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1992-08-12
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_1_3. _Q_U_E_S_T_I_O_N_S & _A_N_S_W_E_R_S
1) How can I make elvis run faster under DOS?
There are several things you can do. The first thing
to do is get a good screen driver such as NANSI.SYS.
This can speed up screen redrawing by as much as a
factor of eight! The DOS-specific part of section 12
tells you how to do this.
You might also consider reducing the size of the
blocks that elvis uses. You'll need to recompile
Elvis to do this. The default BLKSIZE is 1024 byte
for the DOS version of Elvis, which means that for
each keystroke that you insert, elvis must shift an
average of about 500 bytes. That's a lot to ask from
a little old 5MHz 8088. A BLKSIZE of 512 bytes might
be more appropriate.
If you're _r_e_a_l_l_y desperate for more speed, you might
want to make Elvis store its temporary files on a RAM
disk. However, this limits the size of the file you
can edit, and it eliminates any chance you may have
had to recover your work after a power failure or
system crash, but it might be worth it; you decide.
To do this, add ":set dir=R:\" (or whatever your RAM
disk's name is) to the _e_l_v_i_s._r_c file.
Next, consider turning off the "sync" option. When
the sync option is turned on, Elvis will close the
temporary file and reopen it after every change, in
order to force DOS to update the file's directory
entry. If you put ":set nosync" into the _e_l_v_i_s._r_c
file, then elvis will only close the file when you
start editing a different text file, or when you're
exiting Elvis. Consequently, there is no chance that
you'll be able to recover your changes after a power
failure... so if you're going to this, then you might
as well store the temp files on the RAM disk, too.
2) Where's the <Esc> key on a DEC keyboard?
I don't know. Maybe the <F11> key? You could always
use ":map!" to make some other key act like the <Esc>
key. If all else fails, use <Control><[>.
3) Is there a way to show which keys do what?
Yes. The command ":map" will show what each key does
in command mode, and ":map!" (with an exclamation
mark) shows what each key does in input mode.
August 10, 1992
13-2 QUESTIONS & ANSWERS 13-2
The table is divided into three columns: the key's
label, the characters that it sends, and the charac-
ters that Elvis pretends you typed.
4) How can I make Elvis display long lines like the real vi?
You can't yet. The next version of Elvis shouldsup-
port this, though.
5) I can't recover my text [under MS-DOS or Atari TOS].
According to the directory listing, the temporary file is
0 bytes long. What went wrong?
MS-DOS and TOS only update a file's directory entry
when the file is closed. If the system crashes while
the file is still open, then the file's length is
stored as 0 bytes. The ":set sync" option is sup-
posed to prevent this; you probably turned it off in
the interest of speed, right?
Under MS-DOS [I don't know about TOS], you should
delete the empty temporary file, and then run
CHKDSK/F. This _m_i_g_h_t find the data that belonged in
the empty file, and place it in a new file with a
name like "000001.CHK" -- something like that. You
can then try to extract the text from that temporary
file by giving the command "elvprsv -R 000001.chk
>goodnews.txt". If you're lucky, then your text
might be in GOODNEWS.TXT.
6) What is the most current version of Elvis?
Each version of Elvis that is released to the public
has a version number of the form "number point
number". As I write this, the most current version
of elvis is 1.5.
The intermediate steps between one release and the
next are labeled with the _n_e_x_t version number, with a
letter appended. For example, after 1.4 was
released, I started working on 1.5a. I am currently
working on 2.0a. When Elvis reaches a stable state,
I'll call it 2.0 and release it.
Sometimes a beta-test version of elvis will be avail-
able via anonymous FTP from m2xenix.psg.com, in the
directory "pub/elvis/beta".
7) I only got executables, but now I want the source code.
Where can I get it?
August 10, 1992
13-3 QUESTIONS & ANSWERS 13-3
If you have access to the Internet, then you should
be able to fetch it from one of the public archives
such as plains.nodak.edu. It is accessible via
anonymous FTP, or via an email server named
"archive-server@plains.nodak.edu". Elvis is located
in the directory "/pub/Minix/all.contrib".
I will also offer it to the C Users' Group. They
sell C source code for us$8 per diskette (or slightly
more outside North America). Their phone number is
(913) 841-1631, and their address is:
The C Users' Group
PO Box 3127
Lawrence KS 66046-0127
8) Is this shareware, or public domain, or what?
It is not public domain; it is copyrighted by me,
Steve Kirkendall. However, this particular version
is freely redistributable, in either source form or
executable form. (I would prefer that you give
copies away for free, complete with the full source
code... but I'm not going to force you.)
It is not shareware; you aren't expected to send me
anything. You can use it without guilt.
It is not "copylefted." I hold a copyright, but
currently I have not added any of the usual restric-
tions that you would find on copylefted software. If
people start doing really obnoxious things to Elvis,
then I will start adding restrictions to subsequent
versions, but earlier versions won't be affected.
(So far, everybody has been pretty good about this so
no restrictions have been necessary.)
9) Can I reuse parts of your source code?
Yes. Please be careful, though, to make sure that
the code really is mine. Some of the code was con-
tributed by other people, and I don't have the
authority to give you permission to use it. The
author's name can be found near the top of each
source file. If it says "Steve Kirkendall" then you
may use it; otherwise, you'd better contact the
author first.
Please don't remove my name from the source code. If
you modify the source, please make a note of that
fact in a comment near the top of the source code.
August 10, 1992
13-4 QUESTIONS & ANSWERS 13-4
And, finally, please mention my name in your documen-
tation.
10)Can Elvis work with non-ASCII files?
Elvis can't edit binary files because it can't handle
the NUL character, and because of line-length limita-
tions. However, it is 8-bit clean so you should be
able to edit any European extended ASCII file without
any surprises.
Elvis has also been modified to work with 16-bit
character sets. Yongguang Zhang (ygz@cs.purdue.edu)
has created a Chinese version of Elvis that uses 16-
bit characters and runs under cxterm (Chinese X-term)
on X-windows systems. Junichiro Itoh
(itojun@foretune.co.jp) has modified Elvis to edit
Japanese text under MS-DOS.
August 10, 1992