PROLIX Version 2.00 Program Documentation September 20, 1997 Software and documentation copyright (c) 1995, 1997 by Eric Schreiber All rights reserved pro-lix 1: unduly prolonged or drawn out : too long 2: marked by or using an excess of words License ------- Prolix is released as Freeware for private, non-commercial use. Individuals may use Prolix free of charge, and are encouraged to give copies to friends and associates. Bulletin board systems, webmasters, and other online service operators are welcome to make Prolix available to their users, so long as the archive contents are kept intact and there are no specific charges to download the archive. Commercial organizations wishing to use Prolix or include it in any software package or collection should contact Eric Schreiber for pricing and terms. "Commercial" means any business, government, religious, educational or not- for-profit organization. See the "Contacting the Author" section at the end of this file for contact information. Commercial Use Pricing ---------------------- Commercial licensing of Prolix is priced as follows (in US dollars): 1 to 9 copies $15 each 10 to 24 copies $11 each 25 to 49 copies $ 8 each 50 to 99 copies $ 5 each For anything over 99 copies a one-time $500 fee grants an unlimited quantity usage license. A commercial usage license entitles you to use the current and all future versions. Prices include one copy of the latest version of the program on 3.5" diskette. There is no printed manual. Redistribution License ---------------------- If you wish to include Prolix as part of a 'collection' disk or CD-Rom (such as in a library of shareware programs) please contact the author. Typically, there will be no license fee, but rather a copy of the CD or collection may be requested. A license to include Prolix as an integral part of your own commercial software package costs $1000. This one-time fee entitles you to distribute and install any number of copies of Prolix with your own software package(s), and includes the current version as well as any future releases. This price includes one copy of the latest version of the program on 3.5" diskette. Customizations -------------- Customized versions of Prolix can be provided; for inclusion with your own software, for example, you may prefer to have your own company information in the About Box, or certain features removed or added. Contact the author for further information. Disclaimer ---------- Although care has been taken to ensure that Prolix does what this document states, Prolix is provided "as is", without warranty or guarantee of any kind, either expressed or implied, as to the fitness for a particular purpose or quality or performance of this program. In no event shall Eric Schreiber be liable to you or anyone else for any cost or damages, including, but not limited to, any lost profits, lost savings or lost income which may result from the use or inability to use Prolix. Introduction ------------ Prolix is a Windows text editor, useful for a wide variety of situations. With the release of version 2.00, for the first time Prolix comes in a 32-bit version as well as a 16-bit one. The primary goal of writing Prolix was to produce an editor that was easy to use, had many handy features, and presented a clean interface. With version 2.00, the user has been given more control over visual aspects of the interface, including program background and editor colors, and the option to hide the speedbar and status lines to maximize editing space. Features -------- o Can handle files up to 16 megabytes in size. o Multiple Document Interface - can open numerous files at the same time. o 16 kilobytes of undo and redo buffer, which works in discrete steps. o Up to ten visible bookmarks can be set during editing. o Right-click context menu for common tasks and accessing bookmarks. o Support of Drag-and-drop file opening, and file manager associations. o "Split" window mode, allows two views of the same editor file. Handy when you need to refer to another place in the document. o EXE is entirely self-contained - no external DLL's or VBX files are required. o All the usual Windows functionality. o And a lot more. Installation ------------ There are no fancy installation procedures for Prolix. Just unzip the archive and put the prolix.exe program file wherever you want it. It's as easy as that. Prolix does not modify any of your system settings. It doesn't update the registry or any windows initialization files. The philosphy with Prolix is that as a freeware utility, you shouldn't have to worry about it impacting your system - just run it. The first time Prolix is run, it will create a prolix.ini file in the same directory where the executable is located. Uninstalling Prolix ------------------- If you decide to remove Prolix, simply delete the prolix.exe exectuable and the prolix.ini file. Using Prolix ------------ Most of the functions in Prolix are obvious, so I won't go into detail about them. However, a few aren't immediately apparent. In addition to opening files with the File|Open menu and the Speedbar, Prolix supports Drag-and-drop. When Prolix is running, highlight one or even several files in File Manager or Explorer, then drag them onto the Prolix window. Prolix will open an editor window for each of them. Prolix can also be used with the "Associate" feature of Windows 3.x, or the "File Type" feature of Windows 95, such that when you double click a file with a .txt extension, for example, a new copy of Prolix will run and automatically open the file. Check your Windows documentation for information on setting up these associations. Lastly, Prolix can load files listed on it's command line. This means you can call it from other programs, and feed it the files you want to edit. Contacting the author --------------------- If you wish to contact me for any reason, I can be reached in the following ways. Internet e-mail is the preferred contact method. o Internet eric@kobayashi.com o WWW http://www.kobayashi.com/maru o Voice (773) 278-1196 Revision History ---------------- 1.00 October 21, 1995 Initial release 1.01 November 18, 1995 Added Ctrl-O keyboard command for File| Open Bugfix to allow F4 (Search | Go to) to work without having to first pull down the Search menu 1.02 December 1, 1995 The default Insert-mode text cursor changed to a horizontal underline to make it more obvious which character position was being affected. No longer strips whitespace preceding an end-of-line (CR/LF) character. This will make Prolix more useful for editing large files that may contain line-length-sensitive data. Bugfix to correct a GPF condition on some Windows 3.10 systems when Prolix was first run. 1.03 January 26, 1996 Minor feature added: if Prolix is started with a single filename on the command line, the editor window containing that file will be maximized. This will save the user from having to click the max icon when loading single files for editing, and is useful for situations when Prolix is called by another program, such as an offline mail reader. 1.10 May 9, 1996 Many minor cosmetic changes Updated contact info Total remake of status bar (no visual changes) 2.00 September 20, 1997 First release of 32-bit version for Windows 95/NT, in addition to the 16-bit version for Windows 3.x File|Revert - reloads last saved version from disk File|Save all - saves all open files File|Close all - closes all edit windows File menu contains a history list of last 5 files opened Edit|Time/Date - stamps the current date and time at the cursor Window|Next added to menu - move to the next editor window Window|Tile changed to Tile Vertically & Tile Horizontally Options|Hide/Show speedbar - get more screen editing space Options|Hide/Show status line - get more screen editing space Select which status line panels you want to display User selectable filters for open dialog Word wrap toggle button on speedbar Uses standard .ini file for saving program options User selectable background color for edit windows User selectable background color for program Ctrl-F and Ctrl-G for find, find next Option to always strip trailing blanks at end of paragraphs Option to open blank editor window on start up Option to always maximize a single edit window Individually selectable printer and screen fonts Now prints # of copies specified in print dialog Printing selected text no longer loses first character Save File As in right-click menu User selectable default directory More control over startup size and position of program