This is a simple line editor written in ALPHABASIC. It is
intended to be used in those situations when not having proper
terminal emulation makes using a full function screen editor difficult.
Another situation where this program can be useful is when text files
need to be altered via a modem attached to any personal computer not
having terminal capabilities.
The program is completely memory based, it will have to be
tailored to fit inside the memory partition of the job that will be
using it. In the first two lines:
MAP1 EDIT'LINE(500),S,100
MAP1 MAX'LINES,F,6,500
the number '500' is what most affects whether or not the program will
fit in the user's memory partition. A 500 line size will fit in a
partition of 64K or larger. The number of lines can be changed to
maximize the size of file able to be loaded by EDIT. Edit also limits
the line length to 100 characters. If, during loading a file, a line
of greater than 100 characters is encountered, EDIT will print a
warning message and continue loading. Once a file is loaded, all of
the lines in EDIT will be 100 characters or less. With some slight
alterations to the source, the line length can be changed as well, but
this will affect the number of lines that can be loaded. The larger the
line length, the fewer the number of lines that can be loaded. The lines
will be assigned reference numbers as they are loaded, the numbers are
not a part of the file, but are used to designate what line or lines that
the user wants to access.
List of available functions -
L - List file contents
P - List file by page
A - Add lines to end of file
E - Edit an existing line
I - Insert a line into file
D - Delete a line from file
S - Search for specified string
R - Replace strings
Q - Quit, no update
F - Finish, update disk file
H - This Help screen
L and D both accept a range of lines. The syntax for listing
or deleting lines 50 through 65 would be: L 50,65 or D 60,65. To list
or delete just one line, specify that line number alone. After deleting
a portion of the file, the program renumbers the file minus the data that
was deleted, so the reference numbers specified for deletion may or may
not still be there, the data will have been deleted.
S and R both have similar syntax. Example: S test - would search
for all occurances of 'test' in the file. EDIT does make the distinction
between upper and lower case so that "TEST" and "Test" would not be a
match for 'test'. To replace occurances of 'test' with 'tested' the
command would be:
EDIT> R test
New String> tested
Replace A)ll or S)ome?
At this point if the user enters an 'A', all occurances
of 'test' will be replaced by 'tested'. If an 'S' were entered
EDIT would stop at each replacement and ask if the string should
be replaced. The user can answer 'Y' for yes or 'N' for no, the
default is no. The user may also enter a 'Q' to quit replacing
and return to the EDIT> prompt.
The other commands are fairly self explanitory and should be
no trouble to use.
