Initiating The Editor¶

The editor can be invoked from the operating system, DEMOS, or directly from BASIC. In either case, procedures are similar but, on exit, the user will be returned either to the operating system or Basic as appropriate.

Entry from the operating system, DEMOS¶

From DEMOS, either type EDIT, followed by the desired filename, or use function key 7 followed by the filename.

The entry line will look like:

>EDIT myfile.txt

This line will edit the file myfile.txt. Pressing Enter will invoke the Editor and if the file already exists, will load it into the work area. If the file does not exist, it will be created on exit from the editor provided text entry has been made.

It is essential to enter a filename. If the suffix is omitted, the file will be assumed to be ASCII and have the standard default extension .TXT. If it is desired to edit a Basic file, the .HBA suffix must be entered.

Assuming myfile.txt does not exist, the screen will show:

On the top line there are three items of information:

COL:00

This shows the column which the cursor is in. It is in the range 0 to 79. As the cursor moves, It is kept updated be used and may for aligning tables, indents in text, etc.

Column 0 is the left of the virtual screen, column 79 is the extreme right of the virtual screen.
INS:on

This shows whether character insert is on or off.

If insert is on, any text entered will be placed at the cursor position and any text already present will be moved. With insert off, the display will show:
```
INS: off
```
In this case, entries will overwrite existing text.
Caps:off

This shows the state of the CAPS lock function which operates as described in Keyboard <../basic-programming/keyboard.html>.

Note

The CAPS LOCK inverts upper and lower characters, but is not a ‘Shift Lock’ function. Lower case characters are available by pressing ‘Shift’.

Free-format text entry may now proceed as required. The cursor keys provide up, down, forward and backspace functions. Lines are terminated by Enter which is equivalent to CR (Carriage Return).

If the file already exists, the first few lines of text will appear on the screen.

------------------------------------------
|COL:00 INS:off Caps:off                 |
|                                        |
| This is a demonstration of entering tex|
|the text editor. On this screen it can b|
|we only display the top left of the file|
|                                        |
| Paragraphs are generally indented, this|
|no problem to the Hunter Text Editor.   |
|Caps Find Cins           Save Ldel Exit |
------------------------------------------

This is the beginning of the file and the left-hand forty columns. Text editing may now proceed as required.

Warning

Exiting from the editor after entering from DEMOS will abort any changes to the file, unless the file is previously saved.

Line Length¶

The Editor supports lines of greater than 80 characters by wrapping round onto the next line.