Many of the things you can do on AzTeC involve typing text. Things like sending E-mail, posting messages on SIG's, replying to articles in Usenet News, etc. You can just type away on your keyboard when the prompt shows up, telling you AzTeC is ready to accept your input, but you will soon find a number of difficulties with this. The only way to correct a mistake is to backspace to the point of the mistake and then retype everything after it. It is much easier to use an editor. It's a simple type of word processing program, that lets you move the cursor back to the point of the error and correct just what you want. Like a word processor, the editor also lets you insert words or phrases at any point in the text, and it lets you move blocks of text from one part of the screen to another. When you reply to a letter or a SIG or Usenet posting, the editor puts on the screen a copy of the text to which you are replying and lets you leave it as a quote or add comments to it , as part of your reply.
The only editor now available on AzTeC is called Chet's Editor or CE. It is based on a popular programming editor called EMACS. If you are familiar with word processing programs like Word Perfect or Microsoft Word, you will probably find the commands in Chet's Editor rather different. There are commands to do many of the basic functions of a word processor, but they are combinations of key strokes like CNTRL X and ESC W. Since AzTeC may have users with many different computers or terminals, an editor for AzTeC has to use commands that almost any computer or terminal can generate. The control and escape keys ( CNTRL and ESC ) are found on most computer keyboards and, in almost every case, they act the same way. The familiar word processing programs use function keys or a mouse, but these act differently( or may not even be present ) on different types of computer.
In order to use CE, your computer or terminal has to be set to act on and generate control codes which move the cursor( the blinking or underlined spot on the screen that shows where the next character will be displayed ) to specific locations on the screen, erase lines or characters from the screen, change from normal to bright or reverse video, and other functions. These codes were developed by Digital Equipment Corporation to use with their VT-100 terminals ( you may see references to VT-102 or similar names, they are upgrades to the VT-100, and they use the same control codes for their basic functions ). If, like most AzTeC users, you are using a personal computer to connect to AzTeC, you have to run a program called a terminal emulator to connect to AzTeC. This will send information you type on your keyboard to your modem, which connects you to AzTeC through the telephone lines, and it displays the information which comes back to you on your screen, among other functions. Your terminal emulator software will probably have a way to set it to use the VT-100 codes. If it does not have a VT-100 mode, see if it has an ANSI mode. The ANSI control codes were based on the VT-100 standard and most, if not all, of the codes will perform the same functions ( some programs which claim to be ANSI compatible only recognize a small number of the possible codes).
If you connect to AzTeC by a Telnet connection over the Internet, you do not have to worry about setting the VT-100 mode. Telnet is based on technical standards which assume a VT-100 type terminal. The software which lets you use Telnet from your computer or terminal will automatically work with the VT-100 control codes.
After you make sure that your computer or terminal is set to use the VT-100 or ANSI control codes, you have to tell AzTeC that you want to use Chet's Editor. We showed how this is done in Chapter 3. You have to set an environment parameter. Either use the menus to go to the menu for environment parameters or type the command "go config". From the "Set Environment Parameters" menu, choose the one labeled "Set your default Editor ":
Set Environment Parameters
(go config)
1 Set your System Parameters
2 Set your Default Editor
3 Set your Terminal type
4 Set your Terminal Characteristics
5 Reset your Terminal size
6 Save your Environment Parameters
________________________________________________________
h=Help m=Main p=Previous x=Exit 'go help' 'go mail'
Your Choice ==> 2
The menu which appears after you make this choice will let you pick Chet's Editor:
<<< SET YOUR EDITOR >>> 1 Chet's Editor (an emacs-style editor) 2 upload/download (use your own editor) 3 No Editor (Use this if you're not sure) ________________________________________________________ h=Help m=Main p=Previous x=Exit 'go help' 'go mail' Your Choice ==> 1
Type in the "1" to choose the editor and then type "p" to go back to the previous menu. In that menu, type "6", to "Save Environment Parameters". This will save your choice in memory so that Chet's editor will appear any time you need to type text in AzTeC.
Once you have set your environment parameters to Chet's Editor, any time you use a feature of AzTeC where text is input ( E-mail, replies to SIG's or Usenet, mail alias files, etc. ), the editor will appear. We have already shown examples of using CE to write E-mail, which you might want to review. There are a number of other features of the editor that we will demonstrate in this chapter. If you want a really complete description of every feature of Chet's Editor, the help files available from the main menu are very useful. There is also a tutorial article on using CE in the help area.
When AzTeC starts CE for you, there will be several lines of text which scroll by on your screen so quickly that you may only be able to read a few words from each line. These are part of the set-up for the editor, and you do not have to do anything in response to them. After all of these lines have scrolled off the screen, you will see the editor screen:
To: chester Subject: Re: How to use the editor Cc: ReplyTo: userid@aztecfreenet.org >Jim, :Chet's Editor is really very easy to use once you learn those control >key combinations. Look in the Help files to see what they all are. It >didn't take me long to learn how to use the few commands that I need for >most purposes. :Send me a reply if you run into any problems or you need some hints. >Lots of luck, Chet **ce 4.2E: (Fundamental)98% ------------------------------
This example screen shows a reply to an E-mail letter that the user received ( the screen would look very similar if he or she wanted to reply to a posting on a SIG or in Usenet News ). AzTeC has taken care of creating the header, which contains the address to which the reply is being sent, a subject line, and the address for replies to this message. It has also put the entire contents of the original letter on the screen with the > symbol added at the start of each line. The first letter of the first line ( the "T" of To: ) is blinking or underlined. This is the cursor position where any action taken by the editor will occur.
The header for the letter is correct, so you will probably not want to change it. Therefore, you will want to move the cursor down the screen to the areas you do want to change. If every thing is set correctly for VT-100 emulation, the arrow keys on your computer or terminal will move the cursor. ( If they do not, check your terminal emulator software manual or help function to see if you need to activate the arrow keys, or if you need to use the arrow keys on the numeric pad for VT-100 emulation rather than the normal arrow keys. ) If you can't make the arrow keys work, there are control key combinations you can use, which are shown at the end of this chapter. Move the cursor down to the first line of text with the > symbol.
You don't really want to send the whole message that someone sent to you back to them in your reply. A line or two will let them know what part of their message you are referencing. You could hold down the backspace key and delete each character, but that is not a very efficient way to edit. Try this; put the cursor at the start of a line you want to erase and hold down the "Control" key ( it will probably be marked "Ctrl" on the top of the key ) while you press the "k" key. The whole line will disappear and the line below it will move up to where the erased line was. In our example, the cursor is placed on the > symbol at the start of the line which begins ">Chet's Editor is". Using the "control k" combination, the editor screen will look like this:
To: chester Subject: Re: How to use the editor Cc: ReplyTo: userid@aztecfreenet.org >Jim, :key combinations. Look in the Help files to see what they all are. It >didn't take me long to learn how to use the few commands that I need for >most purposes. :Send me a reply if you run into any problems or you need some hints. >Lots of luck, Chet **ce 4.2E: (Fundamental)98% ------------------------------
This works fine if you only want to erase a line or two, but what if you want to erase several lines ? This is also easy to do. First, move the cursor to the first character of the area you want to erase. Then press and release the "Escape" key ( it is probably marked "Esc" and in the upper left hand corner of your keyboard ), and then the Space bar. This marks the start of a block of text to be modified. Move the cursor to the end of the area you want to erase, and then hold down the "Control" key while pressing the "w" key. All the text, between where you placed the mark ( with Esc Space ) and the position of the cursor will be erased.
In our example, the cursor was first placed on the > symbol of the line that reads ">Jim," and the "Escape" and "Space" keys pressed. Then the cursor was moved to the end of the line that reads "most purposes". The "control w" key combination was typed and the screen looks like this:
To: chester Subject: Re: How to use the editor Cc: Reply-To: userid@aztecfreenet.org :Send me a reply if you run into any problems or you need some hints. >Lots of luck, Chet **-ce 4.2E: (Fundamental)----98% ------------------------------
Now that you have erased the parts you don't want to send, you can type in your message. Move the cursor to the line below the last quoted line. You can now start typing, and CE will add what you type to the screen. One difference from most word processors is that CE does not ordinarily jump to the next line when you have filled a line. It will insert a "$" at the point where the line should end; and the whole screen will shift over. If you send a letter with long lines, the user's computer will probably "wrap" the text onto the next line, but the appearance of the text on the user's screen may not be what you expect.
There is a way to make Chet's Editor word wrap. When the editor is in use, press the escape key (Esc) and release it, then press the x key. On the bottom line of the screen you will see "M-x". Press the w key and then the Enter key. The phrase (Fundamental) on the bottom line will change to (Fill). The word wrap function will be active until you exit from Chet's Editor.
So, lets look at our example after some typing has been done:
To: chester Subject: Re: How to use the editor Cc: Reply-To: userid@aztecfreenet.org :Send me a reply if you run into any problems or you need same hints >Lots of luck, Chet Thanks for the advice Chet, I will goive the editor a try. I will look at the help files on AzTeC and see what useful commands I can use. Typing with no editor is not much fun when you make as many mistakes as i do. I will send you some more mail when I get this all figured out. See you at the next AzTeC general meeting. Jim **-ce 4.2E: (Fundamental)----98%
That looks good but you really ought to look it over before you send it, to see if everything is OK. What is this "goive" ? Must have hit two keys. To correct it, move the cursor ( which will be just after the "m" in Jim at the bottom of the screen ) up on the screen so it is over the "i" in "goive". Then press the "Delete" or "Backspace" key to erase the "o", which moves the rest of the line back to fill in the blank space.
It might be easier to understand the message if there was a blank line between the last quoted line and the first new line. Move the cursor to the start of the first new line ( the "T" in "Thanks" ) and either press the "Enter " key or use the "control o" key combination ( hold down the "Ctrl" key while pressing the "o" key ). Either of these actions will insert a new, blank line above the line with the cursor on it.
Maybe it would be better to say "dumb mistakes" in the last line of the first paragraph. Move the cursor to the "m" in mistakes and just type in "dumb", followed by a space. CE will insert the letters as you type them and move the rest of the line over to the right to make room. You could also use this feature to insert your replies in between lines or paragraphs that are quoted from the letter to which you are replying.
Another useful feature is that, when you delete a block of text by using the - "Esc Space", move the cursor, "control w" - method, the text which you erased is saved in memory. You can move the cursor to a new location on the screen and type the "control y" key combination to insert the deleted text in the new location. This is a useful way to move whole blocks of text from one area of the screen to another. If you use the key combination "Esc w" in place of "control w", the block of text you marked is copied into the memory without being erased from its original location. You can then move the cursor and use "control y" to add a copy of the original block at a new location on the screen.
There are many other commands you can use to manipulate text in Chet's Editor and you can find them in the help files. The best way to learn how to use them is to try them on an actual file.
So now our example text looks like this:
To: chester Subject: Re: How to use the editor Cc: Reply-To: userid@aztecfreenet.org >Send me a reply if you run into any problems or you need some hints. >Lots of luck, Chet Thanks for the advice Chet, I will give the editor a try. I will look at the help files on AzTeC and see what useful commands I can use. Typing with no editor is not much fun when you make as many dumb mistakes as i do. I will send you some more mail when I get this all figured out. See you at the next AzTeC general meeting. Jim **-ce 4.2E: (Fundamental)----98% ------------------------------
What do you do with it now ? You want to save the text. Hold down the "Ctrl" key and press the "x" and then the "c" key(control x control c). (Telnet users may have to press the Esc Key and then the Z Key to save and exit. The control c combination is a command to close the Telnet connection in many systems,) The screen will roll up a line or two and several lines of text will flash on and off quickly. When this is done the bottom line of your screen will show:
Buffer .letter modified. Save [y/n]?
Press the "y" key to confirm that you want to save your letter. You will now be finished with Chet's Editor and AzTeC will return to a menu that lets you send the letter, read it over again, abandon it, etc. If you are typing a reply to a SIG or to Usenet News, there will be a similar menu of actions relevant to that area.
Since you are new to using the editor, maybe you ought to read the letter again before sending it. After you type the command to read over the letter, you notice that there is a lower case "i" where you meant to use "I". You can exit from the reader and get the menu of choices again. Pick "Edit the Message" and Chet's Editor starts up again with your message on the screen. You can move the cursor down next to the offending letter, erase the "i", and type in "I". Now do a "control x control c" to exit from the editor and confirm that you want to save the changed text. The menu of actions to perform on this text returns to the screen, and you can choose "Send the Message". AzTeC will display a few lines on your screen confirming that the message will be sent to the address you indicated.
Moving the cursor
Use the arrow keys on your keyboard, if they work for you. One space right - Control f One word right -- Esc f One space left -- Control b One word left -- Esc b Go to start of line -- Control a Go to end of line -- Control e Down one line -- Control n Up one line -- Control p Go to start of paragraph -- Esc n Go to end of paragraph -- Esc pMarking a block of text to act on:
Place the cursor at the start of the area to be marked Type Esc Space ( press Escape key, release it, then press Space bar) Move the cursor to the end of the area to be markedDeleting or Inserting
Erase character to the left of the cursor -- Delete key or Backspace key Erase the word to the left of the cursor -- Esc Delete Erase the character to the right of the cursor -- Control d Erase the word to the right of the cursor -- Esc d Erase from the cursor to the end of the line -- Control k Insert a blank line before the cursor -- Control o Erase the marked block -- Control w Copy the marked block without erasing -- Esc w Insert a copy of last block erased or copied -- Control yWord Wrap Mode
Turn on Word Wrap for this editing session - Esc X W
More information on using the editor is available in the "Help Desk" area. This area can be reached from the main menu. After choosing "Help Desk" look for the menu choice "Help with Editors". There is a tutorial on using the editor as well as a complete listing of commands.