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- RE - The Robot Editor for P-Robots and C-Robots
-
- BJ Gleason
- Upsala College
- Computer Science Department
- Puder Hall
- East Orange, NJ 07019
-
-
- INTRODUCTION
-
- I have been having my students use the P-ROBOTS and C-ROBOTS
- compiler for quite some time. Their major complaint was that it
- wasn't an interactive environment like Turbo-Pascal or Quick-C.
- They found the old edit/compile/debug/edit process tedious.
-
- I obtained a copy of Borland's Turbo Pascal Editor Toolbox and
- modified their simple editor. RE (Robot Editor) is the result.
- It uses the Binary Editor from the Toolbox and adds some
- additional commands to make it work with the robot games. You
- can edit your robot, and then compile it and run a game. Once
- the game is completed, you are returned to the editor.
-
- Since a lot of the work was done by Borland, this program is
- being distributed free of charge with no restriction of usage.
- The source code is not available for distribution.
-
- If you have any problems or suggestions, please feel free to
- write to me at the above address.
-
- INSTALLATION
-
- RE must be placed in the same directory as the compilers and the
- source files. At present it will not search the dos path for the
- compilers.
-
- The official names of the compilers used by the editor are:
-
- P-ROBOTS.EXE
- C-ROBOTS.EXE
-
- You might have to change the name of the compiler if is called
- something else, like CROBOTS.EXE.
-
- The maximum filesize is 64k. You will need at least 128k more
- memory than the compiler requires to use the editor and compiler
- together.
-
-
- USING RE
-
- To run RE, use the same exact command line format you would use
- for the robot compiler of your choice and replace the name of the
- compiler with RE. For example:
-
- P-ROBOTS KILLER M66 /M5
- becomes
- RE KILLER M66 /M5
-
- This will load up the first file "KILLER" into the editor. You
- may edit this file to your heart's content. To compile and
- execute, press F9. This will use the proper the compiler and
- play the game. When the game is finished, you will be returned
- to the editor.
-
- NOTE:When you press F9 to execute the compiler, the current
- copy of the file in the editor will over write the old
- copy on disk!
-
- When the match is over, you can press any key to return to the
- editor.
-
- Since RE is a separate program, it will not automatically move to
- a syntax error location like the Borland Products.
-
- The editor uses the default extension '.PR', for a P-ROBOT
- program. If editing for C-ROBOTS, be sure to include the '.R'
- extension. If you do not use the '.R' extension, the editor will
- think you are editing a P-ROBOT file.
-
- You should make sure that the first parameter after the command
- 'RE' is the name of the file you wish to edit. While
-
- C-ROBOTS -m5 m66 sniper
-
- is legal, this will cause a problem if you use the editor
-
- RE -m5 m66 sniper
-
- this will try to load a file called '-M5.PR'. Make sure your
- robot program is the first parameter. For the above example:
-
- RE m66 sniper -m5
-
- will work proper and give the correct results.
-
-
- CHANGING THE COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS
-
- After you start the editor, you can change the parameters passed
- on the command line at anytime by pressing F10. This will
- display the current command line and allow you to edit them. If
- you do not want to change it, press the RETURN key. If you make
- a mistake and want to abandon the edits, press the ESC key.
-
- You will only be able to edit the command line after the name of
- the robot you are editing. If you entered the command line:
-
- RE KILLER M66 ROBO MIKE
-
- you will be able to edit
-
- M66 ROBO MIKE
-
- but not 'KILLER', since this is the name of the file you are
- editing. To change the file, edit the editor and load a new
- file.
-
- EXITING
-
- The normal way of exiting is F2. This will save a file only if
- any changes have been made to it. This is similar to ^KD, but
- ^KD will always write the file to disk. F2 only writes the file
- if it has changed since the last time it was written to disk, so
- it is typically a faster way to exit. Remember, the file in
- memory is written to disk each time you invoke a compiler. For
- convenience, ALT-X works the same as F2.
-
-
- EDITOR COMMANDS
-
- ^S LEFT character left
- ^D RIGHT character right
- ^A word left
- ^F word right
- ^E UP line up
- ^X DOWN line down
- ^R PGUP page up
- ^C PGDN page down
- ^W scroll up
- ^Z scroll down
-
-
- ^L repeats last ^QF or ^QA
- ^P insert control code
- ^V toggle Insert mode
- ^T delete word
- ^Y delete line
- ^G DEL delete current character
- ^M RETURN new line
- ^N insert new line
- ^I TAB tab
- ^H BACKSPACE delete character left
-
- ^QR ^PGUP Start of file
- ^QC ^PGDN Bottom of file
- ^QB Beginning of block
- ^QK End of block
- ^QF Find
- ^QA Find and replace
- ^QS HOME Beginning of line
- ^QD END End of Line
- ^QE ^HOME Top of screen
- ^QX ^END Bottom of screen
- ^Q0..^Q3 Jump to Marker 0..3
- ^QY Delete to end of line
- ^QP Previous cursor position
- ^QL Restore previous line
-
- ^KB F7 Set block start marker.
- ^KK F8 Set block end marker.
- ^KC Copy marked block.
- ^KV Move marked block.
- ^KY Delete marked block.
- ^KH Hide block
- ^KT Mark current word as block
- ^KW Writes the marked block to a file.
- ^KR Reads a file to cursor
- ^KP Print block
- ^KQ Abandon file
- ^K0..^K3 Set Marker 0..3
- ^KD Save and exit editor
-
- ^OI Toggle autoindent mode
- ^OT Toggle fixed tab mode
-
- ROBOT SPECIFIC COMMANDS
-
- F2 ALT-X Exit, save if modified
- F9 Compile and Execute robot compiler
- F10 Modify command line parameters
-
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
-
- Thanks to David Malmberg and Tom Poindexter for developing their
- wonderful robot programs. Thanks to Larry Eklekamp for his help
- with the robot editor project.
-