The Original Shareware 1.1

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██████████ ██████████████ ███ · ████ · ███ ██████████████ ██████ ██████ ████████████ ████████ ██││││││██ ████████ ██▄ ▄██ ▀██▄ ▄██▀ ▀██▄ ▄██▀ ▀████▀ ▄████▄ ▄██▀ ▀██▄ ▄██▀ ▀██▄ ██▀ ▀██ ┌────────────┐ │ BLACKBEARD │ └────────────┘ User Supported Software NOTES: Version log moved to file BB.LOG (at version 7.33). BB.DOC is being replaced with an automatic manual generator that uses the help file (BB.HLP) along with the key binding file (BB.KEY) to produce a manual that is customized with your own key mapping. Expect to see this in the next version. The help file more correct than BB.DOC. INTRODUCTION Blackbeard is a programmer's editor. It performs the editing tasks a programmer needs, in as fast and efficient manner as possible. It works the way you expect it to. The primary use for Blackbeard is for source code editing and it does all the things you would expect. It also has some word processing features; these were used to create this documentation. Distribution Registration, and right to copy Software copyright violation is rampant. This is why we have created Blackbeard. Because Blackbeard is a superior text editor and available for free distribution, there should be little need to pirate copyrighted software to obtain advanced text editing features. Please feel free to give Blackbeard to your friends. We are counting on you as a participant in the largest distribution network in the nation (the owners and users of PCs) to make Blackbeard a popular product. With strong user support, Blackbeard has be enhanced with new features and capabilities making it the editor of choice. For twenty (20) dollars you can become a registered owner of Blackbeard. For your $20.00 you will appease your conscience about using unregistered software, provide support for future enhancements, receive a distinctive Blackbeard collectable, a registration sticker, and a copy of the latest version of Blackbeard. The file FORM.TXT can be used as an order form. SEND A CHECK MADE OUT TO BLACKBEARD TO: Blackbeard P.O.Box 638 San Bernardino, California 92402 We thank you for your support. DOCUMENTATION Blackbeard does not come with a voluminous manual. The design team decided that a good editor should not need a large reference manual; most of the documentation is built in. This file explans the features of Blackbeard. SETTING UP AND RUNNING BLACKBEARD Running Blackbeard To run Blackbeard type: BB The screen clears and Blackbeard information appears with a request for a filename at the last line of the screen. Pressing enter displays a directory of files from which you may select a file to edit (see the menus section for how to use menus). See the "Memory Residence" section to install Blackbeard as a "pop-up" editor. You can give Blackbeard a filename upon startup: BB <filename> Blackbeard will then display your file. Status Line The last line of the screen contains the status information. It looks like: Line 1 Col 0 <DMIWSTN> Kill 0 Paste 0 C:\filename 846 The status line tells you the line and column you are working on. The letter inside brackets indicate the current editing settings. The possible letters and meanings are described in the following chart: Letter Meaning D Drawing mode on M Keystroke macro recording on I Insert mode on W Word wrap on B Bullet mode on (and word wrap on) S Case sensitive search on T Auto-tab on N Auto-insert on Kill followed by the size of the text in the delete buffer. Paste followed by the size of text in the paste buffer. The name of the file you are editing followed by its size. Help and command menus To access the menus and learn the commands press the escape <Esc> key and the menu will pop-up. You can execute a command or select any submenus by positioning the cursor on the item (using the keypad keys) and pressing the Enter key (<─┘). To exit a menu without choosing an item press the escape key. The menu action occurs where the cursor was before you entered the menu. With few exceptions the menu commands have their direct keyboard counterparts described to the right of the English command description. The direct commands use the keyboard letters and the shift () , Alt (α), and control (Ctrl) keys. The following describes how they are shown: ^R - means Ctrl-R R - means Shift-R αR - means Alt-R The function keys are designated as F1 - F10. Prompt Line Blackbeard will prompt you for various editing strings on the status line. This includes search/replace string and new filename. Blackbeard has a built in prompt line editor. Prompt line editing uses arrows, backspace, Home, End Up arrow (to retrieve previous data), Ins and Del. The Esc key aborts the prompt and enter to complete the prompt. CONFIGURATION When Blackbeard starts up it looks for five files: the configuration file (BB.CFG), the key binding file (BB.KEY), the macro file (BB.MAC), the paste buffer (BB.PST), and the language file (BB.LNG). With the exception of the Paste file, Blackbeard looks in the current subdirectory for these files. If there is not a file in the current subdirectory, Blackbeard will look at the file defined in the DOS environment by the appropriate symbol. This allows you to keep one configuration file and use Blackbeard from any disk or directory. To set the default Blackbeard file use the following command: SET BBCFG=<filename> for example: SET BBCFG=C:\BB\BB.CFG The appropriate symbols are: BBDIR - default directory for most of the following BBCFG - Configuration file. BBKEY - Key binding file. BBMAC - Macro file. BBPST - Paste file. BBLNG - Language file. For the paste buffer, Blackbeard looks first for the symbol BBPST. If found, the paste filename defined by the set statement is used. If not the paste file, a message is issued and the paste buffer is limited in size and not paged out to a file. Configuration File Blackbeard keeps a configuration file that allows you to customize the following areas: - all items from the OPTIONS MENU - all items from the SETTINGS MENU - Window colors - WIndow sizes - the status line settings Blackbeard looks in the current subdirectory for a file named BB.CFG. This file sets the configuration setttings. If there is not a file named BB.CFG in the current subdirectory, Blackbeard will look in the BB DOS environment subdirectory for this file, if it is found it will use the filename supplied with the symbol. This will let you keep one configuration file and use Blackbeard from any disk or directory. See the OPTIONS/SETTINGS menu for the read and save configuration commands. These commands will request a filename and default to the current path and BB.CFG filename if none is given. Macro file Blackbeard allows you to define and save keyboard macros. Blackbeard looks in the current subdirectory for a file named BB.MAC. This file contains your macros. If there is not a file named BB.MAC in the current subdirectory, Blackbeard will look in the BB DOS environment subdirectory for this file, if it is found it will use the filename supplied with the symbol. See the macros menu for the read and save macro commands. To read in macro files with different filenames simply enter the desired file name to the read file prompt. These commands will request a filename and default to the current path and BB.CFG filename if none is given. Key binding File Blackbeard keeps a key binding file that will allow you to redefine the keystrokes: Blackbeard looks in the current subdirectory for a file named BB.KEY. This file defines the keyboard binding. If there is not a file named BB.KEY in the current subdirectory, Blackbeard will look in the BB DOS environment subdirectory for this file, if it is found it will use the filename supplied with the symbol. This will let you keep one keyboard file and use Blackbeard from any disk or directory. See the OPTIONS/SETTINGS/KEYS menu for the read and save key bindings commands. These commands will request a filename and default to the current path and BB.KEY filename if none is given. Other configuration If you are using the IBM monochrome adapter or a color/graphics adapter with a color monitor, you will not have to configure Blackbeard for your system. If you are using Blackbeard with a color/graphics adapter and a monochrome monitor, you will have to configure Blackbeard so that it does not use color. To do this run Blackbeard, press αF9 (to turn off color) and save your configuration using the configuration menu. HOW BLACKBEARD HANDLES FILES Virtually virtual memory Blackbeard uses a virtually virtual memory method to handle large files. This means it pages the file in and out of memory. The messages Reading file and Writing file appear on the status line to indicate when Blackbeard is paging the file. Blackbeard uses to two buffers to keep track of your file. One that keeps track of every line in the file and one that pages your file in and out. Blackbeard's file size is limited by the number of lines. The default is about 8000 lines (this is large enough for almost all text files). However, you can tell Blackbeard how to distribute its vitrual memory buffers. The line buffer's size ranges from 4000 to about 24000. The default is 8000. It should be set to the maximum expected file size (in terms of lines) you will edit. To set the line limit run Blackbeard with either of the following commands: BB =# of lines or BB <filename> =# of lines Example: BB read.me =20000 will run Blackbeard such that it can accept files that have up to 20000 lines. Backup Blackbeard can create a backup file, at startup. Blackbeard will copy the original file to a .BAK file. While editing, Blackbeard will page your file in and out of memory. If the computer should crash while editing; the edited file may be unusable. The default is not to provide a backup file. File saving Blackbeard always works on the current file. When you change to a window that contains a different file, the file in the previous window is saved and the new file is read in and you are positioned where you left off. Every time you change to a window with a different file (or one of the three special purpose windows), Blackbeard saves the file. This means you cannot go back to your original text. (If automatic backup is on, a backup is made when you enter a new file with the new file command). Memory Residence /* THIS FEATURE HAS BEEN REMOVED WITH VERSION 7.+ */ Blackbeard can be loaded in the background and popped up (like Borland's Sidekick). It uses up about 150k bytes of memory. To load Blackbeard in the background execute Blackbeard with the following command: BB =r You can specify a number of lines with BB =r##### Once Blackbeard is loaded in the background it is popped up with the file you were last editing with the ALT = (α=) key. It will resume editing where you last left off. Popping Blackbeard up with ALT - (α-) pops up Blackbeard and you are queried for a new filename. Notes about operating Blackbeard in the background: o When popped up from the command prompt, the DOS window and DOS exit commands do not work. They work fine when popped up behind another program. o Beware of popping Blackbeard up behind a graphics program. COMMANDS The remainder of this document describes all the Blackbeard commands and their original key binding by categories. CURSOR MOVEMENT This section defines the commands to move the cursor and window about. COL LEFT (->) Moves the cursor left one column. When the cursor reaches the window edge, the window is scrolled. COL RIGHT (<-) Moves the cursor right one column. When the cursor reaches the window edge, the window is scrolled. ROW UP () Moves the cursor up one line. If the cursor is at the top of the window, then the window moves up a line. ROW DOWN () Moves the cursor down one line. If the cursor is at the bottom of the window, then the window moves down a line. HOME (Home) Moves the cursor to the upper left corner of the window. END OF SCREEN (End) Moves the cursor to the lower left corner of the window. PAGE UP (PgUp) Moves the window up the length of the window. PAGE DOWN (PgDn) Moves the window down the length of the window. START OF FILE (^PgUp) Moves to the start of the file. END OF FILE (^PgDn) Moves to the end of the file. WORD RIGHT (^->) Moves the cursor a word to the right. If the next word is not in the window, then the window is repositioned with the word centered in the window. WORD LEFT (^<-) Moves the cursor a word to the left. If the next word is not in the window, then the window is repositioned with the word centered in the window. LEFT OF SCREEN (^Home) Puts the cursor at the left edge of the window. RIGHT OF SCREEN (^End) Puts the cursor at the right edge of the window. END OF LINE (^E) Places the cursor at the end of the line. This may involve shifting the window to the right. GOTO (^G) Goto a specified line of the file. If the line is greater than the number of lines in the file, END OF FILE is performed. TAB (->| or ^I) If fixed tabs are on, the cursor moves right to the next tab. If fixed tabs are off, the cursor moves to the right by the tab size columns. If tab insert is on then tab size spaces are inserted. TAB LEFT (|<- or ^O) If fixed tabs are on, the cursor moves left to the next tab. If fixed tabs are off, the cursor moves to the left by the tab size columns. RETURN (^Enter or ^J) Shifts the window to the left edge and place the cursor in the first column and down a line. EDIT Standard editing operations are available. The kill buffer contains about the last 25 deleted lines. INSERT/OVERSTRIKE (Ins) Toggles insert and overstrike character mode. DELETE CHAR (Del) Deletes the current character. DELETE LINE (^D) Deletes the current line to the Kill buffer. BACKSPACE (Backspace or ^H) Deletes the previous character. If the cursor is at column one, nothing happens. BREAK LINE (^K - mnemonic is krack) Breaks the line at the current cursor position. INSERT LINE (^I) Inserts a line at the current cursor positon. RETURN & INSERT LINE (Enter or ^M) Performs RETURN and INSERT LINE. UNDELETE LINE (^U) Inserts a line from the Kill buffer at the current line. That line is deleted from the Kill buffer. DELETE TO EOL (^W - mnemonic is waste) Deletes the rest of the line. Undo will undo this function. YANK LINE (^Y) Inserts a line from the Kill buffer at the current line. This allows multiple insertion of the same deleted line. It works as a quick cut and paste. DELETE BLOCK (αD) Deletes a marked block. JOIN LINE (αK) Joins the next line to the current line. A space separates the lines. UNDO (αU) Restores the line to the last edited state. BREAK & NEXT LINE (αJ) Breaks the current line and set cursor to next line SELF INSERT Inserts the character. DELETE WORD (^Backspace) Deletes the next word. FILE BACKUP FILE (α1) Copies the current file to a file with the same name but with a .BAK extension. NEW FILE (^N) Opens a new file to edit in the current window. If no filename is given, a pop-up menu displays a directory. Wildcards in the filename can constrain the directory. Select the file to edit using the standard menu keys. Esc if you do not want to select a file. WRITE FILE (αW) Write out the file REREAD FILE (αN) Rereads the file. SWITCH TO FILE (αG) Switchs to the file under the cursor. The filename is delimited by a non-file character. INSERT FILE Will insert the specified file before the current line. WINDOWS Blackbeard is a windowed editor with 13 windows; 10 for normal editing, and three for special purposes. You can edit one or more files in the general editing windows. To edit a different file in a window just bring up the window using Ctrl and one of the function (F1-F10) keys and press ^N to edit a different file. Note that this does not affect any other windows; only the current window you are in. The current file will "follow you around" to the un-initialized windows that you move to. You can select, re-size, and color windows from the window sub menu. ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Windows and their default sizes │ ├──────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┤ │ ^F1 - Main window; full screen │ αF1 - DOS window │ │ ^F2 - full screen │ αF3 - Paste window │ │ ^F3 - left half of screen │ αF4 - Kill window │ │ ^F4 - right half of screen │ │ │ ^F5 - top half of screen │ │ │ ^F6 - bottom half of screen │ │ │ ^F7 - left half of screen │ │ │ ^F8 - right half of screen │ │ │ ^F9 - full screen │ │ │ ^F10 - full screen │ │ └──────────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────┘ WINDOW 1 (^F1) Selects window 1. WINDOW 2 (^F2) Selects window 2. WINDOW 3 (^F3) Selects window 3. WINDOW 4 (^F4) Selects window 4. WINDOW 5 (^F5) Selects window 5. WINDOW 6 (^F6) Selects window 6. WINDOW 7 (^F7) Selects window 7. WINDOW 8 (^F8) Selects window 8. WINDOW 9 (^F9) Selects window 9. WINDOW 10 (^F10) Selects window 10. EXPAND (αF5) Expands the current window to a full screen. SELECT (αF6) Displays a pop-up menu of windows and their files. Select the window desired. Esc to stay in the current window. MOVE/FRAME (αF7) Moves the current window. Frame changes the size of the window by moving the lower right corner of the window. Enter switches modes. Esc completes moving/framing. COLOR/B&W (αF9) Turns color on and off. SELECT COLOR (αF10) Selects the foreground and background color of the current window. KILL WINDOW (αF4) The kill window contains deleted text, which is edited like any other window. PASTE WINDOW (αF3 or F10) The paste window contains the paste buffer which has the text you have cut out. It may be edited like any other window. DOS WINDOW (αF1) The DOS window allows you to interact with DOS in a windowed environment. ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Use caution when in the "DOS window" (αF1). All line │ │ oriented commands such as compilers and linkers will │ │ work OK. Some programs will trash you royal, use │ │ the "exit to DOS" function αF2 for these. │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ FIND & REPLACE This section explains how to find strings and replace them with other strings. FIND (^F) Searches the file for a string. It searchs forward from the current position to the end of the file. You can enter special characters into a search string by pressing the control key or using the Alt key and the numeric keypad. Esc and Enter abort searching. To enter the character code for Escape use the Alt key pad (in num lock mode) and enter 27 (the code for escape). FIND & REPLACE (^R) Find a string and replaces one string with another. The replacements can be conditional, meaning Blackbeard will ask you whether you actually want to replace the string before it replaces it. Replacements can be global, meaning replace every occurrence of the string from the current cursor position to the end of the file. REPEAT FIND (αF) Repeats the last search. REPEAT REPLACE (αR) Repeats the last replace. SEARCH REVERSE (^S) Searchs the file for the requested string from the current cursor position backward to the start of the file. REPEAT SEARCH REVERSE (αS) Repeats the last search reverse Regular Expression Search The following characters are used to perform reqular expression searching. This set matches the grep utility very closely. We will be integrating a help facility in to the search function very soon now. For now this is what you get. This search information is also contained on the distribution diskette in the file re.hlp. x An ordinary character (not mentioned below) matches that character. \ The backslash quotes any character. \"\\$\" matches a dollar-sign. ^ A circumflex at the beginning of an expression matches the beginning of a line. $ A dollar-sign at the end of an expression matches the end of a line. . A period matches any character except \"new-line\". :a A colon matches a class of characters described by the following :d character. \":a\" matches any alphabetic, \":d\" matches digits, :n \":n\" matches alphanumerics, \": \" matches spaces, tabs, and : other control characters, such as new-line. * An expression followed by an asterisk matches zero or more occurrances of that expression: \"fo*\" matches \"f\", \"fo\" \"foo\", etc. + An expression followed by a plus sign matches one or more occurrances of that expression: \"fo+\" matches \"fo\", etc. - An expression followed by a minus sign optionally matches the expression. [] A string enclosed in square brackets matches any character in that string, but no others. If the first character in the string is a circumflex, the expression matches any character except \"new-line\" and the characters in the string. For example, \"[xyz]\" matches \"xx\" and \"zyx\", while \"[^xyz]\" matches \"abc\" but not \"axb\". A range of characters may be specified by two characters separated by \"-\". Note that, [a-z] matches alphabetics, while [z-a] never matches. The concatenation of regular expressions is a regular expression. CUT & PASTE There are two types of regions: columns and ragged text. For columns, "mark start" marks the upper left corner and "mark end" marks the lower right corner of the block. For ragged text, "mark start" marks the start of a region, and "mark end" marks the end of a region. If "mark start" is pressed with the cursor position after the marked region it extends the region; the converse is true with respect to "mark end." Try it and you will get used to how it works; it works like you would expect it to. MARK START (F1) Marks the start of a region. MARK END (F2) Marks the end of a region. GRAB (F3) Copies the region to the paste buffer. CUT (F4) Cuts out the region to the paste buffer. SHIFT LEFT (F5) Shifts the selected lines left by tab size characters. SHIFT RIGHT (F6) Shifts the selected lines right by tab size characters. COPY (F7) Copys contents of paste buffer into the current file. PASTE (F8) Cuts the contents of the paste buffer into the current file. UNMARK (F9) Resets the markers. PASTE WINDOW (F10) Selects the paste window for editing. CLEAR PASTE (F9) Empties the paste buffer. COLUMNS There are two types of regions: columns and ragged text. For columns, "mark start" marks the upper left corner and "mark end" marks the lower right corner of the block. For ragged text, "mark start" marks the start of a region, and "mark end" marks the end of a region. If "mark start" is pressed with the cursor position after the marked region it extends the region; the converse is true with respect to "mark end." Try it and you will get used to how it works; it works like you would expect it to. MARK COL START (F1) Marks the upper left corner of the column. MARK COL END (F2) Marks the lower right corner of the column. GRAB COL (F3) Copies the column to the paste buffer. CUT COL (F4) Cuts the column into the paste buffer. REMOVE COL (F5) Copies the column to the paste buffer and clears the column in the current file. REPLACE COL (F6) Overlays the paste buffer column-wise at the current cursor position. COPY COL (F7) Inserts the paste buffer column-wise at the current cursor positon. PASTE COL (F8) Inserts the paste buffer column-wise at the current cursor positon and deletes it from the paste buffer CLEAR PASTE (F9) Empties the paste buffer. SHIFT LEFT (F5) Shifts the selected lines at the current column to the left tab size columns. SHIFT RIGHT (F6) Shifts the selected lines at the current column to the right tab size columns. UNMARK (F9) Clears the markers. PASTE WINDOW (F10) Selects the paste window for editing. MACROS One of the most powerful Blackbeard features is the keystroke macro capability invoked by pressing ^V. When ^V is pressed Blackbeard starts remembering keystrokes that you press until ^V is pressed again (the number of keystrokes remembered is about 500). To reexecute this remembered sequence of keystrokes press ^X. Blackbeard allows you to name your macros; delete macros you have named; execute named macros; save the macros to a file and read them back in. DEFINE MACRO (^V) Starts and stops keystroke remembering EXECUTE MACRO (^X) Executes the current keystroke macro NAME MACRO (αV) Assigns a name to the current keystroke macro. WRITE MACROS Writes the named macros to a file. If no filename is given BB.MAC is assumed. READ MACROS Reads in a macro file. If no filename is given BB.MAC is assumed. EXECUTE NAMED MACRO (αX) A menu of named macros appears. Select the desired macro to execute. This macro now becomes the current macro. DELETE MACRO (αM) A menu of named macros appears. Select the macro you want to delete. WORD PROCESSING This section describes the word processing functions. ADJUST PARAGRAPH (^P) Reformats from the beginning of the current line to the next empty line or the end of the file using the current right margin and the indention level of the following line. This allows the first line to be a different format than the rest of the paragraph. ADJUST SPECIAL (αP) Reformats the same as ADJUST PARAGRAPH, except when justifying no spaces are inserted between the first and second word. This is very useful for bulletted paragraphs. ADJUST BLOCK Reformats from the beginning of the current line to the next empty line or the end of the file using the current right margin and the indention level of the current line. CENTER LINE (αC) Centers the line. TRANSPOSE (^T) Swaps the current character with the next character. CHANGE CASE (αT) Changes the current chararter's case according to the change case mode. CHANGE CASE REGION (F10) Changes a select region of text to the change case mode. BULLET (^B) Set an indent column for word wrap. Wrapped wors are be indented to this column rather than the first column or current line's start column. BULLET OFF (αB) Turns bullet mode off. OPTIONS/SETTINGS/KEYS/STATUS LINE The options and status line menus work different from the command menu. The are toggle menus with ON shown as high intensity and OFF as normal intensity. To toggle an item use the enter key. Exit with escape. OPTIONS (^A) Brings up the options menu. It contains the following information. Insert characters - select insert or overstrike character insertion Word wrap - words typed past the right margin (see SETTINGS menu) are wrapped to the next line. Case sensitive search - Consider (ON) or ignore (OFF) case when searching for a string. Auto-tab - Align the cursor to the column of the current line when inserting lines, deleting line, and word wrapping. Return when in auto-insert and auto-tab uses the column of the previous line unless the line is blank where it uses the last indent value. Auto-insert - Return inserts a line (ON) or simply goes to the next line (OFF) Fixed-tab - Interpret the tab key as increasing the indent level (OFF) or as jumping to fixed tab locations (ON) (tabs are toggled on and off with αI). Justify - Perform justification (by inserting extra spaces) when word wrapping and adjusting paragraphs. Display tabs - Indicates whether to perform a tab-to-space translation when displaying the file. ON means tabs are not translated, but displayed as the tab character. OFF means tabs are translated to the appropriate white space Auto backup - ON indicates that a backup of you file is written to the same filename with a .BAK extension when you edit the file. OFF means no backup is made. Regular Expression Search - ON indicates regular expression searching is performed. Off indicates normal search Insert tabs - On means when the tab function is executed a tab is inserted. Off means the tab only moves the cursor to the next tab position. WRITE CONFIG Writes the configuration to the filename specified. If none is given BB.CFG is assumed. READ CONFIG Writes the configuration to the filename specified. If none is given BB.CFG is assumed. SETTINGS (αA) Brings up the settings menu. It contains the following information. Right margin - Sets the right margin used for word wrap and paragraph reformatting. Tab size - Sets the tab size used for shifting text left or right and also used to move the cursor when the tab function is executed in non-fixed mode. Line size - Sets the size of the line for line drawing mode. 0 = dashed line; 1 = single width; 2 = double width. Case mode - Set the change case mode used with change case and change case region. 0 = Flip case; 1 = Upper case; 2 = Lower case Insert number - Sets the number to insert with the insert number function. STATUS Brings up the status line menu. STATUS COLOR Selects the foreground and background color of the status line. SET DELIMETERS Sets the characters that define what are to be delimeters between words. Works with right_word, left_word and delete_word and another delimeted type of command. KEY BINDING Information about binding the keys is contained in the file BBC.DOC. Commands SHOW BINDINGS (α2) Displays the current key to function bindings. WRITE BINDINGS Writes the key bindings to the specified file. If no filename is given BB.KEY is used. READ BINDINGS Read the key bindings from the specified file. If no filename is given BB.KEY is used. MISCELLANEOUS There are many miscellaneous functions to satisfy specialized needs. This section describes these functions. NULL This function does nothing. MENUS (Esc) Calls up the command menus. REPEAT MENU COMMAND (αE) Repeats the last menu command. This key is bound to one of the mouse buttons. EXIT (^Z) Saves the file and exits Blackbeard ABORT (αZ) Exits Blackbeard without saving the current file. Useful if you selected a strange file to edit or want to start over. EXIT TO DOS (αF2) Saves the file; keeps Blackbeard memory resident and returns to DOS. To return to Blackbeard type EXIT at the DOS prompt. REPEAT KEY (α4) Repeats a key a selected number of times. You are prompted for the repeat count and then the key to repeat. To interrupt repeat hit any key. TAB TOGGLE (αI) Sets and resets a tab stop in fixed tab mode. ASCII CHART (^C) Displays an ascii chart with DECIMAL, HEX and Character. Scroll the chart with the left, right, up and down arrows. Esc to exit. INSERT SPECIAL CHAR (^Q) Inserts any ascii character specified by number. If no value is input the character 0 or NUL is inserted. This is very useful for putting in special printer escape sequences. The ALT key and the numeric keypad can also perform this function for certain characters, but not the Ctrl keys. LAST DOS COMMAND (αL) Displays the last DOS command executed in the DOS window. LINE DRAWING (αQ) BLACKBEARD has a line drawing capability which can be used to make boxes, organization charts, and other line oriented pictures. It is not a true graphics feature, but instead uses the IBM PC line characters. You can think of the line drawing as a crude pen plotter. Press αQ to drop the pen (the αQ is really a toggle, which raises or loweres the pen). At this point, any cursor movements using the cursor keys will cause a line to be drawn. You can use the four arrow keys to move left, right, up, and down. In addition, you can use the four corner keys (1,3,7,9) to move along a diagonal, but the diagonal lines are not as well formed as the horizontal and vertical line. Here is a sample picture : ┌───────────┐ ┌─────────────┐ │ Box 1 ├────────┤ Box 2 │ │ │ │ │ └───────────┘ └─────────────┘ The boxes are formed by dropping the pen (αQ), moving the cursor, and then lifting the pen (αQ again). The line drawing characters will only print on printers which support the IBM PC character set (such as the IBM Graphics printer, the STAR SG-10, and some EPSONS). If you do not have one of the correct printers, you can still do some line drawing using a different line width. BLACKBEARD supports three line widths: 0, 1, and 2. The picture above is using line width 1, while this (═══════) is line width 2. Most printers actually print the line width 2 as line width 1. If this is true of your printer, then line width 2 is useful mainly for on screen text. Line width 0 draws lines using the standard ASCII characters. The characters are hyphens (---) for horizontal lines, bars (|) for vertical lines, and plus (+) for corner connectors. Here is a line width 0 box : +-----------+ +-----------+ | | | | | Line 0 +-----+ Boxes | | | | | +-----------+ +-----------+ These will print on nearly any printer. A few tips for using boxes. A good way is to build your boxes, and then fill them with text with insert mode off. The INS key toggle insert mode. The flags on the bottom status line show an I for insert mode. Insert mode is turned off when the I is not visible. String Replacement/Language Sensitive Editing Blackbead reads in the file BB.LNG (or the file associated with the symbol BBLNG) if present into a "language" window. When the expand language function is executed the symbol at the current cursor position is looked up in this window. A symbol is designated with either a > or < sign. If the symbol is designated with a < then the symbol is replaced by the set of lines that follow the symbol upto the next > or < sign or end of file. If the symbol is designated with a >, then you are prompted for which replacement you want to make from the lines that follow the symbol. The current BB.LNG file is for most of ADA. There is a limit of about 250 lines in the BB.LNG file. This part of Blackbeard is somewhat experimental (not in terms of reliability but in terms of probability of change). THE MOUSE A mouse is a productive device for cursor movement and command selection. The mouse makes interaction with the screen simpler, faster, and more spontaneous. Moving the mouse is as natural as moving your hand. As you move the mouse, the cursor moves on the screen. The right button on the mouse calls up the menu. The left button selects items. The pop-up menu is is placed at the cursor location, your eye's focal point. The menu is the inverse color of the current window. The menu item currently selected is the color of the current window. When the cursor is positioned over a menu item, pressing the left button selects a command. The right button on the mouse escapes from the menu without selecting an item. This button also returns to the main mouse menu from within a sub-menu. Blackbeard now includes an INTEGRAL MOUSE DRIVER for the Microsoft Mouse. The mouse will be automatically available, if the Mouse driver is loaded. These buttons correspond to Blackbeard commands. Mouse Button Key Typical function Left Enter or RETURN & INSERT LINE ^M Right Esc MENUS Mouse movements are tranlsated into cursor movements; the left button translates to enter selects menu items; the right button translates to escape pop-ups and exits menus. Mouse Systems The Blackbeard distribution diskette includes a mouse menu driver for the Mouse Systems Mouse. To use the mouse install the PC mouse menu driver by running MOUSESYS (described in your Mouse Systems Manual). Run the Blackbeard menu program with the following command: M_BB Mouse movements are tranlsated into cursor movements; the left button translates to enter selects menu items; the right button translates to escape pop-ups and exits menus.