________________________________________. \_____ \____/ ___________ |____ \ |__ | | \ \ \ \ \/ | _ \ | \ |_____ /_ /____ /_ /\ _|___|_ /___ / +------\/--\/-----\/--\/--\/-------\/RtX!\/+ EDGE V1.70 Part 1 ========== -=-=-=- TYPED BY SHARD - DTL HELP ---- This section will tell you how to use the AmigaGuide Help for Edge. AmigaGuide is a "hypertext" program to let you jump back and forth at random in a text file. You may read things sequentially, or you may browse in any subject you care to, and return to where you left off immediately. Simply click on any words that looks like a gadget, and you will jump to the place that explains the subject related to that word. If you double-click on ANY word that happens to be represented by a "hypertext node", then AmigaGuide will jump you there. If there is no word listed, the screen will flash and a "can't find" message will appear. Try clicking on requesters or double clicking on the word; "requesters", and you will see the results are the same. There are headings in the help window to let you return to the table of contents or jump back (Retrace) step by step to where you have been already. At any time you may simply "Browse" forward or backward through the file. When Edge is open, you may press the Help key at any time, and the Amiga Guide Help file will open to the area that will explain the relevant subject. For instance, if a requester is open, and you need help in deciding how to answer it, press help and the explanation of that requester will appear in the window. You may of course use the hypertext capabilities to jump around once you are in the Edge Help file. The help system is asynchronous, which means that you can have it running and still use the editor. To return to the Edge program to take up where you left off, simply activate the window you were working with. General Conventions and Syntax ------------------------------ The Edge Window Status Line Once the Edge Window opens, it displays a status information line which may be on the top or bottom of the window depending on the GlobalEnvFlags flag in GlobalEnvVars, accessable in WindowSettings. The information line contains, from left to right: Line number L:2 means Line number 2. Column number C:4 means Column number 4. Letter I or O I=Insert typing mode; O=Overstrike typing mode. Immediately next to I or O is a letter or a blank to tell whether the numeric keypad cursor keys are active or not. K=ON; blank=OFF The decimal ASCII character code of the character under the cursor. For example: 77 = decimal character code for "M" Number of Lines #L:40 is a 40 line file File size (bytes) Size:714 means a file size of 714 bytes Number of changes Chng:9 means you have made 9 changes to the file since opening/last saving it Page number Pg:1 means you are on page 1 of the document Page Line number PLn:5 means you are on line 5 of the current page The format of the status line is defined in the MiscTexts: section in the Text configuration file. At the lower right hand corner is a size gadget. Click, hold, and drag to resize the window. General Syntax and Conventions of Edge -------------------------------------- Edge has a number of equivalent actions that you may perform to select a checkbox, or activate a string gadget, or perform a menu function. If You Previously Assigned Edge: If you happen to have made an assignment of Edge: to some path or other, it will change the name shown in the Edge window to Edge2. It will also change the name of the ARexx port(s) of Edge and its windows. Generally it will append a "2" to the end of all named objects to do with Edge. If Edge2 also exists a "3" will be appended; if Edge3 exists a "4" is appended, etc. Menus ----- Menus are activated by clicking the Right Mouse Button (RMB) and holding it down. The Menu Bar at the top of the window will activate and names will appear. To select one of the Items under a Menu name, continue to hold down the RMB and move the pointer until the item or subitem you wish to activate is highlighted. The Item function is performed if you let go of the RMB while that item is highlighted. Certain menu items will have a "Command Equivalent" to the right of the item name. To use this "Keyboard Equivalent" of the menu, press the Right Amiga Key along with the keyboard character shown in the menu item. For instance, in a "Project" Menu, if you wish to Open a file, you may use the menu or press the Right Amiga key and the "o" key together. Now - to include a file by keyboard command you press the Right Amiga key together with any Shift key and the "o" key. In Edge, unlike most Amiga programs, if a menu shortcut key is displayed in upper case you must also press shift since Edge normaly distinguishes shifted and unshifted command keys. NOTE: caps lock will not do. Keyboard Equivalents -------------------- The Right Amiga key is called a "Qualifier" to the "o" key, above. All menu equivalents are qualified by the Right Amiga key. In the Help file, a "Qualified" key press is indicated by [Right Amiga] [O] A simple key press looks like [O] or "O", but in either case only the O key is pressed. Underlined Characters in the Gadget or Checkbox Name In general, all requesters EXCEPT the file requester will have one character in each gadget or checkbox name UNDERLINED. If you wish to activate that gadget or to toggle that checkbox ON or OFF, you may simply press the keyboard character that you see underlined in the gadget name. In the Help file: "Keyboard select: 'm'" means that you may SELECT the gadget or the checkbox or the string gadget by simply pressing the key for M (shifted or unshifted) because the gadget name has an underlined character 'm' in it. "Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [O]" means that pressing the key or keys shown together will PERFORM A FUNCTION. In string gadgets, to cycle forwards, press the "Tab" key. "Shift-Tab" cycles backwards. Mouse clicks inside string gadgets activate them with a cursor visible inside, or press the underlined character on the keyboard. If the gadget is active, pressing the underlined character will ENTER that character into the gadget. ARexx Every action you can do from the Edge interface has an equivalent ARexx Command. Look at Commands for more information. Starting Edge. -------------- This section will tell you how to start Edge, either from Shell or from Workbench, and what arguments you can supply. Starting Edge from the Workbench To start Edge from Workbench just double click on the Edge tool icon or select and double click the Edge project-file(s) you want to load. The Edge tool icon tooltypes are: Dictionary Filename of the default dictionary file, defaults to EdgePrg:Edge.dictionary Dormant Flag to specify that Edge is to start up in iconified state. If any files are to be loaded this flag is ignored. Force Flag to specify that you wish to start a new copy of edge and not create new files in the one copy already loaded. obviously this flag only has a meaning if you have Edge already running in memory and wish to start another. Global Filename of the global settings preference file, defaults to EdgePrg:Edge.global Icon Filename of the icon to use as project icon (not including .info, which is added automatically), defaults to EdgePrg:Edge.icon.info Keyboard Filename of the keyboard config file, defaults to EdgePrg:Edge.keyboard Local Filename of the local settings preference file, defaults to EdgePrg:Edge.local Menus Filename of the menu config file, defaults to EdgePrg:Edge.menus MouseButtons Filename of the mouse button config file, defaults to EdgePrg:Edge.mousebuttons PubScreen The name of the public screen to open on. This keyword will override the _GE_Monitor variable in the global settings prefs file. For example - to run Edge on DirectoryOpus's screen enter a new tooltype: PublicScreen='DOPUS.1' Startup Filename of the startup-script to be executed after all files are loaded, defaults to EdgePrg:Edge.startup Templates Filename of the default template file, defaults to EdgePrg:Edge.templates Texts Filename of the requester and text config file, defaults to EdgePrg:Edge.texts Wakeup Filename of the wakeup-script to be executed after Edge is uniconified, defaults to EdgePrg:Edge.wakeup WorkDir The path to use as current directory once the editor has started. For example: WorkDir=Data:myfiles/text/pgms The tooltypes in the project icon have the same name as the Edge environment variable they affect, so look in the environment section for an explanation of what and how the environment variables work. Edge on the Workbench --------------------- AppWindows When Edge is running on the Workbench all text windows become what is known as 'Application Windows'. This means that you may drag and drop project icons into the text windows in order to load them. If multiple icons are dropped in one window, then the first file will be loaded in that window and new windows will be opened for the rest of the files. AppIcon If you set the AppIcon flag in GE_Flags, accessible in General Settings by clicking on the AppIcon check box, Edge will put an Application Icon on the Workbench. This icon is called Edge-Deposit. Project icons may be dragged and dropped into the AppIcon to load them into Edge automatically. A new Edge window will open with each project loaded. This is a great way to open up multiple files without going to the trouble of multiple-selecting them. Just click and hold down the Left Mouse Button on a project file, drag it until the mouse pointer is over the icon, and release the mouse button. If the editor is iconified while doing so it will be awakened. Double clicking on the icon works just as pressing the Edge hot key - Edge will pop to front, and wake up if iconified. The AppIcon is fetched from disk using the name "EdgePrg:edge.appicon.info". Edge's Disk Icon Once Edge is running, a disk icon called "Edge-Docs" opens on the Workbench. This "disk" performs sort of like a RAM_Disk except that you cannot properly write to it, see EDGE: advanced information. What you do use it for is mainly to access the files loaded into the editor without the need of saving them, which is great for compiling, etc. If you use DirectoryOpus, you may open a directory window of Edge: or Edge-Docs: and view the files, copy project files to this disk device, or treat it as any other drive! When you copy files to this device, it is as if you had loaded the project into Edge in the more conventional fashion: a new window opens with the project file loaded. NOTE: When dropping icons on Edge-Docs in Workbench, the icon tool-types (e.g. the files local environment variables) and the files' true path are NOT available, use the AppIcon, or AppWindows, instead, if you need that information. Starting from a Shell --------------------- To start Edge from a Shell just type 'edge'; if you want the editor to load any files at startup simply type the filenames after the command 'edge work:mystuff/source.a'; or to load all C and assembler files in work:mystuff edge work:mystuff/#?(.c|.a). The command line syntax for Edge is as follows: Edge Files/M,PS=PubScreen/K,WD=WorkDir/K, S=Startup/K,W=Wakeup/K, G=Global/K,L=Local/K, M=Menus/K,T=Texts/K, K=Keyboard/K,B=MouseButtons/K, I=Icon/K,D=Dictionary/K,P=Templates/K, Z=Dormant/S,F=Force/S This syntax is shown if you type 'edge ?'. All arguments except FILES work as the tooltype with the same name and are explained below. FILES are, as said above, the name(s) of the file(s) you wish the editor to load at startup. EDGE: advanced information -------------------------- EDGE: is a virtual "disk" perhaps best described as a DOS interface to Edge. Through it you can access all files loaded into the editor and also load new files. Most things you can do with a normal ram disk you can also do with EDGE: - with a few exceptions: 1) .info files cannot be loaded via EDGE: 2) It is not possible to Seek in a file which is presently written to, e.g. opened with MODE_NEWFILE. 3) Read/Write files are not supported; open with MODE_READWRITE. For the more technical users out there, the following DOS packets are supported by the EDGE: device; ACTION_FREE_LOCK ACTION_END ACTION_READ ACTION_LOCATE_OBJECT ACTION_FINDINPUT ACTION_SEEK ACTION_EXAMINE_OBJECT ACTION_EXAMINE_NEXT ACTION_COPY_DIR ACTION_PARENT ACTION_RENAME_OBJECT ACTION_SET_PROTECT ACTION_DISK_INFO ACTION_INFO ACTION_IS_FILESYSTEM ACTION_SET_DATE ACTION_SET_COMMENT ACTION_DELETE ACTION_WRITE ACTION_FINDOUTPUT NOTE: If a blocking requester is active when EDGE: is in use, sometimes it may seem as if DOS is frozen. This is because the requester will also block the Edge's process communication with the EDGE: device - just get rid of the requester and everything will be ok. Edge Help: Basics ----------------- Entering Text Text may be entered into the window by simply typing it in. The cursor indicates where the text will appear if you start typing. Pressing the [Return] key breaks the line and moves the cursor down to the start of the next line. If you start in the middle of some text, the default is to insert the new text and push aside the old text to make room. This is called Insert mode. Toggle whether to Insert or Overstrike in the Settings/Local menu item. You may select which mode to save as the default by using the Local Settings requester opened from the Settings menu. The default is that if you indent a line, then all subsequent lines will indent the same amount until you move the start of the line back out to the left. This is intended for programmers who do a lot of block indentations. This is called AutoIndent. Your text would look like this. All such behaviors of the editor are configurable by the user. If you didn't want to use AutoIndent, for instance, you would select the Settings menu item and within it, select Local Settings or use the keyboard equivalent of pressing [Right Amiga]-[e]. This notation means to press the Right Amiga key, hold it down, and press the [e] key at the same time. Keys that aren't obvious such as the [e] key are named within the square brackets. Other such keys are [CursorUp] for the up arrow key, [Esc] for the Escape key, and so on. When the Local Settings requester opens, you have a choice of setting the Insert or Overstrike mode; Word wrap (words automatically continue or "wrap" around to the next line once you type past the right margin); or setting AutoIndent on or off, simply by clicking on check boxes. Try different settings to see how they affect editing in your document. You may set everything, including tab stops and whether to show spaces, in the Local Settings window. Printing a Document ------------------- You may print a document by selecting the Project/Print, Project/Print To or Project/Print As menu items. If you choose Print As, you get a window to change the printer settings before you print. These do not affect the global printer settings, however. Moving Around with the Mouse, Menu, and Keyboard You may move the cursor up and down and side to side with the cursor arrow keys or with the numeric keypad keys when the numeric pad is toggled so a K appears in the window's bottom indicator bar. Toggle the keypad on and off in Settings/Global Settings menu. You may move around quickly up and down and side to side by simply holding down the Left Mouse Button (LMB) and moving its pointer toward the top, bottom, or side margins. The closer the pointer is to the margins, the faster the text will scroll. You may move up and down with the scroll bar to the right hand side of the window as well. Click and hold the LMB on the scroll bar to move the text up and down smoothly; click on an "empty" space off the scroll bar to jump the text a proportional amount up or down. Bookmarks There is a special way to jump around inside the document. The menu item is called Tools and has two items at the bottom. The first one for setting bookmarks (special user-settable markers you can jump back to after going off somewhere else). The second item is for jumping to the bookmarks you set before. Move to The Tools menu also has a Move to section for moves to line numbers, last change, errors, even specific bytes (useful for programmers). Folds Edge has the capacity to hide sections of a large document as "folds". It behaves as if your file was written on a long scroll and part of it "folded" out of sight. This is useful for hiding completed sections of program code so that they will not distract from work on other parts of the listing. Use the Local Settings requester to set the Fold Start and Fold End character string you prefer to delimit the start and end of your folds. The default for start is /*FS*/ and the default for the end is /*FE*/ but you may change them to any string you prefer. You may also nest folds so that you may hide sections within sections. To show a hidden section, just place the cursor on the start of fold mark and select the menu item to show it or show all to reveal all folds. The File Requesters You have a choice of the Commodore system ASL file requester or a custom requester with more features just for Edge. If you choose in the Global Settings to have the ASL, help is not available, but on-line help will come up for the Edge requester when it is open, or you can jump to any help section from anywhere in the Amigaguide file. Block Operations Edge supports selection and operations with both horizontal and vertical blocks. In order to move text around, we usually cut or copy a block and then paste it down in some other part of the document. We select blocks by double clicking over the start of the block; or by selecting a menu item Block/Mark Block when the cursor is over the start of the block; or by using the keyboard [Right Amiga] [b]. The cursor changes color (if we are using enough colors in our system) after we select the start of the block. The next place we click or move the cursor will highlight all the text from the start to the cursor. Once we have moved the cursor to where we want the end of the block to be, we may cut, copy, or perform other block operations on it. To select a Vertical or Columnar block, we must hold down the [Shift] key while clicking with the mouse - or using the middle button if we have a three button mouse, select the Columnar Block item from the Edit/Begin Column menu, or press [Right Amiga] [Shift] [B] to start the block. Then the highlighted text will be in a column format rather than in a horizontal format. Find and Replace Refer to the Find/Replace requester for information about this subject. Running ARexx Macros There is a rich ARexx command set for Edge, and there are plenty of example programs to use or learn from. Teaching you to program in ARexx is beyond the scope of this help manual. You may run any of the macros included by using the menu item Macros/ARexx/Run ARexx Script or by pressing [Shift] [Esc]. A file requester will open asking you for the name of the ARexx script you want to run. The Setting/Edit Sub-Menu If you need to reconfigure or delete any features, you simply edit a text file such as EdgePrg:edge.menus/main. You don't have to remember which file is which. The Settings menu Edit item at the right hand side has sub-items to edit each configuration such as menus or keyboard settings. Selecting one of these will bring up the configuration file for that item. Save a backup under a different name the first few times you try this. After you finish your edit, another menu item lets you reload the configuration so your changes will take effect. Configuring Edge Although a well thought out default configuration is present from the first time you use Edge, you may easily change any of the default settings to suit your style or habits of use. If you have been using another brand of editor, you may want to reconfigure certain keystrokes and menus to match what you are used to. After installation, if you look at the directory in which Edge resides, you will notice a number of files with names such as Edge.menus or Edge.global. These are ASCII text files which govern the configuration of Edge. Edge itself can open a number of Requesters which allow you to change things such as the global prefs by pointing and clicking on check boxes which edit the associated file indirectly. Advanced users may edit these files directly. We recommend that everyone make a back up file before trying to edit a configuration file directly. Novices should at first use only the Requesters for changing things because these graphics interfaces don't make "typos" when changing a file, and they are easy to change back again. If Edge is your first editor, we suggest that you simply use it as it comes. You may use Edge's default configuration for a while without having to reconfigure anything. Remember that experts developed the defaults. The standard configuration should require only minor customization on your part: for instance, if you don't like or don't use some feature, you may easily delete it from the menu or keyboard configuration file. Extensive rearranging may take some planning, because if you change one thing, you'll probably have to change something else, too. Advanced users who program in different languages may configure different versions of Edge for different projects and languages. To reconfigure anything in your Edge editing environment, you simply modify a text file either directly or via a requester. Dictionaries Edge supplies a workable C language dictionary. Once the dictionary is loaded, it will automatically correct the case of otherwise esoteric strings. You may add words or modify dictionaries, because they are in plain ASCII text format. Dictionaries may be "included" so as to build up a project dictionary from multiple smaller ones. The dictionary feature helps prevent needless case sensitive errors in your code. The default configuration attempts to load a dictionary with the name EdgePrg:Edge.dictionary which is supplied as an empty file. If you desire to use one of the supplied technical programming dictionaries as the default, you should change its name to the default file, or put in a tooltype Dictionary=path:mydictionary which supplies a path to your default dictionary. Edge's Requesters... -------------------- About the Notify requester. The Notify requester is used to notify the user about something, when the response from the user is not significant - the Notify requester only has a 'Continue' gadget. To make the requester go away the user can click the 'Continue' gadget, the window close gadget, press the ESC or RETURN key on the keyboard, select 'Continue' from the menu or press the menu shortcut key for 'Continue' or press the underlined character 'C' for continue. Underlined characters in names for gadgets will select that item. The user can also press the HELP key to activate the Edge Help-system, which will display the page you see here. The Notify requester MENU has two items: Continue Close the requester (may also be done as described above). Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [C] Snapshot window Save the current position of the Notify requester window in the global environment and use it the next time the requester is called for. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [S] NOTE: If you wish to permanently save the window position you must save the Global Settings to disk. NOTE: If the Notify requester window is pointer relative the saved position will NOT be used. NOTE: The Edge ARexx Command for a Notify requester is RequestNotify. About the Choice requester. The Choice requester is used to prompt the user about an OK/Cancel type of decision when the response from the user is significant. The requester will contain a short text describing the matter the user is supposed to decide about. To give a positive response to the requester the user may click the 'OK' gadget (the left one), select 'OK' from the menu or press the menu shortcut key for 'OK', or press the underlined character 'O' in the name 'OK'. To give a negative response to the requester the user may click the 'Cancel' gadget, select 'Cancel' from the menu, press the menu shortcut key for 'Cancel' or press underlined character 'C' or the ESC key on the keyboard. The requester is closed by any of the responses described above. The user can also press the HELP key to activate the Edge Help-system, which will then display this page. The Choice requester MENU has three items: OK Give a positive response. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [O] Cancel Give a negative response. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [C] Snapshot window Save the current position of the Choice requester window in the global environment and use it the next time the requester is called for. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [S] NOTE: If you wish to permanently save the window position you must save the Global Settings to disk. NOTE: If the Choice requester window is pointer relative the saved position will NOT be used. NOTE: The Edge ARexx Command for the Choice requester is RequestChoice. About the Enter a Number requester. The Enter a Number requester is used to prompt the user for a number. The window title will contain a short text telling the user what the number is for. The requester may be preloaded with a default number and if that is OK for the user then he can just 'OK' the requester. The string gadget is automatically activated when the requester is opened but if it should get inactive just click in it. You can only enter digits in this requester within the limits shown in a small window below the number entry gadget. If the number is off limits and you try to 'OK' the requester, the display will flash and a message will be printed in the requester telling you if the number is too small or too large. The requester will refuse to accept an out-of-limits number. To 'OK' the requester and accept the number, either press the RETURN key on the keyboard, click the 'OK' gadget, select 'OK' from the menu or press the menu shortcut key for 'OK', or press 'O', the underlined character. To 'Cancel' the requester either click the 'Cancel' gadget, select 'Cancel' from the menu, press the menu shortcut key for 'Cancel', press the ESC key on the keyboard or press the RETURN key on the keyboard with the string gadget empty (no digits), or press 'C' for 'Cancel'. The requester is closed by any of the responses described above. (as for the 'OK' responses - the number must be within limits or the requester will not go away). The user can also press the HELP key to activate the Edge Help-system, which will then display this page. The Enter a Number requester MENU has three items: OK Give a positive response. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [O] Cancel Give a negative response. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [C] Snapshot window Save the current position of the Enter a Number requester window in the global environment and use it the next time the requester is called for. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [S] NOTE: If you wish to permanently save the window position you must save the Global Settings to disk. NOTE: If the Enter a Number requester window is pointer relative the saved position will NOT be used. NOTE: The Edge ARexx Command for number requester is RequestNumber. About the Enter a Key requester. The Enter a Key requester is used to prompt you for a key-sequence. The window title will contain a short text telling you what the key is for. To start sampling click the 'Sample' gadget - now keyboard input is monitored and displayed in the box below the 'Sample' gadget. Once a complete key-sequence is entered, sampling will stop. As long as sampling is engaged the window title will say 'Sampling'. You may also activate sample mode by pressing the underlined character, 'p', in the name 'Sample'. To the right of the requester there are four checkboxes controling the qualifier options. Click in the box to toggle select/deselect or press the keyboard equivalent - the underlined character in the name of the box. Alt Same Holds the state of the ALTSAME flag in _GE_Flags. If set, left Alt and right Alt are equivalent; i.e. it doesn't matter which Alt key is pressed. Keyboard select: 'A' Shift Same Holds the state of the ALTSHIFT flag in _GE_Flags. If set, left Shift and right Shift are equivalent; i.e. it doesn't matter which Shift key is pressed. Keyboard select: 'S' Mask Alt Holds the state of the QMALT flag in _GE_Flags. If set, the Qualifier mask will include Alt; i.e. the Alt keys as qualifiers are ignored. Keyboard select: 'M' Mask Shift Holds the state of the QMSHIFT flag in _GE_Flags. If set, the Qualifier mask will include Shift; i.e. the Shift keys as such are ignored. Keyboard select: 'Q' To 'OK' the requester; i.e. accept the key-sequence, either press the shortcut key for the 'OK' gadget, click the 'OK' gadget, select 'OK' from the menu or press the menu shortcut key for 'OK'. Keyboard select: 'O' To 'Cancel' the requester either click the 'Cancel' gadget, select 'Cancel' from the menu, press the menu shortcut key for 'Cancel', press the ESC key on the keyboard or press click on the window close gadget. Keyboard select: 'C' The requester is closed by any of the responses described above. You can also press the HELP key to activate the Edge Help-system, which will then display this page. The Enter a Key requester menu has three items: OK Give a positive response. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [O] Cancel Give a negative response. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [C] Snapshot window Save the current position of the Enter a Key requester window in the global environment and use it the next time the requester is called for. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [S] NOTE: If you wish to permanently save the window position you must save the Global Settings to disk. NOTE: If the Enter a Key requester window is pointer relative the saved position will NOT be used. NOTE: The Edge ARexx Command for the EnterAKey requester is RequestKey. About the Enter a String requester. The Enter a String requester is used to prompt the user for a string. The window title will contain a short text telling the user what the string is for. The requester may be preloaded with a default string and if that is OK for the user then he can just 'OK' the requester. The string gadget is automatically activated when the requester is opened, but if it should become inactive just click in it. You can enter any character in this requester. In order to enter non- printing characters use backslash and a three digit decimal number, e.g. '\\010' for a Line Feed (LF), '\\013' for Carriage Return (CR), etc. To 'OK' the requester; i.e. accept the string, either press the RETURN key on the keyboard, click the 'OK' gadget, select 'OK' from the menu or press the menu shortcut key for 'OK', or press 'O', the underlined character. To 'Cancel' the requester either click the 'Cancel' gadget, select 'Cancel' from the menu, press the menu shortcut key for 'Cancel', press the ESC key on the keyboard or press the RETURN key on the keyboard with the string gadget empty (no characters), or press 'C' for 'Cancel'. The requester is closed by any of the responses described above. The user can also press the HELP key to activate the Edge Help-system, which will then display this page. The Enter a String requester MENU has three items: OK Give a positive response. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [O] Cancel Give a negative response. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [C] Snapshot window Save the current position of the Enter a String requester window in the global environment and use it the next time the requester is called for. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [S] NOTE: If you wish to permanently save the window position you must save the Global Settings to disk. NOTE: If the Enter a String requester window is pointer relative the saved position will NOT be used. NOTE: The Edge ARexx Command for a string requester is RequestString. About the Find/Replace requester. The Find/Replace requester is used to prompt the user for find and replace strings and search attributes. The Find and Find/Replace requesters are identical except for one thing, the replace string gadget which will only appear in the Find/Replace requester. All gadgets in the Find/Replace requester display the last values used. If this is OK, then just 'OK' the requester. The find string gadget is activated when the requester is opened, but if it should become inactive just click in it or press a key if the requester window is active. To move the cursor between the find and replace string gadgets from the keyboard use the TAB key. The labels for the options have characters in their names underlined. To select that option, just press the left Amiga key and one of the underlined characters. Edge maintains a history of the find and replace string gadgets. To cycle through the list, simply use the Cursor Up/Down keys. Shift Cursor Down will move to the end of the list and clear the gadget. Shift Cursor Up will search the list for the string currently in the gadget (just like the shell). You can enter any character in the string gadgets; in order to enter a non-printable character use backslash and its three digit decimal number, e.g. '\\010' LF, '\\013' CR, '\\000' NULL, etc. To 'OK' the requester, i.e. accept the string(s), either press the RETURN key on the keyboard, click the 'OK' gadget, select 'OK' from the menu, press the menu shortcut key for 'OK', or use the keyboard: Press the 'O' key. In general, all requesters' items may be chosen by pressing the underlined character in their name. To 'Cancel' the requester either click the 'Cancel' gadget, select 'Cancel' from the menu, press the menu shortcut key for 'Cancel', press the ESC key on the keyboard or press the RETURN key on the keyboard with the find string gadget empty (no characters). You may also press 'C'. The requester is closed by any of the responses described above. The user can also press the HELP key to activate the Edge Help-system which will then display this page. The Find/Replace requester MENU has eight items, described below. OK Go ahead and Find/Replace. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [O] Cancel Abort the operation. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [C] Snapshot window Save current position of the Find/Replace requester window in the global environment and use it the next time the requester is called for. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [S] NOTE: If you wish to permanently save the window position you must save the Global Settings to disk. NOTE: If the Find/Replace requester window is pointer relative, the saved position will NOT be used. The five items below are used to toggle the state of the five checkboxes in the right side, displaying the current state of the search flags. A check in the checkbox means the flag is active. Ignore case Toggles the UCEQLC flag; if this flag is active upper case is treated equal to lower case in searches, else case is significant. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [A] Scan forward Toggles the FORWARD flag; if this flag is active the search is made forwards in the file, towards the end of the file, else the search is made backwards, towards start of the file. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [F] Use wildcards Toggles the WILD flag; if this flag is active and the find string contains any wildcard characters then pattern matching is used during the search. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [D] Searching with wildcards is line oriented, e.g. the entire line is matched against the find-string once and only once. If a match occurs then the cursor will be positioned at column 1 on the line that matched. The 'Only whole words' option is ignored when searching for wildcards. Only whole words Toggles the WORD flag; if this flag is active then the search is made to check for white spaces before and after the specified find string. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [W] Circular scan Toggles the CIRCULAR flag; if this flag is active then the search is made circular; that is when end or start of file is reached, the search is restarted at the other end of the file and will continue until either the find string or the beginning of the search is found. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [R] Swap... This item only appears in the Replace requester. When selected the Find and Replace strings are swapped. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [T] NOTE: The Keyboard equivalents will toggle checkboxes even if a string gadget is active. About the Edge File/Directory requester. NOTE: If you have selected the ASL File Requester (the Amiga Standard File Requester) in the General Settings window, this description does not apply. The ASL requester is described in the AmigaDOS documentation. The Edge File/Directory requester is used to prompt you for either a file or a directory. The File and Directory requesters are identical except for one thing; if you are to select a directory the 'File' gadget is disabled and no files are shown in the filelist - only directories. The window title will contain a short text telling you what the file/directory is for. The 'File', 'Directory' and 'Pattern' gadgets may be preloaded, normally they contain the last used strings, and if that is OK then just 'OK' the requester. NOTE: There are NO underlined character equivalents in the File Requester. The 'Directory' gadget is activated when the requester is opened. To activate the other string gadgets either click in them, or use TAB and SHIFT TAB on the keyboard to circulate. There are three scroll-lists in the requester: Filelist The big list in the middle: here all files and directories read from the directory specified in the 'Directory' gadget are shown, EXCEPT those excluded by a pattern. When you type something in the 'File' or 'Directory' gadget the Filelist will scroll to show the first file and/or directory that matches the start of the name you have typed. To copy the topmost name from the list to the gadget you're in, press CURSORDOWN; to copy the next name, press CURSORDOWN again. To walk backwards in the list press CURSORUP. This function is circular. The names will always be copied to the correct gadget: Directory names to the 'Directory' gadget and file names to the 'File' gadget. After they have been copied their gadgets will be activated. To read in a selected directory just press RETURN in the 'Directory' gadget or select 'GetDir' from the menu or a gadget. To select multiple files, press and hold down any SHIFT key while you either click on the file(s) with the mouse or press RETURN to select the file currently in the 'File' gadget. You can only select multiple files in the file-list and only when MULTISELECT is enabled and only during a READ operation. Devicelist The small list at the right top: here all volumes, devices and assigned directories are shown. To walk through the devicelist from the keyboard press ALT together with CURSORUP/CORSURDOWN. The names will be copied from the list to the 'Directory' gadget and activate it. Lastlist The long list at the left top: here the last used files and directories are shown. You may define how many entries the last list should hold in the Global Settings - General requester. To walk through the lastlist from the keyboard press SHIFT together with CUSORUP/CURSORDOWN. The entries will be copied to the appropriate 'Directory' and 'File' gadget and the 'Directory' gadget will always be activated. When MULTISELECT is enabled you may type a pattern directly in the 'File' gadget, e.g. @{"#?.c" link DosWildCards}. If the requester is used in a READ operation - Open, Include, etc - you must select an existing object. The requester will refuse to 'OK' a non existing file or directory for a READ operation. In WRITE or SAVE operations, you may specify a non existing file, but it must be a valid AmigaDOS filename. To 'OK' the requester; i.e. accept the file/directory, either press the RETURN key on the keyboard, click the 'OK' gadget, select 'OK' from the menu or press the menu shortcut key for 'OK'. As mentioned above, the requester will only 'OK' existing objects in READ operations. To 'Cancel' the requester either click the 'Cancel' gadget, select 'Cancel' from the menu, press the menu shortcut key for 'Cancel' or press the ESC key on the keyboard. The requester is closed by any of the responses described above. You can also press the HELP key to activate the Edge Help-system, which will then display this page. There are seven button gadgets in the right side of the requester. They are explained below when dealing with their menu equivalents. The gadget equivalent names are listed second if they are different from the menu items. The requester MENU has eight items: OK OK, go ahead. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [O] Cancel Abort the operation. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [C] Snapshot window (MENU ONLY) Saves current position of the requester window in the global environment and uses it the next time the requester is called for. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [S] NOTE: If you wish to permanently save the window position you must save the Global Settings to disk. NOTE: If the File/Directory requester window is pointer relative the saved position will NOT be used. Parent Gets parent directory to the current one, if possible. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [P] Get dir Re-reads the current directory, or reads the contents of the directory specified in the 'Directory' gadget. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [G] Next Cache Displays the next directory cache, if any, in the file NCache list using the current pattern. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [>] Previous Cache Displays the previous directory cache, if any, in the 'PCache' file list using the current pattern. All File/Directory requesters in Edge can cache their directory lists if directory caching is enabled. You can easily scan through different directories without having to read them anew from disk. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [<] Current Cache Displays a requester's currently cached directory 'CCache' list, which has not yet become part of the 'real' cache list. If caching is disabled or you cancel the requester, Current Cache will not become a real cache. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [/] NOTE: The Keyboard equivalents will work even as the string gadgets are active. NOTE: The Edge ARexx Command for the built in Edge or ASL file requester is RequestFile. The kind of file requester put up by the above commands will depend on the global setting. About the Local Settings requester. The Local Settings requester is used to customize the local environment in Edge, and is local in the sense that each file may have its own unique local environment. At the top right there is a scroll-list containing the tabstops for the file. To scroll the list use the slider below the ruler. A 'T' indicates a tabstop at that position, a '-' indicates no stop. To toggle the tabstops just click on them. The tabstoplist is found in the _FE_TabList (File Environment) variable. Below the tabstops are a bunch of string gadgets, described later, and to the left are some checkboxes displaying the state of the Edge local flags, described below. (all Edge local flags are found in the _FE_Flags variable). To select items in requesters that have underlined characters in the item names, simply press the underlined character's key on the keyboard. MakeIcon This checkbox shows the state of the 'ICON' flag. When this flag is on, Edge will create an icon for the file when it is saved, providing no icon existed before. If an icon existed then Edge will check its default tool. If that is the same as Edge's default tool then Edge will keep the icon image but update the tooltypes; if not, no new icon will be created and the old icon is left untouched. Keyboard select: 'M' SafeSaves This checkbox shows the state of the 'SAFESAVES' flag. When this flag is on, Edge will save files in a safe way, that is the file will first be saved with a temporary name, then the old original file is deleted and the temporary file is renamed. When this flag is off, the old original file is overwritten directly. Keyboard select: 'v' TabsToSpaces This checkbox shows the state of the 'TABSTOSPACES' flag. When this flag is on, tabs ('\\009') are translated to an equal number of spaces needed to move the cursor to the same column. Keyboard select: 'T' Editable This checkbox shows the state of the 'EDITABLE' flag. When this flag is on, you may alter the file, e.g. type, delete, cut, insert, etc. When off, the file is in 'View only' mode and you can not alter it. Keyboard select: 'i' MakeBackup This checkbox shows the state of the 'BACKUP' flag. When this flag is on, whenever the file is saved a backup is saved as well to the directory defined in _FE_BackDir and with the name defined in _FE_BackFile. (these two variables are described later when dealing with the string gadgets). The backup is saved using the current settings of the 'ICON' and 'SAFE' flags. Keyboard select: 'B' LineWrap This checkbox shows the state of the 'LINEWRAP' flag. When this flag is on, the cursor will wrap around at sol/eol, e.g. if the cursor is at column 1 and you move the cursor left it will move up to the end of the line above, if possible, and then continue to move left the specified number of characters. A similar effect occurs when the cursor is at the end of a line and you move right. Keyboard select: 'p' AutoIndent This checkbox shows the state of the 'AUTOINDENT' flag. When this flag is on, Edge will automatically indent the cursor to the same position as the first non space/tab character on the line above when you press RETURN or use the NewLine command. Keyboard select: 'A' Layout This checkbox shows the state of the 'LAYOUT' flag. When this flag is on, it is possible to move the cursor beyond the end of the line and if you then type something the 'space' between the cursor and eol is padded with spaces. Keyboard select: 'y' Insert This checkbox shows the state of the 'INSERT' flag. When this flag is on, Edge type mode is insert; e.g. when you type something the characters to the right are pushed to the right. When this flag is off the type mode is overwrite; e.g. the characters to the right of the cursor are overwritten when you type something. The state of this flag is also shown in the status line after the column number, 'I' for insert and 'O' for overwrite. Keyboard select: 'r' WordWrap This checkbox shows the state of the 'WORDWRAP' flag. When this flag is on, Edge will wrap down the cursor and the current word to the next line if you try to type beyond the defined wrap border _FE_WrapBorder. In other words, Edge will keep track of the right margin for you while you type. Keyboard select: 'W' CorrectCase This checkbox shows the state of the 'CORRECTCASE' flag. When this flag is on, Edge will automatically try to correct the case of the words that you type. For the case correction to succeed the word must be found in the edge dictionary. If a word is not found no action is taken. Keyboard select: 'o' ShowSpaces This checkbox shows the state of the 'SHOWSPACES' flag. When this flag is on white spaces will be printed with characters that have an image; i.e. space will be printed as '·', tab will be printed as '°' & LF will be printed as '¶'. Keyboard select: 'h' That takes care of all the local environment flags; now for a description of the string gadgets and their associated variables. When the requester is opened none of the string gadgets are activated. With the mouse - just click in the one you want to activate. With the keyboard - press the underlined key in the name of the gadget you wish to activate. Use TAB and SHIFT TAB to circulate. RETURN will deactivate the current gadget. GADGETS, CENTER COLUMN: Backup dir This gadget holds the contents of the _FE_BackDir variable. The string in _FE_BackDir is used as the path description when saving backups. It is not necessary to end it with a '/' - Edge will take care of that. However, it must be a valid AmigaDOS path or an error will be reported when Edge tries to use it. Keyboard select: 'd' Backup file This gadget holds the contents of the _FE_BackFile variable. Keyboard select: 'k' The string in _FE_BackFile is used as the filename description when saving backups. If the string is empty and 'BACKUP' is on the default file for backups '*{#}' is used. If you choose to have a backup file with a simple name; e.g. 'oldfile.c.bak'. The backup system will always backup to a file with that name. You can also make use of the star '*' to allow a dynamic name and let Edge evaluate the true name when saving a backup; e.g. '*.bak' will use the original filename and then append '.bak' to it. (the star is equal to the current name of the file). Additionally you may also want to use the hash mark '#' to make use of Edge's autonumbering capability. When a '#' is encountered in the name it is replaced with the current value of the file's backup-counter, located in the file '*.B' in the backup directory. After the backup is saved a check is made to see if the maximum number of backups (_FE_MaxBackups) has been exceeded, and if so the oldest backup is deleted. Then the backup-counter is incremented. With the dynamic name and the autonumbering it is easy to maintain a backup directory that contains multiple backups of several files and it makes making a backup worthwhile - you have the option to reload old versions of you sources. Max backups This gadget holds the contents of the _FE_MaxBackups variable. The number in _FE_MaxBackups is used to define how many backup copies are to be used for this file. Keyboard select: 'x' Fold start This gadget holds the contents of the _FE_FoldStart variable. The string in _FE_FoldStart is used as the fold start marker. Keyboard select: 'l' Fold end This gadget holds the contents of the _FE_FoldEnd variable. The string in _FE_FoldEnd is used as the fold end marker. Keyboard select: 'e' Undo buffer This gadget holds the contents of the _FE_UndoBuff variable. The number in _FE_UndoBuff defines the byte-size of the undo buffer for this file. The bigger the number the more changes can be stored. Keyboard select: 'n' IMark image This gadget holds the contents of the _FE_IMark variable. The string in _FE_IMark is the image used in the FindIMark function. The 'x' in the string is replaced by the number supplied as the argument to FindIMark, if no 'x' exists in the string only one IMark can exist. The string may be 31 characters, unexpanded. Keyboard select: 'g' GADGETS, RIGHT COLUMN: Tab distance This gadget has no variable. It is used to simplify the setting of a tab list with the same spacing between all stops. Just type a number and press RETURN or TAB. Keyboard select: '1' NOTE: You must press either the RETURN or the TAB key in order to change the tabstoplist. Page length This gadget holds the contents of the _FE_PageLen variable. The number in _FE_PageLen is the number of lines that will fit in a page in this file. The minimum page length is one line. Keyboard select: '2' Upper scrollborder This gadget holds the contents of the _FE_UpperSB variable. The number in _FE_UpperSB is the number of lines that the upper scrollborder consists of; i.e. when the cursor is _FE_UpperSB lines from the top of the window and you move up, the text will scroll. (this will not happen at start of file.) Keyboard select: '3' Lower scrollborder This gadget holds the contents of the _FE_LowerSB variable. The number in _FE_LowerSB is the number of lines that the lower scrollborder consists of; i.e. when the cursor is _FE_LowerSB lines from the bottom of the window and you move down, the text will scroll. Keyboard select: '4' Left scrollborder This gadget holds the contents of the _FE_LeftSB variable. The number in _FE_LeftSB is the number of characters that the left scrollborder consists of; i.e. when the cursor is _FE_LeftSB characters from the left side of the window the text will scroll. (this is not true at start of line.) Keyboard select: '5' Right scrollborder This gadget holds the contents of the _FE_RightSB variable. The number in _FE_RightSB is the number of characters that the right scrollborder consists of; i.e. when the cursor is _FE_RightSB characters from the right side of the window, the text will scroll. Keyboard select: '6' Wrap border This gadget holds the contents of the _FE_WrapBorder variable. The number in _FE_WrapBorder is used as the right border when 'WORDWRAP', word wrap, is on and in paragraph formatting, Format. Keyboard select: '7' That is all regarding the Local Settings requesters string gadgets. At the bottom right there are three action gadgets: Save OK the requester, use the changes made and save them to the default local settings preferences file, using either the name EdgePrg:Edge.local or the name defined by you at startup using the LOCAL keyword/tooltype. Keyboard select: 'S' Use OK the requester, use the changes made but don't save them. Keyboard select: 'U' Cancel Cancel the requester, restore the local settings to the state they were in when the requester was opened. Keyboard select: 'C' The Local Settings requester has three menus: Project This menu has five items: Open Load a local settings preference file other than the default one. You will be prompted for a name with the Filerequester. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [O] Save As Save the local settings preference file to a file other than the default. You will be prompted for a name with the FileRequester. No keyboard equivalent. Snapshot window Save the current position of the requester window in the global environment and use it the next time the requester is called for. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [S] NOTE: If you wish to permanently save the window position you must save the Global Settings to disk. NOTE: If the Local Settings requester window is pointer relative the saved position will NOT be used. Use Selecting this item has the same effect as clicking on the 'Use' gadget. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [U] Quit Selecting this item has the same effect as clicking on the 'Cancel' gadget. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [Q] Edit This menu has three items: Reset to defaults Restore the local settings to the internal defaults of Edge. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [D] Last saved Reload the local settings preference file, either EdgePrg:Edge.local or the file defined by you at startup, with the LOCAL keyword/tooltype. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [L] Restore Restore the local settings to the state they were in when the requester was opened. Keyboard equivalent: [Right Amiga] [R] Options This menu has only one item: Save icon If enabled, an icon will be created for the local settings preference file when saved. No keyboard equivalent. NOTE: The ARexx Command for the local settings requester is LocalSettings. About the Global Settings - General requester. The Global Settings requester is used to customize the global environment in Edge. The requester is divided into four parts: Screen, Printer, Windows and General. This section, General, contains general and all purpose variables and flags. The left side of the requester contains some string gadgets, described later, and the right side has a lot of checkboxes, displaying the global environment general flags, found in the _GE_Flags variables. The checkboxes may be toggle-selected to ON or OFF by clicking inside the checkbox, or you may simply press the keyboard key corresponding to the underlined character in the checkbox's name. The flags are explained below: End Of Part One -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-