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The Easiest EDITor by Tom Kihlken Version 2.4 - August 1989 The Easiest EDITor is a general purpose full screen ASCII text editor. It's designed for speed and ease of use and has features which make it ideal for programmers as well as simple word processing. Best of all, there are no complex commands or keys to remember so you'll be able to start using right away. The following is a just a partial list of the Easiest EDITors capabilities: o Ability to edit multiple files simultaneoulsy. o Select, Cut and Paste commands for moving text between files. o Undelete commands to replace your mistakes. o Search and Replace commands work forward or backward. o Ability to execute DOS programs without leaving the editor. o Full support for advanced EGA and VGA display modes. o Pop up help describes the editing commands. o Easily customized with a simple enviornment string. o Compact and lightning fast assembly language programming. If you don't like to read directions, at least finish reading these next few paragraphs. To print a copy of this manual, enter the following command at the DOS prompt: PRINT EEDIT.DOC To install the Easiest EDITor on your hard disk, just copy EEDIT.EXE to a directory in your path. Then to use it you just type: EEDIT filename You may also enter optional command parameters which are described later in this manual. If you omit the filename, the default file "NONAME" is used. When editing, the keypad keys perform their natural functions. The function keys (F1-F10) are used to execute the editing commands shown at the bottom of the screen. Pressing the Alt key switches between the three possible function key menus. This Editor program is shareware. Shareware allows you to try the program out before you buy it. You may also make copies for your friends or post it on another BBS. If you like the program and want to continue using it, you must register by sending your name, address, 20 dollars, and the version number shown above to the following address. Your support of shareware insures continued development of good low cost software. Tom Kihlken 3665 McKibbon Road Saint Louis, Missouri 63114 CURSOR MOVEMENT KEYS The cursor movement keys are on the keypad and behave in the normal manner. For reference the complete descriptions appear below. The Num Lock key must be released to use the keypad keys on keyboards without a separate keypad. In addition to the arrow keys, a mouse may be used to move the cursor. Up Moves the cursor up one row. If the cursor is at the top of the screen, the display is scrolled down. Down Moves the cursor down one row. If the cursor is at the bottom of the screen, the display is scrolled up. Left Moves the cursor left one character. Right Moves the cursor right one character. PgUp Moves the cursor down one page. The size of a page is several rows less the total number of rows displayed. PgDn Moves the cursor up one page. The size of a page is several rows less the total number of rows displayed. Home Moves the cursor to the start of the current line. End Moves the cursor to the end of the current line. Ctrl-Left Moves the cursor to the first letter of the previous word. Ctrl-Right Moves the cursor to the first letter of the next word. Ctrl-Up Moves the cursor to the top of the screen. This function is not available in keyboard compatibility mode. Ctrl-Down Moves the cursor to the bottom of the screen. This function is not available in keyboard compatibility mode. Ctrl-PgUp Moves the cursor to the top of the file. Ctrl-PgDn Moves the cursor to the end of the file. Ctrl-Home Shifts the screen right eight columns horizontally. This function can be used when lines are too long to fit in the display. Ctrl-End Shifts the screen left eight columns horizontally. This function can be used when lines are too long to fit in the display. EDITING COMMAND KEYS In addition to the cursor movement keys, the following keys have special meaning to the editor. Alt Switches the meaning of the function keys. Each function key can perform three commands. The current function key menu is shown at the bottom of the display. BS Erases the character to the left of the cursor. If the cursor is at the start of a line, the line is joined with the previous line. Del Deletes the character at the cursor position. If the cursor is at the end of a line, the following line is moved upward and appended. <CR> Inserts a new line in the file. The cursor is moved to the start of the new line. Any characters which were to the right of the cursor are moved to the new line. Ins Toggles between insert and overstrike modes. The current mode is displayed on the status line. When in insert mode, characters to the right of the cursor are pushed forward as you type. In overstrike mode, new characters replace existing characters. Tab Inserts the tab character (Ascii 9); advancing the cursor to the next column which is an even multiple of eight. THE MAIN EDITING FUNCTIONS These editing functions are accessed with the function keys (F1-F10). The function key assignments are always shown on a menu at the bottom of the screen. There are three seperate menus which may be selected by pressing the Alt key. To change menus, press and release the Alt key. Backup Writes any modified buffers to disk and returns to the editing session. If the /B option was specified, existing files are renamed with an extension of ".BAK". Use Backup frequently during a lengthy editing session to insure your data is kept safely on disk. After the buffers are written, they will be marked unmodified (see Show command). Buffer Each buffer contains a separate file. The Buffer command changes the active buffer. The name of the active buffer appears on the status line. When a new buffer is opened, the exisiting file (if it exists) is read from disk. To return to an existing buffer, enter it's name (names of existing buffers may be abbreviated). The maximum number of buffers is 15 (or less depending on the amount of available memory). Each buffer requires 64K bytes of RAM. Chg Case Changes the selected text from upper to lower case or vise versa. You must use the Select function to select the desired region. Cut Removes the selected text and places it in the paste buffer. You must use Select before using Cut. The same cut/paste memory is used for all buffers. This allows you to cut text from one file and paste it into another. After Cutting text, you may paste it as many times as you like. Del-Eol Deletes text from the cursor position to the end of line. Del-L Deletes the entire line of text at the cursor position. Del-W Deletes the word at the cursor position. Deleted words may be reinserted (copied) into the file more than once. Direction Changes the direction for the Search and Replace commands. The current direction is shown at the bottom of the screen. Exit Saves the current buffer and ends the editing session. If multiple buffers are in use, you will be prompted before each one is written. Only modified buffers are written to disk. Fill Reformats the current paragraph so the text fits in the selected width. Leading spaces, tabs, or blank lines can be used to delimit the paragraph. The cursor is moved to the end of the paragraph. Use the Width function to specify the desired width for Filling. Find Searches for a string starting at the current cursor position. You may change the direction of the search with the Direction command. Help Displays help information. The editing buffers are not disturbed by using the help mode. Include Inserts text from another Ascii file at the cursor position. The Include command does not create another buffer, it simply adds the contents of another file to the current buffer. Line Moves the cursor to a specified line number. Lines are delimited by a carriage return (and optional line feed) character. Match Finds the matching delimiter. The cursor must be on one of the following characters: ()[]{}<>. The cursor is moved to the matching delimiter. Paste Inserts the contents of the paste buffer at the cursor position. The contents of the paste buffer may be used many times which allows you to copy text. Use the Select and Cut commands before using Paste. Print Sends selected text to the line printer. Use the Select function to select text which is to be printed. Select a printer with the /Pn parameter (the default is LPT1). Quit Exits the editor without creating any new files. All edits are lost! A warning is given if you attempt to Quit after a buffer has been modified. Replace Substitutes one word or phrase for another. You may Replace text globally or selectively. You may change the direction of the search with the Direction command. Rename Changes the filename associated with the active buffer. The filename may include the drive and directory names. The name must conform to DOS standards (up to eight characters plus a three character extension. If an invalid name is given, the command is not executed. You must use the Rename command before exiting if you edit a file which is read-only. Rows Changes the number of rows displayed on the screen. This function requires either an EGA or VGA compatible display. The actual number of rows you will get depends on the display adapter in use. Select Enters the select mode. When selecting text, use the cursor movement keys to highlight a region. The selected text appears in inverse video. Pressing Select a second time cancels select mode. See also Cut, Paste, Print, Write, and Change Case. Show Displays information about all file buffers. The current row, file size, and width setting are shown. The Show command also indicates which buffers have been modified. Spawn Pauses the editing session to allow execution of DOS commands. To return to the editing session, type EXIT at the DOS prompt. Udel Eol Replaces text from the last "Delete to End-of-Line" command. Udel W Replaces the last deleted word at the cursor position. Deleted words may be reinserted (copied) into the file more than once. Udel L Replaces the last deleted line at the cursor position. The cursor need not be at the start of a line. Deleted lines may be reinserted (copied) into the file more than once. Width Sets the width for automatic line wrap and the Fill function. The default setting for width is the number of columns on the display. When typing in lines of text, a new line is inserted when the selected width is exceeded. To disable automatic line wrap, set the width to a high value. See also the Fill function. Write Writes a selected region of text into another disk file. Use the Select function to select the desired region. You will be prompted to enter the filename. If the destination file already exists, you may append to it or truncate it. You need not write the file before exiting, all modified buffers are always written. USING THE MOUSE: If you have a mouse attached to your PC, you may use it to position the cursor and scroll the file up and down. In addition, the mouse buttons have the functions shown below. If you prefer EEDIT not use the mouse, enter the /NM parameters (see optional parameters). Left Button - Toggles the select mode on or off. Right Button - Performs Cut function if a range of text has been Selected. Performs Paste function if no text is currently selected. Middle Button - Shows the status of buffers while held down. THE OPTIONAL PARAMETERS: You may specify optional parameters either when you run EEDIT or in an enviornment string. For example, entering the following command (or placing it in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file) causes the Easiest EDITor to save backup files, use white text on a blue background, and begin in overstrike mode. SET EEDIT=/BU/C7,1/O The option parameters are: /An Specify the scan code "n" for the key which you want to use to switch command menus. This is normally the Alt key (56). Scan codes can be found in a technical reference for your machine. Some examples: /A29 - Ctrl key /A15 - Tab key /A1 - Esc key /BU Causes BackUp files to be created with an extension of ".BAK". Backup files are created when modified files are written to disk. /Cn,m Selects foreground (n) and background (m) colors for text on the screen. Foreground colors range from 0-15. Background colors range from 0-7. Highlighted text is indicated by using inverse video which switches the foreground and background colors. Following is a list of the available colors. 0 - Black 8 - Gray 1 - Blue 9 - Bright Blue 2 - Green 10 - Bright Green 3 - Cyan 11 - Bright Cyan 4 - Red 12 - Bright Red 5 - Magenta 13 - Bright Magenta 6 - Yellow 14 - Bright Yellow 7 - White 15 - Bright White /CS Causes all Search and Replace commands to be case sensitive. The default condition is for these commands to be case INsensitive. /Dn Use the Windows compatible Display services for video output. This mode allows EEDIT to run within a small window when using Microsoft Windows. The logical window size is set to n rows (normally 25). /E When this option is used, an End-of-file character (Ascii 26) is appended to the file when it is written. For most applications, the EOF character is not needed. It may be necessary for compatibility for some software however. /KB Use KeyBoard compatibility mode (see Advanced Features below). This may be required for compatibility with troublesome resident programs. /Ln Starts editing with the cursor positioned on line "n". This is useful when correcting a program and line number of the error is known. /Mn,m Selects foreground (n) and background (m) colors for the menu. Foreground colors range from 0-15. Background colors range from 0-7. Note that a portion of the menu is displayed in inverse video. The available colors are listed with the /C parameter above. /NM Tells EEDIT to Not use the Mouse. /OS Start editor in OverStrike mode (the default is Insert). You can always switch from overstrike to insert with the Ins key. /Pn Used to select a printer other than LPT1 for the print command. For example; /P2 selects the second printer (LPT2). /Q Selects Quiet mode, preventing beeps when invalid keystrokes are entered. /Sn Specify the maximum Size of each file buffer (in K bytes). The valid range is from 1 to 64. Use this parameter to reduce memory usage when editing many small files. /Wn Sets line Width for initial buffer to "n" columns. This width can also be set with the function keys (Width command). The default width is the number of columns on the display. It is used by the Fill command and for auto line-wrap. /X Clear the screen before exiting to DOS. HELPFUL HINTS: If you've read this far, your nearly an expert. These additional hints will help you to get the most from the Easiest EDITor. 1. There is a command stack for the following commands; Include, Rename, Buffer, Write, Find, Replace, and Width. To recall a previous command parameter, use the Up or Down arrows when prompted for the string. You may also edit the parameter with Insert, Delete, Home, and End. Pressing the down arrow erases the previous command parameter. 2. You can enter control characters using the Ctrl key. For example, to insert a form feed (Ascii 12) press Ctrl-L. You can enter the Escape character by pressing the Escape key. This is useful for sending printer control strings. 3. To insert special characters (such as line drawing characters), press the Alt key and type the Ascii code on the numeric keypad. Pressing Alt will also changes the function key menu at the bottom of the screen but this will not interfer with the special character. 4. You may want to rename EEDIT.EXE to EDIT.EXE or just ED.EXE. If you give it to your friends however, please keep the original distribution files intact. This includes EEDIT.EXE and EEDIT.DOC. 5. The maximum size file which can be edited is 64K bytes. Files can not grow above this size. 6. An inverse video diamond at the right edge of the screen indicates the line is longer than the width of the screen. Press Ctrl-End to shift the visible portion of the lines to the left. 7. If you experience a disk error while your file is being written, try renaming the buffer (possibly using another disk drive) to avoid losing your work. ADVANCED FEATURES: You don't need to read the following information to run Easy Edit. You may find this useful, however, to perform advanced editing functions, or if you have trouble getting it to run on your system. 1. The Easiest EDITor normally writes directly to the screen. If you run it with Microsoft Windows, you must specify the /D option if you want to use a small window. Specify the number of rows you want in the window. If you later resize the window smaller, the menu prompt may not be visible. 2. If you run Easy Edit with DESQview, a technique called "shadowing" is used to write to the window. The keyboard compatibility mode will be used automatically with DESQview (see below). 3. EEDIT requires a minimum of 180K of available memory. Additional file buffers require 64K each. You may relax this reqirement with the /An parameter. 4. Lines are delimited with the CR-LF sequence. The LF character is optional however for input files. This is known as a "standard" Ascii file. 5. Input files are read to their entire length (any imbedded EOF marks are ignored). Files created by other programs sometimes have "garbage" at the end. If present, an EOF mark at the end of the file is not displayed. 6. You may edit binary files, although lines longer than the width of the screen will not be visible. An inverse video diamond is displayed at the right edge of the screen to indicate lines which don't fit in the display. Use Ctrl-Home and Ctrl-End to shift the logical display window sideways. 7. EEdit creates a temporary file with the extension ".$$$" when it writes out your new files. If you discover one of these files on the disk (after a system crash), you may safely delete it. 8. The keyboard interrupt (vector 9) is intercepted to detect the Alt key press and other special key combinations. All keys are passed on to the BIOS keyboard handler to allow resident pop-up programs to function normally. When in compatibility mode, the keyboard is not intercepted. 9. Since EEDIT must control the keyboard directly, it may not work with certain resident utilities. A keyboard compatibility mode is provided to remedy this. If pressing the Alt key seems to interfer with another program, restart EEDIT in compatibility mode by using the "/K" parameter. You can then use Alt-F1 (or any other function key) to change the function menu bar. The Ctrl-Up and Ctrl-Dn functions and the /An parameter will not work in compatibility mode. 10. EEdit determines if a buffer is modified by computing a 32 bit token when the file is read in. The algorithm includes the position of each character so that switching the order of words can be detected. This technique is superior to other methods since it can determine when a file has been restored to its original state. NEW FEATURES FOR VERSION 2.4: 1. Support for Microsoft compatible mice has been added. The button assignments are: LEFT - Toggle select mode On/Off. RIGHT - Cuts text if select mode is On. Pastes text if select mode is Off. MIDDLE - Shows the buffer status (three button mice only). 2. If your using DESQview, EEDIT can be run in a "small" window. EEDIT automatically detects DESQview and uses the keyboard compatibility mode. You should press Alt-F1 to change the command menu. EEDIT does not use the mouse when running under DESQview.