[comp.editors] CMS woes

nate@cpocd2.UUCP (11/05/87)

In article <3045@psuvax1.psu.edu> flee@gondor.psu.edu (Felix Lee) writes:
>In article <1057@ucsfcca.ucsf.edu> dick@ucsfccb.UUCP (Dick Karpinski) writes:
>>In CMS, in full screen mode, using XEDIT, every <RETURN> that
>>I type at the end of a line takes me to the command area. 
>>Not what I meant.

>I too hated <RETURN> (actually <ENTER>) taking you back to the command area.
>What I did was write a macro for the Enter key that put you on the command
>area only if you hadn't typed anything else.  It also turned the command
>area on and off when necessary.

Actually, if you pour through the XEDIT manual, you might come up with
something like the following command, which you can put into the PROFILE
XEDIT (init) file:

SET ENTER IGNORE CURSOR CMDLINE 1 PRIORITY 5

This will keep the cursor where it was the first time you press <ENTER>
and drop it down to the command line the second time.  I have found it
to be usable; the default behaviour *IS* rather annoying...

>Xedit is usable, potentially as powerful as Emacs, but not very nice.  The
>defaults are awful.

Yes, the defaults are indeed awful.  XEDIT also lacks the ability to deal
with regular expressions.  However, because of it's line-mode oriented
beginnings, it does have a couple features that I have never seen on any
other editor:  the ALL macro, which only displays those lines containing
a given string -- "ERROR", for example; the HOR macro, which allows
column-wise editing in any block of lines in the file -- delete, move,
copy columns.  This latter feature is *extremely* handy for dealing with
simulation outputs.  Plus, you can invoke the ALL macro, and then invoke
HOR on whatever part of the file is left, essentially treating all lines
containing a given string as one contiguous block of text.  I have never
encountered another editor that can do either of these two things, let
alone combine them.

XEDIT is blazingly fast.  It is also quite easily extensible.  Compared
with Emacs, however, the user interface is quite a bit more awkward.
Painfully so, at times.

Even though Emacs is my CE(tm), [Chosen Editor :-]# I would still most
likely rather use XEDIT than vi or EDT/TPU.  If XEDIT would only support
regular expressions...

--woodstock
-- 
	   "How did you get your mind to tilt like your hat?"

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JKN@PSUVM.BITNET (11/06/87)

What I want to know about XEDIT is how to get the cursor to find the
right hand end of a line (without having to SLOOOOOOWLY get there with
the cursor key.  Have I missed this very useful command?
     

sbanner1@uvicctr.UUCP (S. John Banner) (11/10/87)

In article <24388JKN@PSUVM> JKN@PSUVM.BITNET writes:
>What I want to know about XEDIT is how to get the cursor to find the
>right hand end of a line (without having to SLOOOOOOWLY get there with
>the cursor key.  Have I missed this very useful command?
>     

You should find that the sequence of "clocate *", folowed by
"cursor column", should do the job.  I haven't tried it, so I won't
guarentee it, however judging from the behaviour of some of the other
column commands that I use more often, this should work.

And just to throw in my two cents worth, I find that judiceous
use of the linemode commands in xedit can be wonderfully time
saving (you should see some the looks I get from some of the people
who only use full-screen functions, and the arrow keys, and think
they are using the full power of xedit).  And I quite like having
the cursor go to the command line when I hit enter, it saves me a 
lot of typeing time having to get there in other ways (just in response
to annother earlyer comment).  I have all ways considered Emacs to be
my favorate editor, but XEdit comes in a close second.

Anyhow, I hope my first paragraph helps,

                      S. John Banner

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brianc@cognos.uucp (Brian Campbell) (11/13/87)

In article <24388JKN@PSUVM> JKN@PSUVM.BITNET writes:
! What I want to know about XEDIT is how to get the cursor to find the
! right hand end of a line (without having to SLOOOOOOWLY get there with
! the cursor key.  Have I missed this very useful command?

It's been a long time since I've used XEDIT... but I don't seem to
recall ever having that problem.  Perhaps if you had your prefix on the
right hand side where it's supposed to be?

Seriously, I think the tab key will move you from the prefix area to the
first column of your text.
-- 
Brian Campbell        uucp: decvax!utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!cognos!brianc
Cognos Incorporated   mail: POB 9707, 3755 Riverside Drive, Ottawa, K1G 3Z4
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