projects / unix-history / blame
| Commit | Line | Data |
|---|---|---|
| f5bcab4b WJ |
1 | .Go 1 "INTRODUCTION" |
| 2 | .PP | |
| 3 | \*E is a clone of vi/ex, the standard UNIX editor. | |
| 4 | \*E supports nearly all of the vi/ex commands, | |
| 5 | in both visual mode and colon mode. | |
| 6 | .PP | |
| 7 | Like vi/ex, \*E stores most of the text in a temporary file, instead of RAM. | |
| 8 | This allows it to edit files that are too large to fit | |
| 9 | in a single process' data space. | |
| 10 | Also, the edit buffer can survive a power failure or crash. | |
| 11 | .PP | |
| 12 | \*E runs under BSD UNIX, AT&T SysV UNIX, Minix, MS-DOS, Atari TOS, | |
| 13 | Coherent, OS9/68000, VMS and AmigaDos. | |
| 14 | The next version is also expected to add MS-Windows, OS/2 and MacOS. | |
| 15 | Contact me before you start porting it to some other OS, | |
| 16 | because somebody else may have already done it for you. | |
| 17 | .PP | |
| 18 | \*E is freely redistributable, in either source form or executable form. | |
| 19 | There are no restrictions on how you may use it. | |
| 20 | .NH 2 | |
| 21 | Compiling | |
| 22 | .PP | |
| 23 | See the "Versions" section of this manual for instructions on how to compile | |
| 24 | \*E. | |
| 25 | .PP | |
| 26 | If you want to port \*E to another O.S. or compiler, then | |
| 27 | you should start be reading the "Portability" part of the "Internal" section. | |
| 28 | .NH 2 | |
| 29 | Overview of \*E | |
| 30 | .PP | |
| 31 | The user interface of \*E/vi/ex is weird. | |
| 32 | There are two major command modes in \*E, and a few text input modes as well. | |
| 33 | Each command mode has a command which allows you to switch to the other mode. | |
| 34 | .PP | |
| 35 | You will probably use the \fIvisual command mode\fR | |
| 36 | most of the time. | |
| 37 | This is the mode that \*E normally starts up in. | |
| 38 | .PP | |
| 39 | In visual command mode, the entire screen is filled with lines of text | |
| 40 | from your file. | |
| 41 | Each keystroke is interpretted as part of a visual command. | |
| 42 | If you start typing text, it will \fInot\fR be inserted, | |
| 43 | it will be treated as part of a command. | |
| 44 | To insert text, you must first give an "insert text" command. | |
| 45 | This will take some getting used to. | |
| 46 | (An alternative exists. | |
| 47 | Lookup the "inputmode" option.) | |
| 48 | .PP | |
| 49 | The \fIcolon mode\fR is quite different. | |
| 50 | \*E displays a ":" character on the bottom line of the screen, as a prompt. | |
| 51 | You are then expected to type in a command line and hit the <Return> key. | |
| 52 | The set of commands recognized in the colon mode is different | |
| 53 | from visual mode's. |