home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Collection of Tools & Utilities
/
Collection of Tools and Utilities.iso
/
edit
/
ae_14.zip
/
AEMANUAL.TXT
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1991-03-22
|
23KB
|
521 lines
AE -- Another Editor
Version 1.4
Manual
Why Another Editor?
-------------------
There are already so many editors for MS-DOS, why take the
trouble to invent the wheel once more? Well, I couldn't find
an editor that suited my needs. I wanted one that:
- could do simple ASCII editing, for writing programs and
small texts.
- had user-definable keyboard macros, in case I had some
repetitive editing to do.
- was small, so that it could be run from floppy.
- was efficient: the most important options, like cursor
movement and cutting/pasting must be done with a single
keystroke.
The result is AE. If you are an unexperienced PC user, then
read on. I hope that this manual will explain enough to let
you use AE effectively. If you are already familiar with other
editors like the Norton editor or Borland's Turbo editors, you
should have little trouble getting started with AE. You can
get a list of AE's commands by pressing the F1 key. However,
some of the details may not be immediately clear. Below, you
will find a point-by point discussion of these.
1. Entrance and exit
--------------------
The editor is started by typing "AE" on the DOS command line.
(If you hadn't guessed!) Alternatively, you can start editing
an existing file by giving the filename as an argument (see
also the section "Loading and saving files" below).
At any point during editing, when you are giving a command but
have changed your mind, you can press the Escape key to exit.
The command will not be executed, and AE will return to its
normal state. Escape will not terminate the program. To do
this, you must use the exit command Alt-X.
2. Loading and saving files
---------------------------
You can load a file into AE either by typing it as an argument
on the command line when starting (e.g. 'AE MYFILE.TXT'), or
by pressing F3 once AE is running.
AE can handle filenames with wildcards. If the filename you
enter contains a '?' (for any single character) or a '*' (for
any series of characters), then you will get on your screen a
list with the names of all files that match the wildcard
pattern. So, if you want to choose from all files in the
current directory, try to load '*.*'. In the list, you can
move a selection bar with the 'up' and 'down' keys, or PgUp
and PgDn. You can also select a file from the file list by
pressing the first letter of its name. So if for instance you
press the "A" key repeatedly, the selection bar will step
through all the file names beginning with an A. When you have
selected the file you want, press Return to load it.
On the bottom of the file list you will find the directories
that the current directory is connected to. Directory names
are indicated by a preceding "»". If you press Enter with the
selection bar on a directory, AE will scan that directory and
show you a new file list. In this way you can search the whole
disk for the file you want.
It is also possible to read the contents of another file and
add them to the current one. This is the 'INSERT FILE'
option. You can use it by pressing Shift-F3.
Saving a file can be done by pressing F2. If the file does not
have a name yet, AE will ask you to give it one. The name of
the file you are editing can be seen on the statusline. If you
want to store your file with a different name, then you should
use Shift-F2. You will then be asked to enter the new filename.
AE will notice if you have changed a file. You can also see
this by the asterisk beside the filename on the statusline. If
you have made changes and try to load another file without
saving the old one first, AE will notify you and ask if the
old file should be saved first. The same goes if you try to
quit the program without having saved your file.
3. Cursor movement
------------------
The keys to move the cursor are the same as just about every
other editor for MS-DOS:
up, down, left, right: move one position in that direction
Ctrl-left, Ctrl-right: go to start of previous/next word
Home, End: go to begin/end of the current line
Ctrl-Home, Ctrl-End: go to first/last line on the screen
PgUp,PgDn: move one screenful up/down
Ctrl-PgUp, Ctrl-PgDn: go to begin/end of file
4. Typing characters and deleting them
--------------------------------------
This is, again, very much like other editors. When you type in
a character, it will either be inserted into the text, or it
will replace the character under the cursor. This depends on
the mode, which is either 'Insert' or 'Overwrite'. You can
switch between these modes by pressing the Ins key. The
current mode is shown on the statusline .
For some commands you will be asked to enter some text (like a
filename for loading a file). The text will appear on the
bottom line of the screen, temporarily erasing the statusline.
Keys that work here usually have the same effect as in normal
typing: left, right, Home, End, Delete and Backspace.
Overwrite mode does not exist in these cases; characters are
always inserted. Another peculiarity is that if the first key
you press is a character key, the text that was present will
be erased. If you start with any other key, you will modify
the existing text. When you have finished your input, you can
press Enter to proceed.
To remove a character you can either use the Backspace or the
Delete key. The latter will remove the character under the
cursor, the former removes the one directly left to it. There
also are commands to remove more than one character at a time:
Delete line (Alt-L) deletes the current line, delete word
forward (Alt-W) deletes text from the cursor to the beginning
of the next word. (Words can be separated by spaces or any of
the characters : ; , or.)
5. Cutting and pasting
----------------------
The keys mentioned so far may be fine to add and remove a
couple of characters, but to handle larger pieces of text you
need to cut and paste. The first step for this is to move the
cursor to one end of the piece of text, and then place a mark
with the F5 key. The mark itself is not shown, but when you
move the cursor away from the mark, you will see a highlighted
piece between the mark and the cursor. This is called the
block. Now you can delete the block (with Shift-F6), copy it
to the paste buffer (with F7), or cut it (with F6). The
difference between cut and copy is that cutting the block
removes it from your text, while copy makes no changes in the
text. Unless you have chosen to delete, the contents of the
block are now stored in the paste buffer. You can insert the
contents of the paste buffer into a different part of the
text, or into the text in a different window. Move the cursor
to the position where you want to insert it, then press F8.
Pasting does not change the paste buffer, so pressing F8 more
than once will insert multiple copies of the block.
If you don't want to do anything with the block you can remove
the mark with Shift-F5.
The last option I want to mention is comparing the block to
the paste buffer. This can be handy if you want to check
whether two pieces of text are completely equal or not. After
cutting or copying the first piece, select the second piece,
then press Shift-F7. The result will be shown on the
statusline.
6. Searching and replacing text
-------------------------------
You can search for a sequence of characters in the text and,
optionally, replace it by another. These commands are started
with F4 and Shift-F4 respectively. You will first be asked to
enter the text to look for, the text to replace it with (if
you have pressed Shift-F4), and t