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Text File | 1990-07-07 | 23KB | 550 lines

VIäT A Vietnamese Text Editor Version 1.5 Copyright 1990 by Hoa G. Nguyen P.O. Box 3834 La Mesa, CA 92044-3834 USER'S MANUAL _____________ I. REQUIREMENTS: The following equipment are required to run VIäT: * IBM-PC/XT/AT/386 or compatible (TURBO speed is recommended for PC/XT clones) * CGA graphics capability (color monitor NOT required) * Dot-matrix printer with graphic commands compatible to the EPSON or IBM Proprinter standards (the Panasonic KX-P series printers have been found to give the best output). The following files must reside in your active directory: VIET.COM (VIäT program) SCRFONT (Screen font) COURIER.PRF (Default printer font) HELP.SCR (On-screen help) Other files associated with VIäT are: SCRFONT.1, SCRFONT.2, SCRFONT.3 (Screen fonts) PALATINO.PRF (Another printer font) VIET.PAR (Optional parameters file) MANUAL.ENG (User's manual) These files will be described further in section V. II. BASIC COMMANDS: 1. Installation: (Skip this section if you are an experienced PC user.) VIäT can be executed from the floppy or from a hard disk. To install VIäT on a hard disk, simply copy the distribution diskette to a directory. For example, if your hard disk is drive C, insert the VIäT diskette in drive A and enter the following commands to transfer VIäT to a directory named VIET. C: MD \VIET COPY A:*.* C:\VIET (Press the ENTER key at the end of each command line.) 2. Start Up: To run VIäT, you must be in the same directory or logged on the same floppy drive where VIäT is stored. For example, to start VIäT from drive A, type: A: VIET (If you are going to run VIäT from the floppy, we suggest that you first make a backup copy of the distribution diskette.) To start VIäT from the hard drive after the above installation, type: C: CD \VIET VIET VIäT will ask you to supply a text file name. This file can be in any directory on any drive (for example, C:\TEXT\MYFILE.DOC). If the file does not exist in the specified directory, VIäT will create a new blank file for you. The program then automatically puts you in insert mode. You can change the screen color at this time by pressing the F2 key. Select the color you like, then store this setup using CNTR-W P (see section III). 3. Text Entering: Characters are inserted at the current cursor position as you type on the keyboard. Both English and Vietnamese text can be entered (there is no difference between English and Vietnamese to VIäT. English is just Vietnamese with no accent marks). Accented Vietnamese vowels are entered by first typing the vowel, then adding the accent marks. Example: ç is entered as O √ The special Vietnamese vowels are entered by repeating keystrokes, as follows: aa = aaa = ee = oo = ooo = uu = dd = ∙ (and likewise for capital letters, but the second character need not be capitalized. For example, both "AA" and "Aa" give ""). If you ever need to type repeated vowels, such as "soong," use the F6 function key. F6 repeats the character on the left of the cursor. For example, to get "soong", type "s o F6 n g". Accent marks are entered by depressing the CTRL key and another letter key at the same time. The keys for the accent marks are laid out in an ergonomic pattern (the most commonly used marks are assigned to the most easily reached keys) as follows: U O CTRL - . J K L Example: To type "thuy¿n," use the following keystrokes: "t h u y e e CTRL-K n" NOTE: Some keyboards are designed so that the ALT key is more easily reached than the CTRL key. VIäT has been designed to accept both. Whenever a CTRL key is called for, pressing the ALT key will work also. (Pressing F1 will pop up a help screen to remind you of the keyboard layout and available commands. See section IV.) Lines will wrap around as soon as a character is entered past the right margin. Right justification can be turned ON or OFF (see section III). If a character is inserted in the middle of the line which forces the end of the line past the right margin, a break will be inserted at the cursor location to accommodate further insertions. When all editing on the paragraph has been completed, CTRL-B can be used to reform the paragraph (see section IV). SEE ALSO: "Fixing up unaccented text" (under ADVANCED FEATURES) 4. Cursor movements: Most of VIäT's cursor movement commands follow WordStar's easy-to-remember and ergonomic design. The user can execute most commands without having to move his/her hands away from the home row on the keyboard, resulting in very fast editing. The cursor can be moved to any area of the screen where text or spaces have previously been entered. The cursor can not be moved past the end of the file or to any blank area unless spaces, tabs or carriage returns have previously been entered in those areas. The following is the lay-out of VIäT's cursor commands: Up Line Up Page E R Left Word Left Char. Right Char. Right Word CTRL - A S D F Down Line Down Page X C The arrow keys and PgUp, PgDn of the separate numeric key pad are also available and are functionally identical to CTRL- E, X, S, D, R and C. SEE ALSO: CTRL-Q: S,D,R,C for extended-range cursor movements (under SECOND-LEVEL COMMANDS, section III). 5. Deleting: The following simple delete commands are available: CTRL-G (same as the Del key): deletes the character under the cursor. CTRL-H (same as the BackSpace key): deletes the character to the left of the cursor, if that character is an accented vowel, the accent mark is deleted first. CTRL-T: deletes to the beginning of the next word. SEE ALSO: CTRL-Q: T, Y for line and paragraph deletion (under SECOND-LEVEL COMMANDS, section III). III. SECOND-LEVEL COMMANDS The following are two-keystroke commands. The first keystroke is a combination of the CTRL key and a letter key (Q, W, or P). This is followed by another letter key, as specified below. If you would like to abort the command before the second key is entered, press ESC, space, or the backspace key. 1. The Quick (CTRL-Q) Commands: S (extends the range of CTRL-S): moves cursor to beginning of line. D (extends the range of CTRL-D): moves cursor to end of line. R (extends the range of CTRL-R): moves cursor to beginning of file. C (extends the range of CTRL-C): moves cursor to end of file. T (extends the range of CTRL-T): deletes the current line. The following CTRL-Q commands allow you to move or delete blocks of text. First, define the block by marking the first and last lines. Then bring the cursor to the location at which you want to insert the block and execute the block move. Block deletion can be accomplished with the cursor anywhere. These operations only work on blocks of whole lines. To move a block which contains a partial line (by itself or at the beginning or end of the block), first use the carriage return to cut the line, move the block, then use CTRL-B to reform the paragraph. Likewise, to insert a block in the middle of a line, first cut up that line using carriage return. B (Begin block): marks the first line of the block. E (End block): marks the last line of the block (may be the same as the first line). M (Move block): inserts the marked block (from the beginning of the first line to the end of the last line) at current line. All lines from the current line are pushed down. Y (delete block): deletes the marked block. W (Write block): writes the marked block to a disk file. VIäT will ask for a file name. If a file with the same name already exists, it will be given the new extension BAK (backup). Any previous file with the same name and BAK extension will be deleted. NOTE: While typing in a name, if you would like to abort a command, simply press ESC (or backspace while the cursor is on the first character's position). 2. The Work File Operations (CTRL-W) Commands: S (Save file): saves the file, then resumes editing. Every time VIäT saves the file, the old file (if existed on disk) is given the new extension BAK (backup). If a file with the same BAK extension existed (from a previous save), it will be deleted. Q (Quit): quits without saving. X (save and eXit): saves the file, then exits program. L (Left margin): allows user to set the left margin, as when indentation of whole paragraphs is required. The new margin only applies to subsequent actions (including subsequent CTRL-B commands). For page centering of printer output, use CTRL-P: O (Page Offset) instead. (Default = 1) R (Right margin): allows user to set the right margin to control page width. Note that the margins are depicted by the margin bar at the top of the screen. (Default = 65) Note: If you would like to abort a command while VIäT is waiting for a number to be entered (such as the margins, page offset, etc.), simply press ESC (or backspace if the cursor is on the first-digit position). J (Justify): toggles right justifying ON / OFF. When justifying is ON, lines will end with a word flush with the right margin (as in printed books). (Default = ON) P (save Parameters): saves all parameters you have set for future use. (More on this under ADVANCED FEATURES). I (Insert file): reads an external file and inserts at current line. All lines from the current line are pushed down. This command and its counterpart, CTRL-Q: W, allow the user to move blocks of text between files or to copy a block to another location in the same file (while leaving the original block intact) by writing the block to a temporary file and reading it back. WARNING: the file to be read in must be a legitimate VIäT-format file (text file with fewer than 78 letters per line), or unpredictable errors may result. 3. The Print (CTRL-P) Commands: T (Top margin): specifies the vertical location (row number) of the first line of the printed page (6 rows = 1 inch). You should adjust this and the bottom margin to fit your printer's requirements. (Default = 1) B (Bottom margin): specifies the vertical location of the last line of the printed page. (Default = 55) NOTE: Some printers have trouble with dot alignment when printing in the top one inch of the page. If you have this problem, adjust the top margin to avoid this area. L (page Length): specifies the length of each sheet of printer paper (in number of lines, 1 inch = 6 lines). Must be less than 128. (Default = 66). N (page Numbering): toggles page numbering ON / OFF. When page numbering is ON, a page number will be printed at the bottom of the printed page. (Default = ON) Note: page numbers will not be printed if the bottom margin is set larger than page length minus 3. S (Starting page #): allows the user to set the page number for the first page of this file. Subsequent printing of this file (during the same editing session) will use this number as the page number of the first page of the file. This is useful when the user is working on a long document which has been broken into several shorter files (a recommended practice). Note that this page number is not saved. (Default = 1) A (pAuse between pages): toggles a flag which forces the printer to pause between pages to allow the user to feed paper manually. (Default = OFF) C (page number Column): specifies the column on which the page number will be printed. (Default = 32) O (page Offset): this offset will be added to the Left Margin when the text is printed. It should be used to center the text on the print page. (Default = 3) NOTE: If your printer has externally switchable standard/ compressed modes, make sure it is powered up on "standard" for the DEFAULT page number position and page offset values to work. F (change Font): allows the user to switch to a different printer font. A font name must be entered (Courier, Palatino, etc.). This new font will be used for subsequent printing during the current editing session. Use CTRL-W: P to save this font if you would like to use this font as the default font for future editing sessions. P (Print text): prints the file being edited. Allows you to print the entire file or a specific number of pages. IV. MISCELLANEOUS: 1. On-screen Help: Pressing F1 will display a summary of VIäT's commands. The file HELP.SCR must be present for this command to work. 2. Color: Pressing F2 will rotate you through 16 available colors. (Default = 15) 3. Message Display Time: F3 decreases (and F4 increases) the time VIäT will keep messages up on the message line. These should be changed to accommodate your computer's speed (or your taste), then saved with CTRL-W: P. A display time of 3 (default) is appropriate for an 8 MHz Turbo XT. 4. Inserting Carriage Return: CNTR-N will insert a Carriage Return at the current cursor location. This is slightly different from typing the ENTER key. CNTR-N will leave the cursor at the current location, whereas hitting the ENTER key will bring the cursor down to the next line. 5. Paragraph Reform: CTRL-B will reformat a paragraph (starting at the cursor position) to fit nicely within the current margins. Paragraphs are defined as being separated by one or more blank lines. Right justification will apply if the justify flag is ON (see CTRL-W: J). The justification process uses priorities in inserting spaces (more spaces after punctuation marks, etc.), but where priorities are the same, it will not insert spaces in the same locations every time. So if you are not pleased with the way VIäT has inserted spaces, try the command again. The result will be different. If you would like to preserve the current spacing of certain items (such as a subparagraph heading), place the cursor to the right of those items before executing CTRL-B. V. ADVANCED FEATURES AND INFORMATION: 1. Saving Parameters: Once you have changed VIäT's parameters to fit your environment, you can save these parameters for future use by executing CTRL-W: P. These parameters are saved in a file named VIET.PAR. When VIäT is first activated, it looks for this file. If this file exists, the parameters saved in it will be used. If not, the default values will be used. If the default values meet your needs, you do not have to excecute this command. The saved parameters are: color, left margin, right margin, page offset, top margin, bottom margin, page length, page number column, paging flag, justify flag, pausing flag, default printer font, and the message display time. Please do not edit VIET.PAR by any other means, as unexpected results may occur. 2. Fixing Up Unaccented Text: You can use VIäT to read in files previously created through other text editors, as long as the file is a text file, with no special control characters embedded (for example, files which have been created in the WordStar non-document mode, or having passed through electronic mail filters). Furthermore, each line of the file must contain 77 characters or less. To add accent marks, place the cursor to the right of each vowel (as if you had just typed in the vowel), then add the accent marks as usual. 3. Using Different Fonts: You have been provided with three different screen fonts (SCRFONT.1, SCRFONT.2, SCRFONT.3). The font which VIäT uses is always SCRFONT. To select another font, use the DOS "COPY" command to copy the desired font over to SCRFONT. For example, to select SCRFONT.2, type (from DOS): COPY SCRFONT.2 SCRFONT This new font will now be used by VIäT for screen display. Two printer fonts are supplied with VIäT: COURIER and PALATINO. COURIER is a typewriter font. PALATINO is heavier and resembles a book font. The default printer font is COURIER. Change of printer font is accomplished inside VIäT using CTRL-P: F (see section III.3). This change is effective for all subsequent printing until you exit VIäT (or until you make another change). This font selection can also be saved through CTRL-W: P (see section V.1). At the next editing session, your saved printer font will be automatically loaded. 4. Maximum Length of File: The length of the file which you can edit using VIäT depends on the amount of free memory available to VIäT. Use the DOS utility CHKDSK to find out how much free memory your system has before running VIäT. This number usually does not change unless you frequently load in different memory-resident programs (such as Sidekick, Superkey, etc.). The following table gives an estimate of the maximum number of pages you can edit versus the amount of free memory. (Each page is assumed to be 55 text lines. If you use shorter pages, you can have correspondingly more pages.) FREE SYSTEM MEMORY (Bytes) ESTIMATED # OF PAGES PER FILE 580,000 90 538,000 82 410,000 56 203,000 14 This is adequate for almost all uses. If you are working on a long book, each chapter should be stored in a separate file for easier editing. Then there is no limit to how long the book may be. VIäT has provided commands for transfering text between files and for flexible page numbering for this purpose. VI. DISCLAIMER: Care has been taken to make VIäT free of errors. However, as with all software, some errors may go undetected. The author shall not be held liable for any loss or damage caused by the use of this program. VII. COPYRIGHT: VIäT is copyrighted. However, permission is granted for non-commercial copying and distribution of VIäT, version 1.5, as long as the entire package (executable file, manual, etc.) is distributed unmodified. This permission does not apply to the packaging of this program with any other product (contact the author for such action). The author retains all rights of authorship. VIII. REGISTRATION: VIäT has been developed to serve the Vietnamese communities' writing needs and to encourage the use of the Vietnamese language outside Vietnam. To make the program accessible to as many as possible, we have chosen the most basic and readily available equipment, such as CGA capability and dot-matrix printers. This equipment selection in turn dictated some of our design. However, we have adhered to the design principle of making VIäT easy to use. Most input commands and keystroke selections have been chosen to be as ergonomic as possible, requiring the least time and hand movements to execute. If you like VIäT and would like to support the development of a more powerful word processor with more advanced features, which also supports more advanced hardware (EGA, VGA, laser printers, etc.) while retaining the same ergonomy, you may do so by becoming a registered user of VIäT. Registering involves filling out the registration form in the file "REGISTER.DOC" to better inform the author of your needs, and sending the form together with $15 to the address on VIäT's opening screen. As a registered VIäT user, you will receive: 1. Two graphic, interactive programs (SCDESIGN and PRDESIGN) which will let you modify VIET's screen and printer fonts, or create your own custom fonts. 2. A bound manual for VIäT and these 2 companion programs. 3. Corrected software if bugs are discovered. 4. A 50% discount on the purchase of the new version of VIäT--or a free copy, sent automatically, if the new release will be distributed as shareware.