Current Shareware 1994 January/SHAR194.ISO/textedit/wp4prog.zip/WP4PROG.DOC

Text File | 1993-04-23 | 19.1 KB | 431 lines

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            WordPerfect For Programmers User Interface for
                       The SemWare Editor V1.0
       The Semware Editor Copyright 1991-1993 SemWare Corporation.
                    All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

        WordPerfect for Programmers Interface by Mike Hammer 4/93

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Contents:

You should have received in this ZIP (or whatever) packet:

    wp4prog.doc     the file you are reading right now
    history         where all this came from
    wp4prog.s       macro & TSE program definition file
    wp4prog.key     key assignments - who does what
    wp4prog.hlp     help file - when you press F1
    wp4prog.cfg     configuration file w/ colors, etc
    wp4prog.doc     the file you are reading right now

These files are for use with The Semware Editor, or TSE. TSE is
Semware's latest high-end, high-speed text editor, with full programmer
functionality, text editing versatility, user-programmable interface,
macro/application programming language, etc, etc, etc. If you don't yet
own a copy of TSE, BUY ONE! You'll never regret it. Semware's address
and phone numbers are as follows.

    Semware Corporation
    Suite C3A
    4343 Shallowford Road
    Marietta, GA  30062-5022
    U.S.A.

    voice phone  [phone]
    support BBS  [phone]
    CompuServe   GO SEMWARE (select Section 6)
                 or 75300,2710


Other Acknowledgements

I freely borrowed (er, stole) ideas, pieces and functions from the
following places:

    QEdit, in my mind and experience the best text editor available
        for most uses (until Tessie, that is)
    Randy Brook's WordPerfect-style interface for QEdit, revised by Tim
        Farley. I've been using this interface in its various modes,
        of course customized, for four years now (unbelievable...)
    The WordPerfect interface for TSE supplied with TSE v1.0 ßeta (yes,
        the interface does all the pretty little marks!)
    The TSE standard interface, from which I stole a whole lot of neat
        functions (not to mention all the menus!).
    Vi and Emacs, arguably the ultimate C programmer's editors
        (especially when you consider vi (pronounced vee-eye) has been
        used to edit C programs for UNIX for almost twenty years now!).
        These are highly specialized code editors that you don't want to
        use for anything else, trust me. (I had to do my first resume in
        vi and it took almost a week to format the thing!!!)
    And of course, WordPerfect, my companion of many years. (More on
        this in the HISTORY file.)


Disclaimers.

I have a great product disclaimer I send with "professional" software I
write, but it all boils down to this:

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL THE AUTHOR OR ANY OF HIS HEIRS OR ASSIGNS BE
LIABLE FOR ANY USE MADE OF THE ENCLOSED FILES OR INTERFACE RESULTING
FROM THESE FILES FROM NOW UNTIL THE END OF TIME, WHETHER SUCH PERCEIVED
LIABILITIES BE OF A PERSONAL, BUSINESS OR CORPORATE NATURE.

THE PROGRAMMER'S LIABILITY FOR YOUR USE OF THIS INTERFACE IS LIMITED BY
LAW TO WHAT YOU PAID THE PROGRAMMER FOR THESE FILES -- NOTHING.

INSTALL AND USE THESE FILES WITH CAUTION, AS MISUSE OR PROBLEMS IN THE
USE OF THESE FILES CAN RESULT IN THE LOSS OF CRITICAL DATA.

BY READING AND/OR INSTALLING THESE FILES YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND ACCEPT THIS
DISCLAIMER, AND ACCEPT ALL RESPONSIBILITY UPON YOURSELF FOR ANY USE OR
ABUSE MADE OF THE INFORMATION IN THE ABOVE LISTED FILES FOR ALL OF TIME.

Also, I've never been a beta tester for Semware or had any other
professional connection with them. I'm just a very satisfied customer.
I've been using QEdit since the late '80's, bought QEdit when I could
afford it, and purchased Tessie as soon as it was offered.


Licensing Stuff

This user interface is a gift to my friends Sammy Mitchell and Matthew
Giles at Semware for all the times they put up with my whining about not
having vi and emacs functions. Most of them we got figured out and
plugged into my QEdit Advanced; the rest of the things I wanted are
already in Tessie. Mind you, I have never met these guys face to face,
nor talked to them on the phone. It's all been BBS, with a 24-hour
average response time. Wow.

From now on, this interface is officially the property of Semware
Corporation. They can do with it what they will without any obligation
at all to me, not even so much as putting up with more of my whining.

If you already bought Tessie, you can use this interface too. Please
take out of it what you want, make improvements to it, and be sure to
post whatever you create for the rest of us to enjoy. It's as much a fun
art as anything else.

If you use WP and got this file without owning Tessie already, get on
the phone, order Tessie, and when it comes install this to see how good
a WordPerfect-based programming editor can be. Much better than the old
WP PE.EXE was...

If you don't like or use WordPerfect, Tessie comes with an
almost-standard programmer's interface and a Brief standard interface
(or you can write your own with the best macro language in the
business!), can edit up to 32 megabytes of file(s); I have personally
used the wp4prog interface on a 28 megabyte trace-run file at work. And
you can't beat the price! Get it! Use it! Love it!



Installing the Interface

1) First, you need to have a copy of Tessie installed on your machine. I
will assume you did the default installation, which created a directory
called UI underneath the main TSE subdirectory. This is where you will
doctor Tessie by "burning in" a new User Interface (what the UI stands
for, I presume).

2) Change to this "UI" directory, or whatever directory you want to do
this in.

3) Copy the SC.EXE and E.EXE files from the TSE subdirectory to the UI
directory you should be in. (You don't want to change your current copy
of E.EXE, the main editor, in case you don't like this interface!)

4) Unzip or copy the files listed above (wp4prog.*) into this
subdirectory.

5) Give the following command to install the interface:

                        sc -b wp4prog

You should see a message followed by a lot of dots, then the message
"Burning configuration into e.exe".

6) That's it! You're done. To run the editor, just give the command

                        e

Most of the keys are WP-standard, although there are some important
exceptions.



Beginning Instructions

Two basic commands you should be aware of:

    For the help screen, press the F1 key. I know it's not WP
        standard, but it is now an industry standard and thus makes a
        heck of a lot more sense to put it here.
    To exit, hit F7 and answer the prompt.


I stole most of the WP function key assignments from WordPerfect v5.1.
Wherever possible, that is. Much of WP's functionality and nice-ness
comes in it's tremendous number of commands -- so many that it really
does need that 1,300 page manual it comes with. So I stole where I
could. In places where there is no close equivalent, I substituted other
commands, first considering Randy Brook's old QEdit interface, and then
what I wanted there. A lot of neat new commands are in the function
keys!

I also stole the entire Tessie menu (and mouse) system. The standard WP
menus are terrible to use, so I have never used them. Likewise, WP is
not a really mouseable program; there's just too much there. Tessie's
were really good; why mess with the best? To have access to a great set
of menus, just hit the Escape key, then press Enter to pull down a menu.
The arrow keys move back and forth and up and down in the menus just
like you would expect.

The bottom line of the display in E.EXE is a Help line. It gives key
assignments for "most-used" keys. It also changes if you hold down the
Shift, Alt or Ctrl keys to reflect important assignments for those keys.

And, of course, press F1 for the Help screen. I am still not sure how to
best format it, but there it is. After all, if I ordered the functions
alphabetically, like WP, you'd have to learn all new words...

Please look through this thing a bit; try all the functions, especially
the ones you don't understand or see a need for. You really need to get
used to how powerful Tessie is before you can appreciate it. Especially
if you are like me, you need a somewhat familiar interface (like old
faithful WP) to help in the initial familiarization phase of a new
program. There is some real programming power hidden away here!

So, here it is...


Actual Interface Documentation (?)

Ocassionally I have to write documentation for weeks at a time, so I'm
not going to go into all that hoorah. You just want to see it, right?

Follow the instructions given above and you will produce a copy of E.EXE
with the interface. Use it, see what you like, and more importantly see
what you don't like. Then read your Tessie manual, look at the .S and
the .KEY files, figure out how they work, and change them. If you come
up with a really nice function or whatever, post it so the rest of us
can use it. If you really do a great job changing the interface, post it
so we can all see it.


Notes on the Functions

The following were compiled using Tessie's wonderful windowing
capabilities. I now use three or four windows quite often; while
compiling this list I usually had four files loaded: the .S, .KEY, .HLP
and of course this .DOC file. What more could you ask for? <grin>

For a list of key assignments, the quickest way to get a good list is to
print out the help file. Load the .HLP file into your new E using the
Alt-F5 command (so you can still see this file), Shift-F7 is the command
to print (just like WP, right?), then hit an A for ALL and it will send
a copy of the file to LPT1, which is standard for DOS printers. If you
need to send it to another address, like LPT2, select the Options at the
Print window; you'll see what to change. To put the .HLP file away,
hit F7. Just like WP, right? (hahahahaha...)

Remember -- F1 is Help, F7 is Exit. "Everything else is just keeping
            track..."


F1 - Various miscellaneous commands. Standard WP except for Help and
    Undelete. F1 by itself is now Help. Shelling to DOS is quick and
    easy. And config is Tessie-style config; you have to have the TSE
    config file in the local subdirectory, which isn't really too
    useful. Make your changes in the wp4prog.cfg file, then burn in the
    interface again.

F2 - The search and fix key. Search is standard TSE. Shift-F2 is
    backward find like WP. Alt-F2 is Search&Replace, just like in WP and
    QEdit. Ctrl-F2 is SpellCheck like WP, but you need ShareSpell, a
    shareware spelling checker. (See your local BBS)

    Other search commands - The programmer's incremental search is under
    Ctrl-I. To use the incremental search, start typing the word or
    phrase you want to find. Tessie will move to the next occurence of
    the word as you type it. If it beeps it can't find what you just
    typed looking forward in the file. The top line prompts you for
    Ctrl-N/P/B, which you can use anytime after you start typing. Hit
    ESC when you are done; the word stays marked for you.

    Ctrl-W will find the next occurence (forward search) of the word the
    cursor is on. Alt-W will find the previous (backward search)
    occurence of the word the cursor is on. Ctrl-N will repeat the last
    search forward (Next); Ctrl-P will repeat the last search looking
    backward (Previous). See the help file (F1 key!) under Miscellaneous
    for the special search key listings.

F3 - The window control key. Holds most of the windowing functions. The
    Help diagram is pretty good here; too much to talk about!

F4 - The block functions key. F4 does a right tab to mimic WP's indent.
    If Tabs are set to Sticky in the .CFG file (wp4prog default), the
    rest of the paragraph will be indented anyway, even if you just use
    the Tab key. Alt-F4 starts and stops marking of a block. Put the
    cursor at one end of the block, move the the other end, and press
    Alt-F4 again to finish the block. If you are deleting or moving the
    block to another window, you can use Ctrl-F4 or F3 (jump to next
    window) without ending the block mark. Shift-F4 removes block
    marking, while Ctrl-F4 gives access to all the block functions:
    move, copy, delete, insert, etc. See the help display for details on
    all these.

F5 - Various file functions. Plain F5 prompts for the next file to load
    into the file ring into the current window. The current file in the
    window is put back in the file ring. Alt-F5 splits the current
    window horizontally, and prompts for another file to load. If none
    is selected (Escape is pressed), the next file in the ring is shown
    in the new window (like QEdit's function). This is a quick way to
    split the window. Shift-F5 inserts the date in special format text
    (from the TSE extra macros) into the file. This is like WP. Ctrl-F5
    inserts a text file into the current file at the cursor position,
    like WP.

F6 - The line format key. Plain F6 is Paste, or Insert the current scrap
    clipboard contents at the cursor position. Alt-F6 pushes the current
    line flush to the right, like WP. Shift-F6 centers the current line.
    Ctrl-F6 is the programmer's Shift Block function; it shifts the
    entire marked block in the direction answered in response to the
    prompt.

F7 - The exit and filename key. Plain F7 exits the current window
    prompting for file save if the file has changed. Alt-F7 exits
    immediately, closing all files and saving ANY AND ALL changed files.
    Ctrl-F7 allows you to change the name of the current file. Shift-F7
    is, of course, the print key; it produces a print menu. Important
    difference here: the letter A, not the WP F, prints All of the file
    (I got used to QEdit!).

F8 - More formatting functions. Plain F8 is "space for rent" -- there's
    nothing there. (I was working on a text BBS-message style
    underlining macro but it didn't work too well...) Alt-F8 reformats
    the current paragraph from the cursor position down. Ctrl-F8 toggles
    Wrap Paragraph on/off (watch the top line "W"), and Shift-F8
    provides access to the format control menu.

F9 - Programmer's / general line format/change functions. Plain F9
    pushes the current cursor line down to provide a new blank line.
    Alt-F9 copies the current line below itself. Shift-F9 splits the
    current line at the cursor position; sometimes useful programming C
    or FoxPro/SQL. Ctrl-F9 swaps the current line with the line below
    it. (Used sequentially down through a file, almost a bubble sort!)

F10 - Mostly The Macro key. Like WP, F10 by itself saves the current
    file to its current file name. (If you changed the file name using
    Ctrl-F7, file is saved to the new name.) Alt-F10 is Macro
    read/write. Shift-F10 retrieves a macro from disk and loads it into
    Tessie. Ctrl-F10, like WP, allows the user to record a keyboard
    macro that will be held in memory for the current session only. When
    the editor is exited, any macro saved like this is lost.

F11 - Programmer's functions. F11 is Match Braces; {, [, and ( are
    matched if possible; if no match exists (a boo-boo in programmer
    lingo) and error is issued. (Thanks, Sammy, for the updated mMatch
    macro!) Alt-F11 shows the DOS screen as it looked when the editor
    was invoked. This is useful to see error line numbers after
    compiles, directory listings, etc. Shift-F11 is the programmer's
    shift block function again. Ctrl-F11 restores the cursor line to
    what it was before the last changes were made. This is great for
    undoing errors. Warning: If the cursor is moved off the line after
    changes are made, the original line is lost, and this function will
    not work.

F12 - More Programmer stuff. Plain F12 gives the extended ASCII chart
    display. Put the cursor where you want to insert a nifty ASCII guy,
    hit F12, highlight the character you want, and press Enter. Bingo,
    the character is in the file! (
) Alt-F12 gives a display of the
    most recent files loaded into the editor, both still present and
    those recently exited. This is great when you have to go back into a
    file you closed. Ctrl-F12 lets you specify a bookmark (A through Z)
    to put in the file at the current cursor position, while Shift-F12
    shifts the file to the bookmark (A through Z) you specify.



Other Neat Keys

The Home key is like WP. Press Home once, then the same key as WP to do
what WP does with it. Even Home Home Up works!

The Ctrl key gets a real workout. Ctrl-Y deletes the current cursor
line. Ctrl-PageUp moves up one screen; Ctrl-PageDown moves down one
screen. Lots more under Ctrl -- see the help screen. (I get tired of
typing all this stuff three times!)

See the instructions under the F2 key for lots of neat Ctrl-find
options. These are all I have really needed or used more than once; with
regular specify-able search under F2, Incremental Search (Ctrl-I),
FindCursorWordFwd and Bwd (Ctrl- and Alt-W), FindAgainForward (Ctrl-N
for Next), FindAgainBackward (Ctrl-P for Previous) these are probably
all you need too!

Alt-<1 through 9> will take you straight to that window- number on
screen. Since you can have nine windows on screen at once, this is
perfect.

Ctrl-F3-V gives that beautiful vertical split window. If QEdit had had
it, I never would have needed Tessie!



Popup Menus

The menu system is stolen from standard Tessie. I wanted all those
functions available. See your manual for how it works; pretty much point
& shoot.

Some of the menus can be popped up by hotkeys as noted above. The rest
are available by pressing Escape, then Enter, then use the arrow keys to
move left/right and up/down.



Mouse Support

Wp4prog uses the same mouse commands as standard Tessie. See the help
file. One difference from the manual -- Alt-LeftButton doesn't line
DRAW, it line MARKS. I think it's a typo...



What Else Could There Be?

There are lots and lots of Ctrl- keys left over for you to use for your
own favorite functions. Please feel free to move things around to where
you want them (and recompile).

I tried to leave room in the Help file too; moving those things around
is a real pain after a while.

I like to leave the Alt- keys for WP-style
macros. I am going to post the instructions for using PCTAGS (and maybe
CTAGS) with Tessie; following the vi/emacs standard, I would like it to
go under Ctrl-[ (right bracket), but PCTAGS' TSR hotkey doesn't support
that key assignment. That functionality makes Tessie the best editor I
have ever used.



The Last Word

AND FINALLY - Thank you for supporting my favorite little editor company
by buying Tessie! Remember, it's not too late to register QEdit (if you
haven't already). Get it for a good friend, maybe. Or better yet, buy a
site license for Tessie for your whole office (if they aren't TOO stuck
in a rut!).

Thanks, Sammy and Matthew! "Success!"


Mike Hammer
April 23, 1993