From: SMTP%"RELAY-INFO-VAX@CRVAX.SRI.COM" 31-MAY-1994 10:19:10.02 To: EVERHART CC: Subj: Re: Columnar editing with EDT or TPU ? From: jleslie@dmccorp.com (Jerry Leslie) X-Newsgroups: comp.os.vms Subject: Re: Columnar editing with EDT or TPU ? Date: 28 May 1994 04:21:14 GMT Organization: NeoSoft Internet Services +1 713 684 5969 Lines: 194 Message-Id: <2s6grq$ihj@uuneo.neosoft.com> Nntp-Posting-Host: igate.dmccorp.com X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] To: Info-VAX@CRVAX.SRI.COM X-Gateway-Source-Info: USENET Michael Davis (DAVIS@BELMONT.EDU) wrote: : Does anyone know of a way to "trick" any VAX editor (EDT and TPU : are the only ones I'm familiar with - mostly EDT) into selecting : COLUMNS of text as a block, rather than lines? I don't know if I'm : making myself clear here, so here's an attempt to illustrate: : If ...... represents unhighlighted text, and XXXXXX represents text that : has been selected for a block, then normally one marks the beginning of : the block with the SELECT key, then moves down thru the text, and the : highlight pulls down along the lines, like this: : ...................................................................... : ...................................................................... : .................XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX : XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX : XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX : XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX...... : ...................................................................... : ...................................................................... : But what I want to do sometimes is to cut and paste and delete COLUMNS: : ...................................................................... : ...................................................................... : XXXXXXXXXX............................................................ : XXXXXXXXXX............................................................ : XXXXXXXXXX............................................................ : XXXXXXXXXX............................................................ : XXXXXXXXXX............................................................ : XXXXXXXXXX............................................................ : XXXXXXXXXX............................................................ : ...................................................................... : ...................................................................... : Does anybody know a way to do this? It would certainly be handy to use : in editing printouts where one must edit columnar information. The first : word processing program I ever learned was WordStar, (PC's of course, not : VAX) and although it was a dinosaur in some respects, it had a few nice : features, and this kind of editing was easily done. Alas, even if I : wanted to download my VAX text to a PC and edit with WordStar, I don't : work at that business any more, and so don't have the program. Michael, Here's an editor that is similar to DEC's VMS EDT editor, but runs under various operating systems: MS-DOS, OS/2, Windows-NT, both VMSes, most sects of Unix including AIX, OSF/1, HP-UX, Linux, BSD/386. Below is the e-mail announcement I received plus help screens for box mode cut and paste, so you can see if that meets your requirements, before you ftp it, and install it. It is NOT a TPU-compatible editor (it doesn't read the TPU source language files). And the initial version of the reverse-video-the-paste buffer was removed because it did multiple repaints of the screen. Hope this is of some assistance, have a great weekend, --Gerald (Jerry) R. Leslie Staff Engineer Dynamic Matrix Control Corporation (my opinions are my own) P.O. Box 721648 9896 Bissonnet Houston, Texas 77272 Houston, Texas, 77036 713/272-5065 713/272-5200 (fax) gleslie@isvsrv.enet.dec.com jleslie@dmccorp.com ============================================================================ "This note is being sent to you since you have stated interest in ED or are a current user. If you would like to be removed from this list or have someone added, let me know. V1.5.7 of ED fixes many bugs and adds a few enhancements requested by you, the user group, of ED. The primary FTP site remains riceng.rice.edu, username rhrsoft, password rhrsoft. The DOS binary distribution and the source distribution (which builds everywhere) as also been installed on Simtel mirrors (Oak.Oakland.edu for example) in ZIP format as pub/msdos/editor/edrhr15*.zip for those of you needing anonymous FTP or a well known site. Below is the announcement from the Simtel update. ED v1.5.7 is an editor with a VMS/EDT like user interface, but provides significantly enhanced features. Multiple windows allow you to display many files on the screen simultaneously. Additional enhancements include a file manager interface, ability to save key definitions, editing by wildcards, an imbedded calculator, automatic program identation, parenthesis matching, box/column editing features, insert/overstrike modes, and sorting functions. ED has no file size limits and can edit binary files also. The source distribution will build on virtually any platform, which allows you to have the same editor on all systems. ED can be used immediately without training by EDT users, and they can use the enhanced features at their own pace. For systems with a supported TCP/IP package, ED can be used as a file manager and editor across the network to remote nodes. There is also a simple, fast imbedded news reader included with TCP/IP support." ============================================================================== {Gold-KP7} Command>help HELP This is an online help library for the ED editor, a multi-window text and binary file editor. For information about how this library works, enter "HELP". ED works on a variety of terminals, and you can teach it how to deal with new terminals with relatively little trouble. See the help topic 'terminals' for more information about this. Additional information available: ABORT ascii BOOKMARK box_mode BIGGER BYTE CALCULATE CD changing_case commands defining_keys DELETE DATE EXIT features FILE ftp GREP HELP INCLUDE invoking_ed keypad LOAD mark PERG prompts PWD QUIT recall_commands recovery repeats RESTORE search SET SHOW SMALLER SORT startup STORE SUBSTITUTE tabs terminals TIME TRIM UNLOAD wildcards windows WRITE HELP subtopic? > box_mode box_mode The SET BOX ON command puts ED in "box cut/paste" mode. In box mode, you can cut rectangular areas out of your file, and paste them in elsewhere, preserving their rectangular shape. The idea is to make it easy to cut a table and move it somewhere else. Suppose you are looking at some text that looks like this: Now is the time For all good men To come to the aid Of their country. If you moved to the i in 'is', hit SELECT, moved to the u in 'country', and hit CUT, in normal cut mode the result would be: Now untry. and the paste buffer would contain: is the time For all good men To come to the aid == to continue,b to back up,q to quit==> Of their co In normal cut mode, ED removes all characters from the beginning of the select range to its end, including the "line breaks" that separate lines of the file from each other. In box mode, what gets cut is always a rectangular area, bounded on opposite corners by the cursor and the select marker. In the above case, the box cut result would be: Now ime For men To che aid Of tntry. and the paste buffer would contain: is the t all good ome to t heir cou Thus in box mode, the number of lines in the file remains constant; only a sec- tion of each line in a group gets cut. When you paste in box mode, ED inserts the rectangular area you previously cut, starting at the cursor position, by == to continue,b to back up,q to quit==> and the paste buffer would contain: is the t all good ome to t heir cou Thus in box mode, the number of lines in the file remains constant; only a sec- tion of each line in a group gets cut. When you paste in box mode, ED inserts the rectangular area you previously cut, starting at the cursor position, by making a space in the middle of each line, and inserting data from the paste buffer. This keeps the entire rectangle of data together. Box mode does not affect other kinds of deletion from the file: DELC, DELW, DELL, deletion/replacement of search strings, and SUBST work in the normal way regardless of the box mode state. Only CUT and APPEND perform the box mode operation, and only if you enable it. Note: when you use box cut and paste, ED converts all TAB characters in the affected lines to spaces. Also, box mode doesn't work in any useful way when you are in binary or hex mode (using the -b and -h options when you invoke ED). HELP subtopic? >