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MAX REFERENCE MANUAL PRELIMINARY VERSION Ivo Welch NEW YORK, SCHWEINFURT 8 April 1985 Copyright (C) 1985 I. Welch 1. An Example Here is an example how to use MAX. It is only at this point in the documentation, so that you can satisfy your initial curiousity and play-drive. If you are not yet burning to try out everything, but you would rather learn something while playing, run the Tutorial ( see section TUTORIAL. ) instead. Do not be disturbed if you don't understand everything that is going on. Just follow the instructions and look at the action on the screen. You type everything that is in bold-face. Explanations are provided in Italics. CTL-F means: hold down the CTRL key and press simultaneously the F key; ESC-F means: first press the ESC key, then press the F key. You start this example by typing MAX \MAX\DOC\MAX.HLP at the DOS prompt. A>MAX \MAX\DOC\MAX.HLP You have just asked MAX to edit its own HELP file ( which can be in the connected or in the \max\doc directory ). You will not only see normal characters, but a few control-characters interspersed in your file, recognizable by a light ^ followed by another character. CTL-F CTL-F CTL-F Now the cursor has moved three characters to the right CTL-B CTL-B And it has moved back two characters CTL-P You have just made a mistake, trying to retreat a line when the cursor was already on the first line. MAX has detected your error, and notifies you with a beep and a message that you can see for a few seconds below the modeline. CTL-N Now you have advanced one line CTL-P Now you can retreat a line, sine you are not on line 1 anymore CTL-D You have just deleted a character CTL-X CTL-B You have asked MAX to allow you to choose a new buffer ( you want to stop changing this document, and start changing another document without loosing your changes on the first document ). MAX displays you a small menu of available choices <RETURN> You prefer to continue editing your original document. A number would have chosen a new work place for editing another file. <CTL-X 2> You have entered "2 window mode." This allows you to edit your file, while looking at another, and switching easily back and forth between editing files <CTL-X 1> But you are not too interested at this for now. You would rather get some help. Hold all of the following three keys: <SHIFT <CTRL> and Underline "_"> CTL-_ You are now looking at the help menu. If you want, hit "1" to get menu item 1. Then you want to get out of the HELP menu, so you type the universal abort character... CTL-G You are tired and decide to stop this for the time being, so you decide to exit CTL-X CTL-Z CTL-Y Now you have seen how to interact with this strange computer program. Your curiosity will now have to be satisfied now by learning systematically useful commands. 1. How to get started 1.1. Backing up the Diskette You can back up MAX just like you would back up any other diskette: Run the program named DISKCOPY from your DOS diskette, then insert MAX into one drive and a blank diskette into the other, and tell DISKCOPY that you wish to copy from MAX's drive to the blank diskette's drive. Make sure to always keep a backup copy of MAX in a safe place for your own rotection against program errors, your errors, or simply magnetic media wearout. 1.2. The Use of this Manual This manual serves not only two programs, but also two purposes. Purpose One is to tell you how to go about learning how to use all these new things: the editor, the manual, the documentation etc. Purpose Two is to serve you as a reference manual, to allow you to explore new commands and to look up forgotten commands. Hence, you will find a logical gap in this manual. You should overcome it by playing and experimenting with MAX on-line. A built-in help facility should help you to overcome problems on-line. As a final note, if you have acess to EMACS (MIT), or any EMACS clone (like Epsilon [trademark of Lugaro Software] or MINCE [trademark of Mark of the Unicorn]), you may also find many valuable hints how to use EMACS-style editors in general. 2. Learning how to use the Editor 2.1. The Keyboard MAX's allows you to use two different kinds of inputs: Menu/Functionkey Input, and Direct Sequences Input. 2.1.1. Menus and Functionkeys Menu-style has the advantage of being trivial to learn and trivial to use, but it depends heavily on the computer that you are using - and on MAX itself. Other EMACS-like editors will not have this menu system. Furthermore, menus force you to go through several menu's even if you already know what you want to do. Therefore it usually takes more time to edit with menus than with control-functions. MAX uses IBM's non-alphanumeric keys to allow you to input commands. Some of the keys, like Home or Arrows always do what you would expect them to do, namely moving the cursor to another location. Try these keys ( they are on the numeric keypad ). The functionkeys on the left side of the main keyboard can change meaning. The last line on the screen displays the actual function of the functionkeys at any moment, and a brief description of which menu is currently active. You can switch from one menu to another by hitting the appropriate functionkey. A new menu will appear prompting you for different options. F10 in the original menu will turn off the last line (but still allow you to see the name of the menu). Using menus is so trivial, that talking about it will only add complications - try them out. 2.1.2. Keystroke Sequence Input Control-style has the advantage that once you know one EMACS clone, you can use all others. You will also be able to work faster, since you command the editor directly, and don't have to go through many menus over and over again. I strongly recommend learning and using this method. Every function that your editor can perform for you corrosponds to a specific keystroke sequence. You will have to memorize them, which may give you some initial problems. Some of the commands have "mnemonic" keystroke sequences: they shall remind you of what they actually do. For instance, CTL-F moves the cursor Forward, CTL-B moves it Backwards. Unfortunately, since EMACS has grown slowly over time, many keystroke sequences are just convention, and bear no relationship to their actual meaning. There are essentially two types of keystroke sequences: Control and Escape Sequences. The main difference is that control sequences require you to hold down the control key and at the same time pressing another key ( denotated as CTL-*, where * is the name of the other key ), while Escape Sequences require you to first press <ESCAPE> and after that another key ( denotated as ESC-* ). You can look up the keystroke sequence of any function, or the function of any keystroke sequence either on-line in your editor's help menu, or in this manual. 2.2. HELP and QUIT There are two functions that you should always remember: CTL-_, that is holding down simultaneously <SHIFT>, <CTRL> and <UNDERLINE> ( _ ), will enter the HELP menu. Here you can choose what you need to know. CTL-G will quit whatever you are doing and whereever you are. It will return you to the basic editing mode ( from which you can of course get help, exit etc ). Always remember these special functions ! 2.3. The Tutorial The time has come to start the tutorial. Type A>MAX TUTORIAL.HLP, carefully read every page, and follow the instructions. If you get confused, or you think you have done something wrong, type CTL-X CTL-Z CTL-Y and start all over again. Once you have finished with the tutorial, you should be able to use MAX without any problems for your most basic needs. Work with the commands you know at this point for about a week (until you remember the basic keystroke sequences without looking at any reference anymore). Once you know all the basic functions by heart, strive through this manual, try out new commands, and see what they do. Preferably do this only on files that you don't really need, since playing with unknown commands gives you a good chance of erasing or modifying work accidentally. 3. MAX Command Reference 3.1. Modes 3.1.1. Subject Modes 3.1.1.1. TEXT Mode This is the default mode. All Text Mode means is that TAB stops are set every 8 characters, and that hitting TAB will simply place you at the next such stop. 3.1.1.2. Wrap Mode Wrap Mode can be toggled with ESC-X W. When you are in Wrap mode, and you press <CR>, starting a new line, MAX will automatically fill the paragraph for you. This is useful when you want to type a lot of text without even looking at the screen, and worrying about hitting <CR> at the right time. When you finish your paragraph, you just type one <CR>, and MAX will put in all the necessary line-breaks in the previous paragraph. 3.1.1.3. Planned or Possible Modes There are presently no other modes available. FORTRAN, BASIC, PASCAL and SCRIPT mode are in planning stage, other modes may follow as well. Hitting <TAB> in any of these modes will indent automatically, i.e. MAX will move your cursor where your language dictates it should be. 3.1.2. Function Modes 3.1.2.1. Auto Save Mode Auto Save Mode will save your work after every 400 typed characters. It is not yet implemented. 3.1.2.2. Insert v Overstrike Mode Insert Mode is the default mode. New characters will be inserted at the cursor position; everything behind the cursor position will be shifted to the right. Similarly, hitting a <CR> will insert a new line, and shift all other lines down. Insert Mode allows quicker editing than Overstrike mode, but requires a (short) time to get used to. Overstrike Mode works like an ordinary typewriter. New characters will replace ( overstrike ) the old characters. The advantage is that typists who are only used to typewriters, will already know how to use it. Overstrike Mode is not yet implemented. 3.1.2.3. Keep Mode Keep Mode will force MAX to remember what you were editing when you exit. When you reenter MAX, MAX will look up what it was editing before, re-visit these files, and position the cursor where it was before. This can be quite useful if you are working on a big project, changing one little part, recompiling, changing again, and so on. Keep Mode is not yet implemented. 3.2. Explanation of Commands by Subject 3.2.1. Using the Built-In Menu Please refer to the section on keyboard usage. 3.2.2. Getting HELP CTL-_ will enter the built-in on-line HELP menu. A number (not a function key!) will select another node, delete will retreat to the last node, <ESCAPE>, <SPACE> or <CTL-G> will abort the HELP menu, and return to your work. If CTL-_ doesn't work, try CTL-G CTL-_. If this doesn't work, start praying. 3.2.3. Aborting with QUIT CTL-G will abort any function and return you to the main editing mode. You can then ask for help, exit the editor, etc. 3.2.4. Moving the cursor MAX offers cursor movements by character, line, word, sentence, paragraph, page, screen and file. Character CTL-F will advance the cursor to the next character (Forward). If you are at the end of a line, the cursor will move to the start of the next line. If you are at the end of the file, CTL-F will cause an error. CTL-B will retreat by one character (Backward). If you are at the start of a line,the cursor will move to the last character of the previous line. If you are at the start of the file, CTL-B will cause an error. Line CTL-N will move the cursor to the next line (Down). MAX will to move the cursor to the same column. If the next line is shorter than the old line, MAX will place the cursor at the end of this line. If you type directly afterwards another CTL-N ( or CTL-P ), MAX will try to move to the original column (where your first CTL-N or CTL-P started). If you don't understand this, move the cursor to the end of the second-longest line in your text, and type a few CTL-N. Typing CTL-N on the last line generates an error. CTL-P will move the cursor to the previous line (Up). Like CTL-N, MAX will go to the same column on the next line, or any line thereafter. Typing CTL-P on the first line will generate an error. Word ESC-B will move the cursor to the start of the previous word. A word starts after a <SPACE>, or on a new line, with a non-<SPACE> character. ESC-B on the first word of the file generates an error. ESC-F will move the cursor to the start of the next word1. ESC-F on the last word of a file is illegal. Paragraph ESC-] will move the cursor to the start of the next paragraph. A paragraph is text that begins after an empty line. ESC-[ in the first paragraph will generate an error. NOT IMPLEMENTED: USE CTL-R CTL-Q CTL-M CTL-Q. ESC-[ will move the cursor to the start of the previous paragraph. ESC-[ at the last paragraph will generate an error. NOT IMPLEMENTED: USE CTL-S CTL-Q CTL-M CTL-Q CTL-J. Page CTL-X ] will move the cursor to the previous ^L in the text. NOT IMPLEMENTED: USE CTL-R CTL-Q CTL-L. CTL-X [ will move the cursor to the next ^L in the text. NOT IMPLEMENTED: USE CTL-S CTL-Q CTL-L. Screen CTL-V will move the cursor to the start of the next screen, and update to a new screen. If you are less than a screenful away from the end of the file, ESC-V will generate an error. ESC-V will move the cursor to the start of the previous screen, and update to a new screen. If you are less than a screenful away from the start of the file, a warning message will be displayed. File ESC-> will move the cursor to the end of your file. ESC-< will move the cursor to the start of your file. CTL-L will redraw the screen with a centered cursor. An argument to CTL-L allows to specify on which screen line the cursor should appear on. CTL-L does not really move the cursor, but it allows you to see it from a "different angle." Others CTL-X CTL-X will exchange cursor and mark. The cursor will be moved to the position where your mark was, the mark will be moved to the old cursor position. This comes in very handy to check the boundaries of your region. 3.2.5. Deleting, Killing, Moving Text There are two different ways of erasing text. Deleting will simply throw away text. Killing will save the erased text in the Yank-Back Buffer , and allow you to put it back into your file at any location. In MAX, killing allows you to delete, move or copy lines, words, or even blocks of text. The idea is always the same: you kill some of your text, and yank it back elsewhere. To erase text, simply do not use CTL-Y; to move text, go to the place where you want to move your text to, and use CTL-Y; to copy text to new location(s), do CTL-Y directly after your CTL-K to place the killed text back to its original place. Now you have a copy of the text to copy in your yankback buffer. Move your cursor to the new location(s), and type CTL-Y again. Voi-la. Since there is only one yank-back buffer, be careful with new killing. Doing another kill will probably erase your previous yank-back buffer, loosing whatever you killed before. There will be no way to regain the old killed text. In some future version, there might be more than one buffer, but for the time being you will have to live with one. CTL-D will delete the character at the cursor position. It can also be used to delete empty lines, or to merge two consecutive lines. CTL-D is illegal at the end of the file. CTL-H (Backspace) will rubout the last character, i.e. the character directly before the cursor position. This is useful for correcting text "on the run," like typos. CTL-H is essentially the same as CTL-B CTL-D. <BACKSPACE>, as CTL-H is often called, on the start of the file is illegal. Note that CTL-H assumes the function of EMACS' <DEL>. All of the following functions will kill text, i.e. place the erased text into the yankback buffer. ESC-D will kill the word to the right. ESC-D at the end of the file is illegal. ESC-BS will kill the word to the left. ESC-BS at the start of the file is illegal. CTL-W will kill the region. The region is defined dynamically as all text between the cursor and the mark. (Marks can be set with CTL-@.) Region commands are used to delete, move or copy entire blocks of text. It is recommended that you use CTL-X CTL-X to check the static boundaries of your region before actually using CTL-W. This is because both mark and cursor change continuously during your editing session while you insert or delete text. CTL-K will kill everything from the cursor to the end of the line. If you are on an empty line, the line will be closed. CTL-K is the most widely used command to quickly kill or move text. CTL-K is exceptional in so far, as directly consecutive (and only directly consecutive) CTL-Ks do not replace the text in the yank-back buffer, but add to it. ESC-K allows adding text via CTL-K to the yank buffer after you have issued some commands other than CTL-K ( which usually means your yank-back buffer is closed ). CTL-Y will yank back the last killed object at the cursor position. You can yank-back the same object a few times, creating multiple copies of text at multiple places. 3.2.6. Searching and/or Replacing Text MAX's search is incremental, i.e. text is already searched while you are entering your search string or commands. Among the commands are the options to search for control-characters, to reverse the search direction, or to include a wildcard character. The search is always not case-sensitive ! CTL-S will search for a string while you enter it. CTL-R will search backward ( reverse ). Subcommands CTL-Q will quote a character. This allows searching for control characters in your text ( e.g. CTL-Q CTL-L will look for a ^L in your document ). CTL-G will abort the search (NOT IMPLEMENTED: and place your cursor where you started your search ). CTL-S If you are searching in reverse direction, a CTL-S will change the search direction. If you just started a search with CTL-S, another CTL-S will search for nother occurance of the same string. CTL-R Analogous to CTL-S, but reverse. CTL-J will match any character ( wildcard ). For instance, CTL-S A CTL-J B will find AAB, ABB, ACB, etc. Other commands will abort the search, and interprete the command as a normal MAX command. A good way to end a search is CTL-L, which will abort the search and simply redraw the screen. ESC-X S "Search and Replace" will search for all occurences of string 1 after the cursor position, and replace it with string 2. Note that string 1 is not case-sensitive, so all occurances of string 1, no matter whether in lower or uppercase, will be replaced. ESC-X S will first prompt you for string 1, which may contain CTL-Js ( the wildcard character ). Then it will prompt you for string 2. This command may take some time, so please be patient. ESC-X Q "Query Search and Replace," similar to "Search and Replace," but asks for confirmation at each occurrence of string 1. Hitting <SPACE> will substitute string 2, <DEL> will skip the substitution, and CTL-G will abort. 3.2.7. Using Macros Macros are a powerful way to customize your editor, and to avoid entering common keystroke sequences repeatedly. CTL-X ( will start the macro definition. Every character you type hereafter will be recorded until you stop the definition, or cause an error, or overflow the macro-buffer ( 255 characters ). Note that DEF appears on the modeline, reminding you that you are defining a macro. CTL-X ) will stop the macro definition. The DEF on the modeline will disappear, and you can now invoke your macro. CTL-X E will invoke the macro. Every character that you typed during the definition will be "played back," just as if you typed it. When MAX detects an error, it will automatically stop the macroinvocation. For instance, if you are at the second to last character in the file, and your macro does CTL-K CTL-D HELLO, MAX would detect an error executing CTL-D, and abort the macro, never actually inserting HELLO. A powerful feature of MAX are arguments to macros. For example, you could give simulate search and replace by defining a macro that will search for a string, then rubout the string, and insert another. Finally you could invoke this macro with CTL-50000 CTL-X E. MAX replaces until there are no more occurrences, or until it reaches 50,000 replacements. Some macro invocations can take quite long. CTL-G will interrupt macroexecutions. 3.2.8. Using Buffers and Windows MAX allows you to edit several files, or multiple copies of the same file during one session without exiting or saving to disk. Each buffer holds one file (maximum 64K), just like a pad may have several @Faecher. Only one buffer can be active at a time, i.e. you can only edit the currently active buffer ( just like you can only open one page in your pad ). A good example for using buffers would be writing a letter in one document, and the envelope in another. There is basically only one operation with buffers, namely switching to it. The new buffer will be selected (becomes active), the previously active buffer becomes passive. CTL-X B will display a menu of available buffers, and prompt you for the new buffer. MAX expects a number within the range of available buffers, and will activate this buffer. CTL-G aborts the selection. CTL-X CTL-B will switch to the buffer that was active immediately before the currently active buffer. It is a convenient way to quickly toggle between two buffers. Each buffer can hold a file with up to 64KB of text. When you start MAX, MAX will load buffers with their default files, and activate buffer 1. Presently, WORK.TXT is default in buffer 1 and 2; other buffers do not load default files. A window is the place on the screen that your buffer is displayed on. Sometimes it is convenient to see one buffer, while really working on another. This is called split editing. Think of a window as reminders in a pad that allow you to really see two @Faecher (buffers) at the same time. You can have two windows, each of which can hold its own index[Buffers], or the same buffer. You can arrange them as follows: /-------------\ /-------------\ /-------------\ | | | | | Window 1 | | Window 1 | | Window 2 | |---------------| | | | | | Window 2 | \-------------/ \-------------/ \-------------/ Apparently you could also toggle buffers to achieve the same result as the two first figures. The real interesting gain from buffers is sketched in figure three: Your cursor is in one of those windows, and editing just as normal, but uses only half the screen. The other window remains statically unchanged, allowing you to look at it. You want to be able to switch the cursor from one window to the other, to split up the screen into two windows, and to go back to one-window mode. CTL-X 1 will toggle the number of windows concurrently on the screen ( one or two ). CTL-X 2 identical with CTL-X 1. CTL-X O will toggle active and passive window. The cursor will move into the new active window. If this window is not on the screen, the previous window will disappear and the new window will overlay the old window. 3.2.9. Saving, Loading and Exiting CTL-X CTL-S saves the contents of the active index[Buffers] under its old name to disk, and marks the buffer "unmodified." An unmodified buffer does not display a "*" ("dirty") as the first character on the modeline. CTL-X CTL-W allows the contents of the active index[Buffers] to be written to a new file on disk, thus preserving the contents of the old file. The new name becomes the default for all further CTL-X CTL-S. CTL-X CTL-W will prompt you for the new filename ( Escape recognition will work! ). CTL-X CTL-V will visit a file from disk in the current buffer. It will prompt you for the name of a file. If no such file exists, only the name is noted ( for further CTL-X CTL-S ). In this case, a "[NEW FILE]" message will appear on the screen. If the file exists, you can attempt to use <ESC> to complete unique filenames, but only if these files are in the currently connected directory. If there is more than one file available to match the input up to this point, a beep will sound. If there is no such file at all, CTL-X CTL-V will abort. If only one such file exists, the rest of the name will be filled in at the promptline. You can now press <RETURN> to load this file. CTL-X CTL-V will return an error if the file is longer than 63K ( which virtually no normally used file will exceed. Longer applications are usually realized with separate compilations or similar facilities. The 64K limit is enforced to use the 8088s' power to the largest possible extent ). CTL-X CTL-Z will exit to DOS after additional confirmation ( CTL-Y ). 3.2.10. Using other built-in functions Following is a listing of commands which have not yet been discussed, some of which can not be found in the standard DEC-20 EMACS implementation. CTL-X D will prompt for a directory mask, and display the DOS directory of files on the disk. CTL-Z will scroll the screen up by one line. ESC-Z will scroll down the screen by one line. This and the above function can be conveniently accessed by CTL-PgUP and CTL-PgDn. ESC-Q will fill the paragraph, which means it will break all lines in the current paragraph which are longer than the fillcolumn, s.t. they are as long as permitted. Lines that are short enough to hold more words are merged with the next line. Words will never be broken up. CTL-X F allows setting the fill column using an argument. ESC-70 CTL-X F will set the maximum length of a line on a fill to 70. ESC-U will uppercase the previous word ( i.e. convert all its characters to uppercase ). ESC-C will capitalize the previous work ( i.e. convert the first letter to uppercase, and all others to lowercase ). Arguments Most functions accept arguments. An argument usually means that a command is repeated n times. To give an argument, use <ESC>-n or CTL-U n ( the two are equivalent ) where n is a number, and then simply issue the command. For example, CTL-U 10 CTL-N will move down 10 lines. Some functions interpret arguments differently. Two commands come to mind: CTL-L, CTL-Q and CTL-X F. An argument to CTL-L will center the cursor on line n on the screen; an argument to CTL-Q will allow you to insert n controlcharacters without typing CTL-q in front of each; an argument to CTL-X F will set the fillcolumn. CTL-X CTL-_ will create a cross-reference of a valid help-file which is in the active buffer , and dump it into the previous buffer. Please note that MAX will crash if you attempt to run this function without a valid help-file ! In particular, make sure that nodenames are properly terminated. 3.2.11. Explanation of Commands by Keystroke Please refer to the index. 3.3. Some Differrences of MAX and EMACS Default Files: On startup, MAX will attempt to load the first two files which are specified at the DOS command line into buffers #1 and #2. If no file was specified, MAX will load the file WORK.TXT into the first two buffers . Buffers #3 to #7 will always be initialized to ( but not loaded with ) the filename FOO.BAR. Messages: After loading, MAX will display the number of buffers, the space free for holding killed text,(The number of buffers and the free space for killed text is determined by all free memory above the program) and a message indicating whether it could load a file. Note that for two new files in buffers 1 and 2 you should get two [NEW FILE] messages. Loading one file into one buffer , but none into the other will still give you one initial [NEW FILE] message. Mark: On startup, MAX will set the mark on the first character of the file. Exit: Since forks are not kept ( or in UNIX terms: "pids are not stopped" ), MAX asks for confirmation (CTL-Y) before exiting to DOS. Escape Recognition: Hitting <ESC> when MAX prompts you for a filename will force MAX to attempt completing it. Note that this can only be done if the filename is unique, and never for a directory-name ! Find File: Find File is unfortunately not yet implemented. Buffer Space: Buffer Space is restricted to 64K. Buffer Switching: CTL-X B will prompt a menu of available buffers, and allow you to choose one by typing a number. CTL-X CTL-B will switch previous and current buffer in the current window. Windows: Only two windows are permitted. C-X 1 or CTL-X 2 toggles windows. Lastline: MAX offers both EMACS-like commands and menu-entry. The menu system will appear on the bottom of the screen. Pressing the key will result in the corresponding action being taken. By my convention, choices leading to other menus are uppercased, while editor commands are lowercased. Modeline: The modeline constantly updates date and time. Messages Messages generally stay on the screen for about 15 seconds ( unless new messages appear ). Error messages are usually in reverse video. Help: The help menu is actually a finite state language interpreter. The file MAX.HLP ( which must be either in the connected directory or in \MAX\DOC ) is interpreted as a menu, and action can be taken by the user to slide down the graph. Nodes are diskaddresses, and therefore one has to carefully adjust new diskaddresses after modifying the help menu ( use MAX to do so ! ). There is a built-in function ( CTL-X CTL-_ ) which will calculate the new diskaddresses of all nodes, and report it to the other buffer ( but may crash the editor upon syntactically invalid help files ). This function makes modifying the help menu considerably easier. MAX searches for its help file first in the connected directory and then in \MAX\DOC. MAX does not expect functionkeys, but numbers as choices! DEL will retreat to the previous node, ESC, SPACE or CTL-G will abort. Please refer to the section on Help in this manual. Macros: The execution of a macro will not turn off display updating. One can see the macro working. The advantage is that one can simply stop a macro with a long argument at any chosen time using CTL-G. The disadvantage is a 2% loss of speed. Search & Replace: Search and Replace is invoked by ESC-X S, Query Search and Replace by ESC-X Q. Please refer to the proper section of this manual. Fill: Fill will not take an argument to justify. Scrolling: CTL-Z and ESC-Z will scroll the display one line up or down. Bugs: Some minor bugs have appeared, none of them fatal. Most disappear from the screen immediately after simple and obvious corrective action is taken. MAX, Copyright (C) Ivo Welch, Jan. 1985. 4. Advanced Topics 4.1. How to modify the Editor Help Menu 4.2. About the Internal Structure of the Editor 4.2.1. Easy Customization Please look at DEFS.H to modify certain standard definitions (i.e. last-line displayed on power up, display used, original macro, original file names to be loaded etc.). 4.2.2. Major Datastructures BCB stands for Buffer Control Block, and is located in the first 256 bytes of each Buffer. Its definition can be found in DEFS.H. Among the more important fields of the BCB is the cursor position, the position of the cursor on the screen, the mark, the FCB that allows saving or loading the buffer to disk, etc. As an example, to set the cursor to the start of the buffer, use the command: mov DS:BCB.FCursor, 100h where DS is the 64K segment that holds our buffer, BCB the structure definition, and FCursor the address of the cursor in the field. 4.2.3. The Function Jump Tables 4.2.4. The Screen Definition Please fgrep for SCR if you wish to find out points where I have to write to the screen. 4.2.5. The OS interface 4.2.6. Ading a New Function 4.2.6.1. Error Trapping If an error should be displayed, DX should be set to the offset of an ascii string, CX should contain its length. Control should be transferred to .Error0, which will reset stack, macro and other pointers to their original state at invocation, display the errormessage, and sound a beep. Index "*" (to mark modified buffers) 18 64K Limit 12, 13, 15 [NEW FILE] 13, 15 Aborting 3, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16 Arguments 14 Arguments to CTL-L 9, 14 Arguments to CTL-X F 14 Arguments to Macros 12 BACKSPACE 10 Blocks 10 Buffer Space Limit 12, 13, 15 Buffers 2, 12, 14, 15 Buffers, Number Of Available Buffers 15 Buffers, Toggling Buffers, see also CTL-X CTL-B 15 Bugs 16 Capitalizing a Word 14 Case Sensitivity 11 Confirmations 11, 14, 15 Crashes, because of CTL-X CTL-_ 14, 18 Cross Reference of a Help File 14, 18 CTL-* 5 CTL-@ 10 CTL-B 5 CTL-F 5 CTL-_ 3, 6, 8 CTL-B 2, 8, 10 CTL-D 2, 10, 12 CTL-F 2, 8 CTL-G 3, 6, 8, 11, 12 CTL-H 10 CTL-J 11 CTL-K 10, 12 CTL-L 9, 11, 14 CTL-N 2, 8, 12 CTL-P 2, 8 CTL-PgDn 14 CTL-PgUp 14 CTL-Q 11 CTL-R 11 CTL-R CTL-Q CTL-L 9 CTL-R CTL-Q CTL-M CTL-Q CTL-J 9 CTL-S 11 CTL-S CTL-Q CTL-L 9 CTL-S CTL-Q CTL-M CTL-Q CTL-J 9 CTL-U 14 CTL-V 9 CTL-W 10 CTL-X ( 11 CTL-X ) 12 CTL-X 1 3, 13, 15 CTL-X 2 2, 13, 15 CTL-X [ 9 CTL-X ] 9 CTL-X B 12, 15 CTL-X CTL-_ 14, 18 CTL-X CTL-B 2, 12, 15 CTL-X CTL-D 14 CTL-X CTL-F 15 CTL-X CTL-S 18 CTL-X CTL-V 13 CTL-X CTL-W 13 CTL-X CTL-X 9, 10 CTL-X CTL-Z 3, 6, 14 CTL-X D 14 CTL-X E 12 CTL-X F 14, 16 CTL-X O 13 CTL-Y 3, 6, 10 CTL-Y as Confirmation 14, 15 CTL-Z 14, 16 Cursor Down 8 Cursor End 9 Cursor Home 9 Cursor Left 8 Cursor Right 8 Cursor Up 8 Date, displayed on the Modeline 15 DEF, displayed on the Modeline 12 Default Directories 18 Default Files 15 Defaults 7, 12, 13, 15, 18 DEL, to "backspace" 10 DEL, to abort HELP 18 DEL, to overskip in Query Replace 11 Directory 14 Dirty, see "Modified" 13 Disk, writing to and reading from disk 18 Diskaddresses, as used in HELP 18 DOS 2, 14, 15, 18 EMACS 4, 5, 10, 14, 15 EMACS Clones 4, 5 Error Messages 2, 12, 15, 17 ESC, as used in filename completion 15 ESC, as used in HELP 8, 18 ESC-* 5 ESC-< 9 ESC-> 9 ESC-[ 9 ESC-] 9 ESC-B 8, 9 ESC-BS 10 ESC-C 14 ESC-D 10 ESC-DEL 10 ESC-F 2, 9 ESC-K 10 ESC-n<umber> 14 ESC-Q 14, 16 ESC-U 14 ESC-V 9 ESC-X Q 11 ESC-X Query Search And Replace$ 11 ESC-X S 11 ESC-X Search and Replace$ 16 ESC-X W 7 ESC-Z 14, 16 Escape Recognition 13, 15 Filenames 13, 15 Fill Column 14 Fill Mode 7 Fill Paragraph 14, 16 Find File 15 Finite State HELP Language 18 HELP 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 16, 18 HELP file 14 Indexing a Help File 14 Kill Space 15 Killing 10 Last Line on Screen 5, 8, 15 Linebreaking 14 Literal Mode 14 Macro Buffer 12 Macros 12, 16 Mark(ing the Region) 10, 15 MAX.HLP 18 MAX\DOC 18 Memory Usage 15 Menus 5, 8, 12, 15, 18 Messages 2, 9, 12, 13, 15, 17 Modeline 15 Modified Buffer 18 Numbers, as used to select HELP options 18 Options, as used in Help 18 Paragraph 7, 9, 14 Query Search and Replace 11 QUIT 3, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16 RAM Usage 15 Region 10, 15 Saving a Buffer to Disk 18 Scrolling 14, 16 Search and Replace 11, 16 Segment Limits, see also 64K Limit 13 SPACE, as used in HELP 8, 16, 18 SPACE, as used in Query Replace 11 Time, displayed on the Modeline 15 Uniqueness of Filenames (for Escape Recognition) 15 Unmodified Buffer 18 Uppercase, as used in Menus 15 Uppercasing a Word 14 Visiting a File 13 Wildcard Character 11 Windows, Toggling Windows, see also CTL-X 1 or CTL-X 2 15 WORK.TXT 12, 15 Writing a Buffer to Disk 13 Yank Buffer 9, 10 Table of Contents 1. An Example 2 1. How to get started 4 1.1. Backing up the Diskette 4 1.2. The Use of this Manual 4 2. Learning how to use the Editor 5 2.1. The Keyboard 5 2.1.1. Menus and Functionkeys 5 2.1.2. Keystroke Sequence Input 5 2.2. HELP and QUIT 6 2.3. The Tutorial 6 3. MAX Command Reference 7 3.1. Modes 7 3.1.1. Subject Modes 7 3.1.1.1. TEXT Mode 7 3.1.1.2. Wrap Mode 7 3.1.1.3. Planned or Possible Modes 7 3.1.2. Function Modes 7 3.1.2.1. Auto Save Mode 7 3.1.2.2. Insert v Overstrike Mode 7 3.1.2.3. Keep Mode 7 3.2. Explanation of Commands by Subject 8 3.2.1. Using the Built-In Menu 8 3.2.2. Getting HELP 8 3.2.3. Aborting with QUIT 8 3.2.4. Moving the cursor 8 3.2.5. Deleting, Killing, Moving Text 9 3.2.6. Searching and/or Replacing Text 11 3.2.7. Using Macros 11 3.2.8. Using Buffers and Windows 12 3.2.9. Saving, Loading and Exiting 13 3.2.10. Using other built-in functions 14 3.2.11. Explanation of Commands by Keystroke 14 3.3. Some Differrences of MAX and EMACS 15 4. Advanced Topics 17 4.1. How to modify the Editor Help Menu 17 4.2. About the Internal Structure of the Editor 17 4.2.1. Easy Customization 17 4.2.2. Major Datastructures 17 4.2.3. The Function Jump Tables 17 4.2.4. The Screen Definition 17 4.2.5. The OS interface 17 4.2.6. Ading a New Function 17 4.2.6.1. Error Trapping 17 Index i