Bila Vrana/BILA_VRANA.iso/028A/AUROR.ZIP/TIPS.DOX

Text File | 1996-07-17 | 19KB | 453 lines

User Tips
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This file contains a few miscellaneous Aurora user tips which you may
wish to review. For complete documentation on how to install and use
Aurora, see the Users Guide (User.dox). Note that any key definitions
shown here are the Aurora-style defaults.


Basic Configuration
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  The editor should always be installed in an empty directory. Never
   mix files from different editor versions.

  Whenever you make a change to any of the editor configuration files
   (such as Config.aml, Kbd.aml, Menu.aml, etc.), you must execute the
   'recompile' command ('Recompile the editor' <alt f2> on the Set menu)
   for your changes to take effect.

  If you prefer to start Aurora by another name, you can simply rename
   the file A.exe to whatever you wish (such as E.exe). Do not rename
   any other files distributed with the editor.

  You can re-install Aurora by selecting Full Installation from the
   Macro List on the Macro menu.


The Keyboard
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  When adding new key definitions to Kbd.aml, be sure to place each
   definition in the appropriate 'object' for the window in which you
   would like the key to be active. For most editing key definitions,
   this will be the 'edit' object.

  If you have added or changed keyboard definitions, you will probably
   also want to change any Menu definitions which show the old keys.

  To prevent the editor from using the keypad <grey/>, <grey*>,
   <grey->, and <grey+> keys as function keys, remove option 'g' from
   'kbdoptions' in System.aml.

  To execute a key or macro function from the Dos command line, use the
   '-e' command line option. Key or event names must be enclosed in
   double quotes. For example:

     C>a -emymacro
        // executes the function 'mymacro' after the editor is started

     C>a -e"<shift f1>" -e"<alt =>"
        // simulates <shift f1>, <alt => after the editor is started


The Mouse
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  If scrolling is too fast when using the mouse, change the Scroll
   Delay on the Mouse Options dialog box to a higher value.

  To hide the mouse pointer whenever a key pressed, change the
   appropriate option on the Mouse Options dialog box.


The Menus
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  If part of a pull-down menu is displayed off the edge of the screen,
   use the mouse to grab the menu border and drag the menu to a better
   position.

  To hide the menu bar so that it is only displayed when <esc> or the
   right mouse button is pressed, remove the menu bar on the Window
   Style 1 dialog box.


Prompts
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  The Ascii Chart <alt => can be displayed from within a prompt and
   used to enter any character. The Enter Literal <ctrl [> command can
   also be used to enter any character in a prompt. In addition, you can
   enter any character by holding down the <alt> key, then entering the
   decimal Ascii value of the character on the keypad, and then
   releasing the <alt> key.

  Use <pgup> or <pgdn> within a prompt, or click on the prompt retrieve
   tab () to display a popup menu of all prompt history. You can copy a
   string from the menu to the prompt by pressing the <enter> key or the
   left mouse button.

  Use the Prompt Style command on the Window menu to sample the four
   editor prompt styles. Select Save Configuration on the Set menu to
   make the current style the default prompt style.

  To move the cursor a relative number of lines away from the current
   position in the Go To Line <ctrl j> prompt, specify '+' or '-' before
   the line number.

  The Macro Expression prompt <ctrl v> on the Macro menu can be used as
   a command line calculator, since the macro language compiler and
   interpreter are available at this prompt. For example:

     Macro Expression>  say 1 + 2 + 30 - 40    <enter>
       // displays -7
     Macro Expression>  msgbox (4 * 15) mod 7  <enter>
       // displays 4 in a message box
     Macro Expression>  write 1 + 2 * 3 + 4    <enter>
       // enters the string '11' at the cursor


The Desktop
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  You can prevent windows from remembering their sizes, cursor
   positions, and settings by checking the appropriate options on
   Desktop Options dialog box.

  To use the existing Dos screen as the editor background when the
   editor is started, change the Background Fill String to '' (null) on
   the Video Options dialog box.

  If your video card supports special video modes such as 132 x 43, you
   can use these video modes within the editor by setting the Rows and
   Columns to 'Dos' on the Video Options dialog box. Then select Save
   Configuration on the Set menu, exit the editor, and set the desired
   video mode in Dos before re-starting the editor.

  Enter the 'showentry' command in the Macro Expression prompt to
   display the screen as it appeared in Dos before the editor was
   started.


Syntax Highlighting
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  Syntax highlighting definitions are located in the Syn\ directory.

  If you are using syntax highlighting with multi-line comments in your
   program source code, you may wish to increase the number of lines to
   scan backward in the appropriate syntax definition file in the Syn\
   directory. Note however, that this may decrease scrolling performance
   for highlighted files.

  The Hilite Word <ctrl \> command highlights all occurrences of the
   word at the cursor. This can be very useful for finding instances of
   a word in a document, or marking occurrences of variables, functions,
   or other identifiers in your program source code.

  Individual keywords can be highlighted in colors other than the
   default keyword color by treating the keyword as a public object
   variable and assigning it the desired color attribute. For example,
   in Syntax.aml:

     keyword
       :      // end of keyword list

     _if   = color brightred on blue
     _else = color yellow    on blue


History
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  To erase all of your existing prompt history, window positions, etc.,
   simply delete Default.prj after you have exited the editor.

  Do not attempt to manually update the file Default.prj. This file is
   automatically updated by the editor during normal usage.


The File Manager
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  To open a file manager window for the current directory from the Dos
   command line, enter 'a .'.

  To open a file from the file manager while also closing the file
   manager window, use <ctrl enter>, or check the option 'Quit on Open'
   on the file manager options dialog box.

  To locate a filename within the file manager or a file picklist,
   enter the first few characters of the desired filename until the
   cursor is positioned at the file. To locate a directory, enter a
   backslash character (\) before the first letter.

  To create a separate file manager window from a directory in the file
   manager, use <shift o>.

  To display the amount of disk space used by an entire directory and
   all subdirectories, use the Statistics command on the Command menu.

  To generate a file manager listing of all files in all directories on
   the D drive, run the Where macro and and specify a filespec of
   'D:\*.*'. To generate a listing of all files on your computer, run
   Where with a filespec of '*.*' (Warning: these filespecs may generate
   listings with tens of thousands of files, which may take some time to
   sort.)

  To display Windows/95 long names in the file manager, set the format
   to Variable on the File Manager options dialog box.

  To make more room for long names in the file manager, configure the
   time to be displayed without seconds (International Options dialog
   box), and the file size to be displayed in 1k increments (File
   Manager Options dialog box).


Opening Files
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  To open a file from the Dos command line and place the cursor on a
   specific line, enter the option 'l' followed by the line number. For
   example:

     C>a myfile.txt/l253
       // opens 'myfile.txt' and