wyle@lavi.UUCP (Mitchell Wyle) (04/28/89)
>From lavi!lavi.uucp!wyle Fri Apr 28 15:37:57 1989 remote from ethz
This WordStar discussion raises a question I had been meaning to
ask: Can one program macros in wordstar? In 10 years of using
many different text editors, I have become used to macros.
If it can't do macros, what about the wordstar clones or the
turbo-pascal editor.
Thank y'all in advance (again). -Mitch (wyle@ethz.uucp)samlb@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (Sam Bassett RCD) (05/04/89)
The answer is: Yes, sort of. Wordstar 4.0 has a sort of macro-recording and replaying facility connected to the <ESC> key -- You can record up to about 256 characters (I think) which will be associated with a letter, and stored on disk. To replay the macro, hit <ESC> and a letter -- for instance, I have a macro to delete all *.BAK files (y*.bak^M) in the E key, so I just type <ESC>E to wipe out the BAKs . . . If this will do (and you can call another macro from a macro, but I don't know how deep you can nest 'em) for your purposes, then yes, WS _does_ have macros -- otherwise, sorrrreeeeeeeeeeeeee . . . Sam'l Bassett, Sterling Software @ NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field CA 94035 Work: (415) 694-4792; Home: (415) 454-7282 samlb%well@lll-crg.ARPA samlb@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov <Standard Disclaimer> := 'Sterling doesn't _have_ opinions -- much less NASA!' Sam'l Bassett, Sterling Software @ NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field CA 94035 Work: (415) 694-4792; Home: (415) 454-7282 samlb%well@lll-crg.ARPA samlb@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov <Standard Disclaimer> := 'Sterling doesn't _have_ opinions -- much less NASA!'
neubauer@bsu-cs.bsu.edu (Paul Neubauer) (05/05/89)
In article <1887@amelia.nas.nasa.gov> samlb@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov.UUCP (Sam Bassett RCD), in reply to a question on macro recording and playback ability in CP/M wordprocessors/editors, writes: > > The answer is: Yes, sort of. > > Wordstar 4.0 has a sort of macro-recording and replaying facility >connected to the <ESC> key -- You can record up to about 256 characters >(I think) which will be associated with a letter, and stored on disk. I more or less decided that it was not really worth upgrading to WS 4.0, and the macro capability of WS4 certainly did not strongly provide me with any such reason to upgrade. For macros, it seems to me that WS4 provides no more, and probably less, than some of the TSR-type keyboard enhancers. Qwikkey and Magickey (I think I have the spelling of both correct) are PD. I have used Qwikkey. It does have some limitations, but works well and the price is right. I currently use a commercial product XtraKey, which not only has far less restrictive limits (i.e. as much as you can stand to spare the RAM for, though, of course, you can also make it read a disk file), but in addition allows a certain amount of conditional application and branching and allows waits for user input. For example, I have a Turbo Pascal XtraKey macro where I type one key and it types: "PROCEDURE " then waits for me to input a name, after which it types "()<cr>BEGIN<cr>%%<cr>END; {duplicate of the name i typed in}" and then moves the cursor back up between the parentheses for me to type in the formal parameters. I use the "%%" as a placeholder and have another key bound to find %% and delete them, leaving me at the place where they were. All in all, this is less impressive than what you could do with a real programmable editor like GnuEmacs or VAX/TPU, but is more than you could do with WordStar 4's fairly primitive macros or with Qwikkey. Xtrakey also comes with some decent documentation and some examples, including a "go to page: " macro where you can enter a page # in response to a prompt (for WS 3.3). I recommend it. XtraKey is a trademark of Xpert Software. If anyone wants their address, I can look it up. Sorry I don't have it at hand at the moment. Oh, BTW, Xtrakey costs about $20-25. Disclaimer: I have NO CONNECTION at all with Xpert Software except as a satisfied user. -- Paul Neubauer neubauer@bsu-cs.bsu.edu neubauer@bsu-cs.UUCP <backbones>!{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!neubauer
mem@zinn.MV.COM (Mark E. Mallett) (05/06/89)
In article <8904281337.AA08625@lavi.uucp> wyle@lavi.UUCP (Mitchell Wyle) writes: >This WordStar discussion raises a question I had been meaning to >ask: Can one program macros in wordstar? In 10 years of using >many different text editors, I have become used to macros. > >If it can't do macros, what about the wordstar clones or the >turbo-pascal editor. You could always use TED, a Z-80 CP/M-based TECO clone that I wrote about 10 years ago. It's a cross between TOPS-10 TEC124 and RSX TECO-11 (without the screen functions). (Of course, I'm using JOVE to edit this message :-) ) -mm- -- Mark E. Mallett Zinn Computer Co/ PO Box 4188/ Manchester NH/ 03103 Bus. Phone: 603 645 5069 Home: 603 424 8129 BIX: mmallett uucp: mem@zinn.MV.COM ( ...{decvax|elrond|harvard}!zinn!mem ) Northern MA and Southern NH consultants: Ask me about MV.COM