NED and increase the MAXLINES
statement to accommodate the larger file then quit and
re-load NED. If you answer 'y', NED will allow you to
edit only the first number of buffer lines of the file.
The extra lines that were not read will be lost if you
write the file back to disk. You may choose this option
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 47
if you wish to view this file.
Sufficient memory must be available to read the entire
file. If there is not enough memory, NED will beep and
display the message:
Insufficient memory !
then abort the command and return to the previous open
area. If you need to work on this file, we recommend the
following actions:
1 - close down any less important files you may have open
to free up more memory and re-issue the OPEN command.
2 - reduce the MAXLINES statement in CONFIG.NED to a
number that it closer to your maximum required number of
lines.
3 - check that you have enough free memory in DOS before
re-loading NED. For example, you could have a Terminate
Stay Resident (TSR) program consuming system memory.
4 - check to see that you haven't shelled out from
another program and loaded NED. You can normally do this
except with large text files.
PRINT Sends the current file to the printer
Syntax: P [{to|from,to}]
With no parameters this command prints the whole file.
You may optionally specify a to line number which prints
from the current line to the to line, or alternatively,
you may specify a from and to line numbers to specify
printing between start and ending lines. For example:
<Esc>P5,25<Enter>
Prints lines 5 to 25 inclusively.
<Esc>P100<Enter>
Prints from the current line to line 100.
If you are printing in foreground mode, NED will attempt
to initialize the PRN device before printing. If it fails
you will be prompted:
Printer Not Ready, Continue ? (Y/N)
Check that the printer is on-line and answer 'y'. NED
will retry. If you answer 'n' you will be returned to
command selection.
If you are printing in background mode, NED will print
the file to the spooler where it will be added to the
queue and printed in background mode. See the VSPOOL
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 48
command below.
To set your page layout i.e. page length, top, bottom and
left margins, see the YLAYOUT command below and the
LAYOUT statement in section 5.3.
QUIT Quit NED and return to DOS
Syntax: Q [{a|s}]
The QUIT command first goes through all the open areas
checking for any changes. If none are found, you are
returned to DOS. If changes are found in a file NED
displays the message:
(S)ave (A)bort or (C)ancel ?
You can save or abort the file or cancel the entire quit
operation in which case you remain in Command mode. A
shorthand method is also available with this command.
QUIT with the 'a' parameter quits from NED without saving
any files even if changes have been recorded. QUIT with
the 's' parameter saves any files that have changed
without prompting and then quits.
If the spooler is active and you attempt to quit, NED
will display the message:
Background is busy
and will not exit to DOS until printing is finished.
REPLACE Replaces text with a specified string
Syntax: R string[,{number|g[,n]}]
Before using this command you must use either the SPECIFY
command or the Block Mode 's' command to tell NED what
you want to replace (target pattern). This command
requires a string which will replace the target pattern
if found.
If just the string is given, NED will attempt to replace
the next occurrence of the target pattern with it. For
example:
<Esc>Sfor<Enter>RFOR<Enter>
will replace the next occurrence of "for" with "FOR". You
can append an optional number to specify the maximum
number of replacements to be made. Alternatively, you may
append a ',g' which will replace the target pattern
across the whole file (globally). Each time a target is
found you will be prompted:
Replace (Y/N) ?
if you answer 'y' NED will replace the pattern with the
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 49
string, if you answer 'n', NED continues searching. You
may also press ESC at this prompt, which will abort the
command.
You may further append a ',n' which suppresses the above
prompting. For example:
<Esc>Sbill<Enter>Raccount,g,n<Enter>
will replace the all occurrences of the word 'bill' with
'account' without any prompting. When NED has finished
replacing, the message:
<number> replaced, <number> overflows
is displayed showing the number of replacements made and
the number of overflows encountered. An overflow occurs
when the replaced text expands the line to greater than
256 characters. In this case the line is truncated. To
replace a comma (,) precede it with a backslash character
(\,). You can retrieve the last replacement parameter
with the up arrow in parameter entry mode.
SPECIFY Specifies a search expression
Syntax: S expression
This command tells NED what pattern to look for when
searching for or replacing text. SPECIFY accepts an
expression conforming to the Regular Expression Language
described in section 5.6. For example:
<Esc>S/\*.*\*/<Enter>
will search for a 'C' comment line. See section 5.6 for
details on using this language. To begin searching you
must press F8, SHIFT F8, CTRL F8 or issue a REPLACE
command. SPECIFY expressions may also be set using the
's' command in Block Mode. See section 5.7 for details on
the Block Mode.
The SPECIFY expression may be used across all open areas
and remains current until a new expression is specified.
You can retrieve the last SPECIFY parameter with the up
arrow in parameter entry mode.
TABSET Sets the tabstop template
Syntax: T {column[,column...]|r}
This command sets the tabstop template to the specified
column number(s). If you specify only one column
parameter, tabs are set to a width of column-1 for the
entire template. For example:
<Esc>T5<Enter>
will set tabstops at every fourth column. This is NED's
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 50
default setting. If more than one column is given,
tabstops are set accordingly. The difference between the
last two columns is used to set the remaining tabstops.
For example:
<Esc>T7,11<Enter>
will set tabstops for FORTRAN programs.
You can reset the template to the default with the 'r'
parameter. This command is also available in CONFIG.NED,
see section 5.3 for more details.
USE Load a macro file
Syntax: U macrofile
This command loads a set of macros from disk. You need
only specify a filename/pathname as the .MCR extension is
the default. If macrofile does not exist or is corrupted,
NED displays the message:
Invalid MACRO File or File name !
You can enter File Display mode by pressing F1. This
filters *.MCR files. You may then press ENTER on the
macro file you wish to use. For example:
<Esc>U<F1>
If there are no macro files in the current directory you
can select another directory using File Display mode
through the OPEN command. Once you have moved to the new
directory, exit File Display Mode and re-issue the USE
command as above.
The MACRO statement in CONFIG.NED will instruct NED to
USE a macro file when starting up, see section 5.3 for
details.
VSPOOL Print spooler control
Syntax: V {p|k[-]|t{1-8192}|1-9}
This command allows you to pause or resume background
printing, allow you to remove one or all files from the
spooler or adjust the timeslice given to the spooler. The
following command:
<Esc>Vp<Enter>
will pause background printing if the spooler is active.
To resume printing repeat the above command. This is
useful if you wish to devote all CPU time to editing
processes.
The spooler queue can handle up to nine files. Each time
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 51
a file is sent to the spooler it is added to the end of
the queue. As the printing of a file is completed, all
remaining files are moved up one place in the queue. To
remove all files from the spooler queue including the
active spool file use the 'k' parameter. NED also allows
you to flush the contents of the printer buffer by
appending '-' character to the 'k' parameter. For
example:
<Esc>Vk-<Enter>
You may selectively remove one file from the spooler
queue by specifying its position in the queue. Either
enter the queue number for the file you wish to remove or
you may browse through the queue with the up or down
arrows. This will display the number and name of each
file in the queue. You may then press ENTER on the file
you wish to remove.
You may adjust the amount of time given to the printer
while spooling with the 't' command. The timeslice value
must be between 1 and 8192. The greater the timeslice
value, the less time is given to the printer. For
example:
<Esc>Vt256<Enter>
Sets the timeslice to 256. The SPOOL statement in
CONFIG.NED allows you to configure the spooler when NED
loads. See section 5.3 for more details. To toggle
background printing on or off use CTRL F6.
WRITE Write the current file
Syntax: W [pathname[,n]]
With no parameter this command writes the current file to
disk regardless of whether there have been any changes
made to it. SHIFT F10 is a short-cut for this command,
see section 5.2 for details. You may specify a new
pathname to write the file to. If this file exists, NED
will prompt:
File Exists, Overwrite it ? (Y/N)
If you press 'n' the command is aborted. You may
alternatively enter File Display mode to find an existing
file to overwrite by pressing F1 in parameter entry mode.
You may optionally append the 'n' parameter to pathname
which suppresses the stripping of whitespace characters
from the end of each line when writing.
XSAVE Save the File List
Syntax: X [pathname]
This command writes the File List to disk. If pathname is
not given, NED will write the File List to FILES.NED if
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 52
you did not start NED with an '@file' ('At' file). If you
started NED with an '@file' it will be updated. See
section 4.2 for details on using '@files'. You may
optionally specify a new pathname to save the list to.
The extension .NED is the default so you needn't enter
it. For example:
<Esc>Xmyfiles<Enter>
will save the current File List to MYFILES.NED. To load a
File List when starting NED type the '@' symbol before
the filename. For example:
ned @myfiles<Enter>
loads the File List MYFILES.NED from disk when loading
NED.
When in the File List window in File Display mode, you
can save the File List to FILES.NED by pressing CTRL F4.
See section 4.2 for more details on File Lists.
YLAYOUT Set print page
Syntax: Y [length,topmargin,bottommargin[,leftmargin]]
This command sets the print page dimensions. With no
parameters, the page length is set to 66 lines the top
and bottom margins are set to 3 lines and the left margin
is set to 0 characters. If you wish to print on the whole
page e.g. on standard continuous stationary, the command:
<Esc>Y66,0,0<Enter>
would cancel the top and bottom margins. If the topmargin
plus the bottommargin is greater than page length or the
margins are less than 0, the message:
Invalid print page layout
will be displayed. In this case, the existing settings
will remain unchanged. If you want a left margin of ten
characters use the following command:
<Esc>Y66,3,3,10<Enter>
NED also allows you to specify the default page layout in
CONFIG.NED, see the LAYOUT statement in section 5.3.
ZSORT Sort the current file
Syntax: Z [{width|startcol,endcol}]
With no parameters, this command sorts the current file
alphabetically. You may specify the maximum width that is
significant in sorting. For example:
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 53
<Esc>Z20<Enter>
sorts the current file alphabetically considering the
first twenty characters of the each line only. You may
instruct NED to sort the file by text that lies between
the startcol and endcol. For example:
<Esc>Z15,22<Enter>
will sort the following output from the DOS DIR command:
ASSIGN COM 1509 28-07-86 9:00
ATTRIB EXE 7438 28-07-86 9:00
BACKUP COM 7098 28-07-86 9:00
CHKDSK COM 9435 28-07-86 9:00
CKEYS MCR 11240 29-03-88 20:18
COMMAND COM 23210 28-07-86 9:01
COMP COM 4366 28-07-86 9:00
CONFIG BAK 146 16-04-88 4:13
D COM 7808 4-02-85 23:45
DEBUG COM 15548 28-07-86 9:00
DETAB EXE 13057 19-03-88 16:21
DISKCOMP COM 3219 28-07-86 9:00
DISKCOPY COM 3219 28-07-86 9:00
on the file size column, to produce:
CONFIG BAK 146 16-04-88 4:13
ASSIGN COM 1509 28-07-86 9:00
DISKCOPY COM 3219 28-07-86 9:00
DISKCOMP COM 3219 28-07-86 9:00
COMP COM 4366 28-07-86 9:00
BACKUP COM 7098 28-07-86 9:00
ATTRIB EXE 7438 28-07-86 9:00
D COM 7808 4-02-85 23:45
CHKDSK COM 9435 28-07-86 9:00
CKEYS MCR 11240 29-03-88 20:18
DETAB EXE 13057 19-03-88 16:21
DEBUG COM 15548 28-07-86 9:00
COMMAND COM 23210 28-07-86 9:01
1MARGIN Set the right hand margin
Syntax: 1 [rightcolumn]
This command sets the right hand margin for word wrap.
With no parameters, this command resets the right hand
margin to 65.
The rightcolumn must be between 1 and 256. Only one right
hand column may be specified. If the column given is
invalid, NED will display the message:
Invalid right hand margin
For example:
<Esc>145<Enter>
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 54
Sets the right hand margin to 45. NED also allows you to
specify the default right hand margin in CONFIG.NED, see
the WORDWRAP statement in section 5.3. See section 3.4
for details on using word wrap.
2DOS Execute DOS command
Syntax: 2 [command [parameter...]]
3SPEED Set keyboard speed
Syntax: 3 {0-5}
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 55
*********************************************************
NED v1.5x User's Guide
Section 5.2 Function Reference
Introduction
This section describes the function keys used in NED.
Function keys perform a particular action for which no
parameters are required.
UP/DOWN ARROWS Previous/Next line
These keys move the cursor up or down one line. If the
cursor is at the top of the window and you press UP, the
screen will scroll down one line. Alternatively, if you
at the bottom of the Edit window and you press DOWN, the
screen will scroll up one line. If you are on the first
or last line of the file and you press UP or DOWN, the
screen will not scroll and NED will beep.
If the SCROLL LOCK is on, the Edit window will scroll up
or down and the cursor will remain in the same relative
position on the edit window.
HOME/END Start/End line
The HOME key moves the cursor to the first non whitespace
character of the current line.
The END key moves the cursor one space to the right of
the last character on the current line (including
whitespace characters). These keys have the same effect
in Command mode.
PGUP/PGDN Previous/Next page
These keys scroll the edit window up or down one page,
normally +- 20 lines. The cursor will be left at the same
relative position in the window. If you are at the top or
bottom of the file these keys will have no effect. These
functions are designed to operate very quickly and you
can therefore hold these keys down without filling the
keyboard buffer.
CTRL PGUP/CTRL PGDN Top/Bottom screen
These keys move the cursor to the top or bottom line of
the edit window.
CTRL HOME/CTRL END First/Last line
The CTRL HOME key takes the cursor to first line of the
file. The column position remains as it was unless you
press CTRL SHIFT HOME which takes the cursor to the first
column.
The CTRL END key moves the cursor to the last line of the
file. The column position remains as it was unless you
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 56
press CTRL SHIFT END which takes the cursor to the first
column on the last line.
LEFT/RIGHT ARROWS Previous/Next character
These keys move the cursor left or right one character on
the current line. If the cursor is at the right of the
Edit window and you press RIGHT, the screen will scroll
left one character unless you are on column 256.
Alternatively if you are at the left of the edit window
and you press LEFT, the screen will scroll right one
character unless you are on column 1.
If the SCROLL LOCK is on, the Edit window will scroll
left or right and the cursor will remain in the same
relative position on the screen. These keys have the same
effect in Command mode.
CTRL LEFT/CTRL RIGHT Previous/Next word
These keys move the cursor to the beginning of the
previous or next word. If the cursor is at the beginning
of a line and you press
CTRL LEFT, NED will move the cursor to the beginning of
the last word on the previous line. Similarly, if the
cursor is at the end of a line and you press CTRL RIGHT,
NED will move the cursor to the beginning of the first
word on the next line.
A word is defined as a character or group of characters
surrounded by one or more interword delimiters. See the
INTERWORD command in section 5.1 for more details.
BACKSPACE (BS) Blank previous character
This key moves the cursor to the left one space and
blanks the character under it. If you are in insert mode,
BS deletes the character to the left dragging text to the
right of the cursor to the left. This is the opposite of
the DEL key. This key has the same effect in Command
mode. When word wrap is on and the cursor is at the first
column of a line and the line is not the first line of
the file, BS joins the current line to the end of the
previous line.
DELETE (DEL) Delete character
This key deletes the character under the cursor dragging
text to the right of the cursor to the left. This key has
the same effect in Command mode.
When word wrap is on and the cursor is at the end of a
line and the line is not the last line of the file, DEL
joins the next line to the end of the current line.
ENTER Open new line below
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 57
The ENTER key opens up a new line below the current line.
If the Auto-indent flag is off, the cursor is placed at
the first column. If the Auto-indent flag is on, the
cursor is placed under the first non whitespace character
of the previous line.
When auto-indent is on, RIGHT SHIFT ENTER moves the
cursor one tabstop to the right of the first non-
whitespace character of the line above and LEFT SHIFT
ENTER moves the cursor one tabstop to the left. In
Command mode, this key executes the selected command.
When word wrap is on, ENTER splits the line at the cursor
position, moving the cursor to the beginning of the new
line. This is the same as pressing CTRL M when word wrap
is off.
CTRL ENTER Open new line above
This key operates in exactly the same way as the ENTER
key except that it opens a line above the current line.
ESCAPE (ESC) Command mode
This key moves the cursor to the command area,
temporarily suspending editing of the file. If you are
already in Command mode, this key returns you to the Edit
window.
See section 5.1 for details on NED's commands and section
3.1 for details on the using the command area. If you
wish to enter an escape character in your file press CTRL
ESC.
SHIFT ESCAPE Exit Command mode
This key moves the cursor from the command area to the
Edit window. It has been designed to be used when
recording macros. It allows you to control which window
the cursor is in when a macro runs.
Note that you cannot enter Command mode with this key.
See section 4.4 for details on using macros.
INSERT (INS) Insert mode
This key toggles between insert and overtype modes. When
in insert mode any text entered will automatically push
all characters from the cursor to the right. When in
overtype mode any character typed replaces the character
under the cursor.
In insert mode the cursor appears as a half block and in
overtype mode the cursor is a quarter block. The initial
status of insert mode can be set with the INSERT
statement in CONFIG.NED, see section 5.3 for details.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 58
This key has the same effect in Command mode.
SCROLL LOCK Freeze cursor
This key toggles the scroll lock function on and off. The
default is off. When on, the Edit window instead of the
cursor moves when you press the LEFT, RIGHT, UP or DOWN
keys. This is useful for browsing through a file
particularly when it is wider than 80 characters.
TAB Right tab
If you are not in insert mode this key moves the cursor
one tabstop to the right. If the cursor is at the right
of the Edit window and you press the TAB key, the screen
will scroll left one tabstop unless you are on column
256. If you are in insert mode, the TAB key inserts the
equivalent number of spaces to take the cursor to the
next tabstop, pushing text to the right. This will only
insert spaces up to the maximum of 256 characters. If the
hard-tab flag is on, this key will enter hard tab
characters into the file.
SHIFT TAB Left tab
If you are not in insert mode this key moves the cursor
one tabstop to the left. If the cursor is at the left of
the Edit window and you press the SHIFT TAB key, the
screen will scroll right one tabstop unless you are on
column 1.
If you are in insert mode the SHIFT TAB key deletes the
equivalent number of characters to take the cursor to the
previous tabstop, dragging text to the left.
F1 Help
This key attempts to load the help system. NHELP.EXE must
be either in the current directory or reside on the PATH
and there must be 64Kb of memory available. If
insufficient memory is available or the help file cannot
be found, NED will display the following message:
Can't load Help File
The help system is divided into ten screens the first of
which is an index to the other nine. Enter the number of
the screen you wish to view or use UP or DOWN arrows,
ENTER and PGUP or PGDN to browse through the screens.
HOME and F1 takes you to the index screen and END takes
you to the last screen. To return to your file press ESC.
This key is a shortcut for the HELP command.
SHIFT F1 Select File List
This key enters File Display mode and selects the File
List window. If there are no files in the File List, NED
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 59
will select the Directory window.
You can use UP, DOWN, HOME, END, PGUP or PGDN to browse
the File List. If you press ENTER over any file NED will
try to OPEN it. You may move to the directory window by
pressing the TAB key. If there is not enough memory to
enter File Display mode,
NED will display the message:
Insufficient Memory !
CTRL F1 Open next file
This key attempts to OPEN the next file from the File
List. If you don't have a File List or the file pointer
is at the end of the list then NED will display the
message:
End of File List reached
This key is a shortcut for the following keystrokes:
<Esc>O<Enter><Esc>
F2 Restore scrap
This key restores text from the Scrap buffer to the
current file. If the scrap is intra-line (within a line)
the restored text will be inserted into the current line
at the cursor position. If the cursor is past the end of
the line, NED will append the text to the end of the
line. If the length of the line plus the width of the
scrap is greater than 256 characters, NED will beep and
not restore the text. Intra-line scrap can only be
created in Block Mode. If however the scrap is inter-line
(one or more lines) then the restored text will be
inserted below the current line. When text is restored
NED will display the message:
number lines copied from Scrap
You will only be allowed to insert lines up to the
maximum number of lines allowed, set by the MAXLINES
statement in CONFIG.NED. In this situation NED will
restore as many lines from scrap as it can, then display
the message:
number lines ONLY copied from Scrap
If there is not enough memory available to restore the
entire scrap buffer, NED will restore as much as it can.
If there is no memory available, NED will beep and
display the message:
Insufficient Memory !
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 60
SHIFT F2 Delete line
This key deletes (or cuts) the current line to the scrap
buffer. Whatever was previously in the scrap buffer is
lost.
You may append lines to the scrap buffer with consecutive
SHIFT F2 strokes as long as no other key is pressed in
between. In this way you can cut an entire block of text
to scrap. If you have deleted all lines in a file NED
will insert one blank line at the beginning of the file.
When a line is cut to scrap, NED will display an
abbreviation of the deleted text to the right of line 3
in the system window.
CTRL F2 Restore above
This key is the same as F2 except that scrap is inserted
above the current line instead of below it. If the scrap
is intra-line, NED will insert the text at the cursor
column in the previous line. If the cursor column is past
the end of the previous line, NED will append the text to
the previous line. If the cursor is on the first line of
the file, NED will beep, and not insert the scrap.
F3 Join line
This key joins the next line to the end of the current
line. If the length of both lines is greater than 256
characters, NED will join as much of the next line as
possible, leaving the remainder on the next line. If the
cursor is located within the original line, the joined
line will be appended to the current line. If, however
the cursor is off the end of the current line the next
line will be joined at the cursor position. If you are on
the last line of the file, NED will beep.
SHIFT F3 Split line
This key splits the current line at the cursor position.
All characters from the cursor to the end of the line
will form a new line under the current line. After the
line is split, the cursor remains in the same position.
This key has the same effect as CTRL M except that the
cursor remains at the end of the old line.
CTRL F3 Copy line
This key copies the current line to the scrap buffer.
This key has the same effect as the following keys:
<Shift F2><Up><F2><Down>
F4 Block mode
This key enters Block mode. You may also exit Block mode
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 61
with this key. See section 5.4 for details on Block mode.
SHIFT F4 DOS shell
This key invokes a DOS shell. NED is suspended, the
screen is cleared and you are handed over to DOS. You may
then enter any DOS commands. To return to NED type 'exit'
at the DOS prompt and NED will be restored to its
previous state.
A single block of at least 64Kb of contiguous memory is
required to invoke the shell. If there isn't a block
large enough, NED will display the message:
Insufficient memory !
Remember that you will also need some memory to run other
programs. When out in the shell be careful not to load
any program that may effect what is already in memory,
especially a memory resident program (TSR). If for any
reason the system memory is corrupted you may lose your
edits, therefore it is a good idea to save the file(s)
you are working on before you shell.
CTRL F4 Save configuration
This key instructs NED to write the current environment
settings to the file CONFIG.NED, in the current
directory. This function is useful for firstly creating a
new CONFIG.NED file and secondly to save a special setup
you may require. All parameters described in section 5.3
are included in the file. Two options are worth
mentioning. These are:
FILE=filename
GOTO=line,column
In the first statement, NED will insert the current
area's filename. In the second statement, NED will insert
the current cursor line and column. When completed, NED
will display the message:
CONFIG.NED written to disk
F5 Brace match
This key attempts to find a matching brace, square
bracket, angle bracket or parentheses. The cursor must be
over one of these characters. If the cursor is not over
one of these characters, NED will beep and display the
message:
Cursor must point to {(<[]>)}
NED will try to match across the entire file as follows:
[ to match ]
< to match >
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 62
{ to match }
( to match )
If the character is an opener (left column above) NED
will search downwards, otherwise NED will search upwards.
If a match is not found NED will display the message:
Match Not Found !
If a match is found, NED will move the cursor to the
matching character.
This function is particularly useful for checking complex
bracketed expressions in programs. For example in the
following expression, you may wish to check that each
opening parentheses has a matching close:
if ((ln[j]=alloc_line(strlen(buf[i])))==(char*)0)
SHIFT F5 Redraw
This key redraws the screen, positioning the current line
in the middle of the Edit window.
CTRL F5 Freeze/thaw
This key freezes the screen from the current line to the
bottom of the Edit window. You may continue editing in
the unfrozen top part of the window. You cannot leave any
less than five lines unfrozen. If you attempt to do this,
NED will beep.
A bold double ruled line will appear to separate the
frozen from the unfrozen areas. To unfreeze (thaw) the
screen press CTRL F5 again. PGUP and PGDN will scroll
through the file one line less than the unfrozen window.
You may freeze the screen in one area, change to another
and continue editing. This function is useful for
displaying two separate files or two parts of the same
file together.
F6 ASCII tables
This key invokes the ASCII tables. This is a small window
that displays 32 characters of the ASCII character set at
a time.
The table displays each character in decimal, hexadecimal
and ASCII. For example:
DEC HEX CHR
42 2A *
You may use the UP or DOWN arrows, HOME and END to move
through the pages. Press ESC to return to your file. If
you are on the first page of the tables, the F1 key will
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 63
toggle between character names and character literals.
NCAL.EXE must be either in the current directory or on
the PATH. There must also be at least 50Kb of memory
available to use the tables. If there is insufficient
memory, NED will display the message:
Can't load Help File
SHIFT F6 Calculator
This key invokes the calculator. This is a small window
not unlike a conventional hand held model. It uses the
standard 'infix' method of operand/operator/operand
notation (e.g 2 + 3).
The calculator provides floating point arithmetic to four
decimal places. All the normal functions of a calculator
are provided in both hexadecimal and decimal format. Use
the space bar to toggle between these two modes. When you
toggle between modes the currently displayed number will
be converted accordingly.
NED automatically selects NUM-LOCK allowing you to use
the numeric keypad for number entry. To enter hexadecimal
A to F use CTRL A to F. If you miskey a number you can
backspace (BS) over it and re-type or press 'e' to re
enter the whole number. Use 'c' to clear all operands and
operators.
If the number calculated is too large to be displayed the
calculator will show the message:
Overflow
When you have finished press ESC to return to your file.
Some of the special functions provided include OR (|),
AND (&) and XOR (x). For example:
A3F | 100 <Enter>
will produce the result:
B3F
NCAL.EXE must be either in the current directory or on
the PATH. There must also be at least 50Kb of memory
available to use the calculator. If there is insufficient
memory, NED will display the message:
Can't load Help File
CTRL F6 Toggle background printing
This key toggles background printing on or off. NED will
display either of the following messages:
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 64
Spooler on
Spooler off
If the spooler is active, NED will display the message:
Background is busy
You cannot turn background off when the spooler is
active. See the VSPOOL command in section 5.1 for details
on controlling the spooler once it is active.
F7 Record macro
This key tells NED to begin recording a keyboard macro.
When you press F7, NED will beep and display the message:
Enter Target Key (ALT F1-20)
Enter a key between ALT F1-20 (ALT F11-20 = ALT SHIFT F1-
10) to assign the macro to. As you record your macro, NED
will display the number of keystrokes you have pressed,
in the message area.
When you have finished press F7 again to end recording.
NED then displays the message:
End Record (macrokey)
You may record up to 128 keystrokes per macro. NED will
beep at the 127th keystroke. If you continue to enter
keys, NED will overwrite the 128th key. See section 4.4
and the MACRO command in section 5.1 for more information
on using macros.
SHIFT F7 Macro report
This key displays the Macro Report screen which
summarizes the current macro file (if one exists) and
then displays:
Key Description Number of Keystrokes
for each of the twenty keys. If the macro key is not
assigned "(free)" will appear in the description column
in the normal attribute. Macros that have been recorded
but not named will display "(untitled)". Used macro keys
will be displayed in bold. Press any key to return to
your file.
CTRL F7 Strip
This key toggles the strip flag on or off. When this flag
is on (default) trailing whitespace characters are
stripped off each line of the file as it is saved. When
this flag is off this process is suppressed.
F8 Search down
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 65
This key begins searching down for the expression
previously entered with the SPECIFY command. If no search
expression exists, NED will beep. If no match is found
NED displays the message:
(Pattern) not Found
If a matching pattern is found the cursor is placed at
the beginning of the pattern and it is displayed in bold.
You may continue searching down by pressing F8 again.
SHIFT F8 Search up
This key has exactly the same function as the F8 key
except that it searches up from the cursor position for
the search expression.
CTRL F8 Search from top
This key has exactly the same function as the F8 key
except that it searches down from the top of the file for
the search expression. This is a shortcut for the
following keystrokes:
<Ctrl Shift Home><F8>
If the pattern is not found the cursor will remain at the
beginning of the first line.
F9 Goto mark
This key takes the cursor to the line and column of the
marker and displays the line in bold. If no mark has been
set in the current area, NED displays the message:
Mark Not Found !
You must have previously marked the line with SHIFT F9.
SHIFT F9 Set/remove mark
This key sets a mark at the current line and column of
the cursor. The line is displayed in bold and will remain
so until the mark is removed by pressing SHIFT F9 again.
When a mark is set, NED displays the message:
Mark set
and:
Mark removed
when a mark is removed. Each of the nine areas can have
its own marker.
CTRL F9 Auto-entab
This key flips the auto-entab flag on or off. This flag
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 66
tells NED whether to automatically entab a file when it
is written to disk. NED displays the message:
Auto-entab on/off
when this key is pressed. See the NTAB command in section
5.1 for further details and section 5.3 for details on
the ENTAB statement in CONFIG.NED.
F10 Status screen
This key displays the Status screen. See section 3.5 for
a description of this screen. Press any key to return to
your file.
You may change areas by moving the current area arrow
with the UP or DOWN keys or by entering the number of the
area you wish to change to. If you choose an unopened
area you will be returned to your original file. SHIFT
F10 Save file
This key writes the current file to disk. It is a
shortcut for the following keystrokes:
<Esc>W<Enter><Esc>
CTRL F10 Auto-detab
This key flips the auto-detab flag on or off. This flag
tells NED whether to automatically detab a file when it
is read from disk. NED displays the message:
Auto-detab on/off
when this key is pressed.
See the DETAB command in section 5.1 for further details
and section 5.3 for details on the DETAB statement in
CONFIG.NED.
ALT A Goto column 1
This key moves the cursor to the first column of the Edit
window. If the FIRSTCOL statement in CONFIG.NED is set to
'0' this will be displayed as '0' otherwise it will be
displayed as '1' in the System window.
ALT B Erase to start
This key blanks the line from the current cursor position
to the beginning of the line.
ALT C Centre justify
This key centre justifies the current line. If the line
is less than or equal to 80 characters in length it is
centred over 80 characters. If it is longer, the line is
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 67
centred over 256 characters. If word wrap is on, NED will
centre the current line using the right hand margin if
possible.
ALT D Erase to end
This key erases the line from the current cursor position
to the end of the line. This key has the same effect in
Command mode.
ALT E End window
This key moves the cursor to the right most column of the
Edit window.
ALT F Field copy
This key copies one character from the line above (the
source line) at the current cursor position on the
current line (the target line) and moves the cursor one
space to the right. SHIFT ALT F does the same except it
copies a character from the line below. If insert is on,
the copied character is inserted into the current line
and no more than 256 characters will be allowed on the
target line. NED will beep if you attempt to insert more.
Characters will not be copied off the end of the source
line. If you are on the first line of the file and press
ALT F, NED will beep similarly if you are on the last
line and press SHIFT ALT F NED will also beep. For
example, with the source line:
The rain in Spain
if the cursor is placed on the next line under the 'S' in
'Spain' and ALT F is pressed five times, the result will
be:
The rain in Spain
Spain
ALT G Line case flip
This key flips the case of the current line. ALT G also
works in conjunction with the left and right SHIFT keys.
LEFT SHIFT ALT G will only flip lowercase letters RIGHT
SHIFT ALT G will only flip uppercase letters. For example
if you press ALT G on the following line:
The Rain In Spain
it will become:
tHE rAIN iN sPAIN
If you press LEFT SHIFT ALT G it will become:
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 68
THE RAIN IN SPAIN
If you press RIGHT SHIFT ALT G it will become:
the rain in spain
ALT H Insert Filename string
This key inserts the current filename into the current
line at the cursor position. If the cursor is past the
end of the line, the filename will be appended to the end
of the line. The string format will be the same as the
area's filename in the first line of the System window.
ALT I Auto-indent
This key flips the Auto-indent flag on or off. This flag
tells NED whether to indent the cursor under the first
non whitespace character of the previous line when you
press ENTER.
The status of this flag is shown on line 1 of the system
window (I) being bold if on. The default is off. This
flag can also be set with AUTOINDENT statement in
CONFIG.NED, see section 5.3 for details.
ALT K Erase line
This key blanks the current line. This should not be
confused with SHIFT F2 which removes the current line.
ALT L Left justify
This key left justifies the current line, removing all
leading whitespaces.
ALT M Character case flip
This key flips the case of the character under the cursor
(e.g. 'm' to 'M' or 'M' to 'm'). LEFT SHIFT ALT M will
only flip lower case letters and RIGHT SHIFT ALT M will
only flip upper case letters. After the character has
been flipped the cursor is moved one space to the right.
ALT N Start next line
This key moves the cursor to the first column of the next
line.
ALT O First column
This key flips the first column flag on or off. This flag
tells NED whether the first column is to be referred to
as '1' or '0'.
Note that changes made to this flag will be reflected
anywhere that NED uses column numbers, for example with
the GOTO command and the ruler. The default is off. This
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 69
flag can also be set with FIRSTCOL statement in
CONFIG.NED, see section 5.3 for details.
ALT P Start previous line
This key moves the cursor to the first column of the
previous line.
ALT Q Delete previous word
This key deletes the previous word (the word to the left
of the cursor). The text to the right of the cursor is
dragged to the left accordingly. This key has no effect
if you are on the first column of the line.
A word is defined as a character or group of characters
surrounded by one or more interword delimiters. See the
INTERWORD command in section 5.1 for more details.
ALT R Right justify
This key right justifies the current line. If the line is
less than or equal to 80 characters in length, it is
justified over 80 characters. If it is longer, the line
is justified over 256 characters. If word wrap is on, NED
will right justify the current line using the right hand
margin if possible.
ALT S Start window
This key moves the cursor to the left most column of the
Edit window.
ALT T Hard-tab
This key flips the hard-tab flag on or off. This flag
tells NED whether to treat the TAB key as a cursor
movement key when off, or to insert hard tab characters
into the file if on. The default setting is off. This
flag can also be set with HARDTAB statement in
CONFIG.NED, see section 5.3 for details.
ALT U Undo
This key will undo edits made within a line. This means
that the line is restored to its original state before
you changed it.
You may restore the changes you have made to the line
before you first pressed ALT U by pressing ALT U again.
There are certain situations where ALT U will have no
effect on the current line. Firstly, changes made to a
line cannot be undone once you move to another line.
Secondly, certain functions reset the line so that
further edits only may be undone. These functions are
split and join line entry of the Block Mode entry of
Command mode entry of Status screen shell to DOS
calculator ASCII tables and the Help system.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 70
ALT V Word wrap
This key toggles word wrap on or off. When on and the
cursor is moved past the right hand margin, if the next
character entered is an interword delimiter NED will open
up a new line. If the character entered is not an
interword delimiter, NED will split the line at the
beginning of the previous word. If a previous word cannot
be found the character will be added to the current line.
If you insert text into a line, NED will not wrap text
that is moved past the right hand margin until the cursor
passes the margin itself. The cursor remains in the same
relative position to the text wrapped to the new line.
The status of this flag is shown on line 1 of the system
window (W) being bold if on. The default setting is off.
This flag can also be set with the WORDWRAP statement in
CONFIG.NED, see section 5.3 for details. See section 3.4
for details on using word wrap.
ALT W Delete next word
This key deletes the next word (the word to the right of
the cursor). The text to the right of the deleted word is
dragged to the left accordingly. A word is defined as a
character or group of characters surrounded by one or
more interword delimiters. See the INTERWORD command in
section 5.1 for more details.
ALT Y Insert Date/Time string
This key inserts the current date and time into the
current line at the cursor position. If the cursor is
past the end of the line, the date/time string will be
appended to the current line. The string format will
conform to the DATEFMT statement in CONFIG.NED. Assuming
the date format 'dmy/', the string will appear in the
format:
dayname dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm {am|pm}
for example:
Thursday 18/05/1989 3:03 pm
The string is derived from the system clock.
ALT Z Column 256
This key takes the cursor to column 256. If the FIRSTCOL
statement in CONFIG.NED is set to '0' this will be
displayed as '255' otherwise it will be displayed as
'256' in the System window.
ALT - Snow
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 71
This key is for computers with CGA video adapters. With
these adapters, during a horizontal or vertical retrace,
contention between the processor and the screen produces
an unsightly snow or flickering on the screen. Because
NED writes directly to the video adapter the ALT - key
will synchronize screen writing with the retrace
interval. This produces a slightly slower display but one
that is a lot clearer.
With MDA, HERCULES, EGA or VGA adapters this is not a
problem and you should therefore ignore it. This option
can also be set with the SNOW statement in CONFIG.NED,
see section 5.3 for details.
ALT = 43/50 line modes
This option is for EGA and VGA displays only. This key
toggles between 25 and 43/50 line display modes. This
option can also be set with the MODE statement in
CONFIG.NED. See section 5.3 for details.
ALT 0 Screen colours
This key changes the screen colours for CGA, EGA and VGA
displays. When this key is pressed NED waits for a number
between 1 and 6 which corresponds to the following
settings:
1 Edit window foreground
2 Edit window background
3 System window foreground
4 System window background
5 Edit window intensity
6 System window intensity
Each time you press ALT 0 and select a number, NED
increments the appropriate colour (0-7 for foreground and
background or 0-15 for intensity) rolling the colour
number over if necessary (7 to 0 or 15 to 0). If you wish
to save the colours after you have been through this
process press CTRL F4 to save CONFIG.NED with the new
COLOUR and INTENSITY statements, see section 5.3 for
details on these statements.
ALT SPACE BAR Turn ruler on or off
This key turns the ruler display off or on. When on, the
ruler is displayed on the second line of the System
window when the cursor is in the Edit window. The ruler
defaults to on. When you enter Command mode, the ruler is
always cleared. You can set whether the ruler is on or
off when NED is loaded with the RULER statement in
CONFIG.NED, see section 5.3 for details.
CTRL 2/CTRL @ Quit
This key allow you to quit NED. It is a shortcut for the
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 72
following keystrokes:
<Esc>Q<Enter>
Depending on the type of keyboard you use, one of these
keys will work. See section 5.1 for details on the QUIT
command.
CTRL ESC Hard Escape
This key allows you to insert an escape character (chr
27) into your file.
CTRL M Split line enter
When word wrap is off, this key splits the current line
at the cursor position. All characters from the cursor to
the end of the line will form a new line under the
current line.
After the line is split, the cursor is moved to the
beginning of the new line. If word wrap is on, the
functions of CTRL M and ENTER are reversed.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 73
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NED v1.5x User's Guide
Section 5.3 Configuration Reference
Introduction
This section describes all the statements that may be
used in the start up file CONFIG.NED. These statements
are used to configure NED to your requirements.
AUTOINDENT
Syntax: AUTOINDENT={ON|OFF}
This statement sets whether Auto-indent is on or off when
NED is loaded. If this statement is not included in
CONFIG.NED, Auto- indent defaults to off. See the ALT I
function in section 5.2 for further details.
BACKUP
Syntax: BACKUP=directory
This statement sets the backup directory. If the
directory does not exist NED will prompt you to create
it. If this statement is not included in CONFIG.NED and
the BACKUP command is not issued, backups will be written
to the current directory. See the BACKUP command in
section 5.1 for further details.
COLOUR
Syntax: COLOUR=fore,back[,fore,back]
This statement allows you set the default colours used by
NED. The first two parameters are the foreground and
background of the Edit window. These values must be
numbers between 0 and 7. The third and fourth parameters
are optional and allow you to set the foreground and
background colours of the System window. For example the
following statement:
COLOUR=7,1,0,7
will set white text on a blue background in the Edit
window, and black text on a white background in the
System window. Note that this statement will not work
with a monochrome adapter (MDA or HERCULES). Monitors
that are not colour but display shades of grey will
respond to this statement. If this statement is not
included in CONFIG.NED, NED will default to the following
settings:
COLOUR=7,0,0,7
See section 4.9 for a table of the colour numbers.
DATEFMT
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 74
Syntax: DATEFMT=formatstring
This statement allows you to specify the format of the
date string displayed in the Status screen, insert date
function and in File Display mode. The formatstring is
made of four characters. The first three specify the
order of day, month and year the last character specifies
the separator.
Symbol Meaning
D Day
M Month
Y Year
char Separator character
If this statement is not included in CONFIG.NED, DATEFMT
will default to the following:
DATEFMT=DMY/
which will display the date as Day/Month/Year. The
following example will set the date to American format:
DATEFMT=MDY-
DETAB
Syntax: DETAB={ON|OFF}
This statement sets the auto-detab flag on or off. When
this feature is on, NED automatically replaces hard-tabs
with spaces when a file is read. If this statement is not
included in CONFIG.NED, DETAB will default to off. See
the DETAB command in section 5.1 for further details.
ENTAB
Syntax: ENTAB={ON|OFF}
This statement sets the auto-entab flag on or off. When
this feature is on, NED automatically replaces spaces
with hard tabs when a file is written to disk. If this
statement is not included in CONFIG.NED, ENTAB will
default to off. See the NTAB command in section 5.1 for
further details.
FILE
Syntax: FILE=pathname
This statement specifies a file that will be loaded if no
pathname or File List is specified on the DOS command
line. This is useful if you are only working on one file.
Saving CONFIG.NED with CTRL F4 will assign the current
filename to this statement. See section 5.2 for details
on the CTRL F4 function.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 75
If this statement is not included in CONFIG.NED and no
pathname or File List is specified NED will return you to
DOS with the following message:
err!: no file to edit
usage: NED <filename|wildcard|@filename> <...>
FIRSTCOL
Syntax: FIRSTCOL={1|0}
This statement allows you to determine whether the first
column of a line is displayed as '0' or '1'. If this
statement is not included in CONFIG.NED, FIRSTCOL will
default to column 1.
This statement is useful for writing screen layouts in
languages where the first screen column is referred to as
'0'. The first column may be toggled with the ALT O key.
See section 5.2 for details.
GOTO
Syntax: GOTO=line[,column]
This statement tells NED to place the cursor at the
specified line and optional column of the first file that
is loaded. This is useful if you are working on a
particular line in a large file. Saving the CONFIG.NED
with using CTRL F4 will assign the current line and
column to this statement. If this statement is not
included in CONFIG.NED, GOTO will default to the first
line and column of the file. See section 5.1 for details
on the GOTO command. Note that if you have set the
FIRSTCOL parameter to '0', and the following statement
appeared in CONFIG.NED:
GOTO=1,1
then the cursor will be placed at the second column of
line 1.
HARDTAB
Syntax: HARDTAB={ON|OFF}
This statement presets the hard-tab flag on or off. When
this flag is on the TAB key inserts tab characters into
the file. If this statement is not included in
CONFIG.NED, HARDTAB will default to off. See the ALT T
function in section 5.2 for further details.
INSERT
Syntax: INSERT={ON|OFF}
This statement sets insert on or off. If it is on, NED
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 76
will be in insert mode upon loading. If this statement is
not included in CONFIG.NED, NED will default to overtype
mode. See section 5.2 for details on the INS key.
INTENSITY
Syntax: INTENSITY=boldcolour[,boldcolour]
This statement allows you to set the bold colours used by
NED. The first parameter sets the bold for the Edit
window, the second optionally sets the bold attribute for
the System window. The value of boldcolour should be a
number between 0 and 15. The bold attribute is used to
highlight important information in many of NED's
functions such as displaying search finds or showing a
marker. The following example:
INTENSITY=12,15
will set the Edit window intensity to bold red and the
System window intensity to bold white. If this statement
is not included in CONFIG.NED, INTENSITY will default to
the following settings:
INTENSITY=15,15
INTERWORD
Syntax: INTERWORD=char0[,char1...charN]
This statement presets the interword delimiter set. To
include a space in the set you must embed it within other
characters. If this statement is not included in
CONFIG.NED, INTERWORD will default to a space. See
section 5.1 for details on the INTERWORD command. The
following example:
INTERWORD=; ,:
will set the interword delimiter set to a semi-colon, a
space, a comma and a colon.
MACROS
Syntax: MACROS=macrofile
This statement tells NED to load a predefined macrofile
when starting up. The default extension is .MCR, so the
extension need not be given. You can specify a full
pathname for the macrofile. See the USE command in
section 5.1 for further details.
LAYOUT
Syntax: LAYOUT=length,topmargin,bottommargin[,leftmargin]
This statement sets the print page dimensions. If this
statement is not included in CONFIG.NED, LAYOUT will
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 77
default to the following:
LAYOUT=66,3,3,0
which sets the page length to 66 lines, the top and
bottom margins to 3 lines and the left margin to 0
characters. See the YLAYOUT command in section 5.1 for
details on page layouts.
MAXLINES
Syntax: MAXLINES=number
This statement sets the maximum number of lines a file
may have. This number must be between 1 and 10240. If
this statement is not included in CONFIG.NED, MAXLINES
will default to 5120.
If you are only working on small files say no more than
1000 lines then the statement:
MAXLINES=1200
will give a considerable memory saving over the default.
This is because all open areas are allocated room for the
maximum number of lines. You can decrease the number of
lines if you find you are running out of memory. You can
increase the number of lines if you wish to work on one
large file.
MODE
Syntax: MODE={CGA|EGA|EGA43|HERC|MDA|VGA}
This statement tells NED what type of monitor you are
using. NED determines whether you are using an EGA, CGA
or MDA monitor when loading. If, however, you are using a
Hercules or a compatible monitor, MODE must be set to:
MODE=HERC
If you have an EGA or VGA or compatible monitor, you may
instruct NED to load up in either 43 or 50 line modes by
specifying one of the following statements:
MODE=EGA
MODE=EGA43
MODE=VGA
MODE=VGA50
If this statement is not included in CONFIG.NED, and NED
cannot determine the monitor type, MODE will default to
CGA.
RULER
Syntax: RULER={ON|OFF}
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 78
This statement tells NED whether to display the ruler
when NED is loaded. ALT SPACE BAR also toggles the ruler
on or off. If this statement is not included in
CONFIG.NED, the ruler will default to on. See section 2.2
for details on the ruler.
SNOW
Syntax: SNOW={ON|OFF}
This statement sets the display speed to synchronised for
CGA or fast for MDA, HERC, EGA and VGA. When set off,
screen writing is synchronised with the retrace interval
thus avoiding SNOW on the CGA. If this statement is not
included in CONFIG.NED, and you have a CGA monitor, SNOW
will default to off, otherwise SNOW will default to on.
See section 5.2 for details on the ALT - function.
SORT
Syntax: SORT={DIR|EXT|FILE|TIME|SIZE}
This statement sets the type of sort used in the
directory window of the File Display mode. If this
statement is not included in CONFIG.NED, SORT will
default to DIR. See section 4.3 and 5.5 for more details.
SPOOL
Syntax: SPOOL={0|1}[,timeslice]
This statement controls NED's print while you work
spooler. If you specify '1' all printing will be sent to
the spooler in background. If you specify '0' all
printing will be in foreground. The optional timeslice
parameter allows you to adjust the amount of time
allocated to the foreground (your keyboard usage). This
value can be between 1 and 8192. The default timeslice is
128. The larger the timeslice, the less time will be
allocated to printing. If this statement is not included
in CONFIG.NED, SPOOL will default to the following:
SPOOL=0,128
STRIP
Syntax: STRIP={ON|OFF}
This statement presets the strip flag on or off. When
this flag is on, trailing whitespace characters are
stripped from the end of each line as the file is written
to disk. You may for some reason desire to have trailing
whitespace characters preserved when the file is written.
In this case set the flag to off. If this statement is
not included in CONFIG.NED, STRIP will default to on.
TABSET
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 79
Syntax: TABSET=column1[,column2...,columnN]
This statement sets the tabstop template to the values
given. If you specify only one column parameter, tabs are
set to a width of column-1 for the entire template. If
more than one column is given, tabstops are set
accordingly. The difference between the last two columns
is used to set the remaining tabstops. If this statement
is not included in CONFIG.NED, TABSET will default to the
following:
TABSET=5
See the TABSET command in section 5.1 for further
details.
WORDWRAP
Syntax: WORDWRAP={0|1}[,rightmargin]
This statement controls NED's word wrap system. If you
specify '1', NED will start up with word wrap on. If you
specify '0' word wrap will be off. The optional
rightmargin parameter allows you to set the right hand
margin used with word wrap centre and right justify. This
value can be between 1 and 256. If this statement is not
included in CONFIG.NED, WORDWRAP will default to the
following:
WORDWRAP=0,65
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 80
*********************************************************
NED v1.5x User's Guide
Section 5.4 Block Mode Reference
Introduction
This section describes the keys that can be used in Block
Mode described in section 3.4 above. Some keys compliment
normal functions keys that operate on individual lines.
UP/DOWN ARROWS Previous/next line These keys enlarge or
shrink the block over the previous or next line. If you
press UP or DOWN on the first and last lines of the file
respectively, NED will beep.
PGUP/PGDN Previous/next page
These keys enlarge or shrink the block over the previous
or next page. These keys will have no effect at the
beginning or end of the file.
CTRL HOME/CTRL END Top/bottom of file
These keys enlarge or shrink the block to the top or the
bottom of the file.
LEFT/RIGHT ARROWS Previous/next character
These keys work with intra-line blocks only. They expand
or shrink the block to the previous or next character.
CTRL LEFT/CTRL RIGHT Previous/next word
These keys work with intra-line blocks only. They expand
or shrink the block to the previous or next word.
HOME/END Start/end of line
These keys work with intra-line blocks only. The HOME key
expands the block from the cursor position to the start
of the line. The END key expands the block from the
cursor position to the end of the line. If the current
cursor position is to the right of the starting position
of the cursor when you entered Block Mode (anchor point)
and you press HOME, the block will be resized so that it
is bound by the new cursor position and the anchor point.
The reverse applies for the END key.
INS or + Copy to scrap
This key copies the block to the scrap buffer. The
original contents of the scrap buffer is lost. If the
block was inter-line, NED displays the message:
number lines copied to scrap
After the block has been copied, you are returned to edit
mode.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 81
DEL or - Cut to scrap
This key cuts (deletes) the block to the scrap buffer.
The original contents of the scrap buffer is lost. If the
block was inter-line, NED displays the message:
number lines cut to scrap
After the block has been cut, you are returned to edit
mode.
C Centre justify
This key centre justifies the block. Each line is centred
separately. If a line is less than or equal to 80
characters in length it is centred over 80 characters. If
it is longer, the line is centred over 256 characters. If
word wrap is on, NED will centre each line using the
right hand margin if possible.
L Left justify
This key left justifies the block. Each line is justified
separately.
R Right justify
This key right justifies the block. Each line is
justified separately. If a line is less than or equal to
80 characters in length it is justified over 80
characters. If it is longer, the line is justified over
256 characters. If word wrap is on, NED will justify each
line using the right hand margin if possible.
S Copy to search string
This key works with intra-line blocks only. It copies the
block to the search string. The original search string is
lost. You are returned to edit mode where you can then
press
F8/SHIFT F8/CTRL F8
to begin searching. This is a short cut for the SPECIFY
command.
* Copy to last parameter string
This key works with intra-line blocks only. It copies the
block to the last Command mode parameter string. The
original last parameter string is lost. You are returned
to edit mode where you can then enter Command mode (ESC)
and press F3 to retrieve the string for your next
command.
TAB/SHIFT TAB Move block left/right a tabstop
These keys work with inter-line blocks only. They move
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 82
the block right or left one tabstop. The actual distance
moved depends on the proximity of the block to the
nearest tabstop.
If in moving the text, the line under or over flows, it
will be clipped or truncated accordingly. Therefore take
care when using SHIFT TAB as you cannot undo these keys.
Once you are satisfied with the position of the block,
press ESC to return to editing or issue one of the other
Block Mode commands.
SPACE BAR/BS Move block left/right a space
These keys work with inter-line blocks only. They move
the block left or right one column. If in moving the
text, the line under or over flows, it will be clipped or
truncated accordingly. Therefore take care when using
backspace as you cannot undo these keys. Once you are
satisfied with the position of the block, press ESC to
return to editing or issue one of the other Block Mode
commands.
F4 Enter/exit block mode
F4 enters or exits Block Mode. If you have only selected
a block, pressing F4 will return you to edit mode with no
changes. The cursor will be left at the start of the
block.
ESC Exit block mode
ESC exits block mode. If you have only selected a block,
pressing ESC will return you to edit mode with no
changes. The cursor will remain at the end of the block.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 83
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NED v1.5x User's Guide
Section 5.5 File Display Reference
Introduction
This section describes the keys available in the File
Display mode. This mode can be used with the OPEN, USE,
BACKUP, WRITE and END commands. See section 4.3 for more
details on using File Display mode.
UP/DOWN ARROWS Previous/next file
These keys move the selection bar up or down in either
the directory window or the File List. Either screens
will scroll up or down if there are more entries than can
be displayed in the current window.
HOME/END First/last file
The HOME/END key moves the selection bar to the
first/last entry in either the directory window or the
File List.
PGUP/PGDN Previous/next page
These keys scroll the directory window or File List
window up or down one page.
CTRL LEFT/CTRL RIGHT Previous/next file
These keys move the selection bar to the previous or next
entry in the directory window only.
LEFT/RIGHT ARROWS Previous/next line
These keys move the selection bar left or right one entry
on the current line of directory window only.
TAB Move to File List
This key moves the selection bar between the directory
window and the File List. If there are no entries in the
File List you will remain in the directory window.
INSERT (INS) Copy file to list
This key works in the directory window only. It copies
the currently selected entry to the end of the File List.
If the entry is a '.' or a '\' then all the entries from
the directory are copied to the end of the File List.
DELETE (DEL) Delete file from list
This key works in the File List only. It deletes the
currently selected entry. If it is the only entry in the
list you will be moved over to the directory window.
CTRL K Delete list
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 84
This key works in the File List only. It deletes all the
entries in the list. You will then be moved over to the
directory window.
CTRL F4 Write list
This key works in the File List only. It writes the
current File List to FILES.NED.
ENTER Select file
This key returns the currently selected file from the
directory window or the File List to which ever command
was used to enter File Display mode. This is most likely
to be a file to open with the OPEN command. If the entry
is a subdirectory or a drive (in the directory window)
then NED will change to the drive or directory and
display its contents. When using File Display with the
BACKUP command, only drives and subdirectory names are
displayed. To return a directory to the BACKUP command
use CTRL ENTER.
ESCAPE Exit file display
This key aborts File Display mode and returns you to the
command area.
ALT D,T,F,S,X Sort directory
These keys sort the entries in the directory window as
follows:
D Directory order
F Alphabetically
S File size
T Time/date
X Extension
NED remembers the sort used when you re-enter File
Display mode. The default sort type can be set in
CONFIG.NED with the SORT statement. See section 5.3 for
details.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 85
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NED v1.5x User's Guide
Section 5.6 Regular Expression Reference
Introduction
This section describes the Regular Expression Language
used with the SPECIFY command. See section 5.1 for more
details on this command. Regular expressions are a way of
representing text patterns in a symbolic shorthand. The
symbols used to define these expressions fall into five
categories:
Symbols that match a specific character
Symbols that match any character
Symbols that match a character's position on the line
Symbols that match any of a set of characters or anything
except a set of characters
Symbols that let you match the previous symbol any number
of times
An expression may be made up of any or all of the above
categories.
CARAT (^) Start line
This symbol matches any text at the beginning of a line.
For example:
^cat
will match the string "cat" only if it is located at the
beginning of a line so that:
the cat
would not be matched.
DOLLAR ($) End line
This symbol matches any text at the end of a line. For
example:
cat$
will match the string "cat" only if it is located at the
end of a line so that:
cat nap
would not be matched.
PERIOD (.) Any character
This symbol matches any one character. Generally this
symbol by itself will always find a match. Its use is
usually as a placeholder. For example:
c.t
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 86
will match:
cat, cot, cut
but will not match:
coot, coat or couch etc.
ASTERISK (*) Match last expression
This symbol matches zero or more matches of the preceding
expression. For example:
c.*t
will match:
cat, coat, chart, compliment
Here the preceding expression is the period. Therefore
NED searches for any word starting with 'c' and ending in
't'.
SQUARE BRACKETS ([]) Character class
The square brackets define a set of characters known as a
character class. NED will then match any character in
that set. Character classes are usually used in
conjunction with other language elements. For example:
c[aou]t
will match:
cat, cot, cut
but will not match:
cet, cit, cyt
If the first character in the brackets is a carat (^)
then patterns with characters not appearing in the
brackets will be searched for. For example:
c[^aou]t
will not match:
cat, cot, cut
but will match:
cit, cet, cft, czt
The brackets may also be used to specify ASCII ordered
ranges by specifying the beginning and end of the range.
For example:
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 87
c[a-z][A-Z]t
matches any upper or lower case letter so that:
cat,cIt,crt,cGt
will all be matched.
SPECIAL CHARACTERS
The regular expression language allows you to search for
the following special characters:
\t tab
\s space
\b backspace
The backslash tells NED that the character that follows
is to be treated literally except with the above three
characters. Therefore to search for characters used in
the language, prefix them with the backslash as follows:
\\ backslash
\* asterisk
\. period
\^ carat
\[ left bracket
\] right bracket
\$ dollar
for example:
if\snot\s\[\*2\]
will match:
if not [*2]
EXAMPLES
You can form many expressions using the language. Here
are a few examples:
[a-z][a-z]*ism
Matches any 'ism' word e.g. 'prism'. In this example you
must repeat the character class range twice to match it
any number of times.
/\*.*\*/
Matches any comment line in a C program, for example: /*
this is a comment */
will be matched.
^[\s\t]*REM.*$
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 88
Matches any comment line in a BASIC program.
The following expression:
^[a-z][a-z]*[\s\t]*.*([^;]*)[^;]*$
will find any C function declaration with function body.
The expression searches for beginning of a line (^)
followed by one or more occurrences of any character in
the range a to z ([a-z][a-z]*) followed by either a space
or a tab repeated zero or more times ([\s\t]*), followed
by any character repeated zero or more times (.*),
followed by an open parenthesis (() followed by any
character except a semi-colon repeated zero or more times
([^;]*), followed by a close parenthesis ()), followed by
any character except a semi-colon repeated zero or more
times ([^;]*) followed by an end of line ($). For
example, the above expression would match:
WINDOW *get_window(int start,int finish,char *store)
but not match:
WINDOW *get_window (int, int, char *);
The above example only matches 'C' function bodies and
not function prototypes. It is useful for compiling a
cross-reference of all of the functions in a module. As
you can see expressions can be very complicated yet
extremely powerful filters can be created.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 89
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NED v1.5x User's Guide
Section 5.7 Printer Command Reference
Introduction
This section outlines the embedded printer commands
described in sections 4.5 and 5.1. The syntax of a print
command line is as follows:
.prncmd[.prncmd]...
A print command line must begin with a period '.',
followed by the command. You may issue more than one
print command on each line by separating each command
with a period.
BOLDFACE
Commands: bf, bo
These commands instruct the printer to switch bold
printing on or off. 'bf' will turn bold printing on and
'bo' will turn it off.
IGNORE PAPER OUT
Commands: pf, po
These commands instruct the printer to ignore or respond
to the paper out sensor. 'pf' will tell the printer to
ignore the paper out sensor and 'po' will tell the
printer to respond to it.
ENHANCED
Commands: hf, ho
These commands instruct the printer to switch enhanced
printing on or off. 'hf' will turn enhanced printing on
and 'ho' will turn it off.
SUPERSCRIPT
Commands: su, so
These commands instruct the printer to switch superscript
printing on or off. 'su' will turn superscript printing
on and 'so' will turn it off.
SUBSCRIPT
Commands: sb, so
These commands instruct the printer to switch subscript
printing on or off. 'sb' will turn subscript printing on
and 'so' will turn it off.
FORM FEED
Commands: ff, fo
The 'ff' command instructs the printer not to send a form
feed when it has finished printing. 'fo' enables the
sending of a form feed when finished printing. Note that
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 90
issuing a 'fo' command after a 'ff' command in the same
file will have no effect. Where this is useful is to
concatenate two print files together. Issue the 'ff'
command in the first file and 'fo' in the second.
UNDERLINE
Commands: ul, uo
These commands instruct the printer to switch underline
printing on or off. 'ul' will turn underline printing on
and 'uo' will turn it off.
ELONGATED
Commands: lf, lo
These commands instruct the printer to switch elongated
printing on or off. 'lf' will turn elongated printing on
and 'lo' will turn it off.
CONDENSED
Commands: cf, co
These commands instruct the printer to switch condensed
printing on or off. 'cf' will turn condensed printing on
and 'co' will turn it off.
LINES PER INCH
Commands: ia, ib, io
These commands instruct the printer to change the line
spacing. 'ia' sets line spacing to 1/8 inch. 'ib' sets
line spacing to 7/72 inch (often 13/120). 'io' sets the
line spacing to 1/6 inch which is usually the default.
ESCAPE SEQUENCES
Command: esequence
This command allows you to send escape sequences to the
printer. It must be either the only or the last command
on a print command line. When NED recognizes an escape
sequence command it sends an escape character (1Bh)
followed by the remaining characters on the line.
.e@
resets an Epson FX type printer
.e50
enables auto line feed on an IBM graphics printer.
EXAMPLES
The following is an example of using the printer
commands.
.bf.hf.ul
The Rain In Spain
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 91
.uo
Stays mainly on the Plain.
.bo.ho.e@
The above sets bold on, enhanced on and underline on then
prints 'The Rain...'. It then turns underline off and
prints 'Stays mainly...'. It then turns bold off,
enhanced off and resets the printer.
INLINE PRINTER COMMANDS
You can insert your own printer commands directly into
your file by using CTRL ESC and Shift In (chr 14) and
Shift Out (chr 15). For example:
The rain in <Ctrl Esc>GSpain<Ctrl Esc>H stays mainly
on the plain.
When printed on an Epson FX, will appear as:
The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain.
On an HP LaserJet, Shift In and Shift Out select the
primary and secondary fonts respectively. For example, if
the primary font is Courier and the secondary font is
Courier bold the following line:
The rain in <Alt 15>Spain<Alt 14> stays mainly on
the plain.
When printed on an HP LaserJet, will appear as:
The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain.
In this example, to generate the Shift In and Shift Out
characters, hold down the ALT key and type 14 or 15 on
the numeric keypad.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 92
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NED v1.5x User's Guide
Chapter 6. Tutorials
6.1 Introduction
These tutorials are designed to assist you to become more
familiar with NED. They introduce the main skills needed
to operate NED effectively.
You should have read Chapter 1 before you start here. You
may find it useful to read Chapters 2 and 3 prior to
starting these tutorials to familiarize yourself with the
range of commands available. It is assumed you have
installed NED correctly and that the system files are
either in the current directory or on the PATH. See
section 1.2 for details on installing NED.
In the tutorials, special keys such as SHIFT F2 or ALT F
will be surrounded by angle brackets. Characters not
surrounded by angle brackets should be typed literally.
Also make sure you press ENTER only when specified.
6.2 Tutorial One - A DOS menu system This tutorial will
guide you through the creation of a simple DOS batch menu
system. We will create this system in a separate
subdirectory so as not to interfere with any existing
batch files. Firstly enter the following command at the
DOS prompt:
md \nedtut<Enter>
If the message:
Unable to create directory
was displayed, then enter the following:
del \nedtut<Enter>
y<Enter>
to remove any existing files. Regardless, enter the
following command:
cd \nedtut<Enter>
Creating the menu files
Now at the DOS prompt enter the following command:
ned menu.bat menu.txt<Enter>
As NED loads it will copy the two filenames from the
command line to the File List, then NED will attempt to
open 'menu.bat' (the first file in the list). Since
'menu.bat' does not exist, NED will prompt you to confirm
its creation. Press 'y' to proceed. NED displays the
following message:
(new file)
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 93
Now enter the following:
echop<Left><Del><space bar>off<Enter>
The obvious typing error is corrected by moving the
cursor left with the LEFT arrow and pressing the DEL key
to remove the 'p' in 'echop'. Now enter the following:
cls<Enter>
type \tut\menu.txt
These lines are the commands to display the menu screen,
which you will create shortly. Note that the ENTER key is
needed to open up a new blank line. Before we continue,
there is one more error to correct. The pathname of the
menu text file should be '\nedtut\menu.txt'. To correct
it, press the following keys:
<Home><Ctrl Right><Right>
which moves the cursor to the beginning of the line,
moves to the second character of the next word. Next you
need to ensure that you are in insert mode. If the cursor
appears as a quarter block you are in overtype mode, so
press INS to change to insert mode. If the cursor appears
as a half block you are already in insert mode. Now type
the following to correct the pathname:
ned
Now to save this file, enter the following:
<Esc>W<Enter>
which takes you into Command mode and issues the WRITE
command. NED displays the message:
3 lines written
the file is left open and you are left in Command mode.
The next step is to create the menu screen. Type the
following:
O<Enter>
As for 'menu.bat' above, you will have to confirm the
creation of 'menu.txt' by pressing 'y' when prompted.
Exit Command mode and return to the Edit window by
pressing the ESC key. You now need to ensure that the
Auto-indent feature is set on. The status of Auto-indent
is displayed on the top line of the screen between memory
free % and the line counter. If on, 'I' appears in bold
attribute if off, it will be in normal attribute. Press
ALT I if it is off. Turn the CAPS LOCK on, the status of
which is displayed by the 'C' character in the same area
as the Auto-indent flag. Now type the following:
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 94
S Y S T E M M E N U<Alt C><Enter>
Note that a space should be typed between each letter and
three spaces between the two words. ALT C will centre the
line, and ENTER will open a new line below.
Next, we will underline the menu title. Enter the
following:
<Esc>F=,21<Ctrl Enter>
This instructs NED to fill from the current cursor
position with 21 '=' characters. The CTRL ENTER key
returns you directly to the Edit window. Insert three
blank lines by pressing ENTER three times, then enter the
following line:
1 - DISPLAY DIRECTORY TREE<Alt C><Enter>
As above, this line will be centred and a new line
opened. On the new line type the following:
2 -<Space bar>
We have inserted space bar since we want a trailing
space. Then press ALT F seven times. Each time you press
ALT F a character from the line above is copied to the
cursor position and the cursor is moved to the right.
This saves you from having to retype 'DISPLAY'. Now type
the following:
<Space bar>CHKDSK INFO
Then press:
<Ctrl F3><F2><Ctrl Right>
which takes a copy of the current line, inserts the copy
below the current line, and then moves to the beginning
of the first word on the new line.
We will now edit this new line to create your third menu
option. Press the INS key to change to overtype mode,
type '3' to replace the '2' at the beginning of the line
and press CTRL RIGHT three times. This will position you
at the beginning of the word 'CHKDSK'. Now press ALT D to
delete the remainder of the line and then type:
DOS ENVIRONMENT<Enter><Enter><Enter>
which will complete the third menu option and open up
three blank lines below. Now type the menu instructions
as follows:
ENTER THE NUMBER FOR THE OPTION YOU WANT
<Alt C><Enter>
OR ENTER "MENU" TO REDISPLAY THIS SCREEN
<Enter>
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 95
This completes the entry of the screen text, which we
will now finish formatting. Press the following:
<Ctrl Home><Down><Down><Down><Down><Enter>
Which will take you to the top of the file, move the
cursor down to the first menu option and insert a blank
line between the first and second menu options. Now press
the following:
<Down><Enter><Down><Down><Down><Down>
which inserts a blank line between the second and third
menu options and moves the cursor to the menu
instructions. Press the following keys:
<Alt G><Home><Alt M>
to convert the line to lower case, move to the start of
the line and flip the case of the 'e' in 'enter' to 'E'.
Now press:
<Down><Alt G><Ctrl Right><Ctrl Right><Right>
which moves you to the second instruction line, flips its
case and moves the cursor to the 'm' of '"menu"'. Then
press ALT M four times to change 'menu' to uppercase. The
screen should now look like the following:
S Y S T E M M E N U
=====================
1 - DISPLAY DIRECTORY TREE
2 - DISPLAY CHKDSK INFO
3 - DISPLAY DOS ENVIRONMENT
Enter the number for the option you want
or enter 'MENU' to redisplay this screen
This finishes your menu screen. To save your work to disk
press:
<Shift F10>
This is a shortcut for the WRITE command you used
earlier. NED should display the message:
14 lines written
Creating the option files
We now want to create a batch file for each option in the
menu. To do this, press the following keys:
<Alt 1><Ctrl Home><F4><Down><Ins>
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 96
This changes you to the first area which contains
'menu.bat'. ALT 1 to 9 are shortcut keys to change to
another area and 'menu.bat' is in area 1. This then
moves the cursor to the first line, enters Block Mode,
expands the block to cover the first two lines, then
copies the block to the scrap buffer and exits Block
Mode.
Your first option file will be called '1.bat'. Use the
OPEN command to create it as follows:
<Esc>O1.bat<Enter>y<Esc>
We will use the contents of the scrap buffer to form the
basis of the first option file. Press the following keys:
<F2><Shift F2>
which inserts a copy of the scrap buffer below the
current line and then deletes the blank line
automatically inserted by NED when the file was created.
We now want to finish the option file by adding the
command to display the DOS tree and then to redisplay the
menu text. Press the following:
<Ctrl End><Enter><Caps Lock>
to move to the end of the file and open a blank line,
turn the Caps Lock off. Now type the following:
wis . | more<Enter>
menu
We will now use this file as the basis of '2.bat' by
pressing the following:
<F4><Ctrl Home><Ins>
To create '2.bat' we will use the same procedure as you
used with '1.bat', by typing:
<Esc>O2.bat<Enter>y<Esc>
<F2><Shift F2>
We now want to finish this option file by replacing the
'wis' command with the 'chkdsk' command. Press the
following:
<Down><Down><Alt K>
These keys move the cursor to the third line and remove
its contents. Now type:
chkdsk /f *.* | more
As with this the last file, we will create the basis of
'3.bat' with '2.bat'. Press the following:
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 97
<Ctrl Home><F4><Ctrl End><Ins>
<Esc>O3.bat<Enter>y<Esc>
<F2><Shift F2>
To finish this option file we will replace the 'chkdsk'
command with the 'set' command. Press the following:
<Down><Down><Alt K>set
You now have five open files. The Status screen helps to
keep track of open files. Press F10 to view this screen.
Note that the option batch files have a flashing 'Y' in
the 'Changes' column. The Status screen should look
something like the following:
Area File Name Size Lines Last Write Changes
1 MENU.BAT 39 3 20/07/1989 at 12:15 am N
2 MENU.TXT 406 14 20/07/1989 at 12:23 am N
3 1.BAT 5 (new file) Y
4 2.BAT 5 (new file) Y
> 5 3.BAT 5 (new file) Y
6 (area unopened)
7 (area unopened)
8 (area unopened)
9 (area unopened)
Press any key to return to the current file. To save the
files that have changed, use the LAUNDRY command as
follows:
<Esc>L<Enter>
You might like to have another look at the Status screen
to check that all changed files have been written.
Testing the menu system
We now want to test the menu system. To do this you will
have to return to DOS. Since we are already in Command
mode, enter the following:
Q<Enter>
Now at the DOS prompt type:
menu<Enter>
which will display the menu text. To run the first option
type:
1<enter>
You will no doubt see that the directory tree is
immediately replaced by the menu text. To fix this
problem, we will have to edit our batch files. Reload NED
as follows:
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 98
ned *.bat<Enter>
NED expands and sorts the filenames matching the '*.bat'
wildcard into the File List. NED then opens the first
file in the list which will be '1.bat'. Now type the
following:
<Down><Down><Enter>pause
to insert the 'pause' statement under the 'wis'
statement.
We need to insert this command in the other option batch
files. Copy the current line to the scrap buffer by
pressing CTRL F3. Because we know that the 'pause'
command needs to be inserted at the same place in the
remaining option batch files, we can record the
keystrokes used for the second option file to a macro. We
will then only need to press the macro key to repeat the
keystrokes for the third option file. Press the following
keys:
<F7><Alt F1>
which begins recording keystrokes to ALT F1. NED displays
the message:
Recording (ALT F1)
Now press:
<Ctrl F1><Down><Down><F2>
to open the next file in the File List which will be
'2.bat', and insert scrap buffer under the third line. To
finish recording the macro, press F7. NED displays the
message:
End Record (ALT F1)
Now we can use the macro to update the third option
file. Press ALT F1 and the 'pause' command will be added
to '3.bat'! To test these changes, we will save and quit
NED by using the 's' parameter with the QUIT command
as
follows:
<Esc>Qs<Enter>
At the DOS prompt type:
menu<Enter>
1<Enter>
When the command has finished, you will be asked to
strike any key when ready. When you strike a key the menu
text will be displayed. Test the other options if you
wish.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 99
That completes Tutorial One. To learn more about NED
proceed to the next tutorial.
6.3 Tutorial Two - Programming with NED
This tutorial will show you more of NED's capabilities,
particularly those that assist with the writing of
computer programs. We have chosen the BASIC language for
the examples in this tutorial since it is the most
widely understood language. If you have not been through
the first tutorial then you will not be able to complete
this tutorial as you will need to use 'menu.txt'. Enter
the following to remove the tutorial file:
del \nedtut\sample.bas<Enter>
If the message:
File not found
is displayed, ignore it and enter the following command
to change to the tutorial directory:
cd \nedtut<Enter>
Now at the DOS prompt enter the following command:
ned sample.bas<Enter>
Since 'sample.bas' does not exist, NED will prompt you to
confirm its creation. Press 'y' to proceed.
The Program Header
Firstly we want to create the program header. This will
consist of a few comment lines with the filename and
date. Enter the following:
REM <Esc>F-,75<Ctrl Enter><Enter>
<Alt F><Alt F><Alt F><Alt F>
In the first line, the word 'REM' will be followed by 75
'-' characters from the FILL command. A new line is
opened up, the 'REM ' is field copied from the first line
to the second line.
Next you need to ensure that you are in insert mode. If
the cursor appears as a quarter block you are in overtype
mode, so press INS to change to insert mode. If the
cursor appears as a half block you are already in insert
mode. Now type the following:
File name:<Tab><Tab><Alt H><Enter>
Here we have used the ALT H key to insert the current
filename at the cursor position. When in insert mode, the
TAB inserts spaces up to the next tabstop. Now repeat the
above field copy as follows:
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 100
<Alt F><Alt F><Alt F><Alt F>
Date created:<Tab><Alt Y>
As above, this copies the 'REM ' from the previous line,
and inserts the current date/time at the end of the line.
To complete the header we will copy the first line of the
file to the end of the file. Press the following:
<Ctrl Home><Ctrl F3><Ctrl End><F2><Down>
<Enter><Enter>
CTRL HOME and CTRL END move the cursor to the first or
last line of the file. After the comment line has been
inserted, two blank lines are opened up below it. Using
Auto-indent and Enter to Format code One of the most
common program constructs is the 'if/else'. NED has an
Auto-indent feature which makes the entry of this type of
structure easy. To toggle Auto-indent on, press ALT I.
The status of Auto-indent is displayed on the top line of
the screen between memory free % and the line counter. If
on, 'I' appears in bold attribute if off, it will be in
normal attribute. Now enter the following:
if a = b<Right Shift Enter>
You will notice that the cursor is now one tabstop into
the new line. This is because when you press the RIGHT
SHIFT in combination with ENTER NED moves the cursor one
tabstop to the right. Now type:
if a = c<Right Shift Enter>
olda = a<Enter>
a = b<Left Shift Enter>
endif<Left Shift Enter>
endif<Enter>
You will notice that when you press ENTER by itself, the
cursor will appear under the first non-whitespace
character of the previous line. The effect of pressing
LEFT or RIGHT SHIFT is to move the cursor one tabstop to
the left or right of that position. Now type the
following:
else<Enter>
<Tab>oldb = b<Enter>
b = a
Here the ENTER and TAB keys perform the longhand version
of the RIGHT SHIFT ENTER we used before. We now we want
to move these three lines to above the last 'endif'.
Press the following:
<F4><Up><Up><Del><Ctrl F2>
Which enters Block Mode, selects the last three lines,
cuts them to the scrap buffer and finally CTRL F2 inserts
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 101
the block above the current line. To finish this routine,
enter the following:
<Right Shift Enter>If a = c
<Down><F4><Down><Tab><Esc>
<Down><Ctrl F3><F2><Home><Tab>
This inserts another 'if' statement below the 'else',
enters Block Mode, selects the next two lines, moves them
one tabstop to the right and exits Block Mode. The third
line takes a copy of the 'endif' line, inserts it under
the current line. The cursor is moved to the start of the
line and the line is moved one tabstop to the right.
Making Corrections to code Some versions of BASIC will
not accept the 'endif' as one word. To correct this enter
the following:
<F4><Ctrl Right>s
Here we have used the 's' function in Block Mode to copy
the 'endif' to the search expression. This is a shortcut
for the SPECIFY command. To make the replacements, type
the following:
<Esc>Rend if,g<Enter>
Each time the search expression is found you will be
prompted to replace it with 'end if'. Answer 'y' each
time you are prompted. NED will then display the message:
3 replaced, 0 overflows.
showing you the total number of replacements and the
number of overflows. Overflows occur when the replacement
text expands the line to more than 256 characters. BASIC
also requires a 'then' to follow the 'if' condition which
we have not included. To correct this we will use the
Regular Expression '^\s*if' to specify our search pattern
and append 'then' to the line. We will also record the
keystrokes needed to do this to a macro so that the
process can be repeated. Enter the following:
S^\s*if<Ctrl Enter><Ctrl Home>
The carat '^' in the expression specifies the beginning
of a line, the '\s' which specifies a space character and
the asterisk '*' which tells NED to match the preceding
expression (being the space) zero or more times. To
record the edits for the first 'if' statement, press the
following:
<F7><Alt F8><F8><End><Space Bar>then<F7>
This begins recording the macro key ALT F8, then searches
for the first matching 'if' statement, moves to the end
of that line and adds ' then' and finishes recording the
macro. Now press ALT F8 two times to fix the remaining
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 102
'if' statements. The file should now look something like
the following:
REM -----------------------------------------------------
REM File name: SAMPLE.BAS
REM Date created: Wednesday 19/07/1989 12:55 pm
REM -----------------------------------------------------
if a = b then
if a = c then
olda = a
a = b
end if
else
if a = c then
oldb = b
b = a
end if
end if
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
Getting a Copy of the Screen Layout
It is often necessary to design a screen layout prior to
coding. In this section we will convert the menu screen
'menu.txt' you created in the first tutorial to BASIC
statements. If you have not created the menu screen, go
back and complete Tutorial One. To start with, we need to
open 'menu.txt' and copy its contents to the current file
'sample.bas'. Enter the following:
<Esc>O<F1>
This takes you to File Display mode where you can select
the file 'menu.txt' by using the arrow keys to move the
high-light to the filename and pressing ENTER. If you
cannot find 'menu.txt' go back to the first tutorial and
create it as instructed. Now press ESC to return to the
Edit window and press the following keys:
<F4><Ctrl End><Ins>
which will copy the entire file to the scrap buffer.
Return to 'sample.bas' by using the Status screen as
follows:
<F10><Up><any key>
When you change areas using the Status screen, you may
also press the number of the area you wish to change to.
To insert this screen into your file, press the
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 103
following:
<Ctrl End><F2><Enter><Enter>
Converting the Layout to Program Statements
Now type the following:
CLS<Enter>
LOCATE<space bar><space bar>3,
You now need to move the cursor to the beginning of the
first line of the menu screen by pressing:
<Down><Home>
Note the column number, then press:
<Up><End>
then type the number of the column, which should be '30'.
Then type the following:
PRINT "
Now join the menu screen line by pressing the following:
<F3><Alt W><End>";
The ALT W removes the leading spaces from the menu line
and the '";' completes the 'PRINT' statement.
We will now copy this line and use it as the basis of the
next statement. Press the following:
<Ctrl F3><F2><Ctrl Right><Ctrl Right>
which copies the current line and inserts it below and
then moves the cursor over the row parameter of the
'LOCATE' statement. Make sure insert is off (overtype
mode) and enter '4'. To complete the line press the
following:
<Ctrl Right><Right><Alt D><F3><Alt W>";<Enter>
which deletes the copy of the 'PRINT' statement text and
joins the next line from the menu layout. The next step
is to take a copy of the previous line's 'LOCATE' and
'PRINT' statements and insert them for the three option
lines. To do this type the following:
<Up><F4><Ctrl Right><Ctrl Right><Right><Right><Ins>
<F7><Alt F2><Down><F2><Down><F2><Down><F2><F7>
In addition to inserting the block, this records the
necessary keystrokes to the macro key ALT F2 for later
use. Now move the cursor to the beginning of the first
option line by pressing:
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 104
<Down><Home>
Again, note the column number which should be '28'. Now
press UP three times, then the following:
<Home><Ctrl Right>7<Right>28
<Down><Ctrl Left>9<Alt F><Alt F><Alt F>
<Down><Ctrl Left><Left>11<Alt F><Alt F><Alt F>
This renumbers the 'LOCATE' statements for the menu
options. Note the use of field copy ALT F to copy the
column number from the previous line. We now need to
append '";' to the end of each of these statements. To do
this we will copy the characters from a completed line
and insert them at where needed. Press the following:
<Up><Up><Up><End><F4><Left><Left><Ins><Alt F2>
Here we have used the macro you created above to insert
the scrap at the end of these lines.
We now need to remove the blank lines from between the
menu options. Press the following:
<Down><Down><Shift F2><Down><Shift F2>
We will record a macro to move the menu options to their
'PRINT' statements. In this example we will also name the
macro using the MACRO command. Press the following:
<Esc>MMove menu options<Enter><Shift Alt F4>
<Home><F4><End><Del><Up><Up><Up>
<End><Ctrl Left><Right><F2><Down><Down><F7>
This macro has been assigned to ALT F14. It cuts the last
menu option and places it between the double quotes of
the last 'PRINT' statement, then it returns the cursor to
the previous menu option. Press SHIFT F7 to view the
Macro Report screen. You will notice the name of the
macro we have just recorded is displayed. The other macro
we recorded ALT F2 was not named and thus displays the
message '(untitled)'. Press any key to return to the Edit
window. Now press SHIFT ALT F4 twice to move the
remaining menu options.
The last step is to convert the two instruction lines to
'LOCATE' and 'PRINT' statements. Open a new line and copy
the 'LOCATE' statement by pressing ENTER, and then ALT F
eight times. Now press the following:
4,<Down><Shift F2><Shift F2><Shift F2>
<Shift F2><Shift F2>
to remove the blank lines between the code and the
remainder of the layout. To find our column number press
HOME, note the number (which should be 21), and then
press the following:
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 105
<Up><End>21<Alt F><Alt F><Alt F><Alt F><Alt F>
<Alt F><Alt F><Alt F><Shift F2><F2><Ctrl F2>
This inserts a copy a copy of the line between the two
menu instruction lines. Note that you must press ALT F
eight times. Now press:
<F3><Alt W><End>";
This completes the first menu instruction line. To
compete the second line, press:
<Down><Down><Home><Ctrl Right><Alt D>
Esc to exit this menu<Alt C><Home>
Note the column position (should be 29);
<End>";
Which will centre the line. To correct the 'LOCATE'
statement, press the following:
<Up><Home><Ctrl Right><Right><Right><Right>
<Right>9<End><F3><Alt W><Shift F5>
SHIFT F5 redraws the screen with the current line in the
centre of the window. The screen should look something
like the following:
CLS
LOCATE 3,30:PRINT "S Y S T E M M E N U";
LOCATE 4,30:PRINT "=====================";
LOCATE 7,28:PRINT "1 - DISPLAY DIRECTORY TREE";
LOCATE 9,28:PRINT "2 - DISPLAY CHECKDISK INFO";
LOCATE 11,28:PRINT "3 - DISPLAY DOS ENVIRONMENT";
LOCATE 14,21:PRINT "Enter the number for the option you
want";
LOCATE 14,29:PRINT "or Esc to exit this menu";
~
This finishes the conversion to code of the menu screen.
Firstly we will close 'menu.txt' and then save
'sample.bas'. Enter the following:
<Alt 2><Esc>C<Enter>E<Enter>
Since 'sample.bas' is the only open file after we closed
'menu.txt', NED will exit to DOS after writing the file.
This completes tutorial two.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 106
*********************************************************
NED v1.5x User's Guide
Appendix A. Messages
The following gives a description and necessary advice
for the messages found in NED.
number lines converted
NED has successfully executed a DETAB or NTAB
command.
number lines copied from Scrap
NED has just copied text from the Scrap into your
file.
number lines ONLY copied from Scrap
NED has copied number of lines only. Usually because
there is insufficient memory or the maximum number
of lines has been reached.
number lines copied to Scrap
NED has just copied text from your file into Scrap.
number lines cut to Scrap
NED has just cut (deleted) text from your file into
Scrap.
number lines read
NED has successfully read a file.
number lines sorted
NED has successfully sorted a file.
number lines written
NED has successfully written your file.
number% read
NED has read number% of a file.
number replaced, number overflows.
NED has told you how many replacements it made and
the number of overflows that occurred in your file.
number% written
NED has written number% of your file.
Area Not Open !
You have attempted to select an unopened area.
Auto-detab off
NED will not detab a file when it is read.
Auto-detab on
NED will detab a file when it is read.
Auto-entab off
NED will not entab a file when it is written.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 107
Auto-entab on
NED will entab a file when it is written.
Backup Creation Error, using default
A backup file could not be made in the specified
backup directory. The current directory is used.
Bad Area !
You specified an invalid area number.
Bad Fill Spec or Not Valid to Fill
Your fill specification is invalid or the number of
characters to fill will not fit in the current line.
Bad Line Number !
You specified a non-existent line number.
Bad Replacement Specification.
You haven't entered a search expression or no
replacement specification was given.
Bad Tab Stop
You specified an tabstop setting out of range or
order.
Background is busy
The spooler is still busy in background mode. You
cannot exit to DOS or switch the background off
until spooling is finished.
(Block Mode)
You have just entered block mode.
Buffer full, Continue ? (Y/N)
The file that NED was trying to read is bigger than
the area buffer. If you continue, NED will only
recognize lines up to the buffer size. Increase the
MAXLINES statement in CONFIG.NED and reload.
Can't Create BACKUP Directory
The BACKUP directory you specified could not be
created (e.g. volume name or a bad directory name).
Can't load Help File
Either NHELP.EXE or NCAL.EXE is not in the current
directory or it is not on the PATH or else there is
not enough memory to load it.
Can't open file
The filespec given could not be opened (e.g. it was
a subdirectory or a wildcard).
Can't open spool file
A temporary file needed by the spooler could not be
opened. Check DOS for insufficient disk space or too
many files. Don't delete spooler files (those
matching sp??????) when shelling to DOS.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 108
Can't open spoolfile (file)
The temporary spoolfile (the file you printed) could
not be opened. Check DOS for insufficient disk space
or too many files.
Changes will be lost, Confirm (Y/N)
You've just told NED to close a file which has
changed. If you answer 'Y' the changes will be lost.
'char' Filled number Times
NED has successfully filled a char number of times.
CONFIG.NED written to disk
NED has just written its current settings to
CONFIG.NED.
Create BACKUP Directory ? (Y/N)
The BACKUP directory you specified does not exist.
If you answer 'Y' NED will attempt to create it.
Cursor must point to {(<[]>)}
The brace matching function only works when the
cursor points to one of the listed characters.
DOS: Type 'EXIT' to come back ...
You've just shelled to DOS.
End of File List reached
There are no more files in the File List to open or
there is no File List.
End Record (macrokey)
You have just finished recording a Macro (e.g. ALT
F1).
Enter MACRO Name or <ret> for none
You've entered the MACRO command. You can specify a
name for a macro and begin recording or rename an
existing macro.
Enter Target Key (ALT F1-20)
You have just started a Macro record. You must
assign the Macro to a function key.
Error Reading !
NED has encountered a DOS error whilst reading a
file.
Error Writing !
NED has encountered a DOS error whilst writing the
file.
File Exists! Overwrite (Y/N) ?
You have specified a filename which exists. If you
answer 'Y' its contents will be overwritten with the
current file.
Insufficient Memory !
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 109
You have requested an operation for which there is
insufficient memory to perform.
Insufficient Memory to Store Line
We just ran out of memory! Save your file(s) and
exit to DOS.
Insufficient memory to use MACROS
Not enough memory is left to use Macros. Usually a
start-up error. Use CHKDSK to see that there is
sufficient memory to load NED.
Insufficient memory to use SPOOLER
Not enough memory is left to use the spooler.
Usually a start-up error. Use CHKDSK to see that
there is sufficient memory to load NED.
Invalid colour key
You have entered an invalid colour key after
pressing ALT 0. Only a number between 1 and 6 is
allowed.
Invalid column sort width
The columns you have specified are out of range or
non-existent for sorting with the ZSORT command.
Invalid directory name
You have specified an invalid directory name for the
BACKUP command. Check with your DOS manual for valid
directory name characters.
Invalid filename
You have specified an invalid filename. Check with
your DOS manual for valid filename characters.
Invalid MACRO File or File name !
You have specified a corrupted or non-existent Macro
file.
Invalid print page layout
You have specified a page layout that is not
possible (e.g. the top and bottom margins are
greater than the page length).
Invalid right hand margin
The right hand margin for word wrap must be between
1 and 256.
Invalid sort offset
The sort width given is not valid (e.g. the width is
greater than the maximum number of columns).
Invalid timeslice value
The timeslice must be an integer between 1 and 8192.
Key entered Not a valid MACRO key !
You have specified an invalid Macro key. Macro keys
must be between (ALT F1-20).
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 110
MACROS Restored from File
NED has successfully loaded a Macro file.
MACROS Saved to File
NED has successfully saved a Macro file.
Mark Found
You have just executed the goto mark key and NED has
found a marker.
Mark Not Found !
You have just executed the goto mark key and NED has
not found a marker.
Mark removed
The mark on the current line has been removed.
Mark set
The current line has been marked.
Match Not Found !
NED did not find a matching {(<[]>)}.
(new file)
You are editing a new file.
No Free Areas left !
You already have nine open areas.
ok
Operation successful.
Ok to Create ? (Y/N)
You have specified a file which does not exist. If
you enter 'Y' NED will attempt to create it.
Overwrite old MACRO File ? (Y/N)
You have just told NED to KEEP a macro file that
already exists. If you answer 'Y' it will be
overwritten.
Overwriting old BACKUP file
The previous backup file is being overwritten with
the current backup file.
(pattern) not Found
NED did not find the search pattern you specified.
Press F1 for File Display
You have issued an OPEN, WRITE, END, BACKUP or MACRO
command. You may enter File Display mode by pressing
F1.
Printer Off Line. Check & Retry.
The printer does not respond to initialization.
Check it and retry.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 111
Printer Not Ready, Continue ? (Y/N)
The printer is not on line and can't be selected.
Check and press 'Y' to proceed.
(processing line linenumber)
NED is processing line linenumber of the file (e.g.
printing).
Recording (macrokey)
You are now recording a Macro (e.g. ALT F1).
Replace ? (Y/N)
You have just issued a REPLACE command. NED has
found a match and is asking you to confirm replacing
it with the new string.
(replacing)
NED is replacing text.
(S)ave, (A)bort or (C)ancel ?
You have just tried to QUIT without saving a changed
file. Enter S, A or C.
Save this file ? (Y/N)
You have just issued a LAUNDRY command with the 'p'
option. NED has recorded changes in this file and is
asking you to confirm the save.
Spool file killed
You have just removed a selected file from the spool
queue.
Spooler empty or area not used
You have attempted to remove a spool file that is
not in the queue.
Spooler not active
You have attempted to issue a spooler command when
it is not active.
Spooler off
You have just pressed CTRL F6. Background printing
is disabled.
Spooler on
You have just pressed CTRL F6. Background printing
is enabled.
Spooler queue is full
There are already 9 files in the queue. Wait until a
few have been printed and try again.
Spooling resumed
You have just issued the Vp command while spooling
was suspended.
Spooling suspended
You have just issued the Vp command while spooling
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 112
was active.
Spooler terminated
The current spool file has been aborted and all
files in the spooler queue have been removed.
Strip off
NED will not strip trailing whitespace characters
when writing a file.
Strip on
NED will strip trailing whitespace characters when
writing a file.
Unrecognized spooler command
Check the function reference section for valid
spooler commands.
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 113
*********************************************************
NED v1.5x User's Guide
Index
'*' function 18
'a' parameter 23, 48
'At' files 11, 31
'c' function 19
'k' parameter 36, 51
'n' parameter 51
'p' parameter 17, 44
'r' function 19
'r' option 33, 45
'r' parameter 50
's' function 18, 19
's' parameter 24, 31
't' command 51
1MARGIN command 19, 53
43/50 line modes 37, 71
ALT 0 38, 71
ALT 1 to ALT 9 16
ALT F1 to ALT F20 33, 45
ALT generation method 13
AREA command 16, 40
ASCII tables 37, 62
ASTERISK 86
Auto-detab 20, 66
Auto-entab 20, 65
Auto-indent 57, 68
AUTOINDENT statement 27, 73
Background printing 30, 35
BACKUP command 15, 24, 27, 40
Backup dir 20
BACKUP statement 73
Begin recording 64
Blank previous character 56
Block mode 18, 60
BOLDFACE 89
Brace match 61
Browse 15, 31, 46
Calculator 36
CARAT 85
Centre justify 17, 66
CGA 29,71
Character case flip 68
CLOSE command 16, 41
Colour 27, 37, 71
COLOUR statement 27, 72
Column 256 102
Command area 12, 15, 57
Command mode 15, 41
Command selection mode 15
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 114
Commands 40
Comments 26
Compulsory parameters 40
CONDENSED 90
CONFIG.NED 26, 73
Copy a line 17
Copy file to list 32
Copy line 17
Copy to last parameter string 18, 19
Copy to scrap 17, 18
Copy to search string 19
Current dir 20
Current keystroke number 33
Current Search Expression 21
Cut to scrap 19
Date/Time 20
Date/Time string 70
DATEFMT statement 27, 73
Decimal 36, 63
Default delimiter 17
Delete character 56
Delete file from list 33, 83
Delete line 60
Delete list 33
Delete next word 17, 70
Delete previous word 17, 69
DETAB 41, 74
Directory area 32
DOLLAR 85
DOS command line 11
DOS commands 54, 61
DOS shell 61
Editing window 11, 12
EGA 29
ELONGATED 90
Embedded printer commands 89
END command 16, 23, 42
End window 14
ENHANCED 89
ENTAB 74
Entering parameters 15
Erase line 17, 68
Erase to end 17
Erase to start 66
ESCAPE SEQUENCES 90
Example macro file 34
Exit Command mode 57
Field copy 17, 67
FILE 26
File Display Mode 31
File List 11, 15, 30
FILE statement 26, 74
Filename string 68
FILL command 42, 99
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 115
Finish recording 33
First column 28
First/Last line 80
FIRSTCOL statement 28, 66, 75
Force a write 16
FORM FEED 89
Free memory 20, 47
Freeze cursor 58
Freeze/thaw 62
Function keys 8, 15
GOTO 43, 68
Goto column 1 14, 66
Goto mark 65
GOTO statement 28, 75
Hard Escape 13, 72
Hard-tab 13, 20, 69
HARDTAB statement 28, 75
HELP command 13, 43
Hexadecimal 36, 37
High-bit characters 13
IGNORE PAPER OUT 89
Infix 36, 63
INSERT 112
Insert mode 13, 57
INSERT statement 28, 75
Installation 9
INTENSITY statement 28, 37, 76
Interword chars 17, 20, 43
INTERWORD command 17, 43
INTERWORD statement 29, 76
JEJECT 44
Join line 17, 60
Justified 17
KEEP command 34, 44
Last parameter 15, 19, 32, 40
Last search specification 15
LAUNDRY command 16, 44, 97
LAYOUT statement 29, 52
Left justify 17, 18, 68
Left tab 58
Line case flip 17, 67
LINES PER INCH 90
MACRO command 15, 33, 44
Macro report 34, 45, 64
Macros 33
MAXLINES statement 12, 29, 46, 77
Memory resident program 61
MODE statement 29, 77
Move block left/right a space 18, 82
Move block left/right a tabstop 81
Move to file list 83
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 116
NCAL.EXE 36
NHELP.EXE 13
Notational conventions 7
NTAB command 45
OPEN command 15, 16, 30, 45
Open new line above 57
Open new line below 56
Open next file 16, 59
Overtype mode 13, 28
Page layout 29
Parameter entry mode 15
PATH 9
PERIOD 85
Positioning keys 13
Previous/Next character 56
Previous/Next line 55
Previous/Next page 55
Previous/Next word 14, 56
Print a file 34
PRINT command 34, 47
Print the current file 47
QUIT command 23, 48
Re-sort the directory 32
Record macro 33
Recording macros 33, 44
Redraw 62
Regular Expression Language 21, 49, 85
Rename an existing macro 33
REPLACE command 15, 21, 23, 48
Restore 17, 59
Restore above 18, 60
Restore scrap 17
Retrace interval 71
Reverse Video 18, 32
Right justify 69
Right tab 13
Ruler display 12, 68
RULER statement 23, 77
Save configuration 87
Save file 16
Scrap buffer 12, 17
Screen colours 37
Scroll bar 33
Search down 21
Search from top 21
Search keys 21
Search up 21
Select file 84
Select File List 58
Set/remove mark 65
SHIFT TAB 13, 58
Snow 71
NED v1.5x User's Guide Page 117
SNOW statement 29, 78
Sort directory 84
SORT statement 29, 78
SPECIAL CHARACTERS 87
Special escape sequences 90
Special keys 15
SPECIFY 15, 18, 21, 48, 49
Split line 17, 60
Split line enter 19, 72
SPOOL statement 30, 78
Spooler 35
SQUARE BRACKETS 86
Start next line 14, 68
Start previous line 14, 69
Start window 14, 66
Start/End line 13, 55
Status Screen 20
Strip 20, 51
STRIP statement 30, 78
SUBSCRIPT 89
SUPERSCRIPT 89
System information 11
System window 11
TAB 13, 18, 58
TABSET 49
TABSET statement 30, 78
Terminate Stay Resident 47, 61
Timeslice 30, 50
Top/Bottom screen 14, 55
Trailing whitespace characters 30, 64
Typewriter 12
UNDERLINE 90
Underscore 18
Undo 18, 69
USE command 31, 34, 50
VGA 29
VSPOOL command 36, 50
Wildcard specification 11, 31
Word wrap 70
WORDWRAP statement 20, 30, 53
WRITE command 16, 51
Write list 33
XSAVE command 31, 51
YLAYOUT command 35, 52
ZSORT command 52