Welcome to QEdit(R) for OS/2 - version 1.55
Copyright 1985 - 1991 by Applied Systems Technologies, Inc.
The QEdit for OS/2 software is owned by Applied Systems Technologies,
Inc. (doing business under the tradename SemWare) or its suppliers and
is protected by United States copyright laws and international treaty
provisions. SemWare and QEdit are registered trademarks of Applied
Systems Technologies, Inc.
For LICENSE, WARRANTY, and U.S. GOVERNMENT RESTRICTED RIGHTS
information, see the printed documentation accompanying this software.
This is a licensed, commercial version of QEdit(R) for OS/2, v1.55.
Please help us stay in business by respecting our copyright and keeping
this version private. Also, be sure to return the postage-paid
registration card that came with your package. That is the only way we
have of making sure that your name is in our database, without which you
will not receive update notices (and discounts!) and technical support.
Is this a borrowed copy of this software? If so, then please order your
own personal copy, or persuade your company to purchase a license for
it. QEdit for OS/2 has taken many work years, and hundreds of thousands
of dollars, to develop and produce. Yet, QEdit for OS/2 is reasonably
priced, and we also offer attractive multi-user (site) licenses.
There is also a shareware version of QEdit Advanced (but not QEdit for
OS/2). This *IS NOT* that version.
Please review the contents of this file before using QEdit for OS/2. It
contains helpful information on the operation of QEdit for OS/2 and how to
get assistance when you need it. The Release Notes for version 1.55
(section 3) and version 1.50 (section 4) contain an explanation of all
features and changes in this release not documented in the 2.1 QEdit
Advanced Reference Manual (on which this product is based).
QEDIT NEWS:
-----------
We now have over 90,000 licensed users of QEdit products, worldwide!
QEdit TSR NOW AVIALABLE! For those of you who would like to have access
to your favorite editor at virtually anytime, in the middle of anything
else, we at SemWare are proud to offer you QEdit TSR v1.1. And best of
all, if you have expanded memory (192k minimum) or extended memory (384k
minimum), QEdit TSR will reserve only 9k of DOS memory! See QEDITTSR.DOC
for more details.
QEdit is the winner of the Data Based Advisor Readers Choice Award for
best text/program editor of 1989. We thank our users for this vote of
confidence and their continued support!
German versions of our DOS products (QEdit Advanced and QEdit TSR) are
now available. All text displayed by the programs (including the status
line!) is in German, and the reference manual was painstakingly
translated by a native German. For information on ordering the German
versions you can give SemWare a call. OR if you prefer, you can call our
German distributor, Manfred Luft, directly:
within Germany from the US
VOICE: 0761-580526 011-49-761-580526
FAX: 0761-580547 011-49-761-580547
BBS: 0761-580522 011-49-761-580522
========================================================================
TABLE OF CONTENTS
-----------------
I Contents of QEdit for OS/2 Distribution Disk
II Technical Support
III Version 1.55 - Release Notes - August, 1991
IV Version 1.50 - Release Notes - February, 1990
V Various Keyboard Definition Files Supplied
VI Enhancements in the OS/2 version of QEdit
I CONTENTS OF QEDIT FOR OS/2 DISTRIBUTION DISK
=================================================
File Description
------------ ----------------------------------------------------
Q.EXE The editor program. This is the only file required
to run QEdit for OS/2.
QCONFIG.EXE The QEdit for OS/2 configuration program.
QCONFIG.DAT The default Keyboard Definition File for QEdit for OS/2.
QHELP.TXT The default Help screen for QEdit for OS/2.
READ.ME The file you are currently reading.
Keyboard Definition Files for the following editors are provided:
QCONFIG.B Brief 2.1
QCONFIG.NE Norton Editor 1.3
QCONFIG.PE2 PE II
QCONFIG.WP WordPerfect 5
QCONFIG.WS WordStar 3.3 / SideKick 1.5
Help files for the above:
QHELP.NE
QHELP.PE2
QHELP.WP
QHELP.WS
QUPDATE.EXE Will copy the configuration information from QEdit
v1.x for OS/2 to v1.55. Just run QUPDATE and follow the
prompts.
KBFAST.EXE This program will speed up the keyboard response
time on OS/2 systems.
QMAC.EXE Macro translator for QEdit.
QMAC.DOC Macro translator documentation.
MACROS.TXT Sample macros for use with QEdit.
Notes
-----
Other product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective holders.
The ONLY file required to run QEdit for OS/2 is Q.EXE - the others are
not required or used by the program.
QEdit for OS/2 comes pre-configured to work on a large range of
monitors. Because of this, the default colors are set up for a
monochrome system. If you have a color system and would like to edit in
color, then run the configuration program (QCONFIG), select the
C)olors/screen options, and change the default colors. Following is a
sample set of color configuration settings that you might like to try:
New attribute for Blocked Text: [127] : 127 (White on Grey)
New attribute for Error msgs: [112] : 112 (Black on Grey)
New attribute for Text Area: [27] : 27 (Cyan on Blue)
New attribute for Status Line: [112] : 112 (Black on Grey)
New attribute for Cursor Line: [30] : 30 (Yellow on Blue)
New attribute for Messages: [15] : 15 (White on Black)
New attribute for Hi-lited items: [9] : 9 (Blue on Black)
New attribute for EOF line/indicator: [15] : 15 (White on Black)
New attribute for Help screen: [112] : 112 (Black on Grey)
New attribute for Box borders: [112] : 112 (Black on Grey)
New attribute for PopUp windows: [112] : 112 (Black on Grey)
New attribute for Menu items: [112] : 112 (Black on Grey)
New attribute for Selected Menu items: [15] : 15 (White on Black)
We DO NOT release patch files for QEdit for OS/2, under any
circumstances. If you encounter a "patch" file that modifies your Q.EXE
file, be aware that it does not originate from us, and we cannot be
responsible for the behavior of a patched QEdit for OS/2. The ONLY
programs you should use to modify your copy of Q.EXE, are the QCONFIG
and QUPDATE programs that we supply with Q.EXE. We cannot provide
support for copies of QEdit for OS/2 which have been modified by other
third-party programs. Keep this in mind also when calling for technical
support.
Please make sure you read this entire file in order to take full
advantage of the new commands/features in QEdit for OS/2.
II TECHNICAL SUPPORT
======================
Due to the tremendous popularity of QEdit, we can give technical support
ONLY to registered QEdit users. Please have your QEdit for OS/2 SERIAL
NUMBER handy when you call.
Please! Before you call us with a problem, make sure you have read this
entire READ.ME file to determine if it solves your problem. If you
should need to contact us, please provide or have available the
following information:
QEdit for OS/2 version number, date of Q.EXE on the original
diskette, and serial number
OS/2 version, and vendor
Computer model
You may obtain technical support directly from SemWare as follows:
1. Call our remote electronic bulletin board service. The board is
operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Modem settings are <N81>,
9600 HST, 2400 or 1200 baud. The telephone number is: (404) 641-8968.
2. Write us at:
SemWare
Technical Support
4343 Shallowford Rd., Suite C3A
Marietta, GA 30062-5022
3. Send Compuserve E-Mail to userid 71520,67
4. Call us directly at SemWare, (404) 641-9002. Support hours are 9 am
to 5 pm (ET), Monday through Friday.
5. Send us a Fax: (404) 640-6213
SemWare is committed to supporting registered users. However, we
request that you reserve telephone support only for questions or
problems requiring immediate attention.
As always, if you have a suggestion that you think would improve our
product, don't hesitate to let us know.
By the way, SemWare has grown! We now have ten full-time people on
staff to help serve you better, and we have also moved to larger
facilities.
III VERSION 1.55 - RELEASE NOTES - AUGUST, 1991
================================================
New Commands in QEdit 1.55 (See explanations later in this file)
----------------------------------------------------------------
AsciiChart
FirstNonWhite
ListFiles
RestoreSettings
SaveSettings
SetAutoIndentMode
SetInsMode
SetScreenOff
SetScreenOn
SetSoundOff
SetSoundOn
SetWordWrapMode
isBegLine
isCursorInBlock
isEmptyLine
isEndLine
isFirstLine
isLastLine
Additions to the Menus (command names are in []):
-------------------------------------------------
File menu:
"lisT" - invokes the new [ListFiles] command
Block menu:
"copyOver" - invokes the [CopyOverBlock] command
"Fill" - invokes [FillBlock] command
"Sort" - invokes the [Sort] (block) command (a column
block must be marked)
Macro menu:
"Execute scrap" - invokes the [ExecuteScrap] (macro) command
Other menu:
"ascii charT" - invokes the new [AsciiChart] command
General Commands:
-----------------
[AsciiChart]
Displays a scrollable ASCII chart on the screen.
[ListFiles]
Displays a list of the currently loaded files. To switch to another
file, move the cursor to the appropriate file and press <Enter>. To
keep editing the current file, press <Escape>.
[FirstNonWhite]
Intended as a replacement and/or supplement to the [BegLine] command.
Places the cursor at the first non-white character on the line, or
column 1 if the line doesn't have any non-white characters. "White"
characters are tabs or spaces. A useful macro would be:
Home MacroBegin BegLine JTrue done: FirstNonWhite done:
(Explanation: If already at the start of a line, go to the first
non-white character on the line; otherwise, if not already at the start
of a line, go to the start of the line.
Advanced Macro Commands:
------------------------
The following new commands are intended for QEdit macro writers, to make
certain kinds of macros easier to write.
- This group of macro commands force the indicated mode or setting. If
the setting was already in that condition, they set QEdit's result
code to TRUE; otherwise, they set it to FALSE.
In many cases, macros can behave differently based on the currently
set QEdit modes. The following 3 new commands give you some control
in establishing the proper environment so that your macro will always
work as intended.
[SetInsMode]
Sets Insert mode on. To set Insert mode off (that is, set overwrite
mode on), do the following:
SetInsMode ToggleInsert
[SetAutoIndentMode]
Sets AutoIndent mode on. To set AutoIndent mode off, do the
following:
SetAutoIndentMode ToggleIndent
[SetWordWrapMode]
Sets WordWrap mode on. To set WordWrap mode off, do the following:
SetWordWrapMode ToggleWordWrap
- The [Find] command sounds a tone when the search string cannot be
found. This can be irritating in a long-running macro, that may
possibly execute hundreds of finds that fail. The following commands
allow you to selectively turn the sound on and off.
[SetSoundOn]
Sets sound on.
[SetSoundOff]
Sets sound off.
- Most macros execute dozens of QEdit commands, possibly hundreds of
times. This can cause the screen to flash rapidly as the macro runs.
Not only is this somewhat disconcerting to watch, it actully slows
down the speed of some macros. The following commands allow you to
temporarily suspend or resume screen updating, while a macro is
running.
[SetScreenOn]
Turns screen updating on.
[SetScreenOff]
Turns screen updating off. You must turn screen updating back on
before your macro prompts for input, or if there is some output from
the macro that you want displayed on the screen.
NOTE: QEdit will AUTOMATICALLY turn screen updating back on when the
macro is finished executing. Thus, it is not necessary to issue the
SetScreenOn command at the end of the macro.
- Many times, it would be nice for a macro to force a few settings, do
its assigned task, and then restore the original settings. The
following commands allow you to do just that. Note that each time
[SaveSettings] is executed, the previous settings saved with
[SaveSettings] are overwritten.
[SaveSettings]
Saves the current settings of: Insert, AutoIndent, WordWrap, Sound,
and Screen Updating.
[RestoreSettings]
Restores the saved settings, listed above.
- The following commands set QEdit's result code to TRUE or FALSE based
on the condition being tested. These commands make certain types of
macro tests easier and reliable.
[isBegLine]
Returns TRUE if the cursor is at column 1; otherwise, FALSE is
returned.
[isEndLine]
Returns TRUE if the cursor is past the last non-white character on
the current line; otherwise, FALSE is returned, including the case
when the cursor is on an empty line.
[isEmptyLine]
Returns TRUE if the current line is empty or contains only white
space; otherwise, FALSE is returned.
[isLastLine]
Returns TRUE if the cursor is on the last line of the currently
edited file; otherwise, FALSE is returned.
[isFirstLine]
Returns TRUE if the cursor is on the first line of the currently
edited file; otherwise, FALSE is returned.
[isCursorInBlock]
Returns TRUE if the cursor is inside a marked block; otherwise, FALSE
is returned.
- In order to tie a few of these concepts together, we present a simple
macro to delete all the blank lines in a marked block. The cursor
should be at the beginning of the block when the macro is invoked.
shift f9 MacroBegin
SetScreenOff * turn off screen for speed
begin: isCursorInBlock jFalse done: * exit if not in block
isEmptyLine jFalse next: * skip if not empty line
isLastLine jTrue last: * special handling for last line
DelLine jump begin: * delete empty lines
next: CursorDown jTrue begin: * try next line
jump done: *
last: DelLine * delete the last line
done: * that's all, folks!
IV VERSION 1.50 - RELEASE NOTES - FEBRUARY, 1990
==================================================
See Appendix E in the printed QEdit Advanced documentation (version 2.1)
for complete details regarding changes made pertaining to version 1.50
of QEdit for OS/2. Following are highlights of those changes.
QCONFIG:
--------
Deletions:
"go to line number" configuration option has been removed. This has
been replaced with a command line option. See page E-11 in the
documentation.
Additions:
See pages E-13 - E-14 in documentation.
QEdit Changes:
--------------
See pages E-2 - E-3, E-5 - E-12 in documentation.
Major additions include:
-Column blocks can now be deleted [DeleteBlock] <Alt G>, printed
[PrintBlock] <Esc><PB>, and written [WriteBlock] <Alt W> to disk.
-[TabRt]/[TabLt] when pressed while the cursor is inside a marked block
and insert mode is on, can optionally shift the entire block by the
current cursor tab width. This is a configurable option, and is off by
default.
-Find/Replace command changes:
"L" option added to [Find], [FindReplace]. Limits the
Find/FindReplace to the currently marked block. If the cursor is
outside the marked block, or the "G" option is also selected, the
search starts at the beginning of the block. Otherwise, the search
starts at the current cursor position inside the block.
"G" option in [Find], [FindReplace] now works as it does in WordStar
and the Borland editors; i.e., it starts the search at the beginning
of the file.
In [FindReplace] you can now enter a number to limit the number of
replaces.
The find string is now highlighted after a successful find.
You can press <^Break> to halt a repeated command and/or macro, and
to halt a long [FindReplace].
"U" is a synonym for "I" (ignore case) in the Find/Replace options.
-Conditional logic added to the macro language. See page E-12 in
documentation.
New Commands:
-------------
CenterLine <^OT>
FillBlock <^KL>
JFalse
JTrue
Jump
RepeatCmd <^QQ>
SetPrintBotMargin <ESC><P><O>
SetPrintTopMargin <ESC><P><T>
See pages E-5 - E-8 and E-12 in documentation for reference information.
Handy macro:
------------
With the [FillBlock] command, you can now use the following macro to
move a block, and blank fill the space used by the block, instead of the
text closing in around the block. The macro assumes a block is already
marked. The block will be [Cut] to the clipboard or system scrap
buffer. You can then insert the block where you like by pressing the
[Paste] key <Grey *>:
f10 MacroBegin GotoBlockBeg Cut Paste FillBlock ' ' Return UnmarkBlock
Choose a key (<f10> in the above example), and assign this macro to it
in the QCONFIG.DAT file. Then run QCONFIG (select the Keys option,
enter the name of your QCONFIG.DAT file, and Save your changes). You
now have a "copy with wipe" command!
V VARIOUS KEYBOARD DEFINITION FILES SUPPLIED
===============================================
Description:
------------
QEdit has an extraordinary capacity for customization. Almost every key
on the keyboard can be assigned to any command, to achieve any sort of
configuration the user might desire.
In particular, users switching from another editor to QEdit can install
QEdit to "emulate" the other editor. This decreases the amount of time
spent learning QEdit.
However, setting up the configuration file to emulate another editor can
take a fair amount of time. We have provided a collection of
ready-to-use keyboard definition files, to simplify the task of making
QEdit work like a variety of other editors and word processors.
Both a keyboard definition file (QCONFIG.*) and a help file (QHELP.*)
are supplied for most of the emulations, allowing you to configure both
your keyboard definition and help screen.
Contents:
---------
The following keyboard emulations are provided:
Brief
QCONFIG.B
Norton Editor 1.3c
QCONFIG.NE
QHELP.NE
Personal Editor II (IBM)
QCONFIG.PE2
QHELP.PE2
WordPerfect 4.2/5.0
QCONFIG.WP
QHELP.WP
WordStar 3.3 (& SideKick/Borland Environments)
QCONFIG.WS
QHELP.WS
Instructions:
-------------
It is strongly recommended that, after choosing your emulation, you
print out all the files associated with it.
By reading the keyboard definition file, you can see where each and
every key on the keyboard is assigned, as well as the various notes and
comments included.
Also, several of the keyboard definition files include instructions on
how to answer the other questions and prompts within the configuration
program to best emulate that editor. You will need a print-out of this
information to refer to while running the QEdit configuration program
(QCONFIG.EXE)
Looking at the various help files may also give you some ideas for
formatting a good help screen, if you decide to customize your own.
Follow these steps to install the desired keyboard definition:
1. Put your chosen keyboard definition and help files (e.g., QCONFIG.WS
and QHELP.WS) in the same directory with Q.EXE and QCONFIG.EXE.
2. Run QCONFIG, by simply entering the following from your QEdit
directory: QCONFIG<Enter><Enter>
3. Select "K" from the configuration program menu to install K)eys. When
prompted, enter the name of the desired keyboard definition file
(e.g., QCONFIG.WS).
4. Select "H" from the configuration program menu to install H)elp. When
prompted, enter the name of the appropriate help file (e.g.,
QHELP.WS).
5. If your keyboard definition file has comments indicating appropriate
settings for other QCONFIG options, select those menu options and set
them as required, or to your preference.
6. Press "S" to S)ave your modified Q.EXE to disk.
And that's it! You should now be ready to go with a version of QEdit
Advanced that will act "just like" your former editor.
Acknowledgements:
-----------------
Several of these files were originally submitted by QEdit users on
SemWare's BBS. Thanks to Randy Wallin, Steve Lynch, Tim Farley, and many
others for their input.
VI ENHANCEMENTS IN THE OS/2 VERSION OF QEDIT
==============================================
QEdit for OS/2 can edit very large files, thanks to OS/2's virtual memory
management. To take advantage of this feature, you MUST have the following
statement in your config.sys:
MEMMAN=SWAP,MOVE
