F1 Licenseware/F1 Licenseware - Volume 1.iso/disks/049a.dms/049a.adf/articles/Ed_review.asc

Text File | 1993-09-09 | 11KB | 229 lines

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                  EdWord Professional V4.1 - Martin Reddy
                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                           Reviewed by Andy Smith.
                           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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For your delight this month, I have decided to review a text editor.
You may be thinking what the hell it has to do with AMOS?  Hands up if
you think AMOS's editor is any cop.  One, two err maybe three, not many
hands raised there methinks.  Well if you have the AMOS Professional
Compiler but the old version of AMOS then dump that nasty old editor
and take a good look at this gem!  As you're no doubt aware, the new
compiler will accept ASCII versions of your AMOS source code.  Is it
worth writing your AMOS source code using a text editor?  Read on to
find out.

A text editor is mainly used to edit programming source code.  It has all
the basic editing facilities as a word processor but does not allow you
to incorporate different fonts and graphics into your documents.  You
will have noticed that on your Workbench disks you are supplied with a
few text editors.  These editors are called 'Ed' and 'MEMacs' and are
orientated towards programmers.  Ed really is showing its age now and
ought to be put down, but MEMacs is quite a lot better than 'Ed'.  Even
so, MEMacs doesn't look as it was programmed with Workbench 2 or 3 in
mind and this definitely shows when you use it a lot.  Here is where
EdWord Professional steps in.

EdWord version 2.2 was included on an 'Amiga Shopper' coverdisk in
issue 25 and since that release, EdWord has undergone major improvements.
It's immense list of features include:


·    An ARexx port of which EdWord has over 100 commands!  ARexx commands
    and scripts can be run directly from the editor.  There are some
    example ARexx scripts included on the disk for you to have a mess
    around with.

·    A 'user-command' facility which lets you execute any program you wish
    from the program's menus.  You could have DICE set up in the user-menus
    to compile C programs for example or the AMOSPro Compiler.
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·    'Text-Casing'.  If you're an AMOS programmer then you'll no doubt
    know that when you type in a program, reserved words are capitalised
    (The first letter of the word is in uppercase followed by lowercase
    letters), and variable names are displayed entirely in uppercase.
    This helps for readability.  EdWord excels at this. Included on the
    disk are some 'Keyword' files which contain all the keywords in a
    language, there are 15 keyword files altogether.  They include files
    for ARexx, Pascal, C, MC68000, Modula2 etc. and one I've never heard
    of before - Ada.  They are needed so keywords in the language you are
    using are 'text-cased'.  No doubt you can imagine the power of this
    facility.  Martin helpfully explains how to write your own keyword
    files.

·    Auto-Indent.  A facility to make code more readable.  When you indent
    a line for example, the following lines are automatically indented to
    the same position across.

·    Symbolic-Indent.  In Pascal, BEGIN and END are used to start and end
    a piece of code.  After BEGIN commands,  the lines afterwards are
    indented.  When an END is entered, the line unindents.  This is done
    automatically thanks to this facility.  The data for this is stored
    in the keyword files.
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·    A programmer's calculator which does everything Commodore's bog
    standard calculator does and then some.  Hex, Octal, Binary and
    decimal numbers can be converted with ease, extremely useful if
    you're writing programs which require some complex maths.

·    Macros are also supported, which simplify common and long-winded tasks.

·    Multiple documents.  The screen can be split into 2 windows and
    cutting and pasting is just a matter of clicking and dragging.  All
    the standard keyboard shortcuts are used - which is something all
    programmers would do well to take note of.  Up to 15 documents can
    be stored in RAM at the same time - memory permitting of course.

·    Function-key assign.  Keep frequently used text in the Function keys.
    Escape codes can be entered so you can use bold, underline and
    italics and so forth.  Frequently used keywords could also be stored
    here which could result in faster program creation.  Just imagine,
    no more typing of long words such as 'procedure' 5000 times!
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·    AmigaGuide documentation.  This is Commodore's hypertext viewer which
    Martin helpfully includes on the disk.

·    Direct ASCII entry.  Enter any ASCII code by simply holding down
    Left-Amiga and then typing the value of the ASCII code you want to
    insert into your text.

·    Search/Replace facility.

·    Undeletion of lines.

·    Match brackets.  Very useful for C programmers.

·    Auto-Save.  Automatic saving of your work every 1 minute for example.
    This time can be changed.
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Installing EdWord Pro really is childs play.  When you recieve your
Edword Pro disk, the program itself will be archived using the
Disk-Masher program.  You just need to have 2 blank disks at the ready
then click on the install icon, and everything is dearchived onto floppy
disks for you.  You are talked through the entire installation process
so you should (in theory) not go wrong.  For those users with hard drives,
a hard disk install program is also included which uses Commodore's
Installer utility, which is also on the supplied disks.  This makes
installation to hard disk a complete doddle.  In fact, this program must
have been the easiest program I have ever installed.  Full marks for that.

Printing options have been improved dramatically.  Page numbering can
be used, left and right margins can be set, fanfeed or single sheet
printers are also catered for and print pitch can also be changed.
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If you're any sort of ARexx codie, then you should be drooling over all
the commands offered by EdWord's ARexx port.  Although EdWord is NOT a
word processor, it can be made to do many of the functions offered in
any Word Processor worth its salt, except import graphics and use fancy
fonts.  Of course, you'll need to learn ARexx if you want to do this
Almost every command in EdWord's menus have an ARexx alternative, this
shows how powerful its ARexx port is.

In use the program is extremely rapid, even on a 68000 based Amiga.  The
program has been extensively tested and this shows, my machine only
crashed the once and I doubt whether it was EdWord's fault.
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This version of EdWord is much faster than the version on the coverdisk.
Most things have been recoded in machine code to result in an extremely
fast program.  To give you an example of this, when the Word Count
facility was used on this file in V2.2, it took over 22 seconds to
give a result, in this version, the figure is less than 1 second!  The
only, and I repeat the ONLY bug I have found in EdWord is to do with
the Word Wrap facility.  When I typed past the specified maximum column,
the word wrapped round onto the next line, like it should,  but the word
then jumbled up which is rather irritating if you are trying to write
documentation.  This, however, is a minor flaw and I doubt whether you
will use the Word Wrap facility that often.  It is more likely you will
use EdWord for programming which does not require this facility.

Unique to EdWord is an 'Anti-Boredom' facility which gives you silly
messages when you press a certain key combination - pointless, but
amusing!  To find out what the messages are, you will just have to
register EdWord!
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If you use EdWord's file requester, then you have the ability to use
its 'Auto-Suggestion' facility.  Say you wanted to load a file called
amiga.txt.  Just suppose you make a spelling mistake and type aimga.txt.
A requester will then pop-up telling you the file doesn't exist and will
suggest a file which it thinks you meant, it is sometimes completely
wrong though!  This feature has got to be the most original and useful
thing ever incorporated into a file requester.  Brilliant!

Okay, there's bound to be some disadvantage.  Well yes, but it's not
the fault of EdWord.  You will not be able to save memory banks along
with your program which is quite obvious really as a text editor saves
it's files out in ASCII format (which is the standard across most
computers) but AMOS uses its own format.  But you won't usually
save memory banks along with programs anyway, especially if there
quite long.
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If you are any sort of programmer, then I really do urge you to get
EdWord.  Programming will become less of a chore, but because of the bugs
mentioned above, I have dropped the final mark by 1, but I still do
urge you to pay that shareware fee for one of the best text editors
(if not THE best) around.  If the bugs were not present then the Program
Rating would easily have been 10/10.  This program easily rivals commercial
alternatives at more than 10 times the price!  I must admit that I am
very impressed, and EdWord is a prime example of just how good Amiga
programs can really be.
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Features : 10/10

    If you can imagine all the best features in every text editor you've
    ever used, you will probably find them all in this program!  The
    auto-suggestion feature is very original and can be very useful.

Documentation : 8/10

    Although no printed manual is supplied when you receive the package,
    the AmigaGuide documentation is just excellent, and you can print
    it out if you wish anyway.

Ease of use : 9/10

    The menus are intelligently laid out and using EdWord's functions
    is a doddle!  The highlighting feature of cutting and pasting should
    be more like AmigaDOS 2.  As it stands you can only highlight a
    rectangle of text, although this isn't too much of a problem.

Speed : 9/10

    Well what can I say, maybe VVVRRRRRRROOOOOMMMMMM!  You are never
    left around waiting for any process to complete in EdWord.  This
    program is 'Mega-Fast'!

Value for money : 10/10

    I challenge anyone to find a commercial text-editor as good as this
    one for £10.  Good value for money if EdWord were £50.

Overall rating : 9/10

    Any new text editor that is released for the Amiga will be judged
    by this excellent standard.  4 years in the making, and it shows.
    Polished until it shines.

Price - £10
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Cheques payable to :    Martin Reddy
            Lossiemouth House,
            33 Clifton Road,
            Lossiemouth,
            Moray,
            Scotland,
            IV31 6DP.

Hardware requirements :    Any Amiga with at least 1 megabyte of RAM.
Works under most versions of Workbench.
Can be used from either floppy or hard disks.
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* I agree 100% with Andrew. I have used Edword V2.2 for ages and have just
  got hold of the demo version of Edword Pro and I am well impressed, I have
  registered! and am waiting for my copy.

  Steve.