The XC editor on UNIX: Part 9

Differences between XC and VM/CMS Xedit

autosave n

In XC, this command causes the edited version of the file to be saved in a new file after n alterations have been made. The new file's name is the original filename with "@BAK" appended to it. When you use the "file" or "save" commands, the changes are only saved in the @BAK file, not in the original file.

get

In XC, to include lines 11 to 15 of a file named "extra.data" immediately after the current line of the file being edited, use the command

          get extra.data 11 15

input

This command opens 199 blank lines immediately after the current line. If you type more than 198 lines before leaving input mode (by pressing the ENTER or RETURN key twice), XC may lock up and you may lose the lines you've typed.

join

In XC, this command is best used in the prefix area of the line you want joined to the next line. Type "j" anywhere in the prefix area of the first of the two lines and press the ENTER or RETURN key. A space will be placed between the two segments that make up the combined line.

Moving to a new line

When the prefix area is displayed, there is no direct way to move to the beginning of the text area of the next line. Press CTRL-A and then press the TAB key to move the cursor to the next line.

profile.xedit

If you want to change the values of the system-wide default settings, from the UNIX prompt type

          cd
          cp  ~consult/proto/profile.xedit
          .

pressing the ENTER or RETURN key after each line (note the period at the end of the second line). Any changes you make to the "profile.xedit" file will apply only for the text screen, not the help screens.

Alternatively, create an XC macro file containing the desired changes and use the macro each time you start XC. The macro file can have any name but it must have an extension of ".xedit" and must be stored in your home directory. For example, create a file named "startup.xedit" containing the following four lines:

          'case mixed ignore'
          'prefix off'
          'set pf10 left 80'
          'set pf11 right 80'

After starting XC, type

          macro startup

at the XC command line and press the ENTER or RETURN key. For the rest of that editing session, the case (uppercase and lowercase) will be ignored in searches, the prefix area will not appear, and the PF10 and PF11 definitions will use 80 rather than 70 columns. The menu that appears at the bottom of the screen will not reflect any change to PF10 and PF11.

recover

Only the last block of deleted lines can be undeleted using the "recover" command. When you execute this command, previously deleted lines are placed before the current line and the first line of the recovered block becomes the new current line.