NAME¶
the -
The
Hessling
Editor.
SYNOPSIS¶
the [-h?nmrsbk] [-p
profile] [-a
profile_arg] [-l
line_num] [-c
col_num] [-w
width] [-u
display_length] [-k
[fmt]] [[dir] [file [...]]]
DESCRIPTION¶
THE is a text editor that uses both command line commands and key
bindings to operate. It is intended to be similar to the VM/CMS System Product
Editor, XEDIT and to KEDIT from Mansfield Software.
THE was originally written to be used by people already familiar with the above
editors. For this reason, the documentation provides limited information on
using THE, and concentrates more on reference material, such as command syntax
and configuration.
OPTIONS¶
- -h, -?
- Print a usage message on standard error and exit
successfully.
- -n
- Run THE without any profile. Normally THE tries to find a
profile file and execute this on startup. This switch suppresses that
search and execute and runs THE in its default mode. This switch is useful
for determining if a bug in THE occurs only with certain user-specific
customizations.
- -m
- On ports of THE that support colour, this switch forces THE
into monochrome mode. More a testing feature than a user feature.
- -r
- This switch enables THE to be run in read-only mode.
In this mode commands that alter the contents of a file are invalid.
- -s
- On Unix platforms, this switch enables the writing of a
core file if THE crashes. Normally, THE traps any internal errors and
exits gracefully. This switch is a testing feature rather than a user
feature.
- -b
- When you want to use THE as a non-interactive tool for
manipulating the contents of one or more files, this switch will disable
any display of file contents and disable keyboard interaction. Normally
used in conjunction with a specific profile; see -p option.
- -q
- Run quietly in batch mode. This will suppress the
introductory informative message displayed when errors are encountered
running in batch.
- -k[fmt]
- Allows 'soft label keys'. This allows the display of one
(or two) lines at the bottom of the screen with 'buttons' intended to be
used to represent function keys. These 'soft label keys' can be
manipulated with the <SET SLK> command. The 'fmt' optional extra
argument is a single digit representing the format of the display of the
'buttons'.
1 - displays 8 'buttons' in a 4-4 layout
2 - displays 8 'buttons' in a 3-2-3 layout
3 - displays 12 'buttons' in a 4-4-4 layout
4 - displays 12 'buttons' in a 4-4-4 layout with an index line
5 - displays 10 'buttons' in a 5-5 layout
Not all platforms support all 5 format options. On those ports of THE that
are mouse-aware, the mouse can be pressed on a 'button', and the command
assigned the the corresponding function key is executed.
- -l line_num
- This switch specifies the line number to make current when
THE starts.
- -c column_num
- This switch specifies the column number to make current
when THE starts.
- -p profile
- Specifies the THE profile to run instead of the default
profile.
- -a profile_arg
- Specifies the arguments that are passed to the profile
specified with the -p switch.
- -w width
- Specifies the maximum line width for a line in the current
edit session. Can be overridden with the <SET WIDTH> command.
- -u display_length
- THE can run as a binary editor. Specifying this switch
tells THE to read in the file and display it in 'lines' that are
´display_length´ long. All end-of-line characters in the file
are ignored and are treated as other characters in the file.
- -X X11_switches
- With the X11 port of THE, standard X11 switches can be
specified with this switch to dynamically configure the way THE displays
or behaves. You can also specify XCurses-specific switches here as well.
For more information on the XCurses switches available, consult the
PDCurses documentation.
- -1
- Tells THE to run in 'Single Instance Mode'. The first time
THE is run with the -1 switch, it starts as normal. Subsequent executions
of THE with the -1 command-line switch will not start a new instance of
THE, rather it will edit the file(s) specified on the command-line in the
currently running instance of THE. This feature is currently only
available with the X11 port of the using XCurses 2.5 and greater. If the
first instance of THE with the -1 switch crashes for any reason,
subsequent attempts to run THE with the -1 switch will hang. To fix this
remove the file (really a FIFO); $HOME/.thefifo and then run THE with the
-1 switch again.
- [dir [file [...]]]
- File(s) and/or directory to be edited.
FILES¶
- /etc/therc
- Global profile file for THE.
- $HOME/.therc
- Local profile file for THE.
- /usr/share/THE/THE_Help.txt
- THE help file name.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES¶
THE uses the following environment variables:
- THE_HOME_DIR
- The directory in which THE looks for its help
file(s) and macro(s).
- THE_HELP_FILE
- The fully qualified file name containing help
information.
- THE_PROFILE_FILE
- The fully qualified file name for the local profile
file.
- THE_MACRO_PATH
- A list of all directories in which THE is to look
for <macro> files.
SEE ALSO¶
THE Reference Manual
AUTHOR¶
Mark Hessling <mark@rexx.org>.
COPYRIGHT¶
Copyright 1991-2010 Mark Hessling. All rights reserved. THE is distributed under
the terms of the GNU General Public License and comes with NO WARRANTY. See
the file COPYING for details.
On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License version 2
can be found in
`/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2'.
WWW¶
http://hessling-editor.sourceforge.net
REPORTING BUGS¶
Report bugs to <thelist@uiuc.edu>.
MANUAL AUTHORS¶
Mark Hessling <mark@rexx.org>.
Alen Zekulic <alen@nms.hr>.