Night Owl 6/Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso/019a/qe1.zip/EDITOR.DOC

Text File | 1991-11-02 | 12KB | 342 lines

          Editor Manual  November 2, 1991

Note:  Although LE is used as an example, this manual is for QE also.

Getting Started
---------------

To start the editor, enter:  LE [filename]  at the DOS prompt.

If there is no filename, the editor will use the RESTART file to open the
file you last changed, at the same place you were.  If there is no RESTART
file, the editor will ask you for a file name.

The filename should be a normal DOS file name, and can include a drive letter
and/or a path.

If the file name which you used is not on the disk, LE will assume this is a
new file that you want to create.  If the file name which you used is on this
directory, it will be opened.

After LE knows the file name, you can start entering characters by just
typing them on your keyboard.  What you see on the screen is what the file
will become.

Most other operations, such as moving the cursor and deleting things, are
done by pressing Ctrl and some key.  A list of these control functions can
be viewed by pressing F1.  The following pages provide more
details about these functions.


Moving the Cursor
-----------------

These are the functions which LE provides to make it easy for you to create
the program you want.  The control functions are activated by holding down the
Ctrl key while pressing another key, sometimes followed by one more key.
Note that the arrows referred to are not those on the numeric key pad, but to
the left of it.  Following is a list of these functions.


Moving the Cursor One Character

   Up 1 character:  Ctrl-E or the up arrow
 Down 1 character:  Ctrl-X or the down arrow
Right 1 character:  Ctrl-D or the right arrow
 Left 1 character:  Ctrl-S or the left arrow

Note that the positions of the E, X, D, and S keys are in top, bottom, right,
and left positions on the keyboard.  Note also that if the arrow keys (on
the numeric keypad) are used, the Num Lock function should be off.

Moving the Cursor by One Word

Right one word:  Ctrl-F or Shift right arrow
 Left one word:  Ctrl-A or Shift left arrow


Moving the cursor to edges of the screen

    Top of screen:  Ctrl-QE
 Bottom of screen:  Ctrl-QX
Right end of line:  Ctrl-QD or End
   Left of screen:  Ctrl-QS or Home

Note that the second letter of each Ctrl-Q combination corresponds to a letter
in the one-character move above.

Scrolling the Screen

  Up one line:  Ctrl-W
Down one line:  Ctrl-Z

Although the W and Z keys may appear to be in the wrong place for these
operations, they are not, because the effect is to move the cursor in the
opposite direction.

Moving the cursor by one Page

  Up one page:  Ctrl-R or Page Up
Down one page:  Ctrl-C or Page Down

Note the positions of the R and C are top and bottom
respectively.  Also, the Num Lock must be off to use the Pg Up and Pg Dn
keys.

Moving the Cursor to Top or Bottom of File

   Top of file:  Ctrl-QR
Bottom of file:  Ctrl-QC


Finding a sequence of characters in the file

Ctrl-QF  prints a message at the top right hand corner of the screen, which
asks what you want to search for.  You should then enter the string of
characters you want it to find.  The entire file will be searched, starting
with where the cursor is.  The search is case-sensitive - that means that if
you are searching for upper case letters, you must enter upper case letters.

If the string is not found, a message to that effect will appear in the upper
right hand corner.  If the string is found, the screen will be displayed with
the string in the middle of the screen, and the cursor immediately following
the string.

If you want to look for another occurance of that same string further in the
file, press Ctrl-L.  Multiple occurances of the same string in the same line
will be ignored.

Searching and Replacing Strings

Ctrl-QA causes a message to be printed at top right, asking what string you
want to replace.  Enter the string you're looking for.  It then asks what you
want to replace it with.  Enter the new string.  When it finds a string to
replace, it will display Yes/No/All/One/Quit, and put the cursor by the
string.

If you want to replace this string and look for the next occurance of it,
enter Y.  If you don't want to replace this string, but want to look for
another occurance, enter N.  To replace all occurances of the string, enter A.
If you want this to be the last one replaced, enter O.  To stop the process
and not replace this one, enter Q.

Moving the Cursor to it's Previous Position

Ctrl-QP will move the cursor to the position it held last.

Ctrl-Kn (where n is a number from 0 through 9) will mark the current line with
a symbol like this:  <n> , unless the line has already been marked, in which
case the mark will be erased.

Ctrl-Qn  (where n is a number from 0 through 9) will move the cursor to the
line previously marked with a Ctrl-Kn.


Miscellaneous Control Operations
--------------------------------

Getting Help

Ctrl-J or F1 displays the HELP screen, which is a summary of all control
operations.  Press any key to return to where you were.

Changing the Insert Mode

Ctrl-V or Ins will turn on or turn off (toggle) the insert mode. The insert
mode is displayed at the top of the screen.

When the Insert mode is on, characters entered move any characters on the
right, to the right.  Also, an Enter (Return on some keyboards) inserts a new
line.

When the Insert mode is off, characters entered replace any characters
that may be to the right.  Also, an Enter just moves the cursor down one
line and to the left-most column of that line.

Inserting a Line

Ctrl-M or Enter inserts a line if the INSERT mode is ON.  The cursor is left
at the next line down.

Ctrl-N inserts a line whether the insert mode is on or off.  The cursor is
always left at the begining of the new blank line.

Changing the word wrap mode

Ctrl-O toggles the word wrap mode, which is displayed at the top of the
screen next to the insert mode.  When the word wrap mode is ON, you may
continue typing at the end of a line, and the words will go to the next line
when you run out of space.

Reformatting a paragraph

Ctrl-B reformats a paragraph so that the maximum number of words are in each
line.  A paragraph ends with a line that has no characters in it.  Word wrap
must be ON for this command to work.

Tabs

Ctrl-I or the Tab Key causes one tab character to be put into the file.  Tabs
are used to line up characters every columns.

 F2 is the same as entering 2 spaces.

 F3 is the same as entering 3 spaces.

 F4 is the same as entering 4 spaces.

Special characters

If you want one of the special graphic characters, press F7, then the three
digits that is the code for that character.  These character codes can be
found in your computer manual.


Exiting


Exit Without Save

Ctrl-KQ exits back to the system from where is was called,  without saving the
current file to disk.

In other words, any changes you made while using LE are lost, and the
original file remains intact.

Exit With Save

Ctrl-KX saves the current file on disk, then exits back to the the system.  So
the changes you made are saved, and the original file is renamed with a .BAK
extension.


Block Operations
----------------

Blocks are groups of lines.  A block may be the whole file, or just one
line, or any number of lines in between.  When a block is less than the
whole file, it must be marked by the operator.

When both the beginning and the end of a block have been marked by the
operator, it appears in dim form on the screen, instead of the bright form
that the rest of the file is in.  This shows the operator where the block
is.

A block always consists of an integer number of lines.  That is, a block
always starts at the beginning of one line, and ends at the end of another
line, not in between characters on a line.  Only one block may exists at
any one time.

Marking the Beginning of a block

Ctrl-KB marks or unmarks the beginning of a block to be the line that the
cursor is in.  If the end of the block has not yet been marked, a dim <B> will
appear at the beginning of this line.  If the end of the block has already
been marked, the block will be dimmed, and the <K> at the end of the block
will be erased.  If the Ctrl-KB is pushed again at the same place, the mark
 will be removed.  If the Ctrl-KB is pushed again at a different place, the
beginning of the block will be moved to the new place.


Marking the End of a Block

Ctrl-KK marks or unmarks the end of a block to be the line preceeding the one
that the cursor is in.  If the beginning of the block has not yet been marked,
a dim <K> will appear at the beginning of the line that the cursor is in.   If
the beginning of the block has already been marked, the block will be dimmed,
and the <B> at the beginning of the block will be erased.   If the Ctrl-KK is
pushed again at the same place, the mark will be removed.   If the Ctrl-KK is
pushed again at a different place, the end of the block will be moved to the
new place.

Removing Marks from a Block

Ctrl-KH will remove both beginning and ending marks of a block, thereby making
it no longer a block.

Copy a Block

Ctrl-KC will copy a block to the position between the line where the cursor
is, and the line above it.  The lines in the original block will remain
intact, but will no longer be the block.  The lines in the new block will
become the marked block.  The same block may then be copied to several
different places.

Move a Block

Ctrl-KV will move a block to the position between the line where the cursor
is, and the line above it.  The lines in the original block will be deleted.
The lines in the new block will become the marked block.


Deleting a Block

Ctrl-KY deletes the lines of the current block.

Read a Block

Ctrl-KR reads a file from the disk into the space between the line where the
cursor is, and the line above the cursor.  It is not marked as a block.  LE
will ask for the file name in the upper right hand corner.

Write a Block

Ctrl-KW writes a marked block to a file on the disk.  LE will ask for the file
name in the upper right hand corner.

Print a Block

Ctrl-P prints a block on the printer.

Saving the Whole File

Ctrl-KD renames the old file to a .BAK extension, writes the whole file to the
disk, clears the screen, and asks for a new file to read in.

Ctrl-KS  renames the old file to a .BAK extension, writes the whole file to
the disk, but keeps the current file on the display.

Ctrl-KX  renames the old file to a .BAK (backup) extension, writes the whole
file to the disk, then exits to the calling system.


Deleting
--------

Deleting Characters

Ctrl-G or Del deletes the character at the cursor, and moves following
characters to the left.

Ctrl-H or the backspace arrow deletes the character to the left of the cursor,
and moves following characters to the left.

Ctrl-QY deletes all characters from the cursor to the right.

Ctrl-QH deletes all characters to the left of the cursor.

ESC deletes all characters in the line.

Deleting a Line

Ctrl-Y deletes the line that the cursor is in, and moves the lines below up
one line.

Deleting a Block

Ctrl-KY deletes the current block.

Notes

The last line is always followed by a carriage-return/line-feed (cr/lf)
pair in the file.  If a file is read in which does not have a cr/lf after
the last line, that line will not be read, and will not appear after the file
is edited.

Do not try to get help with F1 or Ctrl-J immediately after entering a Ctrl-K
or Ctrl-Q.  An error message will result.  There is only one help screen in
LE.