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Chapter 9. The X-DOS Full Screen Editor Included with X-DOS is ED, a full screen text editor. This is ideal for creating and editing AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files and other batch files used by X-DOS. Because of its advanced features, however, it can be used for much more complicated tasks usually requiring the use of a separate word processor. With features such as automatic line wrap, the ability to set left and write margins, justification of text and manipulation of blocks of text, ED is perfect for writing and editing all kinds of text files. Also, because it creates pure ASCII files, files created in Ed can easily be downloaded into any other word processor or text editor. ED was briefly introduced in Chapter 6., The X-DOS Command Reference, and in this chapter we explain all the features of ED in more detail. 9-1 RUNNING ED To start ED, simply type ED at the DOS prompt. The full syntax of the ED command is: ED [d:][path][filename] [/W] Where: d:path is the drive and path to a file you want to load into ED. filename is the name of a file to load into ED. /W enables ED to edit files in ⌐Wordstar format¬. The Structure of ED ED is based on a menu interface which makes it very easy to use. ED is a full-screen editor that always displays a large amount of text on the screen and has the ability to manipulate this text in blocks. These are strong features that will save time and make it much less demanding to use than a line editor. When running ED, you are placed in the editing-mode where text is entered or altered by input from the keyboard. The combination of the menu interface and the hot keys add powerful editing facilities. If you are a first-time user the menu interface can be utilized right away. When you have acquired a better understanding of the features in ED, all the menu commands can be accessed faster by using hot keys. In addition to saving time, the hot keys also incorporate block editing facilities and other powerful features, not accessible from the menu interface. Options for Starting ED There are several commands available to ED from the DOS prompt. By invoking ED with the optional /W switch, files in Wordstar format can be edited in ED. This is done by stripping all control characters from the file before it is displayed on the screen. If you have a Wordstar format file called TEXT.WS which you want to edit in ED, you should type the following command at the DOS command line: ED TEXT.WS /W The SET ED= command gives you a range of possibilities to customize ED for your particular needs. ED recognizes five switches with the SET ED= command. These are W (Wordwrap), T (Tab), I (Indent), L (Left Margin), and R (Right Margin). The SET command could look something like this: SET ED=W,T5,I5,L5,R75 This SET command would put ED into wordwrap mode, set the space 9-2 between the tabs to 5, indent every paragraph 5 spaces, set the left margin to 5, and set the right margin to 75. Normally you will have a preferred setting for ED. If you use the SET ED= command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, your settings will always be selected when booting your computer. It is not necessary to use all the switches in the SET command. Do not use spaces between any of the parameters with the SET ED= command. You can also use the X-DOS installation program to install these settings in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. The Status Line The bottom line on the screen always functions as a status line. The status line displays basic information that is very useful when editing text; especially larger text files. The name of the file currently being edited or created, is displayed with the complete path. If a name is not specified at startup, ED will display ⌐new file¬ until the file is saved under another name. [I/C/N/W] This set of square brackets contains important information on the current status of the keyboard. The following information is displayed: I Insert mode is active C CapsLock is active N NumLock is active W Wordwrap at the end of the line [I/ / / ] When the I switch is ON, the Insert mode is in effect. In Insert mode, all text after the cursor is pushed to the right when new text is entered. If the I switch is OFF, ED is in Overwrite mode and overwrites text to the right of the cursor. To toggle this switch ON or OFF, press the <> key on your keyboard. [ /C/ / ] When the C switch is ON, the <> key is in effect. Thus, all letters will be entered in upper-case, unless the <> key is pressed, in which case they will be in lower-case. [ / /N/ ] When the N switch is ON, the <> key is in effect, which means that the keypad can be used to enter digits. [ / / /W] When the W switch is ON, ED is in wordwrap mode. When the cursor reaches the right margin (default right margin is column 78), ED automatically wraps the text to the next line. Toggle the wordwrap mode ON or OFF with the W hot key. 9-3 F10=Menu A reminder that the main menu is activated by pressing the <> function key. Line: n Shows the line number where the cursor is at, counting from the start of the file. Col.: m Shows the number of the column where the cursor is at. The Menu Interface To ease the use of ED, the command has a menu interface. Most items in the menu are used for manipulation of text files. To access the main menu from the editing screen press the <> function key. Use the <> and <> arrow keys to move between the different menu items or a mouse if you have one installed. To select an item, highlight your choice and press <>. You can also use the highlighted quick keys to select a menu item. Most of the main menu items prompts you with a sub-menu so you to define the action to take place. If, for instance, you choose the Load File menu, you will be prompted with a sub-menu, asking you to enter the name of the file. To leave the main menu without choosing any options, press the <> key. Everywhere in the menu system, choices are made by pressing the <> key. The <> key always brings you one level back in the menus. Following is a description on each of the main menu options. You can get help on any of the main menu items by pressing the <> function key when a menu item is highlighted. Load File If you choose Load File from the main menu (see below), you are prompted for the name of the file to load into ED. Type the name of an already existing file to edit this file or write the name of a non-existing file to create a new file with that particular name. If you want to edit a file that does not reside in the default directory, you have to specify the complete path for that file, like this: C:\DIFFDIR\MYTEXT.DOC If you try to load a file that does not reside in the default directory without specifying a pathname, ED assumes that you want to create a new file with the specified name. If you are not sure that the file you want to edit is in the default directory, you can use the Directory menu item from the main menu to find the file. Write File 9-4 The function of this menu is to save your text file onto a diskette or hard disk. It is always recommended that you save your file often during text editing to prevent loss of data due to system crash or power failure. If you are editing a file that you previously loaded into ED with the Load File item or from the command line, ED will display the name of the file and you only need to press <> to save it to the disk(ette). If you are creating a new file, ED prompts you for a filename like this: New File By choosing this menu item from the main menu, you clear all text currently residing in ED. Use this command very carefully, since it will erase any data you already have in ED. ED has a built-in safe guard which will prompt you to save any unsaved data when you choose this menu item. If you have not saved the text in ED before issuing this command, you must acknowledge that you want to start a new text file, without first saving the old file. Search Pattern In larger text files it is quite easy to forget where a particular part of text is located. The Search Pattern menu item prompts you with an entry box in which you can specify a string of text up to 20 characters long as a search pattern. You must enter a word or part of a word which you know is included in the text you are looking for. The search pattern you specify can be any part of a word but it cannot include any spaces. Therefore, it is not possible to specify a search pattern consisting of more than one word. The search pattern is case-sensitive so you will have to enter the search pattern exactly as it appears in the text. You also have to tell ED which way to search. This is done in the second entry of the Search Pattern entry box. Type 'D' to search down (read forward) in the text file from your current cursor position or type 'U' to search up (read backwards). You can tell ED exactly how may occurrences of the specified search pattern to skip before stopping on a matching text pattern. This is done in the Occurrence entry of the Search Pattern entry box. You can use the S hot key to continue the search each time ED has found a matching string. Change Pattern The function of this menu item is quite similar to that of the Search Pattern menu item. In addition to finding a particular string, the Change Pattern menu item also lets you specify a replacement string. This enables you to change a word all the way through a text file without missing any occurrences if you specify a `*' in the How many (*) entry. The search is case- sensitive. Go to Line This menu item lets you specify a line number where you want to 9-5 position the cursor. This is a fast and efficient way to get around in large text files. If you specify a line number larger than the existing number of lines, ED gives the error message ⌐Wrong line number¬ and lets you specify a new line number. Insert File This menu item lets you combine multiple text files into one file. You will be prompted to type the name of the file you want to insert. ED places the inserted file at the current cursor position, automatically moving all text after the current cursor position to the end of the inserted file. This allows you to insert other text files anywhere in your text file just by moving the cursor to the position where you want the new text to be inserted and select the Insert File menu item. Directory If you choose this menu item from the main menu, ED will display a list of all the files in the default directory. If the default directory holds more files than is displayed in the directory list, you can use the arrow keys and the <> and <> keys to scroll back and forth in the list. Print This command lets you print all or part of the text file you are currently editing. When you select the Print menu item you are prompted with an entry box. By default ED assumes that you want to print the entire document and has therefore already filled out the first two entries of the Print File entry box with the first and the last line of your document. By specifying different values in the From line and To line entries, you can make ED print only part of a text file. The entry Page Break (Y/N) breaks the text file into pages of 60 lines if you input a 'Y' here. The last entry, With header (Y/N), gives you the option to have a header printed on the top of each printed page of your text file (the default is without a header). The header looks similar to the following: FILENAME : myfile.doc DATE : 02/23/90 TIME : 17:01:11 PAGE:1 Exit This is the option to choose if you want to leave ED. If unsaved text still resides in ED, you will be prompted with a menu from which you can choose to go back to ED, exit without saving, or write the file (save it) before exiting ED. Gateway to DOS This menu item lets you leave ED temporarily to run a X-DOS command or to run another program while still keeping ED in memory. Whatever text you had in ED before using the Gateway to DOS menu item will still be there when you return to ED. You can return to ED by typing 'EXIT' at the command line followed by 9-6 pressing the <> key. Help on Editor This menu item displays all of the editing facilities available in ED together with the associated hot keys. The windows of commands can be paged through one by one using the <> and <> keys on your keyboard. Block Commands ED has five commands for manipulating blocks of text. These commands are invoked by the use of hot keys. Mark Block Place the cursor at the beginning or at the end of the block of text that you want to mark and press <>M to define the beginning of the marked text. Use the <> and <> arrow keys and the <> and <> keys to expand the block of marked text. The marked text will become highlighted. Once you have highlighted the text you want to manipulate, use one of the three block commands <>B, <>Q, <>R or <>J. If you decide not to perform any actions on the block of text you have marked, press the <>M hot key again to unmark the text. Copy Block to Paste Board (<>B) This command copies the marked block of text and stores it in an area of memory called the Paste Board. This command is ideal for making copies of the same text for use in different places of your document. Delete Block to Paste Board )<>Q) This command deletes the marked block of text and stores it in the paste board. This command is an easy way to move text around in a text file. Insert Paste Board Contents (<>R This command places the contents of the paste board at the current cursor position in your text file. You can perform this operation as many times as you want. It is important to note that only one block of text is kept in the paste board at any time. Justify Block (<>J) This command right-justifies a paragraph of marked text by inserting spaces between words in each line. This gives your text a nice, even look. It is suggested that you justify only one paragraph at a time, to avoid unintentional justification. Margins and Wordwrap Besides right justification, ED also gives you the capability to set the right and left margins from within the text file. The 9-7 default margin settings are displayed by two triangle marks at the bottom of the screen, pointing up just above the status line. These margins can be set with the SET ED= command at the command line. If you type in text without changing the default margin or wordwrap settings, the text will start in column 0 and will continue across the page until you press <>. To make the text wrap around to the next line, you must enable the wordwrap function. To do this from within ED, press the W hot key. The default right margin for the wordwrap function is column 78 if no margin settings are defined. You can set the margins with the SET command or from within ED by using the L hot key to set the left margin and the R hot key to set the right margin. To set the margins from within ED, place the cursor in the column you want to set as the left margin and press L and then place the cursor in the column you want to set as the right margin and press R. The <>J command (Justify Block) will right justify a marked paragraph of text within the specified margins. Delete/Undelete Functions Delete until End of Line (<>E) By issuing this command you delete all text from the current cursor position until the end of the line. Delete Current Line (<>D) This command deletes the entire line in which the cursor is located. Undelete Line (<>U) If you accidentally delete a line with the Delete Current Line (<>D) command, you can use Undelete Line command to undo the deletion. ED remembers the most recent deleted line. This command, together with the Delete Current Line command, can be used to move lines in your text file. Quick Command Reference All editing commands can be accessed directly by a single keystroke or by the use of the <> or key in combination with another key. To use the <>/ key commands, the <> or key must be held down while the other key is pressed. See the table below for a list of all the hot key combinations. <Home> Places the cursor at the beginning of the line. <End> Places the cursor at the end of the line. <Ctrl><Home> Places the cursor at the beginning of the text file. 9-8 <Ctrl><End> Places the cursor at the end of the text file. <Ins> Switches between Insert and Overwrite modes. <Del> Deletes the character at the current cursor position. <PgDn> Shows the next screen of text. <PgUp> Shows the previous screen of text. <Down>Arrow Moves the cursor down one line. <Up>Arrow Moves the cursor up one line. <Left>Arrow Moves the cursor one character left. <Right>Arrow Moves the cursor one character right. <Backspace> Deletes the character to the left of the cursor. <Enter> Adds a new line after the current line. <Alt>B Copies a marked block of text to the paste board. <Alt>C Changes a string of text with another string of text. <Alt>D Deletes current line. <Alt>E Deletes characters from current position to end of the line. <Alt>G Gateway to X-DOS. Exits you to the command line <Alt>H Help on ED. Displays summary of available hot keys. <Alt>I Inserts another text file at the current cursor position. <Alt>J Right justifies a marked block of text. <Alt>L Loads a new file into ED. <Ctrl>L Sets the left margin at the current cursor position. 9-9 <Alt>M Marks a block of text. Use cursor keys <Alt>N Starts new file. Will prompt if current file not saved. <Alt>O Places the cursor at a specified line number. <Alt>Q Deletes a marked block of text to the paste board. <Alt>R Inserts text in paste board at the current cursor position. <Ctrl>R Sets the right margin at the current cursor position. <Alt>S Searches the text file for a specified string of text. <Ctrl>S Searches for the next occurrence of a text string. <Alt>U Undeletes text deleted with the <Alt>D hot key. <Alt>V Displays the contents of the default directory. You can select a file to load or insert into an existing text file by pressing <Alt> on any one of the displayed files and then press <Alt>L or <Alt>I. <Alt>W Writes the current text file to the disk. <Ctrl>W Toggles wordwrap mode ON or OFF. <Alt>X Exits ED. 9-10