===========================================                                                   =======---- Professional V6.0.1 ----======= FEATURES MARTIN REDDY, 1997 EdWord is an extremely powerful, general purpose text editor which offers a host of useful and helpful facilities. It was initially released as a Share- ware program, but since that time it has undergone a myriad of improvements and updates resulting in the current version which provides an indispensable aid for every Amiga user. As you might expect, the basic function of EdWord is to edit text and in this role, it offers all the rudimentary facilities which any text editor might offer, but what makes EdWord that bit more special are the extra options which it provides. These have made the program quite large in size but, as any woman will tell you, the old saying that size isn't everything is a load of crap. Bigger is better and EdWord has got it where it counts! The following is a list of some of the more notable functions which are supported by version 6.0: · Multiple Documents: you can edit up to 15 documents at once (memory permitting, of course) with a split screen option to view two of them together. · A Macro Facility: lets you record any sequence of keypresses/ mouse clicks and menu selections, and then play them back. This is very useful for automating small repetitive jobs. · An ARexx port offering an extensive and comprehensive range of commands to provide full automation of EdWord; with the ability to enter these commands directly (without using ARexx), as well as run any ARexx script from within the editor. · PowerPacker Support: EdWord will (optionally) decrunch any data files which have been packed with this cruncher · A new few feature called Auto Suggest whereby if you type in a filename which doesn't exist when loading, then EdWord will make an intelligent suggestion as to what you actually meant to type in! · AppWindow Support: When running EdWord on a WorkBench screen, it is possible to load a file by simply dragging its icon into the editor's window · Uses the clipboard device for all block operations · Functions to reformat paragraphs of text, giving either left or full justified text. · A calculator which lets you perform basic arithmetic as well as convert numbers between different bases including decimal,hexa- decimal,octal and binary · An auto indenting facility as well as a symbolic indenting facility (i.e. EdWord can automatically indent your source code as you enter it) · Text Casing of language keywords. i.e. certain keywords can be forced into a certain case (Uppercase,Lowercase or Capitalised) Useful to maintain a consistent look to a piece of source code · Access to AmigaDOS to allow the user the ability to run any DOS command (This could be used to run a compiler or assembler through the editor) · Save backups and auto save files to a specified directory. · The ability to use either the standard EdWord file requester or the ReqTools or Asl library ones · An ASCII table of printable character codes with the ability to insert any such character into the current text (from ASCII code 0 to 255) · The ability to sort a block alphabetically - this could be used for arranging a list of names, games etc. · checks RAM for any viruses or suspicious programs when it first loads up and alerts the user if it finds anything strange. · Various screen resolutions are supported including PAL and NTSC standards, custom or WorkBench screen and the ability to work in interlace mode and upto 8 colours. · Powerful printing options including the setting of margins, the page length, the ability to include page numbers and to specify the print pitch and quality. · On-line help texts available from within the editor. · Tested under Workbench V2.0 and V3.0. Requires WB2.0 or higher (1 Meg. of RAM minimum is recommended). A BRIEF HELPING HAND ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Most of the facilities which EdWord offers are fairly intuitive and need little or no explaining (I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how to load and save a file!). However, one or two areas require a little bit explanation so that you can utilise their full potential. (If you register with me then you will also get the "EdWordHelp" program which explains every aspect of using EdWord in full detail) 1) Text Casing : This facility lets you force certain words into a certain case. This is useful for programmers who, for example, may want all the keywords in a language to be forced into uppercase and all variables to be forced into Capitalised form. This is done be reading in a file (called a "Keyword Definition File" which lists all the keywords of a language). I have supplied one or two of these files with this demo. Try loading one of these into the Text Casing module (in the Utilities menu) and put the keyword casing on. Keyword Configuration files can be recognised by the ".KEY" filename extension. The following three such files have been included with the shareware release :- · AmigaDOS.key = List of AmigaDOS keywords (e.g. Dir,List,Copy etc.) · Pascal.key = List of ISO Pascal keywords (e.g. WriteLn,Begin,End ) · C.key = List of C keywords (e.g. If,While,Int,Struct etc.) Just click on the "Load" gadget in the Text Casing facility and use the file requester to choose your Keyword File. (N.B Delimiters are symbols which inhibit the casing operations within a certain range eg comments) 2) Symbolic Indentation : This facility will let you make EdWord indent your source code as you type it. It is very similar to the "Automatic Indentation" feature of the Lattice/SAS C editor but it is fully configurable. Information for this facility is also stored in the Keyword Definition file so if you load the "C.key" file into the Text Casing facility then when you return to the editor, whenever you end a line with a "{" symbol EdWord will indent the next line until you end a line with a "}" symbol when EdWord will un-indent that line. Obviously, if you load the "Pascal.key" file then this works with "Begin" and "End" instead of "{" and "}". 3) User Commands : EdWord will let you define 10 user commands. These are just commands which you could type in at the CLI prompt but EdWord will let you run them without having to quit the editor. The "Delay switch" can be used to force a wait for a keypress after completing the command The "AutoSave" switch can be used to force EdWord to save the current file before executing the command. The "Async" switch specifies whether you want the command to be run in the background or foreground. The actual command string which you enter will be executed exactly as you enter it with three exceptions :- · any occurrence of an "*" character will be replaced with the current filename when the command is run. · any occurrence of an "@" character will be replaced with the current filename with no file extensions. e.g. If the filename is "hello.c" then the "@" character will be converted to "Hello" · any occurrence of a "¶" character (Alt+P), will be replaced with the current file's full pathname · any occurrence of a "|" character will be converted into a line feed so that you can specify multiple commands with the one string. e.g. The following Command String will display the name of the current file being edited and perform an AmigaDOS List command to find out the size/date etc. of the file. ECHO "The current filename is *" | List * Using these facilities you can create custom environments for just about any language. I have used it successfully to make integrated editor/compiler environments for AmigaBASIC, DevPac, Lattice C, North C & DICE with amazing ease, effortlessness and speed. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND THANKS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I would like to take this opportunity to thank some of the people who have helped me during the development of EdWord and have put up with my constant ravings about what totally excellent new feature I've added to it. Firstly, to Sandy McNair without whom EdWord probably wouldn't exist because it was him who challenged me to write it in the first place and he has given me buckets full of help in debugging it. In the same vein, thanks to a certain Graham Lynch for all of his comments along the lines of "I bet that EdWord doesn't do this ..." which promptly forced me to incorporate it just so that I could say "yes". Thanks also to Keith Sharp for his invaluable aid in finding bugs (which he seemed to take great pleasure in doing!) and for letting me test the program on a WorkBench 2.0 machine. Thanks to Lesley Stronach (I spelt it right this time!) and Merle Stevenson for keeping me sane and just for being there. Thanks to my mum for the last twenty years and for being totally brill. Thanks to all the nice people who actually registered for the shareware release of EdWord - much appreciated guys. (In particular, many thanks to Simon Dick for all of his help in testing EdWord and also for his help with AppWindows and ARexx and his general suggestions for improvement. I've no doubt that EdWord wouldn't offer as much power today if it wasn't for his aid). Thanks to the music of Bon Jovi Gun, Sisters of Mercy, U2 and Dire Straits and of course, thanks to Michelle Pfeiffer for just being a totally gorgeous and desirable woman. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my little band of Beta Testers who provided lots of helpful criticism & suggestions prior to this release of EdWord. Thanks to their dilligent efforts, I feel a lot more confident about the stability and robustness of this package. The Beta Testers for EdWord Professional V6.0 were (in alphabetical order) : · David Smith · Jen Allen · Magnus Johnson Cheers, Martin.