Frozen Fish 1: Amiga/FrozenFish-Apr94.iso/bbs/alib/d7xx/d770/uedit.lha/Uedit/Ustar.LZH/UstarTutor

Text File | 1989-05-10 | 26KB | 547 lines

                                 UstarTutor

       Being a Brief History and Quick Tutorial about WordStar & Ustar

               A Companion Document to the Ustar Documentation

                 Copyright (c) 1987 by Kurt Wessels.  v0.90



WordStar is a trademark of MicroPro International Corp.


If  you  are using Uedit/Ustar for the first time, click on the "Down Scroll"
gadget near the top of the screen to go through and read this  tutorial.   If
you  scroll too far, click on the "Up Scroll" gadget (which usually shows the
page:row,column counters, but is still an active gadget).


                                Introduction

This tutorial does not start at the "this is a keyboard" level -  it  assumes
that you basically know how to use the Amiga, how to use diskettes,  and  how
to  start  up  programs.  You should be familiar and comfortable with running
Amiga programs, and it  is  helpful  to  have  used  other  editors  or  word
processors (e.g.  NotePad).

This  will  cover the basics of Ustar/WordStar.  Any intricate details on how
commands work are not discussed; for details, see UstarDoc and UstarDetails.


                                 History

WordStar  was   designed  in  the  late  1970's.   Considering  the  hardware
limitations it ran under, it was and still is  a  very  impressive  piece  of
software.   It  grew  to  popularity on CP/M-80 systems, including Apple II's
with CP/M cards in them.  It was later ported  directly  (with  virtually  no
changes) to MS-DOS.

One  reason  for  the  popularity  of  WordStar  is that the key commands for
editing are very efficient once you have learned them, as they let your hands
stay on or close to the "home row" of keys for fast typing.  The catch-phrase
here  is  "once  you  have  learned  them".   WordStar is notorious for being
difficult to learn.  This is because of a large set of commands, and  usually
non-intuitive key assignments.  However, the basic editing actions are easily
and  quickly  learned,  and  I  have  tried  to  provide  mnemonics  (ways of
remembering a key or action) whenever possible.

The advantages to learning the WordStar key-sequences  for  editing  commands
are that you can use them almost everywhere.  You can use it on CP/M and  MS-
DOS  systems  under WordStar itself, NewStar, and other editors.  If you have
Turbo Pascal, it (and I believe, the other Turbo languages) use a  subset  of
WordStar  commands.   All  of  the dBASE series, and their clones, also use a
subset of these key sequences.  On the Amiga, Scribble!  implements  a  small
subset of the keys, as do some other editors.

Until  now  (as far as I know), Amiga owners have not had available an editor
with  complete  WordStar  text-editing functions.  Being a long-time WordStar
user on CP/M machines, I was frustrated at the lack of this environment on my
Amiga.

Some may ask, "Why are  you  interested  in  an  emulation  of  such  an  old
editor?".   Sure, this machine has great capabilities, and I use its graphics
and audio capabilities in many ways.  But when it comes to processing  words,
you  want capability, not flashy & hard to use features; power, not gloss.  I
wanted the ability to do word processing without even thinking about it.  For
me, this meant either spending a year becoming expert on some other  powerful
text  editor,  which  didn't  seem  very  feasible (this was well before Word
Perfect ((tm) Word Perfect Corp.) was available),  or  write  my  own,  which
would take years.

Then,  I  found  Uedit.  It is an extremely powerful editor in its own right,
but  it is also programmable!  I quickly realized its capabilities to do what
I wanted to do.  So, I sat down and wrote Ustar.

Ustar makes Uedit act like WordStar as far its  text  editing  functions  go.
The  design  philosophy  of  Uedit  is  to  be  an excellent text editor, not
sacrificing performance and flexibility to be a  full  word  processor.   So,
Ustar  doesn't  do  everything  that  WordStar  does, and some things it does
differently, but  I'd  say  about  90%  of  it  is  implemented.   Primarily,
Mailmerge isn't implemented, and the spelling function is very raw.

Note  that  Uedit  is  capable  of  doing  these things in many ways - ALWAYS
remember it is programmable!  - but I felt it was unwieldy and  difficult  to
try  to  implement  these  particular  functions   within   Uedit's   current
capabilities.  If you need to do Mailmerge, Uedit's manual (which you receive
when you register) has an example of how to do it.


                                 WordStar

OK, let's get an overview of WordStar from the standpoint of editing text.

WordStar evolved on machines with only  a  basic  keyboard.   There  were  no
function keys, number keypads, cursor keys, or even Alt keys.  Keep  in  mind
that this was a decade ago!  Also that video displays varied wildly, and most
were plain - no underlining, no color, etc.

The designers knew a good word processor would need to do a lot of functions,
probably over 100.  There aren't 100 keys on a keyboard, especially  a  basic
one.  So, they looked at their options.

The  scheme  they  came up with is to use the control key in conjunction with
one or two letter keys to perform editing functions.

These control-key actions are done by holding down the  Control  (CTRL)  key,
then pressing a letter or number key, then releasing both.  The  control  key
is  often  abbreviated to the caret symbol, "^", and is shown adjacent to the
key pressed along with it.  So, "^K" means "while holding  down  the  control
key, press and then release the K key, then release the control key".

While  editing a document, experienced WordStar users typically just keep the
control  key  held  down  (with  their  left  little  finger),  and  hit  the
appropriate letter keys to move around, delete, and do other stuff, releasing
the  control  key  if  they need to type.  For most actions, this can be done
without moving either hand from its normal typing position.  The location  of
the  Caps  Lock  key  between the CTRL and A keys on the Amiga A1000 keyboard
cause a bit of stretching for the CTRL  key,  but  it's  not  too  bad  (some
machines'  keyboard  location  of  the  CTRL  key is ridiculous and virtually
unusable).

Anyway, the designers organized the various editing functions into groups  of
related commands.  The prefixes  for  these  groups,  the  use  of  which  is
introduced farther below after discussion of the more basic keys, are:


     --        (no prefix) Basic editing functions like cursor movement
     ^K        Block and File commands
     ^Q        Quick commands - extending basic actions & miscellaneous items
     ^O        On-Screen commands - setting display & format options
     ^P        Print commands - set print attributes
     ^J        Help

(The  Ustar  menus  aren't  organized this way; they are grouped into related
actions.  The menus include virtually every command available.)

They also came up with dot commands, where a dot (period) in column 1 of  any
line, followed by a command code, would  activate  yet  more  formatting  and
printing functions.  Some of these are implemented for printing, see UstarDoc
for details.



                             Basic movements

     Set-up

It's  best  to learn "hands-on".  So if you're not already reading this using
Ustar,  first  load  up Ustar (which is the Uedit editor running in the Ustar
configuration).  See UstarREADME for how to get it running.

Be sure you are running the Ustar, and not the standard Uedit, configuration.
Standard Uedit works totally different than what this document describes.

Once  it  has  loaded,  you  should  see a requester reminding you to pay for
Uedit.   Click  on the Okay box to continue.  At the top of the screen is the
title bar saying Uedit; the line below it is for messages and  gadgets.   The
cursor  will  be  sitting on the next line; it and the rest of the screen are
the active window of the editor, where you do your work.

We need some text on screen to mess around with.  If you are already  reading
this  with  Ustar, you're all set (use a backup of your Uedit/Ustar disk, not
the original).  Otherwise, type a few lines of anything, just like you  would
on a typewriter.



     Cursor Movement - the cursor diamond

For basic cursor movement, there is the "cursor diamond".  This refers to the
(sort of) diamond shape made by the E, S, D, and X keys.

Hold  down the control key and press the S key a few times.  The cursor moves
left.  If you keep pressing it, and reach the start of the line, note how  it
jumps  to the end of the previous line.  Basically, this moves up towards the
top of the document one character at a time.

Now, do ^D.  The cursor moves similarly, but the other direction - right  and
toward the bottom of the document.

Now, do ^E.  This move up one line.  Try ^X.  This moves down one line.

Notice how these directions of travel correspond to the points on the "cursor
diamond".   You  might  also  think of it as points on a compass.  Try moving
around some more with these keys.


     Cursor movement - related keys

Now we'll learn some related keys close to the diamond.

Use  ^F  to go forward a word at a time.  It's easy to remember as it is next
to the D key, which moves by one character, and is easy mnemonically as the F
in Forward (or maybe For Word?).

Use ^A to go backward a word at a time.  This is also easy to remember, being
adjacent to the S key.  Perhaps you can think of it as the A in bAckward.

You will need more text on the screen to see the effect of the next  actions.
If necessary, type a bunch more lines (they don't need to  be  long;  include
some blank lines) so you have a couple of screenfulls of text.

Now  try  ^R to go upwards in a document by about a half-screenful at a time.
Use  ^C to go downwards in the same fashion.  Notice that these keys are near
E and X, respectively, so they're easy to remember as extensions of going up/
down by one line.

What if you want to see some text that's just beyond the upper or lower  edge
of the display, but don't want to move the cursor from where  it  is  in  the
text?  Use ^W to scroll up, and ^Z to scroll down the document without moving
the  cursor  (until  the  cursor  reaches  the edge of the window).  "Up" and
"down" here refer to the direction of movement of the display window (screen)
OVER the text as if it were a viewing  window  moving  over  a  long  scroll.
(Older  WordStar  versions  used it to mean the opposite, the movement of the
text THROUGH the display window.  Think of it however you  wish.)  Note  that
again, these are near the E and X keys, lending a hand to remembering them.


     Two-key cursor movements

Now  we will learn the first of the two-key commands.  Remember, to do these,
hold  down  the  control  key,  type  the  first  character,  type the second
character, then you can release the control key.

What if you press a prefix key such as ^Q, then decide that's not really what
you  wanted  to do?  The spacebar means "forget it" and cancels the effect of
any prefix key.

Following are some of the "Quick" keys.  As you will  see,  they  extend  the
basic cursor keys to work as if you had pressed them a bunch of  times;  they
make actions "Quick".

Do  ^QD.   This sends the cursor to the end of the current line.  You can see
how this is a logical extension to the ^D key, moving right to the end of the
line instead of just one character.

Do ^QS.  This likewise puts the cursor at the beginning of the current line.

Do  ^QX.   This takes the cursor to the bottom of the current display screen.
^QE does it in the opposite direction.

^QC takes you all the way to the bottom (end) of the document.  ^QR takes you
to the top.

^QW and ^QZ do continuous line by line scrolling up or down.   (You  can  use
the Down Scroll and Up Scroll gadgets for smoother, faster scrolling).

In  Ustar,  the  cursor  (arrow) keys are set up to do the same as the cursor
diamond, and various shift/alt/control combinations do similar actions to the
above  WordStar  ones.   I'd  recommend  learning and using the control-keys,
though, for efficiency and standardization.

Also, you can just point the mouse to the text where you want it,  and  click
to place the cursor there.


     Deleting

Now  for  some basic editing.  Move the cursor to a word.  You can delete the
character the cursor is on with ^G.  Try it.  This deletes the  character  at
the  cursor, leaving the cursor where it was, and moving the rest of the line
past the cursor to the left to take up the space.  If you do it right at  the
end of a line (the invisible last character on a line), it will move the line
below  up to join the current line.  This ^G key does the same as the DEL key
of the keyboard.

For mistakes made while typing, you'd be more likely  to  use  the  Backspace
key.  It deletes the character to the left of the  cursor,  then  moving  the
cursor and all the characters at and beyond it to the left.  Try this too.

To  delete  a word, use ^T.  This deletes from the cursor to the start of the
next word, including the character the cursor is on.   But,  if  you  are  on
space  between words, it only deletes up to the next word, getting rid of the
space(s).

To delete a line, use ^Y.  This deletes the  line  that  the  cursor  is  on,
leaving the cursor at that same line position and moving all lines  below  up
to take up the space.

To delete from the current cursor position to the end of a line, use the two-
key Quick sequence of ^QY.

A couple of less-used deletes are ^QDEL (^Q then the ^DEL key) to delete from
the  current  cursor  position  to  the  beginning of the line; and I added a
delete-word-backwards function as  ^Backspace  (Control  key  with  Backspace
key).  See also tab keys (below).

You  can undo any deletes, other than single characters, with ^U or ^KU.  See
UstarDoc for details.


     Modes & Basic Keys

^V toggles between oVerstrike and insert modes.  Overstrike is where you type
over  existing  text,  replacing it.  Insert is where text is inserted at the
cursor position, pushing the cursor, and any text to the right of the cursor,
off to the right.

You may have noticed that you can't move all over the entire screen with  the
cursor keys.  Uedit uses one of the two basic ways that an editor can let you
move around the screen -  it  only  lets  you  go  where  there  is  actually
something in the document.  This "something" is usually text, but can also be
spaces.   This  is the same way that WordStar works.  The last character in a
line, which is also the last character that you can move the  cursor  to,  is
the invisible end-of-line character.

Don't  worry  if  your  sentence  goes off-screen to the right as you type in
insert mode - the text is still there.   Also,  don't  worry  if  the  cursor
disappears  -  for  performance  reasons,  screen  refreshing  isn't  totally
automatic in Uedit; to find where the cursor is at any time  and  center  the
screen on it, use ^Return.  I added the ability (not in WordStar) to insert a
space  while  in  overstrike  mode.  Use ^spacebar to do this.  It leaves the
cursor where it is and inserts a space in front of it.

You can start a new line (enter an end-of-line character) by simply  pressing
Return.   (If you are in Overstrike mode, this will just move to the start of
the next line - you must be in Insert mode for it to insert an  end-of-line.)
The Enter key on the numeric keypad does the same thing, as does ^M.

You  can  also insert an end-of-line WITHOUT moving the cursor down a line by
pressing  ^N.   This  is  better  than Return for inserting new lines between
others.


     Tabs

The tab key will tab over to the next tab position.  If  you  are  in  insert
mode,  tabbing  will  push  text  ahead;  if  in  overtype  mode,   it   will
transparently tab over any existing text.  Note that ^I is the  same  as  the
Tab key.

You  can  view the current tab stops ("tab ruler" settings) with ^OT.  Choose
one of several tab tables to use with ^OV.  Set your own tabs with ^OI or ^ON
by clicking on the tab ruler.

I added some tabbing functions (not part of WordStar).  You can transparently
tab over text regardless of the insert/overtype mode by using Shift-Tab.  You
can  transparently back-tab with Alt-Tab.  And you can destructively back-Tab
with Alt-Control-Tab.


     Formatting

The editor starts up in word-wrap mode.  This means that when you  reach  the
end  of  a line, as defined by the current line length, the text that you are
typing will be wrapped down to start a new line below the one you were typing
on.  This eliminates the need to press Return all the time like you  must  do
on  a typewriter, letting you flow your words onto the screen; you can easily
format them later.  You can turn word wrap off if desired - it is toggled via
^OW.  If off, you can type lines as long as you  like  -  even  thousands  of
characters long.

If  you are typing indented items like outlines, turn on the Auto Indent mode
via ^OG.  This works quite different from the way WordStar does  it,  but  is
the same basic idea - as you type along, when you reach the end of a line and
Uedit  wraps  around  to start the next line, the indent will match the first
printable character on the line you were on.

                    So as I type this line, when it reaches the  end  of  the
                    line,  there,  it  wrapped  to  start just below the "So"
                    above.  See UstarDoc for more details.

You can manually match the indent of an already-typed line  to  that  of  the
line above it via Shift-Return (added by me - not a WordStar capability).

You can reformat paragraphs and outlines via ^B.  See UstarDoc for details on
how this is used.

The Right-Justification toggle, ^OJ, controls whether reformatting produces a
ragged right margin, or an even right  margin  (achieved  by  putting  spaces
between words within each line).

You can center lines within the current line width with ^OC.


     Blocks

Blocks  in  WordStar are what you use for doing operations on blocks of text.
Other  editors  often call this "cut and paste", but it is somewhat different
under the WordStar method; I like it better.

First, you define a block.  The start of a block is marked with ^KB (think of
it as the Beginning, or the B in Block); the end is marked with ^KK (think of
it  as  the  ending  K  in  blocK).   Once  a  block  is  defined, it becomes
highlighted.

(In Ustar, I have also made the mouse usable to mark a block.  Put the  mouse
pointer at the start of the block, click and hold the left  button,  drag  to
the  end  of  the block, and release.  The screen will scroll if you move the
mouse to the bottom or top.  The block will be highlighted once  you  release
the button.)

Second, you choose the operation to do to the block.

To Copy it somewhere else, move the cursor to where you want the start of the
copy to be, and do ^KC (for Copy).

To  Move  it somewhere else, place the cursor where you want the start of the
block to be, and do ^KV (for moVe).

To Delete it (doesn't matter where the cursor is), do ^KY (for  Yank,  as  in
pull).

There  are  mouse  equivalents for the above 3 actions - see UstarDoc on this
and other Block commands not listed here.

There are variations on the normal block mode.  You can put  it  into  column
mode,  handy for reformatting tables - moving columns of text around, instead
of lines or paragraphs.  You toggle this with ^KN.  Note that for a column to
be visible, the column of the end of the  block  must  be  greater  than  the
column of the start of the block.

When  in  Column  mode, there is an additional mode choice you can make.  ^KI
toggles  whether the block will insert or overwrite, or if you are deleting a
block, whether it will be deleted or space-filled.

^KU or just ^U (Undelete or Undo) will bring back the  last  block  that  was
deleted (assuming you haven't deleted some lines or words in the meantime).

A  Uedit-specific  feature  I added is ^KG to Get a block to the Undo buffer.
This  is  needed because WordStar only works with one file at a time - it has
no key for getting a block without doing anything else with it.

In Uedit/Ustar, you typically have several files in  use  at  one  time.   To
transfer between them, you mark the block you want, do ^KG, use F1 to get  to
the file you want it to go into, put the cursor where you want it, and do ^KU
to "paste" it in.

The  above  actually  give you a way to do Cut & Paste in addition to blocks.
In Cut & Paste terms, you use ^KY to Cut a block, or ^KG to Copy it, into the
scratch buffer.  Then you use ^KU to Paste it.

To hide (unhilite) a block, do ^KH (Hide).

Use  ^KR  to  Read  a  disk  file  into  your  document at the current cursor
position, that is, to insert the file.  This is handy for "boilerplate" text,
such as a standard letter header; and  for  bringing  in  a  bunch  of  small
documents  or  pieces to make a big one. Use ^KW to Write a marked block to a
file.  This is useful in the opposite way.

Both the above commands, and any others that need you to specify  a  filename
or other string, use Uedit's Primitive mode input.  Normal editing keys don't
work  in  this  mode; you use only shift-spacebar and shift-BackSpace to move
transparently over text, and DEL and backspace to delete characters.  In most
cases, pressing Return without doing anything  else  will  cause  nothing  to
happen, cancelling the action.

Due to the way the Primitive mode works, I find it handy to set a fairly high
key-repeat rate with Preferences, so I can quickly move over text  or  delete
it when in Primitive mode.

An Amiga feature I added is to speak a block.  Use ^K] (^K then ^], the right
bracket  symbol; think of it as a sideways smile :-] ).  The Say command will
need to be in your current C directory for this to work; and  your  Workbench
disk (for libraries and devices) will need to be available to the system.


     Files

Files are something like blocks, so they also use the ^K prefix.  Briefly:

Use ^KD to load a Document.  You will need to type in the filename, including
(if necessary) the drive and path.

You  can  also  load  via the mouse - point at a filename in any document and
hold down the Control key while clicking the left mouse button.

Use ^KS to Save a document.  This will save without quitting the buffer.   If
the document hasn't changed, it won't save it - this saves you time  (waiting
for useless disk activity).

Use ^KQ to Quit (discard from Ustar) a document.  If the file has changed, it
will tell you so and ask if you want to save it before throwing it away.

See  UstarDoc  for complete info on all the file and mouse commands; refer to
the menus and the UstarHelp file (Help key) for quick reference.



     Find & Replace

^QF is the Find (search) command.  It will prompt you for the string to find.

^QA  is  the  find  &  replAce command.  It will prompt you for the string to
find, then for the string to replace it with.

Both of these commands then prompt you for options.  You  can  enter  several
options, or none.

The  U  option  causes searches to be case-insensitive; if the U option isn't
present, then your string will have to match upper and lower case exactly  to
be  found.   Ustar  starts  up with the U option present, 'cause that's how I
like it.

The B option causes Backward searches, otherwise they are forward.

The G option causes Global operation.

For Finds, the G option means that the search begins at the beginning of  the
file (end of the file if  the  B  option  is  active).   Otherwise,  searches
commence from the cursor location.

For  Find  &  Replace,  the  G option means that the entire file is searched.
Otherwise, only the first search match is acted on.

Instead of G, you can specify a specific number of times to do a Find or Find
&  Replace.  For instance, if you know that you want to replace only the next
7 instances of "Amiga" with "Amiga 2000", put a number "7" in the options.

The N option is for No-ask.  It is used only when doing Find &  Replace.   If
this option is not present, you will be asked on each Find whether to do  the
replacement or not.  If this option is present, you won't be asked.

Be  careful  - you might accidentally change things you don't want changed if
you  use  this  N  option.   For instance, if you did the "Amiga" replacement
noted above with the N and G options, it will go through the whole  file  and
replace  any  occurrence  of  the "LeftAmiga" key name with "LeftAmiga 2000",
which is probably not what you want!

To stop a search at anytime, or while entering options or  strings,  use  the
general-purpose abort key sequence of LeftAmiga-ESC or RightAmiga-ESC.

You can repeat the last Find or Find & Replace command with the ^L key.


                                Conclusion

That  about  covers this quick run-through of WordStar commands.  They should
suffice  for  90% of your needs.  There are dozens of other features, some of
which are part of WordStar, and many (such  as  Split  Windows  and  multiple
files open at once) that aren't.  See the menus and UstarHelp!  files for all
the  commands.   BE SURE to read UstarDoc for extensive information on Ustar.
Mainly, play with and use the editor to see how it works.

There are details of WordStar, Uedit, and Ustar that aren't documented.   For
example, the definition of just exactly what is considered  to  be  a  "word"
when  moving forward with ^F or deleting with ^T.  You will just need to find
out little things like this on your own, otherwise these documents  would  be
many times as large.  You can look at the UstarConfig!  file to see what each
command  is actually doing.  If you are a registered Uedit user, you have the
version of Uedit that  includes  the  programming  language  and  can  change
anything about it that you don't like it.

Now  go  and start using and enjoying the world's most popular word processor
interface in the world's best editor on the world's best personal computer!!!