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Text File | 1994-03-25 | 28.0 KB | 551 lines

o----------------------------------------o | | | A short primer for the new Zap user | | | | Version 1.10 | | | o----------------------------------------o Introduction ============ This is not a 'manual' for Zap. It is intended as a short instruction file for users who do not have experience of programmer's editors and who find the rather technical instructions supplied with Zap confusing. It will not teach you all about Zap, it won't even mention most of the more advanced features. The aim is to get the inexperienced user over the first hurdle so that you can begin to use Zap at the most basic level. Once you have started to use it in preference to Edit you will then be able to go on to discover how to change it to make it operate the way you want. You will also be able to explore some of its more sophisticated editing functions for yourself. I assume that you are already familiar with Edit and will describe how you can set up Zap to work in a similar way. If you want to print this file (and if you need it I suggest you do) then the easiest way to do so is to load it into Zap and just press the Print key. Alternatively you can double-click on the !Print file in this same directory which will simply copy the file to your printer. If you are an experienced computer user who is familiar with editors on the Archimedes and other computers then don't bother to read this, it isn't intended for you. Copyright ========= This text and the files associated with it are (C) David Holden 1993. They may be freely copied and distributed by any PRIVATE INDIVIDUAL. You must ONLY copy the complete package including the example Keys, Keystrip and !Config file. You must NOT distribute it separate from the complete Zap package to which it applies (currently version 1.10). You must NOT substitute the Keys file for the one in the Zap application or put the !Config file into the !Zap application directory. They must be distributed separately to ensure that the original default files are always included with Zap. It may NOT be distributed by any PD or Shareware Library or BBS or any other not-private media without permission. It may not be changed, edited, or in any way altered but you may include additional material if you wish. If you do want to distribute this with Zap please let me know so that I can supply you with an updates as new versions of Zap appear. These restrictions have not been imposed because I wish to stop it being distributed by other libraries. On the contrary I want it to have a wide circulation so that as many people as possible can be introduced to Zap. However Zap is constantly being updated and improved and anything I write or any examples I provide may not apply to other versions. It is therefore VERY important that these files should only be distributed as part of the package to which they particularly refer. If you are running a Library or BBS then write to me at the address below (send a disc with a copy of your catalogue please) and I will send you the latest versions of this file and the latest version of Zap. If you have been sent a copy by either myself or Dominic Symes or if you have acquired it as part of the COMPLETE !Zap package from any 'authorised' distributor then you automatically have permission to distribute it but ONLY with the version of Zap with which it was included. David Holden Archimedes Public Domain Library 39 Knighton Park Road Sydenham London SE26 5RN _______ ____|__ | (R) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER Text Editors ============ There are two types of programs used for writing text on a computer, Wordprocessors and Text Editors. It might seem that they perform similar functions but in fact that is not the case. A wordprocessor is used for producing text which will eventually be turned into a printed document. This could be anything from a single page letter up to a book. More exotic wordprocessors can handle fancy fonts and graphics and when they reach this degree of sophistication they are called Desktop Publishing programs. Wordprocessor files are not intended to be 'transportable'. They contain embedded control codes and formatting commands which are unintelligible to other programs. Text Editors can be used to prepare text which will be printed but that is not their main purpose. The files they produce will normally contain only the 'standard' characters. These are called Plain Text or ASCII files. In fact different types of computer have different ideas of 'plain text' since the character set will vary between countries. The character which marks the end of a line is also not standard. The Archimedes uses the ascii character code 10 at the end of each line, the BBC computer used code 13 and the PC and Apple Mac use both together. However in general a plain text file written on one computer can be read on most other computers once these minor differences have been put right. This is made easier if you confine yourself to the main characters which appear on the computer keyboard and avoid special symbols such as accented and currency characters. Most text editors have a few simple aids to text formatting such as variable line length and wordwrap. You will probably be familiar with these from Edit. Another use of text editors is for writing Source Code for compilers and assemblers. Because programmers have special requirements a particular type of text editor known as a Programmer's Editor has appeared. Programmer's Editors ==================== The biggest difference between a programmer's editor and a 'simple' text editor like Edit is that it is, as its name suggest, designed to be used by programmers. It therefore needs to be able to create and edit source code for compilers such as 'C' or Pascal. As Basic is such a powerful and widely used language on the Archimedes ideally it should also be able to edit Basic programs. The RiscOS 3 version of Edit can do this although earlier versions could not. It will need powerful Search and Replace functions and should not be upset by files containing Control Characters. It will not need complex text formatting or printing controls because program source code would normally only be printed out as a 'listing' for the programmer to examine so nothing fancy is needed. It must be capable of basic text formatting and wordwrap because the programmer will probably want to use his favourite editor for writing short 'help' files for his program. Above all is must be FAST. There is one requirement which separates the 'professional' programmers editor from simple ones like Edit. Programmers are, by nature, perverse, individualistic and self opinionated. Wherever three programmers are gathered together there will be a minimum of four strongly held opinions on any subject connected with computers. It follows that an editor designed to be used by such people must be capable of being customised to suit his/her requirements and temperament. All good programmer's editors have some means whereby the keys used for the various functions can be set by the user. They also permit things like screen colours and as many other factors as possible to be altered. This is one reason why many new users of Zap become confused and give up before they realise how superior to Edit it is. The Author of Zap spends much of his time with computers running UNIX. He has therefore designed the standard keyboard layout to conform to the UNIX editors with which he is most familiar. You do not need to be bothered by this. Remember that almost everything about Zap can be set the way you want it. The vanishing cursor ==================== Zap has a 'proper' cursor instead of the (often almost invisible) caret and this is much easier to find, especially as you can define its colour and make it flash if you wish. Earlier versions of Zap had a 'feature' (translation:- bug) which can be a bit disconcerting to the new user. What happened was that when you used the mouse to scroll a window, either the main scroll bars or the up and down arrow icons, the cursor didn't move as the window scrolled. For example, if you loaded a long file and used the mouse and scroll bars to move part way through it all appeared to work normally. However if you pressed the Down Arrow key to scroll down just one more line something very unexpected happened. You suddenly discovered that were are back at the start of the file with the cursor on the second line! This was completely different from the way that Edit and most other text editors work. With these the cursor always remains within the window. With this version of Zap the cursor can also be confined in this way and the example !Config file supplied actually does this. Some users have now become accustomed to the 'old' method, myself included, and have discovered that it does have it's uses. If you want to 'browse' through the file you are editing then you can do so using the scroll bars, but to return quickly to your original position (the position of the cursor) all you need to do is tap one of the 'arrow' keys and Zap will take you back there. This is another example of how useful it is to be able to customise Zap, you aren't constrained by what the Author decides is best but can change it to suit yourself. Configuring Zap =============== Zap uses two files for configuration. These are found in the !Zap application directory. One is a Data file called !Config. This will not be present when you first get your copy of Zap, it is created when you select 'Save Options' from the 'Options' sub-menu. It sets colours, wrap widths, cursor type, and most of the other 'visual' layout parameters. The most important is a text file called 'Keys'. This contains the things that define how Zap will operate, including the all important key binding table which tells Zap which keys should perform which functions. With this instruction file you should find two files which are intended to replace the standard configurations. There should also be a Drawfile of a keystrip. This 'keys' file is designed to mimic Edit to enable you to become accustomed to Zap as easily as possible. Many of the more powerful functions of Zap cannot be directly accessed via keystrokes because they don't have keys assigned with this file. As you become more experienced with Zap you will wish to alter the keys file so you can access these functions but for the present they would only be confusing. The full list of functions which can be bound to keys can be found in the file 'Commands' in the 'Docs' sub-directory of the !Zap application directory. This also contains instructions for creating your Keys file and with the aid of this, the original Keys file supplied with Zap and a bit of experimentation you should be able to work out how to make Zap operate in the way that you require. To use these configuration files first make a working copy of Zap. If you have a hard disc then copy zap onto your hard disc, if you are using floppies then copy it to a new disc. Now delete the 'keys' file from the application directory of this working copy and replace it with the file of the same name supplied with this file. You should also copy the !Config file into the application directory. When you start up this version of Zap it will use the keys shown on the next page which are roughly equivalent to Edit. There are a few extra ones which have no direct equivalent but are so useful that I didn't want to leave them out. These are not the keys that I normally use and no doubt you won't use them for long before you begin to make changes. As yet Zap has no equivalent to Edit's the 'expand tabs' and 'change LF<->CR' functions. LF<->CR can be mimicked by 'search and replace'. For example, to change all CR's to LF's enter in the 'Search' icon - \13 and in the 'replace' icon - \10 or to delete al CR's from a LF-CR terminated text file from a PC in the search icon - \13 and leave the 'replace' icon blank. F1 Execute 'learnt' key sequence (no equivalent) F3 Save F4 Find and Replace F5 Goto line or address F6 Mark beginning or end of block F7 Copy marked block to cursor F8 Renumber (BASIC mode only) F9 Redo last action F10 Undo last action Sh-F1 Toggle Insert/Overtype modes Sh-F3 Immediate Save (no dialogue box) Sh-F4 Find (no equivalent) Sh-F6 Clear marked block Sh-F7 Move marked block to cursor Sh-F8 Delete marked block Ctrl-F2 Close current window Ctrl-F5 Toggle wordwrap on/off Ctrl-F6 Format paragraph Ctrl-B Split line at cursor position (for BASIC mode, B=Break) Ctrl-C Copy marked block to cursor Ctrl-L Learn key sequence (no equivalent) Ctrl-J Join two lines (for BASIC mode) Ctrl-N Next match when Searching (no equivalent) Ctrl-P Previous match when Searching (no equivalent) Ctrl-S Swap case of character at cursor (no equivalent) Ctrl-V Move marked block to cursor Ctrl-W Next window. If there is more than one window open this will move the cursor to the next one (no equivalent) Ctrl-X Delete marked block Ctrl-Z Clear marked block Delete Delete backwards Copy Delete forwards Ctrl-Copy Delete entire line Sh-Copy Delete from cursor to end of line (no equivalent) Sh-Delete Delete from cursor to start of line (no equivalent) Print Print file (no equivalent) Sh-Ctrl F0 to F7 Change to Zap mode 0-7 (more about these next) Zap Modes ========= Unlike Edit Zap has a series of different 'modes'. The mode you will probably use most, and the one that is similar to Edit, is Text Mode. The reason for the different modes is to enable you to edit data in a variety of ways. When you load a file into Zap it decides which is the most appropriate mode to use, although like most features this can also be defined in the keys file. Each mode can have various options, such as the wrap width, set by the user. For the present I shall concentrate Text (mode 0) and BASTXT (mode 6) because these are almost directly equivalent to the way that Edit works, and BASIC (mode 5) because you may prefer this to BASTXT for editing Basic programs. However you may wish to experiment with others. The two others you will probably find most useful are Byte (mode 1) and Code (mode 4). Byte mode edits a file in a window that looks like a disc sector editor. It is particularly useful for editing Data files or other files which don't contain normal text. Code mode shows a machine code or compiled program in in disassembled format. In fact it makes Zap into a simple disassembler. There are various functions which can be used when in this mode, such as following Branches, assembling instructions, etc. BASTXT mode is the mode that most people prefer for editing Basic programs. This converts a tokenised program to text when it is loaded and back to Basic when you save it. It enables all the 'normal' editing functions to be used just as if you were working on a text file. This is the way that the RiscOS 3 version of Edit handles Basic programs and for this reason I have used it as the default for this primer. If you think that Acorns Basic Editor is wonderful (!) then you may prefer to use BASIC mode (mode 5). This operates in a similar manner to Acorns (now obsolete) Basic Editor. If you want to use Zap in BASIC mode (see below) then you will need to use the 'split line' and 'join line' keys, otherwise these can be ignored. In the past I regarded the 'standard' Basic mode as so inferior to BASTXT mode that I advised people not to use it. This is because when Zap is in BASIC (as compared with BASTXT) mode it operates as a Line Editor and works on the file in its tokenised form. This means that only complete lines can be copied or moved, you have to worry about things like renumbering, using a special key to split or join a line etc. Previously the only 'good' thing about BASIC mode is that it will handle GOTO's properly and automatically (but then you wouldn't put a GOTO anywhere in your programs, would you?). However from version 1.1 Zap has a feature which makes BASIC mode more attractive. It can display the constituent parts of a program in different colours. Keywords, line numbers, REM's and string constants can all have there own colours defined which makes it much easier to 'read' a program and see how it is made up. Inexperienced programmers often find this invaluable. Personally I still prefer the superior editing ability of BASTXT mode but try them both and choose the one that you like best. To change the mode that Zap uses by default load Zap and go to the sub-menu 'Options' on the main menu. Click on 'Edit Keys'. This makes Zap load the current Keys file from it's own application directory ready for you to edit it. Press F5 to bring up the 'Goto' window, enter line number 200 and press RETURN. Zap will now display the lines in this region and you will find that about here are defined the modes that Zap uses for each type of file. You should see a line - Basic &1FFB BASTXT Change this to Basic &1FFB BASIC Press SHIFT-F3 to 'quicksave' the Keys file (ie. it will be Saved without any further prompting) and close the file window. Now click on 'Reload Keys' from the Options sub menu and Zap will re-interpret the Keys file so the next time you load a basic program it will be in BASIC mode instead of BASTXT. If you find you prefer the alternative method just change the Keys file back again. Setting the Options =================== Each Zap mode can have many options set independently of the general options, other items are common to all modes. I shall describe briefly how you make these changes and then let you experiment for yourself. The 'Options' sub menu is where most of this customising is carried out. As this leads to a series of sub-menu's you will probably find it best to open this menu and drag it to the left of the screen because otherwise as you open the other sub-menus they will obscure each other. Keep the mouse pointer within the menus as you do this otherwise they'll all close and you'll have to start again. I shall concentrate on only two items, Colours and Width. The first thing you need to understand (or you'll soon become very confused) is that when you change an option like Width it changes ONLY for the mode that is currently selected. Go to the Options-> Mode sub menu and click on 'Text'. (Click on it with ADJUST otherwise all the menus will close and you'll have to start again. Now open the Options-> Display-> Width sub menu and look at the width shown. If you are using the !Config file supplied with this text it will be 112. Now go back to Config-> Mode and click on 'BASIC'. Look at the Width after this and you will see it has changed to 76. What this shows is that Zap has a different Width for each mode, and so if you want to change it the change you make will apply ONLY to the currently selected mode. Precisely the same situation applies to colours. The only difference here is that to avoid having to change every colour in every mode you can select 'All' on the Options-> Display-> Colours menu and the colour(s) you select will be made in every mode. If you want one mode to have different colours from another then de-select 'All' and select that mode and the colours will apply to that mode only. There is a slight departure from this when you select BASIC mode. You will find three more items appear on the Options-> Display-> Colours menu. These set the colours used for REM's, Basic keywords and string constants. Obviously these only apply in BASIC mode which is why they don't appear if any other mode is selected. When you are satisfied with your choices click on 'Save Options' on the Options menu. You will probably spend a bit of time exploring the various options and discovering the effects of the changes. Most are fairly self evident and the more obscure ones probably will not concern you at this stage. Using Search and Replace ======================== Unlike Edit Zap has two Search windows. One simply 'finds' what you are looking for, the other enables you to replace it with something else. The advantage of this over Edits single window is that if you just want to find something you can't accidentally press the wrong key and replace it with a 'null string' (ie. delete it). The way that Zap's search function works is completely different from Edit and it will probably take you a while to get used to it. However it is MUCH more powerful and flexible. You have a choice of where you want the search to start from. You can begin from the cursor position or from the start of the file. You also have a choice of whether you want the search to be forwards or backwards. Another feature is that you can choose the 'output' for the search. This enables you to do more than just 'find' something. If you select 'Cursor' then the cursor will simply move to wherever the search string is found, just like Edit. If you choose 'To buffer' then when Zap finds a match it will create a new file and copy each line where a match is found to this new file. A window will open containing a list of all the lines containing a match and you can save or edit this as usual. If you want to go in your original file to any of the matches displayed in the new window then just 'click' on the line in this window and Zap will move the cursor to that line in your original file. Alternatively just use the 'go to line' function since each match will have it's 'line number' shown. Like Edit certain special characters can be used. These are all defined by being preceded by the '\' character. A full list of these can be found in the !Help file but a few examples are shown. \10 Matches ascii character number 10, eg the normal end-of-line character. \12 would find character 12 etc. \| Matches one string OR another. For example John\|Fred would match John or Fred. \A CTRL-A, \C would be CTRL-C etc. \# Any character \* Any number of the previous string. eg A\* would match A, AA, AAA etc. \< Finds the string only at the start of a line. eg. \<fred only finds 'fred' if it's the first word on a line. The biggest change from the way that Edit's Search function operates is that Zap can use Search Macro's. If you click on 'Show Macros' in either Search window the Macro Window will open. This shows the current macros. When you enter a Search string if any of the characters you enter has a macro defined for it then that macro will be substituted during the search. I am not going into great detail about these. You will need to experiment to find out exactly how they work and which macros you wish to use. Like most other things they are all defined in the Keys file and you will be able to see the current ones near the end. Learn ===== This is another very powerful function which exists in all 'proper' programmers editors but not in Edit. The idea is that Zap can 'learn' a series of keystrokes and play them back on command. When editing or modifying a file you may need to carry out the same operation many times. Instead of being forced to manually repeat it you can teach Zap what you want it to do and save yourself all the repetitive work. For example, if you had a text file which consisted of a a series of lines made up of a code number, a name, and a description, like this; 189554 Screw, Widget The screw that fits the Widget 295677 Bolt, Mangel The bolt that attaches the Mangel Now assume that you want to reduce the gaps between the three items so that you can add to the descriptions like this; 189554 Screw, Widget The screw that fits the Widget 295677 Bolt, Mangel The bolt that attaches the Mangel This is the same thing but with four spaces deleted between each section which let's you add eight characters to your description with the same line length. The way this is done 'manually' is to place the cursor after the number and press COPY four times (or whatever key you have chosen as Delete Forward), move it just after the first section and press it four times again, then move down to the next line and repeat, etc, etc. Instead of doing all this you can use Learn to do it for you. Move the cursor to the start of the first line. Press Ctrl-L to tell Zap to start learning your keystrokes. Press the Right Arrow key six times. This will move the cursor just after the number. Each time you press the key the computer will 'beep' to remind you that Zap is recording what you do. Now press the Copy key four times to delete the four spaces, press Right Arrow eighteen times to move to the second 'gap' and Copy four times once again. Now press Ctrl-Left Arrow to move to the start of the line and Down Arrow to move down one line. When you have done this the cursor should be at the start of the next line (ready to carry out the next operation) and the line should be 'closed up' like the second example. As you have finished the 'learning' process press Ctrl-L again to tell Zap to stop recording what you do. All you need to do now is press F1 which makes Zap Execute the learnt keystrokes and by 'playing back' the learnt sequence Zap will carry out exactly the same operation on the second line that you did manually on the first. You will then find that the cursor has been moved to the third line, just as you moved it to the second, so just press F1 again to do the third line and so on to the end of the file. Of course it might have been simpler in this case to use 'Search and Replace' but this does show how the Learn function can can save a lot of typing and, because each sequence will be carried out precisely as the first, there is less chance of mistakes.