Three major applications are supplied with RISC OS - Edit, Draw and Paint. In this issue of RISC User, I'll take a first look at Edit (also called ArcEdit), the text editor, and give you some thoughts on my experiences so far.
ArcEdit can be used as a simple word processor, and possesses a number of attributes which are really only relevant in that context (indent, format, choice of font, font size, line spacing and margins). However, if you intend to do much word processing, you will almost certainly find that a dedicated word processor such as 1st Word Plus or Pipedream, is essential. Formatting is very rudimentary to say the least, and there is no spelling checker. Indeed, one is almost led to wonder why any word processing features were included at all when so many are missing. But for simple word processing tasks it will suffice.
ArcEdit's main applications are likely to be in the editing of Command and Obey files (see RISC User Volume 2 Issue 4) and similar, and in editing the source code for programs in various languages (including Basic and assembler). No doubt many other needs will arise for which ArcEdit will be eminently suitable.
ArcEdit is a multi-tasking application, and must therefore be installed on your system each time it is switched on before you can use it. This is easily accomplished from within the Desktop by displaying the directory for the appropriate applications disc (as supplied with RISC OS), and double-clicking on the Edit icon. ArcEdit is installed in memory, and its icon appears on the menu bar at the foot of the screen.
There are three ways to start editing a document. The simplest is to click (with the select button) on the Edit icon on the menu bar, and a blank text window will appear. Alternatively, pressing the menu button while pointing to the Edit icon will display a short menu from which the Create option will generate any one of five different window types. If a file already exists, you can double click on its icon, or drag its icon over the Edit icon on the menu bar. The former is usually much the easier in practice.
Most if not all functions within ArcEdit can be controlled by the mouse, using the menu button (when over a text window) to display a top level menu with five options. Each of these in turn leads to a further sub-menu, and in some cases a further sideways menu choice is offered. You may find manipulating these menus tricky at first but your skill here will almost certainly improve with practice. However, many menu options are also available as direct keyboard operations.
This provides information about ArcEdit and the current text file. A further option, called New view, will split the current text window into two separate windows, both on the same text file. Using this facility, different parts of the same file may be viewed at the same time, and blocks of text can be readily moved or copied from one such window to another. It would appear that you can continue to split text windows as much as you like. The only limitation is the extent to which you can manage to use such a multiplicity of windows on the screen.
This is used to satisfy two slightly different requirements, to save for the first time some newly created text, and secondly to save a new copy of text previously saved. In the former case, simply type in the name you want to give the text file, display the directory in which the file is to be displayed on the screen, and drag the displayed image of the text file to the directory viewer. This can prove awkward if you have forgotten to display the relevant directory before attempting the save, or the directory has become hidden behind other windows, and the whole process is not as smooth as it might have been. However, to save a new version of an existing file, it is only necessary to click on the 'OK' button in the save sub-menu, and this works well.
This option is primarily concerned with operations on blocks of text. Once highlighted, a block can be copied, moved, deleted, saved or indented. Selected blocks can also be de-selected.
A block of text can be created by clicking the select button at the start of the block, and dragging the text cursor (a symbol referred to as a caret) to wherever the block ends. Unfortunately, the window does not scroll automatically if the pointer is moved below the window frame, and it thus appears impossible to mark a block which is larger than the maximum size of window (neither is there a select-all option). A single word can be selected by double-clicking, a whole line by triple clicking. Double clicking on a word also selects the spaces at both ends of the selected word. So using this method to delete a word leaves no gap between remaining words, and copying or moving a word will often result in an unwanted extra space.
A marked block of text may be saved to a file, and then copied to another document by positioning the pointer, and then dragging the file icon in the corresponding directory viewer onto the current text window.
The main feature of this option is a Find-and-Replace facility. Searches can be case sensitive or not, but if not, any replacement is substituted 'as is', and does not preserve any existing upper/lower case pattern. Thus a word which appears both at the start (with a capital letter) and within sentences cannot be correctly substituted for in a single search and replace operation.
The Find option can be used as a search or as a search-and-replace facility, and search and replace strings may contain a variety of so-called Magic characters. Thus '\d.\d' would search for a string consisting of any digit followed by '.' followed by any digit. Control codes and ASCII characters (in the range 0 to 255) may also be included.
Once a search commences, and an instance of the target string is found, the found box appears giving 7 different options, much as might be expected. These also include the facility to Undo the last change, and to Redo the last undone change! Although useful, there are limitations which make this feature less powerful than that provided by Edit on the BBC Master 128 for example.
A further option in the Edit menu is Format, allowing the column width of text to be changed. This achieves very little that is useful, and formatting of text remains largely non-existent in ArcEdit.
This menu provides choices which affect the way text is seen on the screen. Text font and size may be selected, but all text is formatted in the same way; there is no facility to mix fonts or sizes within the same document. Line spacing may be determined to the nearest pixel, yet only the left-hand margin may be set, and then only to the nearest character. Foreground and background colours may be selected, and text inverted if required. The wrap option, if selected, means that text is always formatted to fit the size of the window (horizontally), rather than allowing the window to scroll over the text area.
As I said at the outset, ArcEdit has many limitations when viewed as a word processor, but is adequate for the simplest of word processing tasks. It is as a text editor that ArcEdit should be used, and for this it generally performs well, but why confuse the user with extra features which are quite irrelevant in a text editor (line spacing for example)?
One particularly useful facility is the ability to select the type of file being created (by clicking the menu button when pointing to the Edit icon). Such files (Obey files for example) will then automatically be saved with the correct file type.
A further type of window is the task window. This is not an editing window, but provides an environment in which the user can initiate a new task, and has its own set of menu choices. This is a very useful feature, particularly for the more experienced user, and we shall cover the uses of this in more detail later. Suffice it to say, that by creating two such task windows, it is quite possible to have two Basic programs running concurrently (see illustration).
These are my initial views on the new editor. Once you have your own copy installed we will be pleased to receive your own comments, and to receive any useful information for our Hints pages.