OS/2 Shareware BBS: 5 Edit/05-Edit.zip/p2demo21.exe/TIPS.TXT

Text File | 1995-02-09 | 14KB | 326 lines

TIPS
FOR WORKING QUICKLY
WITH PREDITOR/2 2.0

___________________

PREDITOR/2 is packed with handy features designed to increase your
productivity.  Here are some tips that the product's developers find most
useful when working with the editor.
___________________


Quick Loading
     The initial loading of PREDITOR/2 may be slowed down if you store too
     many options in the CPE.CFG file.  Therefore, use the LOCAL.PEL file to
     indicate options that are not likely to change often.


Online Examples
     To learn more about configuring the CPE.CFG file, refer to the
     EXAMPLE.CFG file in the CPE directory.  (By default, this directory is
     C:\CPE.)


Set Variables in the CPE.CFG File
     Rather than changing the notebook settings each time you change your
     work environments, you can create multiple CPE.CFG files (with
     different names) pertaining to each environment.

     Edit the CPE.CFG file directly to set variables.  Once the CPE.CFG file
     contains the variable settings you want to use as your defaults, create
     a back-up copy so that you don't have to re-set your variables if you
     happen to lose the file.


Before Debugging
     To debug PEL functions, you must first compile the .AE file without the
     -compress option.  Make this change by editing the MAKE_AE.CMD file in
     your PEL subdirectory.  Then rename the file CPE.AE to CPE.BAK and
     recompile the function library by running MAKE_AE.CMD.


Command and File Name Expansion
     To expand a partial command or file name from the Command or File
     prompt, press the tab key.  If there is one matching name, it is
     displayed at the prompt.  If there are multiple matching names, a
     dialog box is displayed listing possible matches you can select .



Open File Under Cursor
     Quickly open a referenced file by executing the Open file under cursor
     command from the File menu. When you select Open file under cursor, the
     selected file is opened into a new buffer. Note:  You can achieve the
     same results by executing the open_file_under_cursor command from the
     command dialog box.


Scroll Context
     To increase the performance of scrolling when using the keyboard, set
     your Scroll context variables on the Scroll vars page of the Windows
     settings notebook.

Buffer Filter
     The Buffer filter item on the Windows menu enables you to move
     quickly between your loaded files.  When you select Buffer
     filter, a dialog box is displayed.  Enter the type of file (for
     example *.pel) that you want to filter through.  You can then use
     the Next buffer and Previous buffer commands to move through
     your currently loaded files of that type.


Managing Swap File Size
     It is possible for your swap file to become uncommonly large,
     especially after performing large search and replace operations.  To
     keep your swap file at a reasonable size, occasionally save your work.
     This is good practice, and clears all "undo" information out of the
     swap file.


History Lists
     1.  Press UpArrow to scroll through history lists of search strings,
     file names, or commands in the Search, Command, and Edit File dialog
     boxes.

     2.  Press PageUp to scroll through history lists in Search, Command,
     and Edit File dialog boxes (in all emulations other than CUA).


Tags File
     A tags file is a data file that lists identifiers (function names,
     variables, etc.) with information on where each is defined in the
     source code.

     Create tags files to help you quickly find information in your source
     code. Once your tags file is built, you can use the tags() and
     tags_auto() functions to retrieve the appropriate source file and
     position the cursor at the definition.  The tags() function prompts
     for a symbol to locate and the tags_auto() function locates the symbol
     under the cursor.

     When you run ctags_make(), it will report the date that the tags file
     was last updated, and will prompt you for the extensions of the files
     you wish to parse. It only works on the files in the editor's current
     directory, so you should use the 'chdir' command to change to the
     directory containing your source files.  After creating tags files
     in your project directories, you can search them all by setting the
     'Tags path' item on the Directories page of the settings notebook to
     contain the list of directories to search for tags files.

Use the Error File
     The Error file item on the File menu enables you to view errors
     found after compiling, that were redirected to a file.  Simply enter
     information in the dialog boxes presented by the Error file command to
     indicate the file name and compiler you are using.  The Error file
     generates a list box specific to this information, from which you can
     double-click on a listed error to open a file with the cursor located
     on that error.


Quickly Scanning Dialog Items
     The PREDITOR/2 toolbar provides the ERR buttons to enable you to more
     quickly flip through a list of matching search strings or compile errors
     with the List dialog box minimized. The ERR buttons are located near the
     right end of the toolbar.

     When you have completed a search and the results are presented in the
     Find All List dialog box or a compile with the results in a compile list
     dialog box,

     1.  Minimize the List dialog box by clicking on the upper right corner
     of the dialog box.

     2.  Click on the ERR buttons to move forward and backward through the
     results list.  Your cursor will automatically move to the next
     occurrence found by the search process.


Context-Sensitive Search
     Use the pop-up menu for a quick, context-sensitive search.  Within the
     buffer you are searching, simply move the cursor to the word you are
     searching for, press and release the right mouse button, and select the
     Find String menu item from the pop-up menu that appears.


Incremental Find
     The Incremental find function enables you to follow the progress of the
     search as you enter a search pattern.

     For example, if you are searching for the pattern 'apple', the editor
     finds the first occurrence of 'a' when you type 'a', then it finds the
     first occurence of 'ap' when you typed 'p' and so on until you have
     typed the entire pattern.

     You can access incremental find from the Search menu on the menu bar.
     The letters you enter appear on the Status bar. If your status bar is
     toggled off, it is automatically toggled on for the incremental find
     process. Use the Esc key to end the Incremental find command.


Context-Sensitive Help for Editor Commands
     Press F1 at the command prompt to receive context-sensitive help on the
     command name you have entered.


Wrap Paragraph Function
     Paragraphs are delimited by empty lines.  The wrap_paragraph
     command reflows a paragraph at the margins.  This is useful when
     editing a text file that has different margins than those you
     have specified.  The wrap_paragraph command operates from the
     current cursor position to the next empty line or on the current
     selection.

     Note:  Before you execute wrap_paragraph, your text should be aligned
     at the left margin.

     It is often handy to reformat a paragraph after making
     changes that don't cause an automatic update.  By assigning a key
     to the function wrap_paragraph(), you can press that key to
     reformat the current paragraph from the cursor position to the
     end of the paragraph.  If you highlight one or more paragraphs
     and press the key assigned to the wrap_paragraph() function, all
     of the highlighted text is reformatted while paragraph
     boundaries are honored.

     It is also handy to quickly reformat a paragraph using margin
     settings other than your standard settings.  For example, you
     might want to indent a list or chart.  To do this, move the block
     to the desired left margin then  highlight the paragraph with a
     column block, starting and ending at your desired margins, and
     execute the wrap_paragraph() function.


Enabling PVCS
     To enable PVCS, simply toggle it on by typing "PVCS" in the
     command dialog box (or at the status bar prompt).  Toggle PVCS
     off by entering the same command.


Comparing without PVCS or Vdiff
     If you do not have PVCS or Vdiff, you can still compare two
     versions of a file with the compare_buffers() and
     compare_windows() functions.

     With these functions, you do not have to compare entire files.
     In some cases, this characteristic makes compare_buffers() and
     compare_windows() a quicker alternative than using Vdiff.

  1. Compare Buffers
     To use the compare_buffers() function, simply load both files
     into consecutive buffers, place the cursor in each buffer at the
     position where you would like to start the comparison, and call
     the compare_buffers() function from the command line.

     Note:  When calling compare_buffers(), make sure you are in the
     first of the two buffers in the list, as compare_buffers() simply
     compares the current and next buffers, starting at their
     respective cursor positions.

     When the editor finds a difference, the cursor position in both
     buffers is updated to that location.  Cycling between buffers
     enables you to see the differences between the two.  If you wish
     to continue comparing the buffers' remaining content, move the
     cursor in each buffer to a new location and call the
     compare_buffers() function again.  If no differences are found,
     the cursors are positioned at the end of the buffers.

  2. Compare Windows
     The compare_windows() function is a more visual version of the
     compare_buffers() function.  You must have two and only two
     windows open, with the buffers to compare displayed in the
     windows.

     The easiest approach to using this function is to:

     --load the files into buffers
     --position the cursors
     --choose Windows/Split vertical (or horizontal)
     --call compare_windows()

     Because both buffers are visible, you can view the differences
     side-by-side. Otherwise, the functionality is the same as the
     compare_buffers() function.


Create Windows
     When in MDI mode, create a new window by simply pressing the left mouse
     button in the main editor window, dragging the mouse to a diagonal
     location and releasing the left mouse button.


Minimize_and_Save
     Rather than exiting the editor and restarting each time you want
     to edit a file, call the minimize_and_save() function to save all
     your open buffers and minimize the editor.  The editor appears to
     be closed but is running in the background.

     Users who habitually exit the editor rather than minimizing
     frequently assign the minimize_and_save() function to the "Quit"
     key in the emulations they use.


Prompts on the Status Bar
     To receive command prompts from the status bar (rather than a
     the Command dialog box), select the "Prompts" option on the
     Editor Settings notebook Status bar page.

     With the prompts "on," you can press the F10 key and the command
     prompt appears on your status bar.

     Note:  This features is accessible in all emulations but CUA.


Enabling Template Expansion
     Templates are programming constructs you can expand from an
     abbreviated keyword, and are specific to a programming language.
     By default, PREDITOR/2's templates are disabled.

     To enable template expansion,

     1. Click on the Tools menu on the menu bar.
     2. Click on the Command dialog menu item.
     3. Type ec in the text box and click on the OK button. (The
        command ec toggles the template on and off.)  The status bar
        displays the state of template expansion.
     4. Type the abbreviated keyword and press the space bar.  The
        construct corresponding to the keyword is displayed after the
        cursor.

     Many templates contain fields.  After expansion, press the
     Ctrl-Enter key to select the next field in the current buffer.
     By default, the Expand Template key is Space and the Next Field
     key is Ctrl+Enter.  You can change these by modifying
     ELECTRIC.PEL around line 77 (search for the string DEFAULT_)
     and recompiling.

Determining Key Assignments
     To determine what function is assigned to a key (or keys), use
     the print_bindings command.  After running print_bindings, any
     key (or key combination) that you type will display the assigned
     function on the status bar.  Press the escape key to end the
     print_bindings command.

     To receive a list of all assigned keys, execute the list_keymap
     command.  Two optional parameters to the list_keymap command are
     'pel' and 'cfg' which display the output in PEL or config file
     format respectively.

Useful Functions to Assign to Keys
     tags
     tags_auto
     peltags
     peltags_auto
     mark_matching
     mark_matching_next
     goto_matching
     outdent_tab_maybe
     indent_tab_maybe
     upper
     lower
     outdent_columns
     indent_columns
     search_again
     goto_bookmark 1-9
     minimize_and_save