StrongEd

Instructions

Contents

Introduction

About this manual

This manual is arranged in two main sections. This section, which is introductory and aims to give you an understanding of the sort of things you can do with StrongEd and a good idea of how to work it at a simple level.

The second, and major, part is the refernce seection. StrongEd is a major program with great ability and, in coommon with an major program, there is a huge amout to know if you wish to fully use the program. However - as with all major programs, few people ever use a large proportion of it, and once you know the basic concepts, StrongEd is really very easy to learn.

This introductory section should aid you gently into the program.

As a matter of interest, this manual was started initially by taking Guttorm Vic's own StrongHelp instructions and clarifying them and expanding the somewhat terse style that characterises most programmers, in order to make the instruction easier to read. A manual such as this also has a shape and can be read 'from cover to cover' - if that is your wish. Or you can jump about butterfly fashion, if that is your wish. Such is the dual nature of an electronuc manual!

Introduction

StrongEd is a general purpose text, file and program editor. You might use it for writing an HTML www page, for writing emails, for writing text that you later propose to transfer to some other program such as Ovation Pro, Techwriter. Or you might want to write Basic programs, or Obey files. Or for looking at the contents of a strange attachment to an email, to see if an email contains something meaningful. Or maybe someone has sent you a strange file that may contain some text worth reading. With StrongEd you can view any file - but it is a text editor, and if the file contains picture information, Stronged can't help a lot.

StrongEd can do all of these and a lot more.

Any program set up do do this many seemingly different tasks needs to be versatile. StrongEd therefore has many different 'modes' of operation. Press Menu over StrongEd's iconbar icon and slide off at 'Create>' - you will see a whole long list of different types of file. Each one invokes a separate mode.

Usually the modes are transparent to a new user - load a text file and StrongEd will chose a text mode. Load an HTML file, and StrongEd will use its HTML mode.

StrongEd's modes are implemented so that they are essentially 'plug-ins' to the basic program and it's this plug-in effect that causes some of the strangeness which beginners can find in StrongEd's menus. But you can easily change existing modes to suit your needs, or for that matter to create new modes.

Because of this ability to be customised, many of StrongEd's menus and Key presses can vary - this can sometimes be confusing to a beginner. However, although StrongEd is very powerful program, most people find it very easy to get to grips with, at least at a simple level. Your learning curve will then be as long as you care to make it. Probably few people use (or even understand) every mode.

StrngEd uses RiscOS's in built 'Help' and, as with most programs, you are well advised to load help when you are new to the program. StrongEd also comes with a good StrongHelp manual. This is quite a useful reference guide. This manual does not seek to replace either, but more to complement them. As a personal not, I find that the help messages are intrusive, but it is quite amazing how much more there is to the program than I realised now I have Help on, to help me write these instructions! So you may well find lots of features mentioned which you did not know existed.

Standard Modes

Central to StrongEDs flexibility is its ability to be configured to operate in different modes. A Mode is basically a collection of configuration options so that, for instance, you can have a traditional blue background while editing BASIC, and a white one for everything else. Or you can define what StrongED understands as a 'word': For instance when you doubleclick on an item in BASIC, you want StrongEd to recognize "ABC%" and "XYZ$" as words, whereas in C you would only want the "ABC" and "XYZ" part marked and in HTML you might want

  • understood as a 'word'.

    Modes are completely user definable. If a mode doesn't do what you want, you can change it, or you can even make a completely new one if you desire. You can have as many different modes as you can write or find on the Internet. These are the standard ones as supplied with version 1.61.

    The key to the power of the modes, is the ModeWhen file (!StrongED.Defaults.ModeWhen). This defines which mode to use for a text, based on its pathname and filetype (and possibly also on content). With this, you can say that all text files in a directory called "C" should use the C mode, or that all BASIC files should use the BASIC mode.

    Since they are configurable, it is easy to find modes which behave differently from those described, but the following are the 'standard' modes supplied with the program.

    BaseMode
    This is the base mode: all other modes add or change operation features which have been already been defined in the BaseMode so that everything is (and must be) defined here. Other modes merely redefine what they want to be different from the basemode. Also, some things can only be in the basemode (most notably the keyboard bindings for dialogue boxes).

    BASIC and BasAsm modes
    The BASIC mode is for editing BASIC files. The BasAsm mode is for editing BASIC Assembly files. Neither mode has anything to do with the conversion to and from tokenised BASIC - that is something StrongED always does when the filetype is &FFB, even if it is edited in, say, BaseMode.

    The reason there are two separate modes, is because the syntax of assembly and BASIC is rather different. One example is the ";" character. In BASIC this is used in PRINT statements. In assembly it denotes that the rest of the line is a comment.

    The following keys are defined in these modes:
    KeyAction
    shift-F2Lists all functions and procedures
    F10Runs the file
    shift-F10First saves and *then* runs the file
    ctrl-GGo to PROC/FN or label
    shift-PgUpGo to previous PROC/FN or label
    shift-PgDownGo to next PROC/FN or label

    C
    Used for writing programs in C language. It is coloured, like most modes, but doesn't yet colour multi-line comments.

    The following keys are defined in this mode:
    KeyAction
    shift-F2 Lists all functions in the text.
    F10 Compiles the file
    shift-F10 First saves and *then* compiles the file
    ctrl-H Load an #include file (you can also doubleclick on it)
    ctrl-G Go to function
    shift-PgUp Go to previous function
    shift-PgDownGo to next function

    !Dump
    This is used for examining binary file contents, where the file type is not recognised by StrongEd. You can also use it to grab a copy of a module or an application (just create a file in !Dump mode, and a dialogue box will pop up). The 'lightning' icon on the toolbar will grab the module/application anew.

    The following keys are defined in this mode:
    Key Action
    F1 (in Assembly) Looks up the instruction or the SWI name
    Ctrl-Shift-ESCChange mode to BaseMode
    TAB Jump between the sections of the dump display
    Right (in Assembly) Follow ADR or B/BL
    Left (in Assembly) Return

    External

    Freetext

    !HTML
    This mode is used for reading, writing and editing HTML as used on WWW pages.

    Java

    LaTeX

    Message

    !News
    Used for reading internet News and Emails.

    The one major thing to bear in mind is that internet expects hard wrapped text, with lines about 70 characters wide. Since StrongED today doesn't have automatic hard wrapping as you type (only soft wrapping), you have to use the unwrap function before you send an email or news article. However - many people will be using StrongEd with an email program, such as Pluto, which will do the necessary wrapping.

    One nice feature is that you can doubleclick on a URL to launch a web page.

    The following keys are defined in these modes:
    KeyAction
    shift-F2Lists all 'Subject:' lines in the text.
    shift-PgUpGo to previous 'Subject:'
    shift-PgDownGo to next 'Subject:'
    ctrl-RDo a 'Rot13' encoding/decoding on a marked block or a line
    ctrl-PWrap (join) a group of lines
    ctrl-UUnwrap (split) a block or a paragraph

    Obey
    For writing Obey files and Exec files.

    Perl
    Used for writing programs in Perl language.

    Python
    Used for writing script files in Python language.

    StrongMode

    TaskWindow

    WideText

    Iconbar Icon

    On the icon, different combinations of buttons have a number of different effects

    Select Opens a few BaseMode window

    Adjust opens a list of modes. Clicking any button on a mode in this list opens a window of the mode clicked on.

    Menu opens the normal menu:

    Shift - Select opens StrongEd's configuration directory

    Shift - Adjust opens StrongEd's BaseMode default file

    Function Keys

    StrongEd uses a number of function keys set up as standard. Remember that function keys are definable in the mode definition files so their functions can be re-defined.

    Control Keys

    StrongEd uses a number of control key combination set up as standard. Remember that function keys are definable in the mode definition files so their functions can be re-defined.

    Most block operations only happen to the currently marked block if the caret is inside it. If the caret if outside, the operation occurs to the character under the caret.

    Base Mode

    This is the base befault mode. All other modes are done by altering the base mode. However - even the base mode is programmable, bit you are advised not to tinker with it as, if it cannot understand the base mode, StrongEd can understandably get a bit upset.

    Click select on StrongEd's iconbar icon and you will get a window like the one shown.

    If you have Help loaded, most of the icons are explained by the proffered help text.

    Basemode
    The Infobar
    Beneath the StrongEd window is the infobar - which gives information of the file(s) currently being worked on. It is also a shortcut to various menus.

    Last updated 21st September, 2000.