The C Users' Group Library 1994 August/wc-cdrom-cusersgrouplibrary-1994-08.iso/vol_300/331_01/keys.doc

Text File | 1990-06-14 | 23KB | 463 lines

.ce
                           SE - Stack Editor


.nf
.ce
                         Summary of key usage


^A                 word left
^B                 reserved for unimplemented block marking operations
^C or PgDn         window down one page
^D or <left arrow> cursor left one character
^E or <up arrow>   cursor up one line
^F                 cursor right one word
^G or <Del>        delete character under cursor
^H or <Backspace>  delete character to left of cursor
^I or <Tab>        tab right
^J                 jump to line n or mark current line for next jump
^K                 block manipulations
                       B   block moves
                       Q   quit
                           w=write file
                           a=abandon edited file  (also F9)
                       X   write file and exit to system (also F10)
                       R   read and insert disc file
^L, F3, F4         repeat last find/alter
^N                 line break (<ret> is preferred)
^O                 pop a copy of last deleted line.
^P                 pop last deleted line
^Q                 'quick' options
                       A    find and replace  (see also F6)
                       F    find              (see also F6)
                       K    editing context (tabs, files, etc.)
                       P    reform paragraphs per dot commands
^R or <PgUp>       window up one page
^S or <left arrow> cursor left one character
^T                 delete word
^U or ^<left arrow>   cursor full left
                      (moves window left if already full left)
^V or <ins>        character insert/overlay toggle (transitory)
^W                 window up one line
^X or <dn arrow>   cursor down one line
^Y                 delete from cursor to end of line (delete line if full left)
^Z                 window down one line
^[                 same as escape key
^-                 undo the last 100 changes on a line-by-line basis. (+, not
                   ctrl+, becomes redo in this mode)

<home>             window to beginning of file
<end>              window to end of file
^] or ^<right arrow>  cursor full right.  (moves window right if already
                      full right)
<esc>              cancel or abort command, nothing if no partial command.


F1    help menu  (toggles)
F2    Initiate string search or search and replace
F3    repeat last search or search & replace backward (same as forward ^L)
F4    repeat last search or search & replace forward (same as backward ^L)
F5    unused
F6    Center window on cursor  (horizontally and vertically)
F7    option selection
F8    directory display
F9    exit without saving (same as ^KQ)
F10   save the current file and exit (same as ^KX)


.fi
.rm 80


The use of the carriage return is a little different than Wordstar.  First, it
operates the same in the character insert and character overlay mode.  It is
used to break lines into two lines. ^N will also do that, but ^N will eventually
be used to push/delete the remainder of sentences spanning more than one line,
so <ret> is the prime key for breaking lines.

When a line is broken the cursor normally ends up on the lower line, which is
the latter portion of the original line.  An exception occurs when the cursor is
initially in column 1, in which case it stays on the new blank line created by
the line break, in preparation for the entry of new text.

^Y deletes from the cursor to the end of the line rather than the entire line.
Use ^U first (as needed) to move the cursor full left to delete the entire line.

Characters are inserted into the existing text in the default mode.  The <ins>
and ^V keys are used to enter the overlay mode, where the character under
the cursor is replaced by the new character.  The overlay mode is usually
used for editing tables with a rigid format.  The simplest way to change
one or two characters in existing text is to insert the new characters
then delete the old, rather than entering the overlay mode first.  The
word OVER appears in the header when in the character replace mode, and
the mode is transitory.  Any cursor positioning command which moves the
cursor more than 10 lines in a single step causes reversion to the insert
mode.

Lines are concatenated by deleting any character to the right of the rightmost
visible character with ^G or <del>.  That is the only way of concatenating
lines.  The program has free cursor movement, so the right arrow and ^] can be
used to move the cursor beyond the visible end of the line.  Line concatenation
works the same way there, except the point of concatenation is the cursor
position rather than the last visible character.  If the last character of the
line is on the screen then the ^] command will move the cursor to just beyond
it.

The ^O (pop a copy) and ^P (pop) stack operations pop the lines pushed with ^Y.
The cursor must be in column 1 for a push to occur.  The stack will hold 100
lines.  This version contains a preliminary version of the stack operations and
there are some restrictions, which are given in the read.me file.  The functions
will be refined and expanded in a future release.

The default file extensions are .c and .doc.  The extension for the input file
need not be specified if it is one of these.

The <esc> key will cancel all prompted ^K and ^Q queries.  It will also abort a
string search or search and replace operation.  It can also be used to
exit the help mode.  The escape key has no effect if there is nothing
to abort.

The program will rarely automatically scroll horizontally with the default
options.  That is sometimes an inconvenience when editing documents with short
lines, but is essential when editing material with lines mostly longer than 80
columns.  Use ^] and ^U repetitively to move the cursor horizontally in large
chunks.  F6 is often more convenient.

The program takes 0x0D as the input file end of line marker.  The 0x0A is
ignored, although normally there.  The output file is always the standard 0D 0A.

There is a DOS ambiguity in the way the end of file character appears in the
file.  The trailing characters in the last line can be either "text" 0D 0A 1A or
"text 1A".  Most programs don't care which way it is, but the selection is
controllable.  If the <end> key carries the cursor to a line containing visible
characters then that line is terminated by ^Z but not by a carriage return and
line feed.  The selection is controllable by the normal editing commands.

The primary file is never altered by the program.  A copy is first produced,
then the primary file is renamed to the .bak extension and the copy renamed to
the original name.

When using a fixed disc system it is usually preferable to exit after saving the
text file.  With floppies the process of reloading the program can be tedious
enough that an easy way of saving or abandoning a file and staying resident is
better.  The commands are optimized for a fixed disc system, but it is possible
to stay resident.  If a file is to be abandoned, type in a garbage character
before entering F9 or ^KQ.  The ensuing prompted inputs will allow you to
discard the text in memory and stay resident.  Similarly, also enter F9 or ^KQ,
which are normally used to abandon a file, when you really want to save it and
stay resident.  The program will not exit on one keystroke if changes have been
made to the file.  It will otherwise.

The program line limit in large systems is 16384 lines.  In smaller systems the
maximum number of lines is roughly the number of bytes of allocatable memory
divided by 4.  The lines of text are kept in a temporary disc file when they
can't be stored in RAM, but each line on disc still requires 4 bytes in RAM.  Up
to 500 kb of RAM will be used for text storage if available, with a 5-10 percent
overhead for line pointers.

A second limit is the virtual memory size limitation of 1500 2048-byte pages, or
3 megabytes.  The pages are kept preferentially in RAM, with the most recently
accessed pages being there to minimize access time.

The virtual memory management system has been improved somewhat over earlier
versions.  The new version is faster, and will not create the virtual disc file
if enough RAM is available to hold the entire document, which is normally
the case.

The program is capable of producing disc files containing lines one character
longer than it can read.  The long input lines are split, the second half always
being a null line.  Fixing the idiosyncrasy would slow the disc transfer rate
and doing so does not seem to be a good trade-off.  The problem is avoided
limiting the line length to 253 characters.  Arbitrarily long lines from other
sources are automatically split into chunks which fit when the file is read.  A
warning is issued on the occurrence.

In the ^KB block moves, most cursor positioning commands, including ^J, can be
used to move to the new block location.  String searches can't be used in this
version, although it ought to work that way.

In support of the philosophy of free cursor movement, the ^X and down arrow
cursor positioning commands have been enhanced in a way that is a convenience,
but could occasionally cause trouble.  If the cursor is on the last line of the
document and moved further down by these keys then new null lines are created at
the end of the document.  These lines are not automatically removed, and they
are classified as changed lines.

The handling of error messages is a little different than that of Wordstar, and
the difference may cause some trouble at first to the experienced Wordstar user.
There are exceptions, but normally the presence of an error message does not
mean that the escape key has to be used.  Just continue editing, and the message
will vanish on the first keystroke.  The use of any cursor positioning command
is an easy way to make the message vanish.  On the other hand, if the program is
not in the edit mode at the time of the error then a keystroke is required to
clear the message but the key is discarded.  The escape key can be used for this
purpose.

ASCII codes 0x80 to 0xff can be entered by holding down the alt key and entering
the 3-digit decimal ASCII code from the numeric keypad (the other number keys
can't be used).  See the Sidekick display or the IBM technical reference manual
for the full character set.  The resulting characters can be edited like
ordinary text.




.ce
                                 Paragraphing


The paragraph reform function is a full-fledged runoff program.  It is capable
of doing things to the text file which in most cases you don't want.  Use the
dot commands carefully until you are sure of their functioning.  The dot
commands have been left in this file for tutorial purposes.

These extra features include such things as adding page numbers and headers.
Such lines have no lasting value in the original file because the page numbers
change with each update.  If these extended features are to be utilized it is
best to copy the original file to a temporary file before reforming it.  The
capability is useful for seeing how the final text will look on a printer, or
for producing a temporary file for printing.

.in 15
.rm 65
               When the dot commands are used to reform the
               master file, the set should be limited to those
               that are reversible.  Changing the right margin is
               a process which can be reversed by reforming with
               the original right margin in the .rm dot command.
               Adding new lines containing page numbers cannot be
               automatically reversed.  The distinction is
               important in this application, because the master
               file can be reformed.

.in 0
.rm 80

The reforming function serves a second purpose.  After editing, the right edges
of paragraphs become ragged.  The ^QP function will even them up again.  The
reforming function has defaults appropriate for viewing the material on the
screen.  It is therefore often not necessary to have any dot commands in the
material.  The default configuration never creates new lines, except for those
due to line overflow.  The dot commands remain in the output, as the purpose of
the default configuration is to make text more readable on the screen, while
continuing to serve as the master file.  The reformatted file is an ordinary
text file.  There are no hidden control functions.

Dot commands occupy a line each.  They begin with a period, which must be in
column 1.  They have no special significance if not in column 1.

The nf (no fill) command stops all reformatting.  Material following the nf will
not be affected in any way. fi (fill) resumes paragraph reforming.  The blocking
effect of nf includes indentation.

In order to achieve reversibility, the old indentation in filled regions is
removed before interpreting the new indentation commands.

The first line of a paragraph may or may not be indented relative to the rest.
The output will follow the style of the input.  Paragraphs must be separated by
at least one blank line.

The default .pl (lines per page) value is 66.  The .he command must be used to
activate pagination.  A blank line can be used for the header if no actual
header is wanted.

The .ne (need) command is used to force all of a table or other entity to be
printed on one page.  A new page is begun at the .ne <lines> command if fewer
than <lines> remain on the current page.

To obtain a complete list of the dot commands enter ^QP followed by F1.

Paragraph reforming can be undone, as can all editing commands, but most
documents will exceed the 100-line undo limit.  In this case the old line is
deleted and the reformatted line added, which counts as two steps.  Only 50
lines can be undone.

Once reforming is requested the program will ask if the dot commands are to be
deleted.  In major documents the dot commands are not normally deleted in the
master file, but rather in a temporary copy of it.

If the dot commands are left in the document by the reforming process then the
dot commands are not counted in determining the location of page breaks.  This
behavior is by design because the document in that form is intended for analysis
rather than printer output.

The range of the dot commands is over an integral number of lines, but the lines
are not necessarily lines in the conventional sense.  If a single word in the
middle of a sentence is underlined then the word has to appear on a separate
line in the master file, but after filling the word can be in the middle of a
line in the output file.

The following illustrates the use of the .he and .fo commands.  These commands
have been disabled since this file was reformatted by moving them to the right of
column one.  The argument of pl (lines per page) has to be set to the right
value for your printer when using these commands. .bp is the begin page command,
with an optional page number.

.nf

 .he     This line goes at the top of each page.  The page number is #.
 .fo     This line goes at the bottom    - # -
 .bp 100

Actual output:

     This line goes at the top of each page.  The page number is 100.

 ......text......
 ......more text ....

     This line goes at the bottom    - 100 -

 .bp

     This line goes at the top of each page.  The page number is 101.

     This line goes at the bottom    - 101 -


.fi
.ce
                              Search and Replace

The ^QA and ^QF string search and replace commands are similar to those of
Wordstar. ^QF searches forward or backward; ^QA searches and replaces.  The
control key may or may not be held down for the second character of all two-key
control sequences.  The ^QA and ^QF are prompted.

The function keys provide alternatives to the string commands which are usually
easier to use.  Their advantage is that the search direction is specified by
dedicated keys rather than by a prompted response.  The equivalents of the ^L
repeat command are especially convenient because it is easy to rock back and
forth between two occurrences of a variable name or label.

Some of the permutations are:
.nf

F2 string1 F3                 Backward search for string1
F2 string1 F4                 Forward search for string1
F2 string1 F2 string2 F3      Backward search and replace
F2 string1 F2 string2 F4      Forward search and replace

F3        Convert last F2 command to reverse and resume
F4        Convert last F2 command to forward and resume
^L        Resume last F2 command without direction change

.fi
The F4 key is always associated with the forward direction;  the F3 key
is associated with the reverse direction.
The ^QF and ^QA commands can be used interchangeably with the F2 commands, and
the two forms can be intermixed.  F3 resumes a ^QA in exactly the same way it resumes an F2 command,
for example.  It is also acceptable to terminate an F2 command with a carriage
return instead of F3 or F4, in which case the program will ask for the search
direction as though it were a ^Q command.

All search operations wrap at beginning and end of file.  This can be an little
disconcerting at first.  The advantage to it is that if the sought string exists
anywhere in the file it will be found.  It is necessary to pay attention to the
displayed line number in order to retain orientation, though.  EOF is shown in
the status line when the search passes end of file;  BOF is shown for beginning
of file when the search wraps in the reverse direction.

Search and replace operations can be aborted with the escape key to perform
editing in the vicinity of one of the replacements, then resumed by F3 and F4.

The initial replacements on the current line may alter the cursor position after
the wrap operation returns to that line.  The displacement is considered, and
the replacement stops at the right location.

The new string in the search and replace command may be a null string (typed in
as <ret>, or as F2 string F2F4), which totally deletes the old string.


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                                    Options

Control characters are allowed in the replacement string if you must.  A ^Z in
the middle of a document will cause other processors to proceed as though the
last portion did not exist.  There are other problems.  SE itself is immune to
embedded control characters (except ^Z during disc reads, and 0x00 unless you
mean it), but using them in documents is generally not a good idea.  They will
be converted to a question mark on input unless you specify the -C option.  The
-C option enables them in the primary disc read and in the F2 or ^QA replacement
string.  The only way to enter them from the keyboard is to first enter some
other character sequence, then with the -C option active, use the F2 command to
replace the sequence with the control codes.  A message is displayed when the
file is read if the file contains control codes.  The message indicates whether
or not the -C option is active.

If the -C option is active the <esc> key embeds like any other control
character.  As a consequence, once a replacement command is initiated it cannot
be aborted by <esc> while the replacement string is being entered.  It can be
aborted during the ensuing prompt if the ^QA form is used, or after the first
replacement if the F2 key is used.  The first replacement can be undone if
necessary, effectively canceling the command.

The options are changed at execution time with the F7 key.  They can also be
specified on the command line at load time.  The load time options are separated
by spaces.  An example is

se filename -m30 -w

The -p option allows the importation of Wordstar document mode files.  The only
function performed by the -p option is to zero the parity bit of each ASCII
character in the primary file as it is read.  Some editing will be required
after the conversion, but the input is at least legible.  SE does not embed
control characters unless they originate explicitly at the keyboard.

The -Z option controls whether or not a ^Z end of file marker is written to the
output files.  Text files on the IBM PC normally do have the ^Z EOF marker, and
that is default.  Some Intel (R) software for the AT will not accept the ^Z, and
there are probably other exceptions. (The DOS copy command has options for
converting files from one type to the other).  The IBM standard for text files
requires the ^Z, so use the default configuration unless there is a specific
reason not to.  The option has no effect on disc reads.  If an EOF mark is
present then that is taken as the end of file; the file size is otherwise
determined from the file size in the disc directory.

The primary file being edited is automatically detabbed if tabs are present.
The correct tab setting must be used for the result to look right.  The default
setting is 8.  The tab setting can be changed in the invocation line.

se filespec -t4

will set the tabs to 4, for example.  This option need be used only once on a
given file because thereafter the file will not contain any tabs.  The keyboard
tab key is a cursor positioning command.  It has no direct effect on the text.
A future version will provide an automatic entab on output if requested.

The -Mnnn option is provided primarily to facilitate testing of the virtual
memory functions on a system with enough RAM that the disc temporary file is not
normally activated.  The option would also be useful in a time-shared
environment where it is not neighborly to take large chunks of memory.  Another
possible reason for limiting the amount of memory allocated is that when all of
it is taken DOS must partially reload itself when the editor exits.  DOS shares
part of high memory with the memory allocation pool.  This DOS function is
automatic and transparent, but might prove objectionable on a floppy disc
system.  The heaviest use of the hardware push stack in this version is due to
the virtual disc activity.  The -M option must therefore be used in evaluating
the link edit stack size specification if the program is recompiled.

The temporary disc file normally goes in the default directory of the default
drive.  The -Dd invocation option can be used to place the temporary file on
drive d, with d = 'A' to 'Z'.  The directory can't be specified for the
temporary file, but the file is removed before the program exits so that should
not matter.  The -D option is not normally needed.

The other options can be seen by using the F7 key.



.nf
Gary Osborn
Electro Chemical Devices, inc
23665 Via Del Rio
Yorba Linda CA 92686

June 1990