Copyright 1991 Sudden Incorporated, Rod Coleman Managing Files Sudden View manages files in a fairly conventional manner. It has four file buffers, which means that you can have up to four files open at any one time. You can rotate through each of these files using the Next File function in the Root menu. Other file management is done using the Filer menu. The Filer uses the standard GEM Item Selector to do the normal file Open and Save. Other functions are handled directly by the Filer or a sub-menu. The Filer is also where all of the miscellaneous functions get dumped. Most of these are under a second level of menus called Filer Options. All of them are explained in this section. Sudden View only uses ASCII text files. In general, they are compatible with about any other software running on just about any currently available computers. Importing and Exporting files should address any questions you may have regarding file compatibility. So, let's get started! Select Filer using a left click of the mouse or try the Power Menu. Looks pretty normal, uh? Next File does the same thing it does in the Root menu; it rotates the window to the next of four file buffers. Let's try opening a file first. Opening Files Select Open File using the mouse or Power Menu. Notice that you get a standard Item Selector. It works in the normal manner, allowing you to select the text file that you want to view or edit. If the file name you select does not exist on the disk, the name will be assigned to the file buffer anyway and it will be cleared to start a new file. You can then enter text and save the new file in a normal manner. If the file name is found, the file will be loaded. Sudden View will then return to the root menu, and you can begin editing text. As the file is edited or changed in any way, its name in the status line will be highlighted in blue. If it is not highlighted in blue, the file has not been changed, and does not need to be saved. If you again open a file, the newly selected file will replace the existing one. If the existing file was changed but not saved, it will be written to the same disk as an ABANDON file. If you really wanted to keep it, you can return to GEM and rename it; but do it now, if you wait, it may get over-written by another ABANDON file. If you select "Cancel" when in the Item Selector, you will return to Sudden View with no changes occurring. If you had a file in the current buffer, it would still be there, and you can continue working on it. Saving Files Your files can be saved in three different ways, AutoSave, Save All Files and the more formal Save File. If there has been no activity from the user for about a minute, or continuous activity for more than 20 minutes, Sudden View will automatically save all files that have been changed. They will be saved under their opening name and backups will be made as described below. This AutoSave feature can be disabled by toggling it's menu under Filer Options. If you have the personalized version of Sudden View, AutoSave also can be configured. See Configuration. Save All Files works the same way, except that you decide when it happens. The file buffers will be scanned, and changed files will be saved under their opening names. Backup occurs as described below. Save File is the formal way of saving only the current file. It uses the Item Selector, and allows you to rename or save the file to a different disk. This is useful for creating different version of the same file. Backing Up Files If the file is saved under the same name that it was opened as, then the old version is re-named to begin with the underscore (_) character. This is so you can restore it to it's original name if you need to use it as backup. The underscore character forces all of the backup files to the bottom of the directory so that they are not in the way. ABANDON files tend to go to the top of the directory. Backup and ABANDON files can be deleted when you don't need them anymore. One important note about backup files: if you do a "Save File" twice or more times, the backup will be a rotating interim version. This is not true if you save the file using the "Save All Files" function or let the program do an AutoSave. In this case, the backup will remain the original version that you opened. This is true until you re-open the file or do a formal "Save File". This gives you a choice of how to handle your backup. Clearing Files You can clear the current file buffer at any time by simply selecting the Clear File menu. If the current file has been changed but not saved, it is copied to the current disk with a file name of ABANDON. The file buffer is then erased, and you are free to start a new file. You can enter or paste whatever text you like, but at some point, this new file should be named using the Save File function. The AutoSave or Save All Files features will not save un-named files. Clearing a file is also useful if the RAM workspace is full. If you get the error message: "Edit space if full! Clear a file - Esc", hit the escape key (Esc), and then clear an unused file. This may free up enough room to complete your editing. If you have the personalized version of Sudden View, you may want to increase your workspace size and re-boot. See Configuration for more details. Quitting Sudden View Quitting any editor seems like it would be a pretty straight forward command, but with Sudden View it works differently depending upon whether you are running as an Accessory or a program. If you have a Demo version of Sudden View, it is always an accessory; but if you have a personalized version of Sudden View, you may have configured it to run as a program. When you quit the accessory version, nothing changes and no files are saved. If you re-activate Sudden View, everything will be just as you left it. One problem that can occur is that if you quit Sudden View and then for some reason re-boot your system, any un-saved files in Sudden View will be lost along with anything else that is in RAM. So if you are done with an editing session, it's a good idea to save your work. If you are running Sudden View as a program, when you quit, all un-saved files are copied to disk as numbered ABANDON files. You can re-name them if you want them restored. All paste buffer contents, Last Change pointers, etc. are lost when you quit; so make sure that you are really done. Insert Form Feed Since Sudden View only works with ASCII files, it does not contain complex paging information. There is, however, an ASCII code that will cause a page break on most printers. It is the Form Feed character and is displayed as two little "F"s right next to each other. The Insert Form Feed function will allow you to force a page break in any printed text file wherever you leave this cute little character. Just delete it if you don't want it any more. It was put in this menu to be convenient. See Importing Files for more detail about control codes. Key Repeat Rate This option simply allows you to change the keyboard repeat rate which is activated if you hold down one of the keys. The standard rate is too slow for me, but I can't quite yet handle Frantic. This feature also can be configured in the personalized version of Sudden View - see Configuration. Importing and Exporting Text Sudden View imports and exports ASCII text files; and with a few exceptions does not support the first 32 control codes. This means that Sudden View is not a "binary" or object code editor. The control code exceptions that are supported tend to conform to the imported file. In other words, for ASCII codes above 32 and the control codes it does support, Sudden View tries to leave ASCII files the same way it found them. Sudden View will recognize either Carriage Return or Carriage Return/Line Feed as valid line terminators and export per the same protocol. If you want to change one type of file to another, just toggle the CR/LF function under Filer Options after the file is loaded and then re-save it. Tabs work the same way; a file imported with tabs will be exported with Tabs, unless of course, you toggle the Export Tabs function. This also can be used to Tab files that didn't have them. Another control code exception is for 1st Word or Word Writer files. Since this file format is so common on the Atari ST, Sudden View will directly import .DOC files and convert all control codes to spaces. The file extension is automatically converted to .TXT so the formatted .DOC version of the file will not be lost. This is simply a handy short-cut. If you try to load .PRG or other binary files that have more than 32000 characters without a Carriage Return, it is possible to lock up Sudden View; 32,000 is its maximum line size. Come on guys, be nice.