lah@raybed2.UUCP (LANCE HOLMES) (04/26/88)
I have just purchased and tried out txed plus and have the following comments/questions/problems. After installing txed and experimenting I have found the following things to be a major difference and some thing you may want to consider before buying it. The default Memory available is now reduced from 35000 in txed v1.31 to 20000 in txed 2.0. This means that if you have a file larger than 20000 Characters such as a file that you captured from the net and have to clean up so that you can uudecode or un shar it you can't load it into Txed. I have searched through the manual to see if there is any way to set this value but there doesn't seem to be one. I haven't contacted C Heath yet to see if this is true. If some one knows what the story is with respect to this memory limit I'd appreciate it. I realize that this version uses arexx and through some fancy elegant macro you may be able to get around it with some sort of paging sceme. The second minus in Txed Plus is that it uses Arp.library. This means that the file must be available to Txed in the Libs: directory if you try to perform some of the operations used in Txed such as cut and paste. If you liked Txed v1.31 because it was small and could be copied to ram: and run from there with out having workbench available then now your going to have to copy Arp.library and any other libraries to ram: and re-assign the Libs: directory to it. The Loading of txed from boot up routine which uses a demo version of Arexx has some problem. You can load Txed,blitzdisk,ff,funkeys,and Arp.library with out any problem. You also have the option to copy the latest Arp programs to your disk. This copies a copy of Arc to you disk and a copy of Arpexe.arc. You then have to know or guess that you need to De-Arc the Arpexe.arc file,execute the execme file,and then this routine has a small catch-22 which may confuse the easily confused. After copying the Txed program a copy of Arp.library is copied into you Libs: directory. The execme program copyies AEXEC.arc to you C directory and dearcs it. Contained in the programs is a copy of Arp.library which at the end of the execme file is an attempt to rename it to libs/arp.library. Well the catch-22 is that if you have already installed Txed there already is a copy of Arp.library in you libs directory. So the rename program will fail. If there isn't a copy of the file Arp.library in your libs directory and you have booted up your system with this disk the system tries to execute the rename program from that disk you will then see a message that says "you need a copy of Arp.library V33+" which is the file that your trying to copy. This leave you in the situation where you'll have to reboot with a different workbench and give full path names to command like "c:rename" so that the Arp command isn't run. As I said this arrangement will confuse the easily confused. The way in which it will work is if you don't copy Txed first copy Arp.library. Exit out of the installation routine that is running in Txed. Don't reboot but cd to the disk that Arpexe.arc has been copied to. De-arc the file and execute execme. Then after that it you should reboot and try to install Txed. As you can see from my rambiling it is rather confusing and you had to be there to understand. Last but not least If you have not read my previous posting with respect to Arp Resident command then I'll say it again the programs that are made resident do not seem to work. I feel like the system is not recognizing that the program resident in memory should be executed instead it looks on the disk and runs that program. Which leaves me using the Rez program instead. Lance Holmes any answers comments or suggestions are welcome however there seems to be 30 day money back satisfaction Warranty listed in the manual which I presently feel that I may have to use.
rokicki@polya.STANFORD.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) (04/28/88)
In article <1167@raybed2.UUCP>, lah@raybed2.UUCP (LANCE HOLMES) writes: > I have just purchased and tried out txed plus and have the following > comments/questions/problems. I've just got TxED Plus myself, and I'd like to respond to some of your comments. > After installing txed and experimenting I have found the following > things to be a major difference and some thing you may want to consider > before buying it. The default Memory available is now reduced from > 35000 in txed v1.31 to 20000 in txed 2.0. This means that if you > have a file larger than 20000 Characters such as a file that you captured > from the net and have to clean up so that you can uudecode or un shar it > you can't load it into Txed. This is not true. I believe that 20000 you refer to is the macro memory; I'm not sure. In any case, I just loaded a 462K file into TxED Plus; over 18000 lines. It loaded in less than 4 seconds, and every line is there. In comparison, mg1b.tgr loaded this same file in 50 seconds. (The file was on vd0: for both tests.) Make sure of what you speak; that's a nasty thing to say about a text editor, that it doesn't work for large files. > The second minus in Txed Plus is that it uses Arp.library. I consider this a definite plus. The editor is only 23K big! arp.library is 14K. The sum of these two is smaller than almost any other editor out there (my personal version of mg, totally stripped, is 55K.) Hell, if you replace your standard commands with the Arp commands and the arp.library, that alone probably frees up enough space for the editor. I used to not use Arp; I had some bad experiences with it. Now I won't go back; you have to see how small the commands are and how well everything works to appreciate it. Plus, you can use arp.library in your own programs! I will agree with you that the installation of Arp is somewhat confusing as it is distributed with TxED Plus. Of course, this must be tempered with the fact that Arp is a freebie. > however there seems to be 30 day money back satisfaction Warranty listed > in the manual which I presently feel that I may have to use. I'm sorry you feel that way; I don't think you'll find a better editor for the Amiga. (Personal note: I use mg myself mostly, because I use Emacs on every other machine in the world. But I keep e around for some of its nice features.) -tom
lphillips@lpami.van-bc.UUCP (Larry Phillips) (05/02/88)
In <1167@raybed2.UUCP>, lah@raybed2.UUCP (LANCE HOLMES) writes: >After installing txed and experimenting I have found the following >things to be a major difference and some thing you may want to consider >before buying it. The default Memory available is now reduced from >35000 in txed v1.31 to 20000 in txed 2.0. This means that if you >have a file larger than 20000 Characters such as a file that you captured >from the net and have to clean up so that you can uudecode or un shar it >you can't load it into Txed. No, TxED Plus will handle any file I have thrown at it, all the way up to about .5 megs. I really wish you had tried a large file before saying this on a public net. There are people who will read your message and will not read the rebuttal. TxEd Plus is a fine product, and doesn't need innacurate statements made about it. >The second minus in Txed Plus is that it uses Arp.library. This means >that the file must be available to Txed in the Libs: directory >if you try to perform some of the operations used in Txed such >as cut and paste. If you liked Txed v1.31 because it >was small and could be copied to ram: and run from there with >out having workbench available then now your going to have >to copy Arp.library and any other libraries to ram: >and re-assign the Libs: directory to it. I don't see this as a minus. Of course I use most of the ARP commands, and because of that, arp.library is loaded in my machine at all times. The ARP commands save memory and disk space, and the library takes up only a small amount of memory. I think it is truly amazing that Charlie Heath managed to keep the size of TxEd down to what it is, while adding so much to it in the way of functionality through the ARexx interface. (I am answering this posting using TxEd talking to an ARexx program, and it supplies functionality I would expect from a dedicated program costing me an extra 50K at minimum) >The Loading of txed from boot up routine which uses a demo version of Arexx >has some problem. You can load Txed,blitzdisk,ff,funkeys,and Arp.library >with out any problem. You also have the option to copy the latest Arp >programs to your disk. This copies a copy of Arc to you disk and a copy >of Arpexe.arc. You then have to know or guess that you need to De-Arc > [a description of the problems copying ARP stuff] I agree that the instructions for installing the ARP stuff could have been better, and that some assumptions were made regarding what may or may not have been on your disk. (Have you ever tried to write a bullet-proof script file to handle all configurations, and that would not break no matter what configuration it found?) I didn't have any problems because I didn't want all the ARP stuff (some is unusable with my system as set up, and a few commands I have replacements for that I prefer), so I did it manually. I NEVER execute a script file without looking at it carefully first to see if it will do things I might not want done. >however there seems to be 30 day money back satisfaction Warranty listed in >the manual which I presently feel that I may have to use. It's up to you of course, but the combination of TxEd and ARexx provides a very powerful editor that can be made to do all sorts of marvellous things that you normally would not associate with an editor. Out of the points you raised: 1. Limited file size - untrue. 2. Uses arp.library - subjective opinion, possibly based upon a misconception, and perhaps should be rethought. 3. Difficult ARP installation - Really nothing to do with TxEd 4. Resident command - Don't know for sure, because I don't use it (or any resident command... but many have reported using it successfully. In short, I hate to see a quality product get a bum rap. There are enough dogs out there that deserve to be slammed. -larry -- Janus? Well, look at it this way. If you squint a little, the J could be Amiga checkmark, and the rest of the word describes MsDos. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ | // Larry Phillips | | \X/ {ihnp4!alberta!ubc-vision,uunet}!van-bc!lpami!lphillips | | COMPUSERVE: 76703,4322 | +----------------------------------------------------------------+
cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (05/04/88)
There is a misconception here which I would like to clear up. Basically,
when you start TxED with *no* file, it allocates a fixed amount of space
for data (35,000 bytes for TxEd 1.3). If you then try to *open* a file
that is larger than this then it deallocates that data and trys to allocate
enough memory to hold your file plus 10,000 bytes. If it cannot do that
then it fails. The restriction is that the actual memory holding the file
must be continuous and that is what sometimes makes it seem like TxED can't
load large files. Editing a half meg file on a half meg system is not
possible for this exact reason.
--Chuck McManis
uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com
These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.jdm@gryphon.CTS.COM (John Mesiavech) (05/05/88)
Without adding to the flames and counter-flames regarding TxEd Plus,
let me add these facts:
1) TxEd DOES have a limit on files....I have thrown a 614K file at TxEd
on a 1 meg Amiga with 800K free (i.e. TxEd was the only thing on
the system), and TxEd barfed on it. This is using TxEd Plus with
REXX installed ONLY. The specific error was "Out of memory".
2) The REXXDemo file does have a bug in it. When telling TxEd to run the
tutorial.txed macrofile, I keep getting "Command WINDOW xx.xx.xx.xx
undefined", and the demo goes into an infinite loop.
3) The installation macros will only go to the internal drive. Hard disk
owners will have to do the copy manually (I know that I did; and I have
a hard drive). *Sigh*.
Kudos to Charlie Heath for the new TxEd on all other counts though...
The program was extremely useful beofre, and is even more so now. Kudos
also to Scott Ballantyne and the rest of the people responsible for ARP,
and to Bill Hawes for CONMAN (provided on the TxEd Plus disk) and AREXX.
Now, if the above-mentioned bugs could be fixed, and a netnews interface
added, who would need GNU Emacs? B->
John
--
0-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-> All disclaimers apply; I didn't write this <-=-=-=-=-=-0
| ----------------------|------------------- |
| "I want a New Duck | John Mesiavech |
| One that won't try to bite | net.soldier.of.fortune |
| One that won't chew a hole in my socks | {backbone}!gryphon!jdm |
| One that won't Quack all night" | Go Purdue! (by req) |
| Weird Al Yankovic, "I Want a New Duck" | |
0-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-0andy@cbmvax.UUCP (Andy Finkel) (05/06/88)
In article <3819@gryphon.CTS.COM> jdm@gryphon.CTS.COM (John Mesiavech) writes: > > Without adding to the flames and counter-flames regarding TxEd Plus, >let me add these facts: > >1) TxEd DOES have a limit on files....I have thrown a 614K file at TxEd > on a 1 meg Amiga with 800K free (i.e. TxEd was the only thing on > the system), and TxEd barfed on it. This is using TxEd Plus with TxEd+ wants a 624K chunk of memory to load a 614K file; if your memory is a bit fragmented, TxEd+ won't be able to load a file that large. -- andy finkel {ihnp4|seismo|allegra}!cbmvax!andy Commodore-Amiga, Inc. "C combines the power of assembly language with the flexibility of assembly language." Any expressed opinions are mine; but feel free to share. I disclaim all responsibilities, all shapes, all sizes, all colors.