TECHNICAL EDITOR

Version 2.5

Table of Contents

1. Introduction	1

2. Installation	1

3. Bringing up	1

4. Moving	2

5. Deleting	2

6. Undo	3

7. File operations	3

8. Blocking	3

9. Screens and windows	4

10. Search and replace	4

11. Regular expression	4

12. Keyboard macros	5

13. Keyboard re-definition	5

14. Configuration	6

15. Quick reference	7

1. Introduction

Tech-Edit (Technical Editor) is a general purpose source code editor. It provides a fast multi-window/file editing environment for programmers. Tech-Edit uses a unique combination of editing windows and screens. An editing session can be broken up into multiple screens, and in turn each screen may be broken up into multiple windows (16 per screen). Tech-Edit was designed with enough features to make most editing chores non-laborious.

Most noted features:

Virtual Memory (edit files up to 32MB of files)

Multiple screens and windows

UNDO (last 1000 text changes)

Keyboard re-definition

Keyboard macros

File based key-map configurations

Line and rectangular block marking

Regular expression search and replace

Selection box for file loading (moves through drives and directories)

Buffer Pick List (select list of active files)

Auto word search (searches for word under cursor)

Binary and read only editing modes

Bookmarks (up to 5)

DOS environment (single key toggle)

Extended PC ASCII character set

Interactive editor configuration

Auto indenting

2. Installation

Copy files *.exe and t.hlp into a directory that is included in your "PATH". If source code was also purchased, copy entire content of disk(s) into one directory.

3. Bringing up

Usage: t [-rbp] file1.ext file2.ext ... filen.ext

Tech-Edit allows any number of files to be entered at the command line, and gives each one it's own full screen window. Wild card characters * and ? are supported.

Tech-Edit has three command line options:

[-b]	This causes all subsequent files to be read in as BINARY. In this mode, lines are fixed in length (length specified in the configuration menu) and characters can only be changed. Tech-Edit will allow nothing to be added or deleted, just overwritten.

[-r]	This causes all subsequent files to be read in as READ-ONLY. In this mode, no changing is allowed. Only movement, searching, and window changing is allowed.

[-p]	Brings up the file selection list using second command line argument as the search pattern.

Examples:

t test.c

t prog.prg *.

t tool????.* header.h -r sysgen.sys

t t??*.tx? -b prog.exe prog.obj

t -p *.txt

4. Moving

Up	Up one line.

Down	Down one line.

Right	Right one character.

Left	Left one character.

PgUp	Up one screenfull.

PgDn	Down one screenfull.

Home	Beginning of the line.

End	End of the line.

Ctrl-Home	Top of the current window in the same column.

Ctrl-End	Bottom of the current window in the same column.

Ctrl-PgUp	Top of the file.

Ctrl-PgDn	End of the file.

Alt-G	Prompts the user for a line number to goto.

Bookmarks are supported, and as many as five may be placed.

Alt-[1...5]	Insert a bookmark at the current location.

Alt-J+[1...5]	Move to the specified bookmark location.

5. Deleting

Backspace	Deletes the character to the left of the cursor. If cursor is in column 0 and the current line is not the first line in the file, the beginning of the current line is placed at the end of the previous line.

DEL	Deletes the character at the cursor. If the cursor is past the last character in the line, the beginning of the line below will be added to the current line at current cursor position.

Alt-D	Deletes the current line. All lines below move up one line.

Alt-K	Truncates the current line at the cursor position. This has no effect if the cursor is past the physical end of line.

Alt-N	Deletes the word after the current cursor position.

6. Undo

CTRL-U	will "undo" the last physical change made to the current file. Tech-Edit keeps track of the last 1000 modifications made to any file. Search and Replace is currently not included in UNDO. Each UNDO command will take you to the last place a modification took place and "undo" that modification; leaving the cursor at the position where the undo took place.

7. File operations

Alt-F+N	Read a file into the next screen.

Alt-F+P	Read a file into the previous screen.

Alt-F+H	Split the current screen in half horizontally and read a new file into the window below.

Alt-F+V	Split the current screen in half vertically and read a new file into the window to the right.

Alt-F+S	Prompt the user for a file name and save. (allows file to be saved under new name)

Ctrl-[F2]	Save current file under existing name.

If any wild card ('*'.'?') characters are used with any file operations, a selection list of file matches will popup for selection.

Any file operation which attempts to read in a file will first check all the active windows for an occurrence the file. If the file already exists in another window, the new window will share the same buffer as the existing window.

8. Blocking

Alt-L	Line oriented blocking. All lines highlighted will be considered in the block. You can move around with any of the movement commands and also use the search commands.

Alt-B	Rectangular oriented blocking. This block command differs from line marking in that only the parts of the lines you cover are considered in the block, not the whole line. Movement and search commands are operable as in line marking.

Operations available on highlighted block:

<C>opy	Copy the block to the Block Buffer. The BLOCK BUFFER is where the last CUT or COPIED block is stored.

C<u>t	Copy the block to the Block Buffer and delete it from the window.

<D>elete	Delete the block from the window leaving the Block Buffer unchanged.

<I>ndent	Indent the highlighted block. (Rectangular oriented blocks only)

ESC	Abort the block operation and leave all unchanged.

Operations available on Block Buffer:

Alt-I	Insert block from the Block Buffer at current location.

Ctrl-W	Write Block Buffer to a file. You will be prompted for a file name. If you wish to write the block buffer to something other than a disk file; provide the device name to write to (e.g., PRN, LPT1, LPT2, COM1,etc.).

9. Screens and windows

Tech-Edit has multiple screens and windows. Each full video screen can be broken down into separate windows (up to 16).

Alt-+ or F10	Go to next full screen.

Alt-- or F9	Go to previous full screen.

Alt-W [arrow] or

F2 [arrow]	Go to window on screen in direction of arrow.

Alt-S+H	Split current window horizontally, creating two instances of the same buffer.

Alt-S+V	Split current window vertically, creating two instances of the same buffer.

Ctrl-G	Creates a buffer selection list. This allows quick access to any editing buffer.

10. Search and replace

Ctrl-S F	Search forward.

Ctrl-F	Search again forward. (Finds next match of last search string).

Ctrl-S B	Search backward.

Ctrl-B	Search again backward. (Finds previous match of last search string).

Ctrl-A F	Search forward for word beginning at cursor.

Ctrl-A B	Search backward for word beginning at cursor.

Ctrl-R F	Search forward and replace.

Ctrl-R B	Search backward and replace.

Ctrl-T C	Toggle case sensitivity ON/OFF.

Ctrl-T R	Toggle regular expression ON/OFF.

11. Regular expression

When regular expression search mode is "on" all text search strings are considered to be "regular expressions." Regular expressions are made up of tokens. When tokens are combined to form an expression; specific text patterns can be matched from that expression. Here is a quick overview of regular expression tokens:

*	matches zero or more occurrences of previous character

+	matches one or more occurrences of previous character

[]	specifies a "character class." All characters between the brackets become valid characters for that relative character position in the expression.

Examples:

[0-9]+	matches the instance of any series of numeric digits.

[A-Za-z]tion	matches any words that end in "tion"

str\[[0-9]+\]	matched any constant array reference for array "str[]"

12. Keyboard macros

Tech-Edit provides a facility to record and play back a series of keys strokes. There are five key stroke macros available and any number of file based macros including one start-up macro (available through the configuration menu). To record a macro you simply press the key sequence Alt- M+[1...5]. This will initiate the recording of the given macro. While the macro is recording you will see a capital "M" follow by a single numeric digit representing the recording macro in the middle of the status line. To stop the recording of a macro simply press the same key sequence you used to start the recording of the macro. If you wish to play a previously recorded macro, use the execute macro command: ALT-E+[1...5] (where 1..5 refers to the recorded macro). You can also save or load any one of the five macros to/from a disk file: ALT-M+S+[1...5] and ALT-M+L+[1...5] respectively.

Alt-M [1..5]	Start/Stop recording keystroke macro [1..5].

Alt-E [1..5]	Playback keystrokes from macro [1..5].

Alt-M-S [1..5]	Save keystroke macro [1..5] to disk.

Alt-M-L [1..5]	Load keystroke macro from disk.

13. Keyboard re-definition

Any key recognized by Tech-Edit (except for any PC ASCII characters) can be re-assigned to a different function. By selecting the keyboard re-definition command (Ctrl-K+D) you will be prompted for a key to "bind." The keys to be bound is the key sequence to be redefined. At the prompt enter the key sequence you wish to re-assign. (If you wish to assign a "special key" [Enter, Backspace, Ctrl-Q, ESC] then press Ctrl-Q before the special key.) Press ENTER after you have typed in the key sequence you wish to re-define. Next a window will appear with all the possible bondable commands. Select the command you wish to assign to the key sequence and press return. This change will be present until you exit the editor. If you wish to save the current keymap for future editing sessions type Ctrl-K S. You will be prompt for a filename to save the keymap to. Enter the filename and press enter. You can read in your saved keymap in later editing sessions by typing Ctrl-K L (unless you redefined the load keymap command to something else). You will be prompt for the filename of the keymap to load. If you wish this to be done automatically, you can enter the name of the keymap file in the configuration screen under the startup keymap (See configuration menu for more information)..

Define key sequence to editor function or command.

Ctrl-K-S	Save current keymap to disk under specified file name.

Ctrl-K-L	Load specified keymap from disk.

Ctrl-K-B	Display the command current ly bound to specified keystrokes.

Ctrl-Q	Quote next input character (allows control chars to be input).

14. Configuration

The following are the configuration options that are changeable via the configuration window (ALT-C): auto indent, text attributes, create backup files, block mark attributes, case sensitive search, regular expression searching, strip trailing spaces, insert mode on entry, border attributes, expand tabs, compress spaces, binary file line length, status line attributes, tab size, start-up key- map, and help file path. The up and down arrow keys are used to move from field to field. Pressing ENTER on any field saves the current configuration setup in memory. Pressing ESCAPE aborts any changes just made. Shift-F2 saves the current configuration to disk, and Shift-F3 reads the saved configuration from disk. The YES/NO settings can be toggled using the left or right arrow keys or the space bar. The attributes can be changed using the left or right arrow keys or the space bar. Screen coordinates, tab size, binary file line length, and any file names are field input areas.

15. Quick reference

Abort out of most commands	ESC

Add file to current buffer	Alt-F+I

Auto-search backward	Ctrl-A+B

Auto-search forward (word at cursor)	Ctrl-A+F

Bottom of window	Ctrl-End

Bracket Matching	Alt-Y

Bring up configuration menu	Alt-C

Copy single line	F7

Cursor down	Down arrow

Cursor left	Left arrow

Cursor right	Right arrow

Cursor up	Up arrow

Define keystroke commands	Ctrl-K+D

Delete char to left	Backspace

Delete current char	Del

Delete line	Ctrl-Y

Delete to end of line	Alt-K

Delete window. (or screen)	Ctrl-D+W

Display binary value of character	Alt-V

Displays command name for keystroke	Ctrl-K+B

End of file	Ctrl-PgDn

End of line	End

Exit, no save	Alt-X+N

Exit, prompt to save	Alt-X+P/Alt-Q

Exit, save all files	Alt-X+Z/Alt-Z

Go to next screen	Alt-=/F10

Go to previous screen	Alt--/F9

Goto line	Alt-G

Goto saved location	Alt-J+[1...5]

Insert block	Alt-I

Insert copied line	F8

Insert Date and time	Ctrl-D+T

Insert null character	Ctrl-2

Last place	Ctrl-L

Line oriented	Alt-L

Load key-map from disk	Ctrl-K+L

Load macro [1...5 from disk	Alt-M+L+[1...5]

Make top display	Ctrl-P

Move to specified window on screen	Ctrl-W/F2+[arrow]

Play macro #1	Alt-E+1/F5

Play macro #2	Alt-E+2/Shift-F5

Play macro #3	Alt-E+3/Alt F5

Play macro #4	Alt-E+4/Ctrl F5

Quote next character (literal input)	Ctrl-Q

Read configuration	Shift-F3

Read file into next screen	Alt-F+N

Read file into previous screen	Alt-F+P

Rectangular oriented	Alt-B

Replace backward	Ctrl-R+B

Replace forward	Ctrl-R+F

Save configuration	Shift-F2

Save file and remain in editor	Alt-F+S

Save key-map to disk	Ctrl-K+S

Save location	Alt-[1..5]

Save macro [1...5] to disk	Alt-M+S+[1...5]

Search backward	Ctrl-S+B/F4

Search backward again (last search)	Ctrl-B

Search forward	Ctrl-S+F/F3

Search forward again(last search)	Ctrl-F

Skip left	Shift-left arrow

Skip right	Shift-right arrow

Split screen horizontal	Alt-S+H

Split screen horizontal and read in	Alt-F+H

Split screen vertical	Alt-S+V

Split screen vertical and read in	Alt-F+V

Start of line	Home

Start/Stop recording macro #1	Alt-M+1/F6

Start/Stop recording macro #2	Alt-M+2/Shift-F6

Start/Stop recording macro #3	Alt-M+3/Alt-F6

Start/Stop recording macro #4	Alt-M+4/Ctrl-F6

Tab left	Shift-Tab

Tab right	Tab

Toggle auto indent	Ctrl-T+I

Toggle between DOS and current window	Alt-T

Toggle case	Ctrl-T+C

Toggle sound	Ctrl-T+S

Top of file	Ctrl-PgUp

Top of window	Ctrl-Home

UNDO	Ctrl-U

Window down	PgDn

Window up	PgUp

Write block to disk	Ctrl-W