================= Chapter 5 MENU COMMANDS ================= 5.1 Project Menu 5.1.1 About The ABOUT selection will display the Copyright notice for CygnusEd Professional. CygnusEd Professional is copyrighted 1987, 1988 by CygnusSoft Software and is published by ASDG Incorporated. 5.1.2 Clear The CLEAR (AMIGA-/) command will clear the current file from memory. If you made any changes to the file since last saving it, you will be asked to confirm clearing the file. This command will clear all views of the active file, but will not close down any of the views. The file name will also be cleared. 5.1.3 Open New The OPEN NEW (AMIGA-?) command will create a view with an empty file. If the file you are editing when you call this command has no other views, then an additional view will be created for you. If you are editing a file of which there is one or more other views, then the current view will contain the new empty file. Page 31 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This method ensures that a minimum number of extra views are created, while still ensuring that the original file is available to the operator. 5.1.4 Open The OPEN (AMIGA-o) command allows you to load a file into the current view. If you have no other views of the file you are editing when you call this command, then this action will attempt to remove the previous file from memory before loading the new file. If you have made changes that haven't been saved, you will be asked to confirm the action. If there are several views on the same original file, then when you call this command, the new file will only go into the active view, the old file will remain in the other view(s). Therefore, if you want to edit two files at once, you should use the command SPLIT VIEW before you call OPEN, to make sure that the new file gets a window to itself or use the OPEN NEW command to automatically create the new view. 5.1.5 Include File The INCLUDE FILE command (AMIGA-O) will insert a file into the active file at the current cursor location. You specify the file you want to include using the CygnusEd Professional file requester. 5.1.6 Save Block The SAVE BLOCK command (AMIGA-n) will store the current block paste buffer under the file name you specify using the file requester. If no block has been cut or copied during your session, then CygnusEd Professional will inform you that it has nothing to save. For information on the block paste buffer, see the commands COPY BLOCK and CUT BLOCK in the CUT/PASTE section. 5.1.7 Save The SAVE (AMIGA-w) command will store the current file to the disk. With this command (as compared to the SAVE AS command), CygnusEd Professional will assume you want to save the file under its original name. If you want to save it under a different name, then use the SAVE AS command described below. If no name has been set for the current file, then CygnusEd Professional will automatically do a SAVE AS. Page 32 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.1.8 Save As This command (AMIGA-W) is very similar to the SAVE command. It allows the operator to store the current file to the disk and provide a name for it. The file requester will always appear with this command, whereas the SAVE command will assume the original name. If the file specified already exists, CygnusEd Professional will warn you that the file already exists and will confirm that you really do want to overwrite the file. 5.1.9 Save all changes This function is useful if you are working on several different files. When you select this function CygnusEd Professional does a SAVE on all files that have been changed since they were last saved (all files that have an asterisk in the title bar). 5.1.10 Change Current Directory This command is used in conjunction with the DOS/ARexx command interface. This command allows you to enter a new directory from which subsequent DOS commands will be based. Please see the more detailed description of the use of this command in the DOS/ARexx interface chapter. 5.1.11 Print Block The PRINT BLOCK command (AMIGA-p) allows the user to print the current block paste buffer to a file or to the printer device (default). The user specifies where he wants the printout to go to via the CygnusEd Professional file requester. When the output filename (or device name) has been designated, the operator is offered additional print options (as discussed in the section on PRINTING YOUR FILE). The PRINT BLOCK command is multitasking so the operator is free to continue editing while the block is being printed. Page 33 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.1.12 Print File The PRINT FILE command (AMIGA-P) works the same way as the PRINT BLOCK command, except it prints the entire active file instead of the current block paste buffer. See the PRINT BLOCK description or the PRINTING YOUR FILE section for further information. 5.1.13 Quit The QUIT command (AMIGA-q) will quit the current view. If the current view is the last remaining view of a file with changes, then CygnusEd Professional will ask for confirmation of the Quit. If the current file is the last view in CygnusEd Professional, then the program will exit (subject to HOT START options). If the setting HOT START ENABLED (in the ENVIRONMENT - GLOBAL SETTINGS menu) is set, then CygnusEd Professional will become dormant, or "sleep", until awakened with a Hot Key or by the ED program. See the ADVANCED TOPICS SECTION on HOT KEYS AND DORMANCY for more information. If HOT START is not enabled, then CygnusEd Professional will exit completely. 5.1.14 Save And Quit This command (AMIGA-Q) is a quick way of selecting the SAVE command and then the QUIT command. See the SAVE and QUIT commands for a description of their respective functions. 5.1.15 Quit And Die The QUIT And DIE command performs the same function as the QUIT command except that it ignores the HOT START ENABLED setting and always exits completely. In other words, if you select this command, CygnusEd Professional will not enter a dormant state, rather, it will terminate completely. Page 34 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.2 Global Parameters Menu (Under Environment) 5.2.1 Screen Height The SCREEN HEIGHT setting allows you to set your preferred screen height. There are several pre-defined settings ranging from 200 pixels to 236 pixels and a user-settable option which will allow CygnusEd Professional to use high-resolution monitor effectively. The bottom subitem is an interlace toggle. With this option enabled, there is an effective doubling of vertical screen information (which means the CygnusEd Professional screen will consume twice as much memory when interlaced than when not. And...the characters will visually be half as large). If the screen height and screen width are small enough to fit on the WorkBench screen and FORCE CUSTOM SCREEN is not set then CygnusEd Professional will open up on the WorkBench screen. Although this is useful sometimes, it does make CygnusEd Professional run noticeably slower. 5.2.2 Screen Width The SCREEN WIDTH settings allow you to set your preferred screen width. You can select from the predefined settings of 640 to 704 pixels, or set your own custom selection with the bottom item. If the screen height and screen width are small enough to fit on the WorkBench screen and FORCE CUSTOM SCREEN is not set, then CygnusEd Professional will open up on the WorkBench screen. Running on the WorkBench screen will slow the performance of CygnusEd Professional, however. 5.2.3 Force Custom Screen The option FORCE CUSTOM SCREEN will force CygnusEd Professional to create its own "Screen" for display at all times. With this option disabled, CygnusEd Professional will appear as a window on the WorkBench screen whenever the screen height and width settings will allow it to fit. Since screen display time is noticeably faster if CygnusEd Professional is on its own screen, this option is recommended. 5.2.4 Macros/Key Definitions The functions under this item let the user define macros and assign them to almost any key on the keyboard. The macros can store a sequence of keystrokes and menu selections for easy playback. This capability can be used to remap the keyboard to emulate another text editor (see the MicroEmacs emulation file on the disk), create keyboard shortcuts for menu items that lack them or store long repetitive sequences of operations. For a full description of how to use the macro key commands effectively, see USING MACROS EFFECTIVELY. Page 35 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.2.5 Priority Because the Amiga is a multitasking operating system, the different tasks running at any given time are assigned "priority" levels. These priority levels determine who gets the lion's share of the available computer time. A high priority task will take all the time it needs and will only allow lower priority tasks to use time that it wouldn't use itself. CygnusEd Professional provides the ability to change its own priority level for those situations where this might be appropriate. The option INHERIT means that CygnusEd Professional will not modify its own priority level, but will leave it the way it started when it came up from the CLI or the WorkBench. The SET PRIORITY command lets you set the priority to a specified number from -9 to 9. The PRIORITY n (where n varies) command is used if the priority (given by "n") is already correct but INHERIT is selected. It causes CygnusEd Professional to start using the priority (given by "n") instead of using the inherited priority, but it doesn't bring up a requester asking you to type in the priority. 5.2.6 Autosave The AUTOSAVE function is a way of helping to protect yourself against power surges, system crashes, and other potential problems. When autosave is enabled, CygnusEd Professional will automatically prompt you to save your work every "n" minutes since your least recent unsaved change. You can set the amount of time you wish between save prompts with the SET TIMER command. The range of acceptable values is from 5 to 99 minutes. Notice that as you change the time period, the "Every N Min" menu item will be changed to reflect the new value of "N". This option can be turned off entirely by deselecting the EVERY n MIN menu item. Page 36 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.2.7 Set Icon Tool Name When CygnusEd Professional creates an icon for use with a file (see ICON CREATION below), the icon is stored with a parameter called the "Default Tool". The default tool is the program that is run when the icon is double clicked upon in the WorkBench. If you store CygnusEd Professional in your C: directory under the name "ced" then you should set this to C:CED. If you store CygnusEd Professional in the root directory of your disk then this should be set to :CED, or to DISKNAME:CED. If you want ED to be run when you click on this file (so that ED will run CED if CED is not running and pass CED the file name if CED is running) then you should set this to C:ED. If you desire some other program to be the default tool for a file then you specify its name with this command, as well. For example, if you wish to create a text file which was visible from the WorkBench and could be viewed when double clicked, you might specify one of the public domain text viewers as the file's default tool. 5.2.8 Change Colors The CHANGE COLORS (AMIGA-$) function sets the color arrangement used when editing. The color palette is inherited from the WorkBench screen. By default, CygnusEd Professional will use the same color arrangement as the WorkBench. The color selection array that CygnusEd Professional uses is an array of all twenty-four possible arrangements of the WorkBench colors. Each time this function is selected the color set will move another step through the array. This function is disabled when CygnusEd Professional is on the WorkBench screen. 5.2.9 Do Safe Saves When this option is enabled, CygnusEd Professional will use a safer, but slightly slower method of saving files to the disk. First, it stores the file in the destination directory under a temporary filename (called cygnusedtempa.###). When that is complete, it deletes the old version of the destination file and then renames the temporary file to the new destination name. This makes the saving method slightly longer and certainly uses more disk space, albeit temporarily, since two copies of the file will exist on the disk for a brief time. Page 37 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The advantage of using this option is that if a serious problem occurs during storage, such as a power outage, the destination file is not corrupted - there is always a copy of either the new or old file. The safe saving method is not used when the destination file does not already exist. In this case there is no advantage to storing, then renaming, so a straight store to destination is used. If the disk being saved to is so full that their is no room for two copies of the file the editor will tell you that there was a problem and will ask you if you want to save directly over top of the old file. If you routinely work with nearly full disks then this option will slow things down considerably. If your disks are usually this full you should probably turn this option off. 5.2.10 Icon Creation The ICON CREATION option specifies whether an icon is saved whenever you save a file. If you are using CygnusEd Professional from the WorkBench and want to be able to double click on files from the WorkBench to load them into the editor then you should set this option on. If you use the CLI then you should turn this option off to avoid wasting any disk space on icons. The default tool stored in the icon is settable with the SET ICON TOOL NAME function described above. 5.2.11 HOT Start HOT Starting, if enabled, will keep a dormant copy of CygnusEd Professional in memory each time you quit from the last CygnusEd Professional view. Rather than exiting completely, CygnusEd Professional will reduce its memory requirements and not consume any computing power of your machine. At any time should you depress RIGHT-SHIFT/RIGHT-ALT/RETURN (right shift with the right alt key and the return key) together, any dormant copy of CygnusEd Professional will spring to life instantaneously. In this way, CygnusEd Professional can be "exited" and entered with lightning quickness improving your productivity by reducing your edit-compile or edit-format time. Should you wish to force CygnusEd Professional to exit completely, depress the CTRL key in addition to the other keys mentioned above. This will purge all resources consumed by CygnusEd Professional and, of course, disable the HOT Start feature. Page 38 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- When CygnusEd Professional is dormant it can also be revived from the CLI of the WorkBench. The ED program is used to do this. From the CLI you type ED followed by the names of any files you wish to load into CygnusEd Professional. Ed instantly passes the file names to CygnusEd Professional if CygnusEd Professional is in memory and runs it if it is not. The same thing can be done from the WorkBench. Either click on the ED icon or on the icon of a file whose default tool name is ED and it will find CygnusEd Professional and awaken it. For more information see ED - THE CygnusEd Professional ACTIVATOR. Another advantage of using the dormancy feature of ED, besides fast response, is it can actually save you memory. If you normally keep a copy of your editor in a ram disk and then run it, you actually have two copies in memory, one in the ram disk and one loaded in to run. If you use the dormancy feature of CygnusEd Professional then there is no reason to keep a copy in the ram disk since you can just leave it resident. Please see ADVANCED TOPICS for a detailed description of HOT keys and dormancy. 5.2.12 Auto-Expand Views The views of the files in CygnusEd Professional can be expanded or contracted by sliding the title bars up and down with the mouse or with the SHRINK VIEW and GROW VIEW commands. For the user who frequently edits in more than one view at a time, it is often useful to set AUTO-EXPAND VIEWS on. When this option is set (AMIGA-[), the current view is made as large as possible, by moving all other views out of the way to their smallest sizes. Then, whenever the user activates a different view, the new view will automatically be expanded to maximum size. When this option is not set, CygnusEd Professional will not change the size of the views unless specifically instructed to do so. 5.2.13 Keypad = Movement The KEYPAD movement option (AMIGA-S) makes the numeric keypad perform movement functions instead of entering numbers. When this option is enabled, the keypad layout is: ------------------------------------------------ | beg of line | up 1 line | top of page | |---------------|---------------|----------------| | left 1 char | center cursor | right 1 char | |---------------|---------------|----------------| | end of line | down 1 line | bottom of page | |-------------------------------|----------------| | toggle insert mode | delete char | ------------------------------------------------ instead of ----------------- | 7 | 8 | 9 | |-----|-----|-----| | 4 | 5 | 6 | |-----|-----|-----| | 1 | 2 | 3 | |-----------|-----| | 0 | . | ----------------- Page 39 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is very similar to the keypad usage on an IBM PC. In fact, this is the way the keypad is labeled on the Amiga 500 and Amiga 2000. Note: While the SHIFT key is held down it toggles the status of KEYPAD MOVEMENT. If keypad movement is not set, then the keypad can be used for movement while the SHIFT key is held down. If keypad movement is set, then the keypad can be used for entering numbers while you hold down the SHIFT key. 5.2.14 Load And Save Environment These commands allow the user to store all the settings in the ENVIRONMENT menus GLOBAL PARAMETERS, FILE PARAMETERS, and VIEW PARAMETERS. These are considered the "Environment" settings. With the SAVE and LOAD ENVIRONMENT commands the user can store these settings for automatic recall next time he uses the editor. STORING PREFERRED SETTINGS describes this feature in full. 5.3 File Settings (Under Environment) 5.3.1 Tab Size The TAB SIZE menu lists tab size settings from 1 to 10 column separations. When the user changes this setting, all views of the current file will be updated to display the file using the new tab size. Note that tabs can be further customized with the CUSTOMIZE TABS option. Page 40 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.3.2 Customize Tabs The CUSTOMIZE TABS function (AMIGA-t) overrides the TAB SIZE setting. With it, you can set tabs anywhere on the line you wish, not just at regular intervals as TAB SIZE does. When you select CUSTOMIZE TABS, a line appears at the top of the screen containing dashes (-'s) and T's. The T's are the tab stops. You can create a tab stop by clicking the mouse over the dash where you want the stop. You can clear a tab by clicking on a T. All views of the file will be updated as the tabs are changed. To finish setting the tabs, press any keyboard key or the right mouse button. 5.3.3 Set Right Border This command (AMIGA-^) will set the right border of the document. The right border is used by the word wrap and formatting functions. When invoked, the SET RIGHT BORDER command will display a vertical line where the current right border is at and another vertical line under the pointer. By moving the pointer back and forth, the user can see the column number change and can click the mouse when he is over the column where he wants the right border to be set. If you want to set the right border to a value larger than you can move the mouse to (more than about eight columns) simply move the mouse over as far as possible and click. A requester will come up asking you if you want to specify a larger number. You can then type in the column number you would like the right border to be set to. 5.3.4 Set Scroll Jump CygnusEd Professional is capable of scrolling text at incredible speeds due to its custom text output routines and custom scrolling routines. Some people find these incredible speeds too fast to be useful and prefer that CygnusEd Professional scroll more smoothly. We aim to please both the speed freaks and those who prefer slow and smooth scrolling by allowing you to specify how much CygnusEd Professional will move the screen in each scroll motion. The numbers in the SET SCROLL JUMP menu refer to how many pixels each line will move in each screen update. Smaller numbers mean it scrolls slower and smoother, larger numbers mean it scrolls faster. Page 41 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- When CygnusEd Professional needs to scroll farther than one line, (if the user types SHIFT and the DOWN ARROW KEY for instance) the actual number of pixels moved in each jump is increased, but the basic idea remains the same. Large numbers mean faster scrolling, small numbers mean slower but smoother scrolling. If CygnusEd Professional has to scroll even further, it increases the jump amount even more and if it has to move more than about fifty lines, it doesn't bother scrolling. It redraws the screen instead. 5.3.5 Layout LAYOUT mode (AMIGA-5) allows the user to position the cursor anywhere on the line, regardless of where the end-of-line marker is. The original ED text editor that was provided with the Amiga used this mode. Normally, with this option not set, the cursor is limited to staying where the text is, i.e., it cannot go beyond the end-of-line. This is what most people prefer. The LAYOUT option is helpful for drawing diagrams or pictures on the screen or designing tables with the editor because it lets you move to all locations unhindered. 5.3.6 Word Wrap This option (AMIGA-6) lets you enter text into the editor without having to press RETURN at the end of each line. With this option on, CygnusEd Professional will detect when the RIGHT BORDER is reached and will force the last word, which would have extended beyond the right margin, to go to the next line (along with your cursor). This is a very useful option for all textual documents (letters, memos, documentation, etc.). To force a group of words to be on the same line, you can use ALT-SPACE instead of SPACE to separate the words. The ALT-SPACE is not considered a white space character. CygnusEd Professional treats words separated by ALT-SPACE as being one big word. ALT-SPACE is displayed like a regular space (except that it doesn't become visible if you select VISIBLE SPACES) and most printers will print it as a space. (The right border can be set with the SET RIGHT BORDER command described above.) Page 42 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.3.7 Insert Mode This option (AMIGA-7) will cause any text you type to be inserted at the current cursor location, moving all other text on the line to the right. With the option disabled, the user is in OVERSTRIKE mode. Here, text that is typed will overwrite whatever other text was underneath the cursor. CygnusEd Professional defaults to having insert mode turned on. 5.3.8 Tabs = Spaces The TABS = SPACES option (AMIGA-0) causes the TAB key to be interpreted as "insert spaces from here to the next tab stop". In essence, it causes all subsequent TAB key presses to insert spaces instead of tabs. It is important to note that this option does not convert existing tabs to spaces. To perform that function, see the PRINT BLOCK and PRINT FILE command description. 5.4 View Parameters 5.4.1 Status Line The status line is a line of information that overwrites the title bar of the view. With the status line off, the title bar will display the filename and the current line and column inthe file. With the status line on, the title bar will display either a "Changes" status line or a "Pages" status line. The "Changes" status line contains the number of lines in the file, number of changes made to the file since last save, current size in bytes and current line and column in the file. The "Pages" status line shows the number of pages in the file, the current page number, the current line on the page, and the current line and column in the file. Whenever changes have been made to the file, and asterisk will appear next to the line number designation. This is visible in all status line modes. The status line feature can be toggled on and off with AMIGA-9. Page 43 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.4.2 White Spaces CygnusEd Professional provides options to display some white-space characters as special symbols. This can often aid you when programming or crating text documents. A TAB character, when visible, look like a thin vertical bar. A space character looks like a small bow tie. Both are small and dim enough that they can be left visible without being too distracting. An EOL (End-Of-Line) character looks like a right triangle. It is much larger and darker than the displayable TAB or space characters. The ESC CODES visible will allow the user to see the actual escape sequence as individual characters. With this option disabled, the escape sequence gets swallowed up by the following character, which is reversed to show that it is hiding an escape sequence. This way, special escape codes can be buried in a document without getting in the way of the text or character-count sensitive functions (like word wrap or paragraph formatting). An ALT-SPACE character (which is always displayed as a space, regardless of the settings of SPACES VISIBLE) is not considered a white space by CygnusEd Professional. You can use it to cause a set of words to be treated by the editor as a single word (i.e., for word wrap, format, etc.). TAB visibility can be toggled by AMIGA-&. SPACE visibility can be toggled by AMIGA-*. EOL visibility is toggled by AMIGA-( and ESCAPE visibility is toggled by AMIGA-). 5.4.3 Scroll Bar The SCROLL BAR options let you set whether a scroll bar is displayed and if it is displayed, whether it appears on the left or the right side of the screen. The scroll bar is updated to indicate your position in the file as well as the size of the view as compared to the size of the file (in lines). The scroll bar can be used for real-time scrolling with the mouse pointer by grabbing the scroll bar's knob (by depressing and holding the left mouse button while positioned over the knob) and moving the mouse forward or backward. A forward motion of the mouse will move up towards the beginning of the file. A backward motion of the mouse will move down towards the end of the file. If you wish to set the screen width to wider than 640 pixels, you will probably want to position the scroll bar on the left side of the screen instead of the right. This is because the present revisions of the Amiga operating system will restrict mouse movement to a 640 pixel wide area irrespective of the actual width of the screen. Since this would prevent you from accessing the scroll bar (when on the right side of the screen) CygnusEd Professional can display the scroll bar on the left side (where it is always accessible). Page 44 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.4.4 Set Scroll Borders CygnusEd Professional attempts to keep the cursor within a certain scroll area. This ensures that you can always see a few lines in all directions. The scroll area can be defined by this command (AMIGA-z). When invoked, this command will display a rectangular box which is the current scroll area. A set of cross hairs will follow the pointer for you to set the upper left corner of the new scroll area. When the first corner is established. The scroll area also defines where on the screen the turbo-scrolling feature will be effective. Depressing the left mouse button inside the scroll area will simply move the cursor to the mouse position. Depressing the left mouse button outside the scroll area will move the cursor to the selected position as well as force a slight scrolling to take place. 5.5 Special Menu 5.5.1 View Operations CygnusEd Professional provides the ability to edit multiple views and multiple files on the screen at one. Each "view" of a file is a horizontal section of the CygnusEd Professional screen. For further information on the use of multiple views and editing multiple files, see Section 10 - ADVANCED TOPICS. To move between different views, you can use the PREV (AMIGA-',') and NEXT VIEW (AMIGA-'.') commands. Theses commands will activate the view above or below the currently active view, respectively. The cursor goes to the position it was in when the view was last active. To create an additional view of the same file, use the SPLIT VIEW command (AMIGA-d). This command creates another view of the same file by splitting the current view in half. The lower view becomes active. Page 45 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The EXPAND VIEW (AMIGA-]) command will make the current view as large as possible. It moves all views above or below the current view as far away as possible, reducing their size to the minimum. The current view then has maximum work area. This can also be done by grabbing the title bars of the views above and below and dragging them away, but it is often more convenient to have a menu option, complete with keyboard shortcut, to do this for you. The commands GROW and SHRINK VIEW will expand or contract the current view one line at a time. For these commands to be useful they really need keyboard shortcuts. Unfortunately we ran out of keys. However you can create your own keyboard shortcuts, using the macro commands. Simply assign a macro to your favorite unused keys (maybe F8 and F9) and then record the menu selections in the macro. Save the macro file in S:cedmacros and you'll always have keyboard shortcuts for these menu items. See Section 9 - USING MACROS EFFECTIVELY for more information. As has been mentioned before, the mouse can also be used to size a view by dragging title bars around to create the desired screen format. 5.5.2 Format The FORMAT commands will format a paragraph of text so that no words exceed the right margin. To use, place the cursor on the first line of the paragraph and then select one of the FORMAT commands. The variant FORMAT WITH FILL (AMIGA-f) will automatically fill the line with spaces between words to pad the line out to exactly the right border. The WITHOUT FILL (AMIGA-F) variant leaves the paragraph with a ragged right edge. The formatting continues until a blank line or a line that is indented is found. To force a group of words to be on the same line, you can use ALT-SPACE instead of just SPACE to separate the words. The ALT-SPACE is not considered a white-space character by CygnusEd Professional, but it displayed as a space would be. CygnusEd Professional considers the ALT-SPACE to be a continuation of the previous word. For information on setting the right border, see the SET RIGHT BORDER command description described above. Page 46 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.5.3 DOS/ARexx Interface This menu permits external programs to control or be controlled by CygnusEd Professional. The ARexx commands are for use by users who have the ARexx library available on their system. ARexx is not sold with CygnusEd Professional but can be purchased separately from William Hawes (P.O. Box 308, Maynard, Ma. 01754 (608) 568-8695). The ARexx commands provide a method of controlling CygnusEd Professional from an external program or controlling an external program from CygnusEd Professional. ARexx programs can be used to perform many extended functions designed by the operator such as a next/prev error command to create an integrated programming/development environment. The DOS/ARexx interface in CygnusEd Professional allows you to customize CygnusEd Professional as much as you want. If there is a particular feature that you'd like to perform which is not presently a built in part of CygnusEd Professional, you can probably write the function yourself using the tools of your choice and hook it in to CygnusEd Professional using CygnusEd Professional's strong inter-process communications capabilities. In addition to being able to send commands to ARexx, the DOS/ARexx interface also lets you execute DOS commands. If the command you install in a menu entry is unknown to ARexx, or if you don't have ARexx then CygnusEd Professional will try to execute a DOS command of the same name. However, it is extremely important to note that if CygnusEd Professional has disconnected itself from the invoking CLI you will not be able to use this feature. As an example of the ways in which inter-process communication can be of assistance to you, suppose there existed a spelling checker which had an ARexx interface. Then it would be possible to link the spelling checker to CygnusEd Professional to give you the power of the two programs combined! An example for the programmer is a program that could be written which has an ARexx interface and code which would parse the diagnostic output of you language compiler. Then, CygnusEd Professional could launch your compiler and then interpret the diagnostics of the compilation all from within CygnusEd Professional. For a full description of the CygnusEd Professional/ARexx interface and the DOS command interface, see THE DOS/ARexx INTERFACE. Page 47 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.5.4 Enter ASCII The ENTER ASCII command (AMIGA-"-") will allow you to enter a numeric value from 0 to 255 representing a single character to be inserted at the current cursor position. The number entered is the ASCII code for the character entered, provided in decimal notation. With this command, any value for any byte can be entered into the file, even if it is not directly accessible by the keyboard. When you select ENTER ASCII a requester will appear asking for the ASCII value of the character to be inserted. This requester will continue to appear and characters will continue to be inserted until you cancel the requester by either pressing return when the string gadget is empty, clicking on the close gadget, or selecting leave from the menu. Some sample ascii values are 65 for 'A' and 97 for 'a'. 5.5.5 Center Cursor This command (AMIGA-'=') will scroll the text in the current view to cause the current line to be displayed in the center of the view. It does not change the cursor position within the file. 5.5.6 Center Line The CENTER LINE command (AMIGA-\) will attempt to center the current line between column 0 and the right margin. It does this by stripping off all spaces and tabs at the beginning and ending of the line and inserting enough spaces to center the line horizontally. If the line is too long to be centered it will do nothing. For information setting the right border, see the SET RIGHT BORDER command description described above. 5.5.7 Repeat Key/Menu The REPEAT KEY/MENU command (AMIGA-") allows you to repeat a keystroke or menu selection a specified number of times. When selected, this command will display a requester asking for the number of times to repeat the command. After specifying the number of repititions, type the key or make the menu selection to be repeated. The effect of the repetition will be seen on the screen as it occurs. Should you wish to stop the repetition prematurely, depress any key on the keyboard. The key you depress will not be inserted into the file. Page 48 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you wish to repeat a whole string of keypresses and menu selections, define a macro containing all the keypresses and menu selections and repeat that macro. 5.5.8 Find Matching Bracket This command helps you to find the parentheses ")", bracket "]", or brace "}" that balances the one under the cursor. If it is an opening parenthesis, bracket or brace, then CygnusEd Professional will scan forward through the file, skipping over nested sets of the same kind until it encounters the corresponding closing parentheses, bracket, or brace. When executed from a closing parenthesis, bracket or brace, CygnusEd Professional will scan backwards for the corresponding opening punctuation. To use this command, place the cursor over the parenthesis, bracket, or brace you wish to match, then call the command (by menu selection or by AMIGA-h). If the matching parenthesis is found, then the cursor will move to the corresponding spot for a second before returning to its original location. If the matching parenthetic is not found, CygnusEd Professional will report the failure. This command is very useful for programmers, as it helps to confirm that program section delimiters are properly matched. 5.5.9 Mark Location N And Jump to Mark N CygnusEd Professional can use special "bookmarks" to allow the user to pop from place to place in the file. You may define up to three bookmarks per file. To set a bookmark, call the command MARK LOCATION n, where n is the number of the bookmark. The current cursor position within the file will be remembered as bookmark n. Then to jump back to that location in the file later on, select the command, JUMP TO MARK n. Note that the keyboard shortcuts for setting marks one through three are AMIGA-SHIFT one through three (AMIGA-!, AMIGA-@, and AMIGA-#). The keyboard shortcuts for jumping to a mark are, simply, AMIGA one through three (AMIGA-1, AMIGA-2 and AMIGA-3). Using bookmarks you can specify up to three "areas of interest" within a file and instantly jump between them. This is very helpful when moving sections of text from place to place in a large document. Page 49 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- In addition to the three standard bookmarks, CygnusEd Professional maintains a transient "auto-mark". The auto-mark is an additional bookmark which is defined as the last position the cursor was in before CygnusEd Professional had to redraw an entire screen. If you were positioned in the middle of a large file and jumped to the beginning or end of the file (CTRL UP ARROW or CTRL DOWN ARROW), the auto-mark would be defined as the character position you were in before making the long distance jump. Selecting JUMP TO AUTO-MARK (AMIGA-4) will return you to where you were before you skipped to the beginning or end of the file. 5.6 Cut/Paste Menu 5.6.1 Block Commands The BLOCK COMMANDS are used for moving arbitrary size pieces of text within the file. They can cut pieces out, paste pieces in, duplicate pieces, and can be used to move data from one file to another. To define a block, you must first mark an end of the block by using the MARK BLOCK command (AMIGA-b). Then move the cursor to the other end of the block. Note that the area between the cursor and the block mark is highlighted. When you are at the other end of the block, you can select COPY BLOCK (AMIGA-c), which will copy the area selected to CygnusEd Professional's paste buffer. The block will then be available for INSERTing (AMIGA-i), SAVing (AMIGA-n) or PRINTing (AMIGA-p). You can also use CUT BLOCK (AMIGA-x) which is the same as COPY BLOCK, except that it will delete the selected area from the file as well. ROT BLOCK will ROTate a section of text thirteen characters over. This is a very common method of encoding text on electronic networks such as Usenet. It rotates all alphabetic characters thirteen positions on a wheel of the alphabetic characters. To encode a section of text, MARK (AMIGA-b) the start of the text, move to the end of the text, and select ROT BLOCK. The text within the selected range will be rotated. To decode ROT'ed text, perform the same operation. STRIP CR BLOCK is used in the same way as ROT BLOCK. Its function is to remove carriage returns from a section of text. On the Amiga, a new line is marked with a linefeed (ASCII value 10). Some files brought to the Amiga from other machines contain a carriage return (ASCII value 13) and linefeed at the end of every line. These carriage returns (displayed in CygnusEd Professional as a reversed capital M) can be removed from a block of text with the STRIP CR BLOCK command. Page 50 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The CHANGE CASE BLOCK command is used the same way as ROT BLOCK. It changes the case (UPPER or lower) of every alphabetic character in the designated block of text. MARK COLUMNAR BLOCK is a different way of defining a block. Normally, a block is defined as all text on all lines between the beginning of the block and the end of the block. With MARK COLUMNAR BLOCK, you can define a block to be any rectangular area on the screen. This is very useful for working with multiple columns, or moving tables around on the screen. It is most often used in conjunction with the LAYOUT option (see the LAYOUT command description above). For more information on the columnar block see section 10.3, Using the Columnar Block Effectively. 5.6.2 Delete Word And Undelete Word CygnusEd Professional can delete and undelete words to the left or right of the cursor. To delete a word to the left of the cursor you would depress ALT-BACKSPACE. Notice that simply BACKSPACE would delete the character to the left of the cursor. Applying the ALT qualifier to the BACKSPACE key changes its meaning from "delete previous character" to "delete previous word". Similarly, to delete the word to the right of the cursor, depress ALT-DEL. Recall that simply DEL will delete the character to the right of the cursor. Again, the ALT qualifier to DEL changes its meaning from character to word operation. A word deleted with ALT-BACKSPACE or ALT-DEL can be reinserted (un-deleted) by using CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE or CTRL-ALT-DEL (respectively). CygnusEd Professional maintains a seperate undelete buffer for deleting to the left and right. So, to reinsert a word deleted with ALT-DEL, you'll need to use CTRL-ALT-DEL as CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE will reinsert an entirely different word. 5.6.3 Line Commands The line commands DELETE LINE (AMIGA-k), DELETE TO EOL (AMIGA-y), and UNDELETE LINE (AMIGA-l) provide a means of cutting and inserting a single line of text at a time (DELETE TO EOL stands for "Delete to the End-Of-Line"). Page 51 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Both DELETE LINE and DELETE TO EOL put the deleted text in the line buffer. This buffer can then be used to insert the text at the current cursor position with the UNDELETE LINE command. 5.7 Search and Replace Menu 5.7.1 Search Commands The SEARCH commands allow you to search for any string of characters in the file. The SEARCH command is very fast and even supports simple wildcard searches. To begin a search, use SEARCH FOR (AMIGA-S). A requester will appear with a string gadget where you can type in the string you are searching for. You can specify a forward or backward search, a case sensitive/insensitive search, character search or "only word" search, and you can specify whether or not wildcards will be used. The "only word" option will tell CygnusEd Professional to match the next occurrence of the string specified only if it is a complete word. In effect, this means that you can search for "the" without hitting "then", "bathe", or "lather". It is very useful for programmers when searching for variable names. Technical note: Text found is not considered a word if either the character immediately before or the character immediately afterwards is an alphabetic character, a digit or an underscore. To use the wildcard in searches, you can use the character * to replace any single character. For example, to search for any string beginning with ABC, followed by any two characters, and ending with Z, you would search for ABC**Z. Remember: You must make sure the wildcard search gadget is turned on before you begin your search or CygnusEd Professional will perform a literal search for any asterisks you may have in your search string. When the search requester pops up (when you select SEARCH FOR) there are gadgets you can select to toggle between case sensitive and case insensitive searches, wildcards on and wildcards off and forwards and backwards searches. There are also keyboard shortcuts for all of these (using RIGHT-AMIGA and the first character of the text in the gadget) as well as a Leave keyboard shortcut (RIGHT-AMIGA-l). You might notice that when the search requester is displayed, a new search menu is also active. Use the mouse to look at the menu for reminders on keyboard shortcuts when the search requester is active. Note: In most situations, keyboard shortcuts can be activated in CygnusEd Professional by either the left or the right AMIGA key. When the search requester is active, only the RIGHT AMIGA key will enable keyboard shortcuts. Page 52 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Although control characters do not show up properly in the string gadgets (unless you are using a special font system) they can still be searched for. End-of-line characters can be searched for by typing CTRL-J in the string gadget. An example of doing this would be trying to find the next occurrence of the word VOID at the start of a line. Some font speed-up programs set a new default system font. This can allow the control characters to show up properly in the string gadgets. To find the next occurrence of the string (or the previous), you can use the REPEAT SEARCH FORWARD (AMIGA-s) and the REPEAT SEARCH BACKWARD (AMIGA-a) commands. These will move you to the next occurrence of the same string without displaying the search requester. 5.7.2 Replace Commands The replace commands allow you to selectively replace occurrences of one string of text with another. The replace commands use the same buffer for their original string as the SEARCH command uses for its search string. When you select REPLACE (AMIGA-R), CygnusEd Professional will bring up a requester to let you enter the original and the replacement texts. The requester that comes up is very similar to the SEARCH FOR requester (including all the toggle gadgets). The main difference is that an extra string gadget, for the replacement text, is found at the bottom of the requester. You can specify all the same search attributes here as you can in the SEARCH FOR command (see description above for details). If the cursor is in the second string gadget and you wish to alter the searched-for text, you can move the cursor to the previous string gadget without having to reach for the mouse by typing SHIFT-RETURN. When the first match is found by the search routine, CygnusEd Professional will move the cursor to that location and query you with: "(Y)es/(N)o/(L)ast/(G)lobal/(Q)uit?". To replace this instance and continue to the next instance, answer Y. To NOT replace this instance and continue to the next instance, answer N. To replace this instance and not search for anymore matches, answer L. Page 53 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To replace ALL instances of the original text from this position to the end of the file, enter G. If after typing 'G', you wish to abort the replacement, hit any key. If you wish to stop replacing, hit any key except Y, N, L and G. REPEAT REPLACE (AMIGA-r) can be invoked after a REPLACE command was cancelled. It continues from the current location, using the original and replacement text that you set. Note: Because of the difficulties involved in searching for and replacing invisible characters, CygnusEd Professional always makes escape codes visible before executing the REPLACE commands. 5.7.3 Change Case Commands These commands reverse the case (UPPER or lower) of the character or word the cursor is on. When a word-type command is specified, the word is defined as the current cursor location to the first white space character after the first non-white space character. CHANGE CASE LETTER can be invoked by the keyboard shortcut AMIGA-g while CHANGE CASE WORD can be invoked by AMIGA-G. 5.8 Move Menu 5.8.1 Jump To Line The JUMP TO LINE (AMIGA-j or AMIGA-J) command will move the cursor to any given line number in the file. If the line number specified exceeds the number of lines in the file, the cursor will come to rest at the end of the file. 5.8.2 Jump to Auto-Mark The auto-mark is a fourth bookmark (see the MARK LOCATION n command description above). However this bookmark is not explicitly set by the user. Instead, CygnusEd Professional maintains this bookmark on its own. When you start CygnusEd Professional the auto-mark points to the first line, first column. If continues to point to this location until such time CygnusEd Professional is forced to completely redraw a screen from scratch. When a total screen redraw is forced, the auto-mark is updated to point to the cursor position immediately before the screen redraw. Page 54 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- That is, the auto-mark is updated when you move to a location that is far enough away that it redraws the screen totally rather than scrolling to the new location. For example, if you are somewhere in the middle of a (large) file and go to the end of the document (for example)), the auto-mark will be set to the cursor's location just before you jumped to the end of the document (as long as the end of the document is far enough away that CygnusEd Professional doesn't scroll to it). If you then select JUMP TO AUTO-MARK, CygnusEd Professional will return you to your previous position. The auto-mark will then be set to the end of the document so that you can return there by selecting JUMP TO AUTO-MARK again. In this way, the auto-mark can be used to quickly toggle between two distant points in a large file. If, at some point in the file, you were to SEARCH for a string which was found a great distance away from your original location, you can get back to your original location instantly by JUMPing TO AUTO-MARK. In fact, once back at the original location you can instantly jump back to the location of the found string by again, JUMPing TO AUTO-MARK. 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