[comp.sys.amiga.misc] TurboText demo

GUTEST8@cc1.kuleuven.ac.be (Ives Aerts) (03/18/91)

I had a look at the TurboText demo recently and have a couple
remarks. I hope the author reads this. (can someone put this
to his attention ?)

Ever runned TurboText together with SnoopDos ? Why on earth
are you locking the current directory with ever keypress ???

Pleeeaaaaassssseeee make it more compatible with CygnusEd. It's
a very strong competitor and a lot of people will miss it's
features (assigning macros to every key/key combination you wish etc.)
The only thing TurboText offers me at the moment that CygnusEd
doesn't have are the folds. It's something I allways wanted but
I'm not going to change for just this feature.
(actually... this feature and the binary file editor... and...
sigh, guess I'll end up using two editors)

Try to implement more functions and keep it small. I know I'm
asking much but having to rely on a macro for a save and quit
command is stupid. (Can be written shorter in C or Assembler)

Implement a version of Xedit's all command. This is the most
powerful command I've ever used in an editor. It lets you
choose all the lines containing a certain pattern in a file
and then all the changes you make only affect the selected
lines. I've tried to do this in rexx with CygnusEd but it was
too slow to work with. You can even make it more powerful
and let you choose the context of the lines containing
that pattern (i.e. the 3 lines before the one with the pattern)

In general: keep up the good work. You have a very strong
competitor but there are some big plusses for TurboText.
I think it would be very good for the Amiga in general to have
two very good competing editors.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Ives Aerts           |          IBM definition SY-34378
GUTEST8@BLEKUL11.BITNET    |   A signature consists of sequences of
gutest8@cc1.kuleuven.ac.be | non-blank characters separated by blanks.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

micke@slaka.sirius.se (Mikael Karlsson) (03/21/91)

In article <91077.151224GUTEST8@cc1.kuleuven.ac.be> GUTEST8@cc1.kuleuven.ac.be (Ives Aerts) writes:
>I had a look at the TurboText demo recently and have a couple
>remarks. I hope the author reads this. (can someone put this
>to his attention ?)
>
>[..]
>
>Pleeeaaaaassssseeee make it more compatible with CygnusEd. It's
>a very strong competitor and a lot of people will miss it's
>features (assigning macros to every key/key combination you wish etc.)

Actually, it is possible to assign macros to every key/key combination.

As an example, here is part of a definition file for Emacs keys:

KEYBOARD:
   ESCAPE                     SetMeta On
   CTRL-F                     MoveRight
   CTRL-B                     MoveLeft
   META-F                     MoveNextWord
   META-B                     MovePrevWord

The only thing that's really missing from the TurboText demo is
a proper undo, and the author (Hi, Martin!) has hinted that full
undo/redo will be available in the final version.

>The only thing TurboText offers me at the moment that CygnusEd
>doesn't have are the folds.

Hmm... I can't think of anything CygnusEd offers that TurboText
doesn't (except availability, but that'll change). I think that
Martin Taillefer has done a truly excellent job.

>Try to implement more functions and keep it small. I know I'm
>asking much but having to rely on a macro for a save and quit
>command is stupid. (Can be written shorter in C or Assembler)

I'm not so sure about that. Your example, save & quit, uses
this macro:
  ExecARexxString "SaveFile; IF RC=0 THEN CloseDoc"
Approximately 50 bytes. Not too bad.

>Implement a version of Xedit's all command. This is the most
>powerful command I've ever used in an editor. It lets you
>choose all the lines containing a certain pattern in a file
>and then all the changes you make only affect the selected
>lines.

Neat. No argument here.

>      Ives Aerts           |          IBM definition SY-34378

/Mikael

--

 \_/   Mikael Karlsson, Lovsattersvagen 10, S-585 98  LINKOPING, SWEDEN
  V                           | micke@slaka.sirius.se
  |      Absolut Software     | micke@slaka.UUCP
 ~~~                          | {mcvax,seismo}!sunic!liuida!slaka!micke

GUTEST8@cc1.kuleuven.ac.be (Ives Aerts) (03/21/91)

In article <micke.5688@slaka.sirius.se>, micke@slaka.sirius.se (Mikael Karlsson)
says:
>
>Actually, it is possible to assign macros to every key/key combination.
>
>As an example, here is part of a definition file for Emacs keys:

That's not what I meant. I don't want to change the definition
file every time I make a new macro and want to assign it to a
key. CygnusEd lets you record a macro and assign it to a key in
the program. I use this a lot for reformatting lists etc. without
saving the macro. Correct me if I'm wrong but in turbotext I'ld
have to write a macro (no recording ?) and put it in the
config file.

>Hmm... I can't think of anything CygnusEd offers that TurboText
>doesn't (except availability, but that'll change). I think that

How about the turbo replacement. And I'd like borderless windows.
Saves a few chars on the screen.

>Martin Taillefer has done a truly excellent job.

Yes indeed. But I'd like hime to do even better 8^)

>/Mikael

------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Ives Aerts           |          IBM definition SY-34378
GUTEST8@BLEKUL11.BITNET    |   A signature consists of sequences of
gutest8@cc1.kuleuven.ac.be | non-blank characters separated by blanks.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

ewilts@janus.mtroyal.ab.ca (Ed Wilts) (03/25/91)

In article <19980@cbmvax.commodore.com>, vertex@cbmvax.commodore.com (Martin Taillefer -- Software) writes:
> In article <91077.151224GUTEST8@cc1.kuleuven.ac.be> GUTEST8@cc1.kuleuven.ac.be (Ives Aerts) writes:
>>Implement a version of Xedit's all command. This is the most
>>powerful command I've ever used in an editor. It lets you
>>choose all the lines containing a certain pattern in a file
>>and then all the changes you make only affect the selected
>>lines. I've tried to do this in rexx with CygnusEd but it was
>>too slow to work with. You can even make it more powerful
>>and let you choose the context of the lines containing
>>that pattern (i.e. the 3 lines before the one with the pattern)
> 
> That certainly sounds interesting...

That feature is also present in Digital's EDT (probably (tm)) editor.  You can
either make the changes to only those lines containing a given pattern, or even
delete all lines that contain that pattern. This ability is REALLY powerful for
processing large data files.  It's rarely used for development, but some of us
use our machines for tasks other than writing code.

BTW, it sure would have been nice for TurboText to come with an EDT keypad
emulation...  There are a LOT of VMS users out there (including a fair share of
DECies).

I may have to actually break down and replace my trusty TxEd with TurboText. 
My biggest complaing about TurboText is its size.  TxEd is 24k, whereas
TurboText is over 160K.  On memory tight systems, there are times some files
simply can't be edited.  I suspect (but haven't proven yet), that TurboText may
also be using more working memory than TxEd for the same file.

-- 
        .../Ed     Preferrred:  Ed.Wilts@BSC.Galaxy.BCSystems.Gov.BC.CA
Ed Wilts            Alternate:  EdWilts@BCSC02.BITNET    (604) 389-3430
B.C. Systems Corp., 4000 Seymour Place, Victoria, B.C., Canada, V8X 4S8

dac@prolix.pub.uu.oz.au (Andrew Clayton) (03/26/91)

In article <1991Mar24.123126.7535@janus.mtroyal.ab.ca>, Ed Wilts writes:

> I may have to actually break down and replace my trusty TxEd with TurboText. 
> My biggest complaing about TurboText is its size.  TxEd is 24k, whereas
> TurboText is over 160K.  On memory tight systems, there are times some files
> simply can't be edited.  I suspect (but haven't proven yet), that TurboText may
> also be using more working memory than TxEd for the same file.

<Trying hard not to flame ...>

Be reasonable.  A fully featured editor has to do a hell of a lot more than
what TxEd does. Paying the price of having the editor chew up a measly 130K
more than what you're used to, seems, to me, to be a pittance. Anyone who's
serious about using an Amiga will have at least 2.5Mb, and preferably 5Mb of
memory anyway.

I haven't yet seen Turbotext, but since I'm very used to Cygnus Ed, and I
really really like it, I don't think I'll be swapping [I've got heaps of faith
in Martin's ability to produce good code though - his M2Sprint compiler is my
compiler of choice, and it's terrific].

Just another user's opinion.
[as if anything else on the net is different!]

Dac
--
David Andrew Clayton. // _l _  _ dac@prolix.pub.uu.oz.au    *or*|I post.I am.
Canberra, Australia.\X/ (_](_l(_ ccadfa.cc.adfa.oz.au!prolix!dac@munnari.oz

GHGAQZ4@cc1.kuleuven.ac.be (03/27/91)

>(Ives Aerts) writes:
>>That's not what I meant. I don't want to change the definition
>>file every time I make a new macro and want to assign it to a
>>key. CygnusEd lets you record a macro and assign it to a key in
>>the program. I use this a lot for reformatting lists etc. without
>>saving the macro. Correct me if I'm wrong but in turbotext I'ld
>>have to write a macro (no recording ?) and put it in the
>>config file.
>
>TurboText does support recorded macros, although one at a time. You can save
>these recorded macros as ARexx scripts. This is handy since you can record
>stuff to create the skeleton of a macro and then add more fancy stuff
>yourself.

Yes indeed, that's the problem. Only one at a time. In CED I very often
use the ability to record MORE than one macro. I don't think this
is very difficult to change. Please ... ?

>>Yes indeed. But I'd like hime to do even better 8^)
>
>...working...

Make it really magnificent.

    Jorrit Tyberghein