Frequently Asked Questions about the JED editor. To find the answer to one of the following questions, Search for the number enclosed in <>, e.g., <3> for question 3. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frequently asked questions: 1. How do I obtain JED? (ftp and email) 2. How do I disable JED's C mode. 3. What is C mode? 4. How do I turn on wrap mode or turn it off? 5. What are the differences between internal and intrinsic functions? 6. Sometimes during screen updates, JED pauses. Why is this? 7. How do I get JED to recognize Control-S and Control-Q? 8. Can I bind the Alt keys on the PC? 9. How do I find out what characters a particular key generates. 10. JED scrolls slow on my WizBang-X-Super-Terminal. What can I do about it? 11. How do I get a list of functions? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answers: <1> How do I obtain JED? (ftp and email) JED is available via anonymous ftp from amy.tch.harvard.edu (134.174.22.100) in the pub/jed directory. JED comes in three forms: jedxxx.tar.Z unix distribution for version xxx jedxxx.*_of_n n part VMS share distribution for xxx jedxxx.zip PC distribution with precompiled jed.exe All distributions are identical except that the zip file also contains a precompiled executable for PC systems. JED may also be obtained by email for those without ftp access. To learn about how to ftp using email, send email to ftpmail@pa.dec.com with the single line `help'. A message will be returned with instructions. For those on BITNET, particularly with VMS systems, Hunter Goatley has made JED available via email: To get JED via e-mail, send the following commands in the body of a mail message to FILESERV@WKUVX1.BITNET: SEND JED090 SEND FILESERV_TOOLS !Only needed if you don't have UNZIP and MFTU You can also get it via anonymous ftp from ftp.spc.edu in [.MACRO32.SAVESETS]JED090.ZIP. This distribution includes VMS .OBJs and a .EXE file that was linked under VMS V5.1. [Note that although this distribution is intended for VMS systems, it includes makefiles and sources for unix as well. However, you will need to get unzip for your unix system. --John] <2> How do I disable JED's C mode. The startup file `site.sl' contains the function `mode_hook' which is called whenever a file is loaded. This function is passed the filename extension. If a file with `c' or `h' extension is read, this function will turn on C-mode for that buffer. You could modify this function to not select C-mode. However, this is not recommended. Rather, it is recommended that you simply rebind the offending keybinding. These include: `{`, `}`, the TAB key, and the RETURN key. Simply put any or all of: "self_insert_cmd" "{" setkey "self_insert_cmd" "}" setkey "self_insert_cmd" "^I" setkey "newline" "^M" setkey in your personal startup file (jed.rc or .jedrc). Before you do this, are you sure that you really understand what C mode does? If not, please read on. <3> What is C mode? In C mode, the TAB key does not insert tabs. Instead, it runs a command called `indent_line'. It is really the quickest way to edit C code. In this mode, the TAB, RETURN, `{`, and `}' keys are special. If you edit a file called x.c, JED will invoke its C mode. Entering the 28 characters (no newline, TAB, etc...) `main (){if (x == 2){x = 4;}}' should result in: main () { if (x == 2) { x = 4; } } which would take alot more time using the TAB and NEWLINE keys. If you do not like the indentation style, you can customize it by setting the appropriate variables in jed.rc. My preference is to set the variables such that the SAME characters above yield: main () { if (x == 2) { x = 4; } } To see the use of the tab key, delete the whitespace in front of all the lines to produce: main () { if (x == 2) { x = 4; } } Now, move to any of the lines (anywhere on the line) and hit the TAB key. This should correctly indent the line to according to your preferences (i.e., the variables in jed.rc). Finally, move to one of the lines and enter `ESC ;'. This should produce a C comment. Using the C mode and the TAB key as indent_line also helps you avoid syntax errors. Basically, a line simply will not indent properly. This indicats that you left off a brace, mismatched parenthesis, etc... If you bind TAB away from indent_line, you lose some of this. Note that these same comments apply to Fortran mode. Get a files called `x.for'. You will go into fortran mode. Enter the characters: TABprogram mainRETinteger*4 iRETdo 10 i=1,3RETcall f(i)RET10continueRETend Here TAB means hit TAB and RET means hit return. This will result in: program main integer*4 i do 10 i=1,3 call f(i) 10 continue end Again, the editor has done all the work. Once you get used to this style of editing, you will not go back. Also note that this will not work if EDT is loaded. To get this functionality back, you will need to do: setkey("indent_line_cmd", "^I"); setkey("newline_and_indent_cmd", "^M"); AFTER edt.sl is loaded. <4> How do I turn on wrap mode or turn it off? Normally, this is done automatically when JED loads a file with extensions .txt, .doc, etc... See question 2 for a discussion of how this is done. To turn on wrap mode for the current buffer, simply press Escape-X and enter: text_mode at the prompt. To turn it off, you must change the mode to something else. A fairly generic choice is the `no_mode' mode. To do this, press Escape-X and enter: no_mode at the prompt. It is easy to write a function to toggle the mode for you that can be bound to a key. This one (toggle_wrapmode) will work: define toggle_wrapmode () { variable mode, modestr; (modestr, mode) = whatmode (); if (mode & 1) % test wrap bit mode = mode & ~(1); % wrap bit on so mask it off else mode = mode | 1; % wrap bit off so set it. setmode (modestr, mode); } <5> What is the difference between internal and intrinsic functions? An intrinsic function is a function that is directly callable from S-Lang while an internal function cannot. However, internal functions can be called indirectly through the use of the intrinsic function `call'. For example, consider the internal function `self_insert_cmd'. Most typing keys are bound to this function and cause the key to be directly inserted into the buffer. Consider the effect of this. After a character to be inserted is received by JED, the buffer is updated to reflect its insertion. Then the screen is updated. Here lies the essential difference between the two types of functions. If the screen was in sync before the insertion, JED can simply put the terminal in insert mode, send out the character and take the terminal back out of insert mode. However, this requires knowing the state of the screen. If called from a S-Lang routine, all bets are off. Since the screen update is not performed until after any S-Lang function has returned to JED, the buffer and the screen will almost always be out of sync with respect to one another and a full screen update will have to be performed. But this is very costly to have to do for every insertion. Hence, JED makes a distinction between the two types of functions by making the most common ones internal. The upshot is this: intrinsic functions will cause a full screen update while internal ones may not. <6> Sometimes during screen updates, JED pauses. Why is this? Since version 0.91, JED checks the baud rate and tries to output characters based on reported rate. JED will literally sleep when outputting many characters if the reported baud rate is small. One should first check to see that terminal driver has the baud rate set appropriately. On Unix, this is done by typing `stty -a' at the shell prompt. If setting the baud rate to the correct value does not help, set the internal global variable `OUTPUT_RATE' to zero. This is achived by uncommenting the line referring to OUTPUT_RATE in the jed.rc initialization file. If there is still a problem, contact me. <7> How do I get JED to recognize Control-S and Control-Q? Many systems use ^S/^Q for flow control--- the so-called XON/XOFF protocol which is probably the reason JED does not see either of these two characters. Perhaps the most portable solution to this problem is to simply avoid using ^S and ^Q altogether. This may require the user to rebind those those functions that have key bindings composed of these characters. JED is able to enable or disable flow control on the system that it is running. This may be done by putting the line: enable_flow_control (0); % turn flow control off in your .jedrc file. Using a value of 1 turns flow control on. Another solution is to use the `map_input' function to map a different key to ^S (and ^Q). For example, one might simply choose to map ^\ to ^S and ^^ (Control-^) to ^Q. To do this, simply put: map_input (28, 19); % ^\ --> ^S map_input (30, 17); % ^^ --> ^Q in your .jedrc (jed.rc) file. <8> Can I bind the Alt keys on the PC? Yes. The ALT keys return a two character key sequence. The key sequence for a particular ALT key as well as other function keys are listed in the file `pc-keys.txt'. Many users simply want to use the ALT key as a Meta Character. To have JED interpret ALT-X as ESC-X, put ALT_CHAR = 27; int your jed.rc file. Here `X' is any key. <9> How do I find out what characters a particular key generates? The easiest way is to use the quoted insert function. By default, this is bound to the backquote (`) key. Simply switch to the `*scratch*' buffer, press the backquote key followed by the key in question. The key sequence will be inserted into the buffer. This exploits the fact that most multi-character key sequences begin with the ESC character followed one or more printable characters. If this fails, the following function will suffice: define insert_this_key () { variable c; pop2buf ("*scratch*"); eob (); message ("Press key:"); update (1); forever { c = getkey (); if (c == 0) insert("^@"); else insert (char (c)); !if (input_pending (3)) break; } } Simply type it into the scratch buffer, press ESC-X and type `evalbuffer'. Then, to use the function, press ESC-X again and enter `insert_this_key'. <10> JED scrolls slow on my WizBang-X-Super-Terminal. What can I do about it? On Unix, JED uses termcap (terminfo) and the value of the TERM environment variable. Chance are, even though you are using an expansive state of the art terminal, you have told unix it is a vt100. Even if you have set the TERM variable to the appropriate value for you terminal, the termcap file may be missing entries for your ``WizBang'' features. This is particularly the case for Ultrix systems--- the vt102, vt200, and vt300 termcap entries are missing the AL and DL termcap flags. In fact, the Ultrix man page for termcap does not even mention these capabilities! JED is able to compensate for missing termcap entries only for vtxxx terminals. If your terminal is a fancy vtxxx terminal, put the line: set_term_vtxxx (0); in your .jedrc file. <11> How do I get a list of functions? Help on any documented function is available by pressing `Ctrl-H f' and entering the function name at the prompt. If you simply hit return, you will get the documentation for all functions. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a useful function used to maintain numbers in this faq. define faq_fix () { variable n; n = 1; bob(); bol_fsearch("---------------"); pop(); % always found push_mark(); bol_fsearch("-------------"); pop(); narrow(); bob(); while (re_fsearch("^[0-9]+\\.")) { replace_match (strcat(string(n), "."), 1); pop(); ++n; } widen(); n = 1; while (re_fsearch("^<[0-9]+>")) { replace_match (Sprintf("<%d>", n, 1), 1); pop(); ++n; } }