ee.1

EE Text Editor in standard UNIX

Paragraphs are defined for \fIee\fR by a block of text bounded by:
.sp 
.RS 8
.IP \(bu 
Begin or end of file.
.IP \(bu
Line with no characters, or only spaces and/or tabs.
.IP \(bu
Line starting with a period ('.') or right angle bracket ('>').
.RE
.PP
A paragraph may be formatted two ways:  explicitly by choosing the 
\fBformat paragraph\fR menu item, or by setting \fIee\fR to automatically 
format paragraphs.  The automatic mode may be set via a menu, or via the 
initialization file.
.PP
There are three states for text operation in \fIee\fR: free-form, margins, 
and automatic formatting.
.PP
"Free-form" is best used for things like programming.  There are no 
restrictions on the length of lines, and no formatting takes place.
.PP
"Margins" allows the user to type in text without having to worry about going 
beyond the right margin (the right margin may be set in the \fBsettings\fR 
menu, the default is for the margin to be the right edge of the 
terminal).  This is the mode that allows the \fBformat paragraph\fR menu 
item to work.
.PP
"Automatic formatting" provides word-processor-like behavior.  The user 
may type in text, while \fIee\fR will make sure the entire paragraph fits 
within the width of the terminal every time the user inserts a space after 
typing or deleting text.  Margin observation must also be enabled in order for 
automatic formatting to occur.
.\"
.\"     modes
.\"
.SS Modes
.PP
Although ee is a 'modeless' editor (it is in text insertion mode all the 
time), there are modes in some of the things it does.  These include:
.RS 4
.IP "\fBtab expansion\fR"
Tabs may be inserted as a single tab character, or replaced with spaces.
.IP "\fBcase sensitivity\fR"
The search operation can be sensitive to whether characters are upper- or 
lower-case, or ignore case completely.
.IP "\fBmargins observed\fR"
Lines can either be truncated at the right margin, or extend on forever.
.IP "\fBauto paragraph formatting\fR"
While typing in text, the editor can try to keep it looking reasonably well 
within the width of the screen.
.IP "\fBeightbit characters\fR"
Toggles whether eight bit characters are displayed as their value in angle 
brackets (e.g. "<220>") or as a character.
.IP "\fBinfo window\fR"
A window showing the keyboard operations that can be performed can be 
displayed or not.
.IP "\fBemacs keys\fR"
Control keys may be given bindings similar to emacs, or not.
.IP "\f16 bit characters\fR"
Toggles whether sixteen bit characters are handled as one 16-bit quantities or 
two 8-bit quantities.  This works primarily with the Chinese Big 5 code set.
.RE
.PP
You may set these modes via the initialization file (see below), or with a 
menu (see above).
.\"
.\"     spell checking
.\"
.SS "Spell Checking"
.PP
There are two ways to have the spelling in the text checked from \fIee\fR.  
One is by the traditional \fIspell\fR(1) command, the other is with the 
optional \fIispell\fR(1) command.
.PP
Using \fIspell\fR, the words that are not recognized will be placed at the top 
of the file.  For the \fIispell\fR option, the file is written to disk, 
then \fIispell\fR run on the file, and the file read back in once 
\fIispell\fR has completed making changes to the file.
.\"
.\"     printing
.\"
.SS "Printing the contents of the editor"
.PP
The user may select a menu item which prints the contents of the editor.  
.I ee
pipes the text in the editor to the command specified by the 
initialization command 
.B printcommand
(see the section 
.B Initializing ee from a file 
below).  The default is to send the contents to "lp".  
.PP
Whatever the user assigns to 
.B printcommand 
must take input from 
standard input.  See your system administrator for more details.
.\"
.\"     shell operations
.\"
.SS "Shell operations"
.PP
Shell commands can be executed from within 
.I ee 
by selecting the 
.B shell command 
item in the 
.B miscellaneous 
menu, or by placing an exclamation mark ("!") before the command to 
execute at the 
.B command: 
prompt.  Additionally, the user may direct the contents of the edit buffer 
out to a shell operation (via a pipe) by using the left angle bracket 
(">"), followed by a "!" and the shell command to execute.  The output of 
a shell operation can also be directed into the edit buffer by using a 
right angle bracket ("<") before the exclamation mark.  These can even be 
used together to send output to a shell operation and read back the 
results into the editor.  So, if the editor contained a list of words 
to be sorted, they could be sorted by typing the following at the command 
prompt:
.RS 4
.sp
><!sort
.sp
.RE
This would send the contents of the editor to be piped into the 
.I sort 
utility and the result would be placed into the edit buffer at the current 
cursor location.  The old information would have to be deleted by the user.
.\"
.\"     initializing ee from a file
.\"
.SS "Initializing ee from a file"
.PP
Since different users have different preferences, \fIee\fR allows some 
slight configurability.  There are three possible locations for an 
initialization file for ee:  the file \fI/usr/local/lib/init.ee\fR, the 
file \fI.init.ee\fR in the user's home directory, or the file \fI.init.ee\fR 
in the current directory (if different from the home 
directory).  This allows system administrators to set some preferences for 
the users on a system-wide basis (for example, the \fBprint\fR command), 
and the user to customize settings for particular directories (like one 
for correspondence, and a different directory for programming).
.PP
The file \fI\/usr/local/lib/init.ee\fR is read first, then 
\fI$HOME/.init.ee\fR, then \fI.init.ee\fR, with the settings specified by the 
most recent file read taking precedence.
.PP
The following items may be entered in the initialization file:
.RS 4
.IP \fBcase\fR
Sets searches to be case sensitive.
.IP \fBnocase\fR
Sets searches to be insensitive to case (default).
.IP \fBexpand\fR
Causes \fIee\fR to expand tabs to spaces (default).
.IP \fBnoexpand\fR 
Causes \fIee\fR to insert tabs as a single character.
.IP \fBinfo\fR
A small information window is displayed at the top of the terminal 
(default).
.IP \fBnoinfo\fR
Turns off the display of the information window.
.IP \fBmargins\fR
Causes \fIee\fR to truncate lines at the right margin when the 
cursor passes beyond the right margin as set by the user 
while text is being inserted 
(default).
.IP \fBnomargins\fR
Allows lines to extend beyond the right margin.
.IP \fBautoformat\fR
Causes \fIee\fR to automatically try to format the current paragraph while 
text insertion is occurring.
.IP \fBnoautoformat\fR
Turns off automatic paragraph formatting (default).
.IP \fBprintcommand\fR
Allows the setting of the print command (default: "lp").
.IP \fBrightmargin\fR
The user can select a value for the right margin (the first column on the 
screen is zero).
.IP \fBhighlight\fR
Turns on highlighting border of information window and menus (default).
.IP \fBnohighlight\fR
Turns off highlighting of border of information window and menus.
.IP \fBeightbit\fR
Turns on display of eight bit characters.
.IP \fBnoeightbit\fR
Turns off display of eight bit characters (they are displayed as their decimal 
value inside angle brackets, e.g., "<220>").
.IP \fB16bit\fR
Turns on handling of 16-bit characters.
.IP \fbno16bit\fR
Turns off handling of 16-bit characters.
.IP \fBemacs\fR
Turns on emacs key bindings.
.IP \fBnoemacs\fR
Turns off emacs key bindings.
.RE
.\"
.\"     save editor configuration
.\"
.SS "Save Editor Configuration"
.PP
When using this entry from the 
.B settings 
menu, the user may choose to save the current configuration of 
the editor (see \fBInitializing ee from a 
file\fR above) to a file named 
.I .init.ee 
in the current directory or the user's home directory.  If a file named 
.I .init.ee 
already exists, it will be renamed 
.IR .init.ee.old .
.\"
.\"     Caveats
.\"
.SH CAVEATS
.PP
THIS MATERIAL IS PROVIDED "AS IS".  THERE ARE 
NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WITH REGARD TO THIS 
MATERIAL, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND 
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  Neither 
Hewlett-Packard nor Hugh Mahon shall be liable 
for errors contained herein, nor for 
incidental or consequential damages in 
connection with the furnishing, performance or 
use of this material.  Neither Hewlett-Packard 
nor Hugh Mahon assumes any responsibility for 
the use or reliability of this software or 
documentation.  This software and 
documentation is totally UNSUPPORTED.  There 
is no support contract available.  Hewlett-Packard 
has done NO Quality Assurance on ANY 
of the program or documentation.  You may find 
the quality of the materials inferior to 
supported materials. 
.PP
Always make a copy of files that cannot be easily reproduced before 
editing.  Save files early, and save often.
.SS "International Code Set Support"
.I ee 
supports single-byte character code sets (eight-bit clean), or the 
Chinese Big-5 code set.  (Other multi-byte code sets may function, but the 
reason Big-5 works is that a two-byte character also takes up two columns on 
the screen.)
.SH WARNINGS
The automatic paragraph formatting operation 
may be too slow for slower systems.
.SH FILES
.PP
.I /usr/local/lib/init.ee
.br
.I $HOME/.init.ee
.br
.I .init.ee
.SH AUTHOR
.PP
The software 
.I ee
was developed by Hugh Mahon.
.PP
This software and documentation contains 
proprietary information which is protected by 
copyright.  All rights are reserved. 
.PP
Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 2001 Hugh Mahon.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.PP
termcap(4), terminfo(4), environ(5), spell(1), ispell(1), lp(1), aee(1)