mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) (08/01/84)
From: Bill Croft <croft@safe>
Date: Sun 15 Jul 84 14:49:44-MDT
From: John W. Peterson <JW-Peterson@UTAH-20.ARPA>
Subject: Some "freeware"
A few months ago on Info-mac, I mentioned an improved version of Apple's
"File" program. I've made several improvements to it since then, including
A search/replace facility
"Auto-fill" mode that inserts real carriage returns
A text fill facility
Multiple fonts (on a per window basis)
I've found this program to be extremely useful as a local text editor for
the mac. Coupled with macget/macput (with the -u option) it works great.
The sources are for the Lisa workshop system (ugh), I started the project
before Sumacc was available.
Cheers,
jw
----attached is file.hlp
Introduction:
File was originally written by Cary Clark at Apple, and then modified
at Utah by JW Peterson in order to make it a useful editor for
straight text work. In this context, it works best for writing text
that is later uploaded to a larger host machine. Therefore, File
differs from MacWrite, MS-Word, etc. in several ways-
-It doesn't know anything about multiple fonts or typestyles within
a single file.
-It can use carrige return to end each line, and reformat paragraphs
accordingly.
-It is small and starts up quickly.
-Unlike MacWrite, File allows multiple windows to multiple files.
Instructions:
In general, File behaves like other Mac applications and follows the standard user interface guidelines.
The File menu item works like MacWrite, MacPaint, etc. Note Cmd/S is a
"Save" key.
The edit menu provides your vanilla edit functions The way File is
currently implemented, cutting and pasting between desk accessories is
one way- you can paste TO File windows from accessory windows, but you
can't go the other way. The behavior of the ClipBoard option appears
to reflect this as well. If you want to select more than a screen's
worth, use "shift-click" with the mouse. (you'll see how this works).
One more thing- Undo isn't implemented in File, so that menu item is only
enabled for desk accessories.
The Fonts menu allows you to change the font the current window is
using, as well as it's point size. Monaco is a fixed width font, and
in the nine point size it fits 80 characters nicely across the screen.
The NY-12 is the easiest to read. You should try to have all of these
fonts available on your system disk for best use (and you can save gobs
of disk space by moving frivolous fonts off with the font mover).
Using a Wrap value of 72 works best with NY-12 (see below). If a
window seems to get a little confused after changing the fonts, try
bumping the window's grow box just a little (this forces a refresh).
The Format menu refers to two kinds of text "wrap". "Soft wrap" is
when text wraps around to the next line when it hits the edge of a
window, WITHOUT a carrige return present. Changing the window size
changes the arrangement of the text. If softwrap is toggled off (by
selecting that item), text will only begin on a new line if a return is
inserted.
Hard wrap refers to text with carrige returns. The Fill-region menu
item justifies the text in the selected (as in mouse selected) region
by deleting spaces and/or adding carriage returns (much like M-Q on 20
EMACS). The text is filled out to the currently selected wrap column
(either 72 or 80). If the Hard Wrap menu item is toggled on, returns
are automaticly be inserted at the nearest space behind the hard wrap
column (like "Text Mode" in EMACS).
The Search menu allows searching the text for a specified string. If
it's found, the occurance of the string is selected. Use Find (Cmd/F)
to look for the next occurance. If you Copy or Cut some text
before you search, than simply executing Paste when the string is found
gives you a "search and replace" feature. Note pressing return in the
"what to find" dialog is the same as clicking "OK".
The Debug menu will set up a little window showing how much memory is
available, and offer to try and compact memory for you. This may be
useful if you have reason to suspect you're bumping the limits
(Warning: bumping the limit has not been tested!). There appears to be
about 30-50K available, plenty for most writing chores.
Tabs work by inserting spaces until a multiple-of-eight column. Also
note special characters can be inserted with the Option key, though
other computers may not understand them. If a line of text is
indented, pressing the Enter key will insert a return and then tab out
to the same column on the next line. (Like ^J in some EMACS
implementations.)
To get files to or from Unix machines, use the "macput" and "macget"
programs, with the "-u" flag (for "unix" mode).
Some Tips-
File gets sluggish if you're trying to insert or change text in the
middle or front of a large file. A better alternative is to cut the
text you're working on, then use New in the File menu to bring up a
"work window." Paste the text in this window, work on it there, then
move it into the "main window" when finished.
Clicking the gray area between the scroll box and the arrows on the
scroll bar moves the screen by "screenful" increments.
Known bugs...
The program is quite robust in terms of not bombing. But just in case,
the "Resume" item is enabled if a trap does occur. Best save your
files, exit, and run it again if this occurs.
File does NOT carefully check against memory limits. Normally, the
30-50K of available space is plenty. But if you're worried, bring up
the "show freemem" window. Also avoid copying large chunks of text to
the clipboard if memory's tight.
Because Search uses the "Munger" ROM routine, it is always case
sensitive (this makes it very fast, though).
Two disk swaps are needed to load a file from an alternate disk. It
should preload the code segment to prevent additional swapping.
Always save files before printing them; the printing process takes a
big chunk of memory.
The clipboard flashes unecessarly when playing with desk accessories.
The desk scrap is not check to see if it will fit in memory before it
is retrieved.
Copying from File windows to desk accesories doesn't work.
----
--
Martin Taylor
{allegra,linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt