Teddy - A simple plain text editor for the Psion series 5

"Teddy" is a very basic plain text editor based on the multiple line editor
option for Series 5 dialogs. I have limited it to handling files of less 
than about 30k, as it's not really very serious, just an investigation of
dEDITMULTI.

"Teddy" loads and saves quite slowly, about 10 seconds for a 30k file. 
Also the screen width is limited and cannot be zoomed, so it may be 
difficult to get an idea of the layout of your text.

The format of the dEDITMULTI text buffer is not the same as DOS text, so
there is some conversion involved both on read and write. As a result, it
is sometimes possible to load a text file, save it immediately, and notice
a small increase in size! This is normally due to one of two things:
i) a CR not matched with a LF, or ii) an ASCII 6 character occurring in
your original text file. So if you have a lonely CR in your original text,
"Teddy" will add a LF. If there is an ASCII 6 character, "Teddy" will
convert it to a CR LF sequence.

Normal editing controls should work, as well as cut and paste.

When the file has loaded, dEDITMULTI positions the cursor at the end of
the text, and highlights all the text. So pressing a character key will
replace all of your file! This is a characteristic of dEDITMULTI, which is 
why I have added an info message: Press Up-Arrow.

There are two ways you can install "Teddy".

TEDDY.APP can be copied into any folder, where it can be started by
double-tapping it in the usual way.

To make "Teddy" appear on the 'Extras' display, make a directory 
C:\SYSTEM\APPS\TEDDY\ and copy the two files, TEDDY.APP and TEDDY.AIF to it. 

I am sure that someone will port a decent text editor to the Series 5, but
in the meantime, if "Teddy" is of any use please let me know!

NEW in version 1.05

"Teddy" now has its own unique UID which should not clash with anything.
"Teddy" still loads files of some sizes slowly, this does not seem to be
related to file size or content. A "Please wait" message appears in the 
centre of the window after the file conversion phase.
TEDDY.OPO has been removed, as TEDDY.APP works from any folder.

NOTES for version 1.03

I have altered the shortcut keys to the Psion standard: Ctrl-O opens an
existing file, Ctrl-N starts a new file. Ctrl-E saves and exits the editor.
Escape quits without saving, so be careful!
The maximum file size is now 30k. There has to be a limit, because since 
"Teddy" is based on a dialog, it cannot dynamically allocate memory as
required.
File loading and saving is now very much quicker, and some cosmetic changes
show what is going on! Note that the display is quite unlike that which could
be easily achieved with OPL on a Series 3a/c!

Roger Muggleton
23RD August, 1997
Email: hzk@cix.co.uk