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EDITH- Desktop Text Editress Manual for version 1.0 7th April, 1993 Copyright 1993 ZFC Computing All Rights Reserved ------------------------------------------------------------------------ EDITH and this manual were written by Annius Groenink/ZFC Computing. EDITH 1.0 IS SHAREWARE! She may be freely distributed through non-commercial channels. If you decide to use Edith on a regular basis, you must pay the shareware fee: Shareware fee for Edith: DM 25, US$ 15, UK£10, HFL (NLG) 27 (the fee will be compensated at the purchase of Edith Professional, to be presented in August 1993) made payable to ZFC Computing, Deventer, Netherlands EuroCheque or similar cheque preferred. If this is not possible, transfer the fee to our bank account: ABN AMRO Bank (Amsterdam, Netherlands), account no. 44.36.71.672 Our address (mail only) Boven Zevenwouden 206 3524 CK Utrecht The Netherlands e-mail: AVGROENI@CS.RUU.NL Edith and this manual are copyright 1993 ZFC Computing, Deventer, the Netherlands No part of this manual may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. We make no warranties, either expressed or implied, with respect to this manual or with respect to the software described in this manual, its quality, performance, or fitness for any particular purpose. The entire risk as to its quality and performance is with the buyer. Should the program prove defective following its purchase, the buyer assumes the entire cost of all necessary servicing, repair, or correction and any incidental or consequential damages. In no event will we be liable for direct, indirect or consequential damages resulting from any defect in the software. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ INTRODUCTION EDITH 1.0 is the shareware prerelease of a commercial package we've been working on for almost two years, which will hopefully be presented at the Messe in the fall of 1993. This version doesn't have half the amount of features that the commercial 'Edith Professional' will have, but should give you a rough impression of what it is going to be like. We would appreciate your comments, suggestions, bug reports etcetera. There will be no updates of this version. The shareware fee will be compensated when you buy the commercial 'Edith Professional' at the end of this year. If you are interested in Edith and wish to stimulate further development, DO PAY your shareware fee NOW! We need your support. A list of features for this version: - One executable works as application or accessory - Gemini communications (Transmission of keys, dragging icons, window control) are supported - All GDOS fonts (including proportional) can be used - A vertical immediate-reaction-scrollbar (as on most UNIX systems) - A large scale UNDO function (includes e.g. search and replace) - Multiple/Square text blocks can be selected and copied - A double text buffer system (long/short term) - Key macros - A simple printer spooler - Compatible with any machine configuration. Edith Professional will include the following features: - Elaborate support for Falcon and MultiTOS. - Full keyboard customisation. - All text operations like shift left/right and text formatting can be confined to multiple selections of any form. - Binary files can be imported into various hex dump formats. - Tagged regular expression search AND replace. - All dialogs in windows. Custom fileselector with file operations and full keyboard control. - Manual window positioning, typed text to background windows, cursor keys on the numeric keypad, dead keys and more, all configurable. - A completely revised and unlimited multiple selection/multiple block editor core. - Four text block clipboards with automatic routing/archiving. - A series of standard text editor options not yet provided in 1.0 such as auto save, save with backup; save files with Macintosh newlines. - Support for international keyboards (e.g. AZERTY). - Context sensitive help pages. - A good manual :) A demo of Edith Professional is due to appear on the archives in summer 1993. HOW TO INSTALL Note that the same file serves as EDITH.ACC and EDITH.PRG. Just rename the file. For use as a GEM application, use EDITH.PRG, and make sure that the EDITH.RSC and EDITH.CFG are in the same folder. If you are using an alternative shell, make sure that the default directory is the one from which EDITH.PRG is started. For use as a GEM accessory, put EDITH.ACC, EDITH.RSC and EDITH.CFG in the root directory of your boot disk. For use with Chameleon (as a temporary desk accessory) select EDITH.ACC or EDITH.PRG from Chameleon's file selector; make sure the resource files are in the same folder as the executable. STARTING EDITH - Double click on EDITH.PRG from your desktop. A two- title menu bar will appear, followed by a file selector. - Start EDITH.PRG with a command line (from a command shell). The command line may consist of 1. A single folder name, ending on '\', in which case Edith opens up with a file selector box set to the given folder 2. A set of files, as many of which as possible are loaded automatically; no fileselector will appear. Files not found on the disk are opened as new text files (See FILE MENU, OPEN FILE). - Use EDITH.ACC as a desk accessory. The program will remain resident until the user opens the accessory. OPENING A TEXT Open a text window using the desktop menu bar (Open...) or the open- icon on the desktop. In the accessory version, clicking on 'Edith' in the 'Desk'- menu gives you a four- icon control window that includes a 'Open text' icon. Alternatively, in both versions, press Control O. A file selector box will show up. Now either select an existing file, or type a non- existing file name. In case of a new name, Edith will ask for the initial amount of memory to be allocated for the text (preset to a comfortable value). Then, a window is opened, showing the new text. When Edith is installed as an accessory, there is a way to load texts from a shell: the program 'OPEN.TTP' is a tiny program that sends an AES message to Edith. Synopsis is as you expect it to be: OPEN <files>. The text will be opened as soon as Edith gets the message. (This depends on whether your shell is an accessory, the Mupfel console or a regular TOS program that has to terminate first). NOTE 1. OPEN.TTP uses the cookie jar to create a command line buffer only the first time it is run. If there is no jar, it will NOT install a new jar, and therefore every time you use OPEN.TTP, it will consume memory (I guess some 10K). I suggest you use an auto folder program that installs a cookie jar with system cookies. 2. More possibilities are given in section GEMINI. 3. Remember that accessories only react to keyboard commands if one of their windows is on top. TEXT WINDOWS Edith's windows look rather different then in most other GEM programs. A number of 'weird' window attributes is provided:- - a MENU BAR (See next section) - a TEXT INFORMATIONS DISPLAY showing 1. The TEXT STATUS: a TICK SIGN means that the text has been changed (i.e. the one on filestore is different). A QUESTION MARK indicates that the text has been changed, but can be restored in its original form by pressing the UNDO button, or by user correction (which Edith will notice). An X (cross) is displayed if Edith is out of memory for the text window. Several text functions are then disabled (See ALERT MESSAGES) 2. The percentage of available memory for this text window that is currently occupied. If 100% is exceeded, Edith will try to reallocate the text, augmenting the available space by the value specified in the MEMORY dialog box (See 'EDITH' MENU, MEMORY...) 3. The current cursor line number. - a RULER showing the text columns (roughly, when in proportional display mode) and tabulator positions. Tabstops can be set and removed using the left mouse button. Minimum tab distance is two horizontal cells. A thicker bar indicates the right text margin, which can be placed using the right mouse button. - a VERTICAL SCROLL BAR, working rather different than usual (but similar to the ones used in GEMINI dialog boxes): LEFT button on slider: Mouse 'grabs' the slider and allows you to wander through the text. Alternatively, in the DISPLAY dialog (EDITH menu, Display) you can select the 'traditional' mode. LEFT button on background: Page up/down. RIGHT button on slider: Scrolls through the text where the number of scrolled lines is proportional to the number of pixels you move the mouse. RIGHT button on background: The slider 'jumps' to where you clicked. - ARROWS and SIZER- work similar to the usual system. Also, the window closer and fuller work different than usual. When you click on the closer or the fuller, a small menu pops up, containing window functions. Special here are 'Gather', which shuffles all windows under the top one, and 'Iconize', which removes the full window, and places its name in the lower right corner of the screen. (See KEYBOARD CONTROL, Control U, Alternate F, Alternate W, Alternate I). REMARKS ACCESSORY VERSION. When a GEM application is started or left, all GEM windows are closed. Edith then goes into 'silent mode'. The first time you open Edith (usually through the Desk menu), it will first re- open all the current texts in memory. TECHNICAL NOTE. Edith changes the active process descriptor when allocating memory to ensure that memory allocated by the Edith accessory will not get lost when applications are left. Although this method was never documented by Atari, it works on all single tasking TOSes and under MultiTOS the problem is no more relevant. BREAK FUNCTION. Throughout the program, the combination Alternate + LeftShift + Control breaks long processes (e.g. loading series of files, dumping text fragments, text manipulations, key macro output). When the break function is available, the busy bee will change into a picture of the atari keyboard with the break combination pressed. (Oh, is THAT what it's supposed to look like! :) TYPING TEXT Text can be typed in the text field of the top window. Text is either inserted (cursor has an 'I'- form) or overwritten (cursor is a solid square). Keys for basic text editing are, with comments where necessary:- - Small and capital letters, digits, standard ascii symbols - RETURN - SHIFT RETURN Gives a single CR- character, not a newline - SPACE - ARROW KEYS - SHIFT ARROW LEFT, RIGHT Goto begin, end of line - CONTROL ARROW LEFT, RIGHT One word left, right - SHIFT ARROW UP, DOWN Goto top/bottom line of window. - CONTROL ARROW UP, DOWN Page up, down - TAB Tab, spaces or a clock symbol, dependent of parameters (See 'TEXT' MENU, TEXT PARAMETERS...) - HOME Go to upper end of text (after saving the text position on the position stack, See 'EDIT' MENU, PUSH POSITION) - SHIFT HOME Go to lower end of text (after saving the text position) - BACKSPACE Delete a character, backward. Does NOT delete newlines. - SHIFT BACKSPACE As backspace, but DOES delete newlines. - DELETE Delete the character right to (or under) the cursor. Does NOT delete newlines. - SHIFT DELETE As Delete, but also deletes newlines. - INSERT (overwrite mode only) Insert a blank. - SHIFT INSERT Insert a newline. THE TEXT SELECTION SYSTEM Each text window has its own SELECTION: a (possibly empty) set of marked contiguous text fragments. These fragments are inverted (white on black) in text windows. When pieces of text are selected, the text cursor stops blinking. Common for all texts is the TEXT BUFFER, which is held in independent, shared memory. A seperate LONG TERM TEXT BUFFER is also provided, but will be discussed later (See 'EDIT' MENU, SWAP BUFFERS). Text fragments can be selected using the mouse: LEFT button: As usual- a contiguous text block is marked. You can move up- as well as downwards. RIGHT button: A rubberbox encloses a square area of text, which will result in a selection of multiple text fragments. (One for each line) Both processes, when carried out with SHIFT pressed, ADD text fragments to the existing selection. Alternatively, a single fragment can be selected using F1 (fragment start) and F2 (fragment end) keys. NOTE 1. The total number of selected fragments per text is bounded. 2. The cursor stops blinking when text parts are marked. This is an essentially different situation than in Macintosh- like text editors, which usually REPLACE the cursor by ONE BLOCK. (Technically, the normal (mac!) cursor is a block of zero width). Instead, Edith allows you to walk through the text even if there are selected text fragments. The selected text parts can be manipulated by functions like COPY, CUT, PASTE, etc. (See 'EDIT' MENU). Alternave ways of making a selection are given in the KEYBOARD CONTROL and 'EDIT' MENU sections. The selection is cleared automatically by any subsequent text action other than cursor movement. Selection AND buffer can be cleared by Clear Buffer (Alternate E, F10) in the Edit menu. THE CONTROL WINDOW (ACC VERSION ONLY) The accessory version has a control window (similar to the Atari Control Panel) with icons for Information, Open text, Memory organisation and Save Configuration. The 'Edith Eye' can be removed using the window fuller, in order to win space on your screen. The size and position of the control window are stored in the configuration file. NOTE By DOUBLE clicking on the control icons the icon window is removed before executing the appropriate control function. THE (WINDOW) MENU BAR Each Edith window has a menu bar of its own. Note that these menu bars do NOT work the same as the usual desktop menu bar, but more like the one used in the macintosh operating system: a menu will only drop down when you click on it. When run as an application, Edith also has a regular menu bar, that contains entries which can also be found in the individual window menus. It will not be discussed seperately. THE 'EDITH' MENU (Information and special features) (ABOUT GROUP) About Edith... (Control A) Provides brief information about the particular version of Edith that you are using. (CONFIGURATION GROUP) Memory... The memory dialog box - Shows the amount of memory currently allocated IN ADDITION TO the minimum amount (program, resource, buffers, key macros), that is, text memory, text buffers and memory allocated by the printer spooler. and provides controls: - An amount 'Leave ....K' of memory which Edith has to leave free under ANY condition. - A percentage 'Overallocate ...%': When a text is loaded, Edith will allocate the specified percentage of extra memory. This allows the text to grow, without frequent re-allocation (See ALERT MESSAGES, RE- ORGANISING MEMORY). - 'Clear Buffers' clears the two text buffers. Save Configuration - Saves the configuration file 'EDITH.CFG'. (SPECIAL FEATURES GROUP) Key Macros... The key macro dialog box consists of - A 'defined key' display with two arrow buttons: using the arrows one can walk through previously defined key combinations. and actions - New Key: A message pops up, telling you to press the key combination you wish to redefine. The escape key cancels the operation. After fetching the key combination, Edith will come up with a second message, telling you to type the key sequence which is to be assigned to the selected combination. The escape key ends the sequence. While typing the replacement key sequence you can use Alternate + Numerical pad numbers (press return after) to insert non- standard ascii characters. - Record: The previously recorded key combination shown in the defined key display will be re-recorded, as described under 'New Key'. - Erase Key: Removes a key combination and its substitute from the macro list. PREDEFINED KEY MACROS The supplied EDITH.CFG file contains a number of example key macros: Alternate Tab: Shift LeftArrow Tab Shift LeftArrow Inserts a tab Control LeftShift UpArrow: 79xUpArrow 79 lines up Control LeftShift DownArrow: 79xDownArrow 79 lines down Alternate Backspace: F8, Shift Insert Clear line '*' on numerical pad Bullet + space ('item' sign) Display... This dialog handles fonts and scrollbars. The 'Font' box lets you scroll through the available fonts (just one if you do don't have a resident GDOS), and select one by clicking on its name. The 'Size' box does the same with the available sizes for the currently selected font. When you switch fonts, the closest available size will be selected. In the 'Face' box, a short string indicates the result. The 'scrollbar' radio buttons let you set the appearance and action of the window and dialog scrollbars to your preference. Special Characters... (Alternate S) A box with 160 character buttons and a cancel option- clicking on one of the special characters inserts that character in the text. Reference (ASCII) numbers are shown, as a lookup table for use with the 'Alternative' method for special characters (See KEYBOARD CONTROL). (PRINTER GROUP) Print... The Print dialog box. The selection or the whole text can be printed. (If the whole text is printed, a 'Select All' is performed.) One- and twocolumn printout are supported. Number of horizontal and vertical cells on your printer can be specified (and this is strictly necessary if you are using the two column mode!). The printed part is kept in a strictly private buffer. (I.e. there is no danger in continuing your work while the spooler is printing.) While one column output literally dumps the text to the printer, two column output uses form feeds between a specified number of lines. Printing ALSO STARTS with a form feed. Only one text at a time can be printed. If the last print job is not yet finished, an alert message will ask whether the old job has to be aborted. HINTS: - For two column output, do not forget to select a condensed printer font. - Confer your printer manual for the number of horizontal cells; generally, 66 lines or less per page is safe. - Most printers have the tab size set to 8. If you want to keep your own format, you will have to perform an 'expand tabs' (See 'TEXT' MENU) before you start printing. Abort Printing After your confirmation, the printer output is aborted. THE 'FILE' MENU Open/close texts, Communication with filestore. (LOAD GROUP) Open... (Control O) Described in OPENING A TEXT. Restore Retrieves the current text as last saved/loaded, after your confirmation. Insert... Select a text file to insert into your text. The file will be loaded into the text block buffer. (See THE TEXT SELECTION SYSTEM) (SAVE GROUP) Save (Control S) Save the text under its current name. The status of the text will be set to 'Unchanged'. Save as... Save the text under a different name (File Selector). After saving the text, Edith gives the choice to take the old or the new name as default. Save All Save all open files. This is useful when Edith is in use as an accessory, since then there is no 'Quit' function that automatically saves all files. Save Buffer... Save the block buffer to a file. (See THE TEXT SELECTION SYSTEM) (WINDOW GROUP- more elaborated in the desktop menu bar) Close (Control U) Identical to the window closer. If the text has been changed, an alert box will come up offering SAVE, SAVE AS, ABANDON, and CANCEL. Close All Closes all windows. This is an alternative for the QUIT function that is only available if Edith is run as an application. THE 'EDIT' MENU Basic text edit tools: (ACTION GROUP, See THE TEXT SELECTION SYSTEM) Cut (Control X, Delete) Remove the selected text fragments. The text block is stored in the block buffer. Copy (Control C) Copy the selected fragments into the block buffer. Paste (Control V, Insert) Insert the contents of the block buffer into the text, as one contiguous fragment. The inserted fragment will be marked. For the UNDO function to work, this selection has to be kept unchanged. Dump (Control D) Insert the contents of the block buffer into the text, but one line at a time, left aligned. Example of an application is putting two text columns next to eachother. (SELECTION/BUFFER GROUP, See THE TEXT SELECTION SYSTEM) Select All (Control N) Selects the entire text, as one contiguous fragment. Invert Selection (Control I) Inverts the selection (exactly the text parts that were not marked become marked.) Has the same effect as Select All, if there is no present selection. Clear Selection (Alternate E, F10) The selection and position stack are cleared. (See PUSH POSITION) Swap buffers (Alternate B) A second deep buried text buffer is provided, and is only accessible by this function, that exchanges the foreground and background buffers. The deep buffer can be cleared in the memory dialog. (See 'EDITH' MENU, MEMORY) (POSITION GROUP) Push Position (Alternate P, F9) Push the text position on the position stack. The positions saved on the stack are displayed on the scroll bar as black strokes. Pop Position (Control P, Shift F9) Retrieve the last pushed text position. The stack is circular, that is, popped positions are not erased. To clear the stack use Alternate E or F10. ('EDIT' MENU, Clear Selection). THE 'TEXT' MENU Text parameters and manipulation. (SEARCH GROUP) Search... (Control F, Control R) The search/search and replace operations share a dialog box. The box contains a switch to choose between the operations; Control F comes up in search mode, Control R comes up in search and replace mode. Many variants of search/replace actions are supported: - search once: search is either up or down; if nothing is found, search direction is automatically reversed - search all: all occurences of the target string are marked (selected), provided that there are less than the maximum number of selection fragments (See NUMERICAL SPECIFICATIONS) - replace once: as search once - replace some: for every target found you are asked to confirm replacement - replace all: all occurences of the target string are replaced. All replaced strings are marked, if possible. Any search type can begin at the cursor, or the beginning of the text. A switch for case sensitivity is also provided. For both the target and replacement string two lines are provided, which will be concatenated (so there is no need to fill up de first line entirely before using the second). A switch is also provided for non- case sensitive search. NOTE that only case sensitive search actions can be undone. (This is subject to changes in later versions.) Search next (Control G, Control T) Repeats the last search/replace operation. This only makes sense in the search/replace once case. Note that although the menu entry repeats the last action, control G forces a SEARCH and control T forces a REPLACE action. This makes weird things like 'search first replace next' possible. (MANIPULATION GROUP) Shift Left Moves the text lines that are fully covered by the selection one tabstop left, where possible. Shift Right Moves the text lines that are fully covered by the selection one tabstop right. Expand Tabs Replaces all occurring tab characters (ASCII 9) in the selected text lines by sequences of spaces (according to the tab stops as set in the ruler). Compress Tabs (Economize) Replaces sequences of two or more spaces by tab characters, where possible. With a monospaced font and tabs displayed as white space, there is no visual effect. In addition, any tab or space characters at the end of a line will be removed. This gives the operation an 'economy' flavour. Compress Tabs either works on whole lines or just on the indentation of each line. This is set in the 'Text Parameters' dialog; by setting 'Indentation Only' you prevent inter-word space characters from being transformed into tabs, which has unpleasant consequences for formatted text. Cut/Wrap Lines... Brings up the 'CHANGE LINE LENGTH' dialog. You can choose between wrapping the lines and cutting them off, both at given maximal column. The main purpose of this feature is is to be able to examine binarish files. (PARAMETER GROUP) Text Parameters... The TEXT PARAMETERS dialog concerns text conventions. Switches: - Display tabs as SPACES or CLOCKS (a 'clock' is the character symbol an ST writes for ASCII 9, or TAB). - Generate TABS or SPACES when the tab key is pressed. - Set the tab length. A tab length can be entered, which will be set only if the box on the left is ticked. REMARK since irregular tab distributions are just as well possible, the 'tab size' is not at all a real parameter of the text. Thus, all the tab stops, rather then a tab size are saved to the parameter file. - Auto indent on/off. If in on position, at each new line (return key) Edith copies the part of the previous line that begins with spaces or tabs. This is a useful feature for programmers. - Set the file save format. This can be set to UNIX (line ends with a single ASCII 10, newline character) or MSDOS (line ends with a CR/LF, ASCII 13 then 10). TOS follows the MSDOS convention. - Automatic wordbreak on/off. This is also done by the F5- key. If the autobreak function is on, Edith will correct the text you type, whenever by your text insertions a line exceeds the right margin. - Right align on/off. If on, the wordbreak function inserts spaces in your text in order to neatly align your text to the right margin. - Mode setting for Compress Tabs. (See TEXT menu, Compress Tabs). Format Paragraph (Control B, F4) Manual text formatting. More powerful than the automatic wordbreak, this function normally formats one paragraph, that is from the cursor until an empty line or the end of the text. If you want to format more than that, or limited text parts, you can select the text parts to be formatted and then use this function. You will have some trouble if you link your paragraphs without blank lines (using an indentation.) In that case, you will have to select each of your paragraphs together into a multiple selection and then use the Format Paragraph function. This will then work correctly. NOTE Edith respects existing text indentations where possible. Whenever a TAB character appears on a line, everything left of this character remains unaffected by the wordbreak function. This is to achieve a reasonable performance on two- column text diagrams (an example of which you will find, for example, in the chapter KEYBOARD CONTROL). Insert When INSERT is ticked, typed text will be inserted in the text. Overwrite When OVERWRITE is ticked, typed text will be written over the old text. (Except at the end of lines.) The insert key abandons its function of 'PASTE' (See 'EDIT' MENU, PASTE) which is still covered by Control V. Instead, it INSERTS a space into the text. Overwrite mode can only be used with monospaced fonts. KEYBOARD CONTROL A wide range of key functions is provided. Some of the key codes do not appear in the drop down menus. Note that Edith keycodes work if an Edith window is on top. Just as well, the main application's keycodes do NOT work when an Edith window is on top, unless the main application provides message passing services (See GEMINI) Each key is listed, together with key and menu alternatives. ')','}',']' Close bracket and search opening bracket. For a short while, the cursor will mark the opening bracket, or the point where the brackets are inconsistent. In the latter case Edith will also give a bell sound. (As is often set in the UNIX editor VI.) Alternate Numpad [0-9] As on PC keyboards, you can enter a special character by its ascii code. Hold down the Alternate key, type the decimal ascii code of the character, and release Alternate. Shift 'Numpad (' Search the left enclosing parenthesis '(','{','['. Shift 'Numpad )' Search the right enclosing parenthesis ')','}',']'. Control A About Edith, EDITH and desktop DESK menus. Control C Copy selection, EDIT menu. Control D Dump selection, EDIT menu. Control F Search..., TEXT menu. Control G Search next, TEXT menu. Control I Invert selection, EDIT menu. Control J Join two text lines. One space character will be added between the two lines. Any spaces on the beginning of the linked next line will be removed. Control L Goto line. Enter line number in dialog box. Current position is saved on position stack. Control N Select all, EDIT menu. Control O Open new text, FILE and desktop FILE menus. Control P Pop text position, EDIT menu, F9 key. Control Q Quit, desktop FILE menu. Closes all texts first. Only works when Edith is used as application. Control R Search and replace, TEXT menu. Control S Save text, FILE menu. Control T Replace next, TEXT menu. Control U Close window. If changed since load or last save, a confirmation alert box pops up. Control V Paste, EDIT menu. Control W Shuffle windows, desktop FILE menu. Control X Cut, EDIT menu. Control Y/Z Delete line, F8 key. Alternate B Swap blocks, EDIT menu. Alternate D Delete lines. Enter number of lines to delete (and copy into buffer) in the dialog box. Alternate E Clear selection, buffer and position stack, EDIT menu. Alternate F Full top window, desktop FILE menu. Alternate P Push text position, EDIT menu, Shift F9. Alternate S Special characters, EDITH menu, F6 key. Alternate I Iconize top window. This means that the window is put in the lower right corner of the screen, at a minimum size (that is, only the mover bar is visible). It still consumes one AES window slot. Clicking anywhere on an iconized window opens it. Alternate W Gather windows, desktop FILE menu. Shuffles all Edith windows under the current top window. The windows get smaller. Alternate Y/Z Copy lines. A dialog box lets you enter a number of lines which will be selected and copied. F1 Block start. Generates a single fragment selection starting at the present cursor position. F2 Block end. Generates a single fragment selection ending at the present cursor position. F3 Auto indent On/Off F4 Format Paragraph, TEXT menu, Control B. F5 Auto Wordbreak On/Off F6 Special characters, EDITH menu, Alternate S. F7 Search again, TEXT menu, Control G. F8 Delete line. F9 Pop text position, EDIT menu, Control P. Shift F9 Push text position, EDIT menu, Alternate P. F10 Clear selection, block and position stack, EDIT menu, Alternate E. HELP Shows key combinations that are not in the menus. UNDO Undo the last action, if sensible. (See THE UNDO FUNCTION) THE UNDO FUNCTION This is one of the powerful features of Edith. Undo is provided for the following text actions: ACTION REMARKS Typing text On one line; the whole line is restored. Newline Not if an indentation is generated Delete newline Cut selection Unless a not left aligned multiple block was deleted. Paste block Dump block Delete line As a special case of 'Cut selection'. Search and Replace Only in case sensitive mode. Some of the UNDO actions depend on the text selection or text buffer; if you change the selection or buffer contents UNDO will in some cases be impossible. Edith remembers whether the changes you are making are the first changes to the text. If so, the UNDO function will also change the text status back to 'Unchanged', which is visible in the upper right corner of the text window (See TEXT WINDOWS). Also, Edith recognizes reverse actions, i.e. if you load a text, change a line, change it back manually, and then close the window, it will recognize it as unchanged and close the window without any further questions. CREATIVE SUGGESTIONS Things to keep in mind are SQUARE TEXT BLOCKS. Creating large numerical arrays in computer programs is very easy when you can produce vertical columns of curly brackets or commas by the touch of one key. THE POSITION STACK. While writing somewhere in a text, it often happens that you remember something you should add somewhere else. The natural thing to do is press Alternate P, go there, make your changes, ask yourself 'What was I doing before this?', fail to remember what you were doing, in total despair, try Control P and simply continue your work. SECOND TEXT BUFFER. A peace of text you want to remove temporarily but not directly use again is pretty safe in the background text buffer. (See EDIT MENU, SWAP BUFFERS). THE PREDEFINED KEY MACROS Shift Control Arrow Up/Down can be used to smoothly scroll through a text using the keyboard: the combination Control LeftShift Alternate breaks the key macro output. Learn the following trick: Push down Control and Shift with two fingers while holding your thumb on the Alternate key. Now press cursor down Edith starts walking down. When you want to stop scrolling, simply press alternate with your positioned thumb. MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS 1. PROPORTIONAL DISPLAY MODE you might have the impression that the cursor 'jumps over a tabulator'. This is OK. It happens when you type many thin characters ('i', 'l'); the number of characters, not their width, determines which tab is taken. When a character occurs that is NOT in the selected character set, it will appear as a question mark, and the rest of the text line is not displayed properly. (Garbage; this is because of different behaviour of the VDI functions v_gtext and vqt_extent). 2. MAXIMUM LINE LENGTH. Although the maximum accepted length of lines is unbounded, there is a maximum visible column; in addition, all text actions are limited to this maximum visible line length. (See NUMERICAL SPECIFICATIONS). 3. TEXT MANIPULATIONS as found in the 'manipulation group' of the 'Text' menu, work at the maximum line length as specified in the section NUMERICAL SPECIFICATIONS. All these functions will have the effect of cutting the line length down to the 'maximum visible line length'. 4. UNDO actions involving lines that are longer than the visible line length are generally not supported (subject to change in the professional versions). GEMINI Edith supports parts of the GEMINI protocol. In practice, the following is possible: install an Edith icon on the GEMINI desktop. Clicking on the icon opens Edith; dragging icons to the Edith icon opens those files as texts. Dragging a folder on it opens the file selector with folder. Dragging items onto a text window inserts the texts as text blocks. Dragging an icon onto the Edith control window opens a new text. The exchange protocol for unused keys is supported in two directions. (One of which is used depending of whether Edith is running as application or accessory). On the other hand, PROTOSTATUS, PROTOKOLL and SETSTATUS things are NOT used. Accessories may therefore not recognize Edith as a program that accepts their messages. To load a text from the Mupfel console window use OPEN.TTP (See OPENING A TEXT) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ APPENDIX. NUMERICAL SPECIFICATIONS The following specifications are independent of the overall design of Edith and are thus subject to changes in later versions. Number of texts.......................................5 Maximum (visible) line length.......................160 Maximum supported line length.................unbounded Maximum number of lines per text..................32000 Maximum useable number of fonts......................40 Maximum number of sizes supported per font...........20 Number of text positions on stack.....................4 Number of text blocks in selection, per text.....99/100 (1) (2) Maximum number of key macros.........................16 (2) Maximum length of macro key sequence.................79 Number of tab markers................................80 (1) 100 selections only after use of 'Invert Selection'. (2) These values will be unbounded in the commercial version 'Edith Professional'.