TRH-PBEDIT is a PowerBASIC editor that you wished they shipped WITH
the product. If you have any questions, send me a note.
DESCRIPTION:
This editor is intended to provide a more suitable environment for
PowerBASIC. It is a line oriented editor, no word wrapping is
supported at this time. I have some ideas about wrapping comment
lines, and continued "_" lines, but I'm not sure if that's really a
good idea.
FEATURES:
Some leading features are...
(1) Better Navigation: Files, SUBs and FUNCTIONS are displayed from a
list, and have their own screens. QuickBASIC had a good idea, I
improved upon it by allowing the user to pick a file by pressing a
key to zoom to the item. That is, to select a file, SUB, or FUNCTION
in the list that begins with 'T', just press 'T' and the next 'T'
item will be highlighted. Sucessive pressing of the 'T' key will
advance the highligher thru only the items that begin with 'T.'
(2) Automatic-indent control: Source code is intented so it is easy
to see control block structure. That is - code between DO/LOOP,
IF/END IF, etc. Are indented. The indent takes place when you press
the 'Enter' key
(3) Keyword case shifting: All reserved keywords are automatically
forced upper case to show they are BASIC keywords and are correctly
spelled. The PB-IDE does not do this, QuickBasic did. I liked the
latter. Moreover, memonics and registers in assembly lines are
shifted U/C.
(4) Context Sensitive Syntax Help: Another borrowed feature from
QuickBASIC, ALT-E will display verbose text of an error. I want to
add syntax and usage helps, but I don't have the text on this, nor do
I want to type this all in. Maybe someone will provide the text for
this.
(5) Automatic creation of closing statements for IF, DO, WHILE,
SELECT, etc. and insertion of a line. In another words, if you are
adding a new line, and you type DO, when you press enter a blank line
will be inserted followed by a line containing LOOP. The cursor will
rest on the blank line. Instant nest... A similar thing occurs with
the IF/THEN. A THEN is automatically appended to any IF statement
line.
(6) Automatic creation of a DECLARE statement, when a SUB or FUNCTION
is created.
(7) Color coded text for asthetic and visual enhancement.
(8) Supports bookmarks with an index.
(9) Smart Insert that will not overtype your code.
(10) Two-button mouse supported.
Installing:
(1) Unzip PBEDIT into a subdirectory of your choice.
(2) Make sure there is a "\temp" sub. This is where your compiled code goes.
(3) Make sure that "EXE" is a subdirectory of the directory PBEDIT is in.
(4) Run PBEDIT, and have a blast.
Operation:
TRH-PBEdit is envolked by running "PBEDIT." By itself the editor will
display a screen of filenames to pick from. .EXE, .COM, files are
excluded from the list. Subdirectories are displayed in white. If you
highlight them and press enter, a new file list for that directory is
displayed. BTW, pressing the '-' key will back out one level. On the
other hand, if you include a filename in the argument tail, that file
will be loaded and displayed on the screen.
The functionality of the editor is similar to most editors. However,
there are some differences. First, as I have mentioned already, lines
do not wrap; however, they can be longer than the screen width, and
the screen can be shifted to the right or left to view with the
ALT-left/right key.
Type in your code as with any editor. Some chars will activate
certain color modes. This serves as a visual to make it easier to
identify comments, quoted text, meta-statements, target labels, and
other things. It's a beautiful thing. [grin]
Block marking is done with ALT-L to mark a line or lines. The marked
lines can be copyed, ALT-N, or moved, ALT-M, and pasted with the
ALT-V. You can also delete lines with the CTL-Del, and undelete them
with the CTL-Ins. I find it much easier to move lines this way, but
that's because I don't have the block copy/move functions up to speed.
Use the CTL-up/down to scroll the screen. The cursorline is always
centered.
You can set up to nine place markers anywhere in your code. Just
press ALT-n where 'n' is a number key from 1-9. If the marker isn't
being used, one will be created at the end of the line that you are
on. It is a bright flag that is easy to see as you page thru the
file. If you are not sure which markers are in use, press ALT-~. A
list will be displayed with the first few lines of text, so can know
what the marker is for. Pressing ALT-n for a marker you have in the
code will immediately display that code.
CTL-C clears the text from the cursor to the end of the line.
ALT-C compiles your source. If there are no errors, your EXE file
will be placed in the \TEMP directory. If there are compile errors,
then the editor will point to first error and the error is displayed
in the status line at the bottom of the screen. For the verbose list,
press ALT-E.
ALT-E displays the verbose text of an ERROR, IF there was one.
CTL-E displays the OUTPUT text of PBC, if you are interested.
ALT-R runs the program. A later version will have PBSWAP. Without it,
it runs nearly all my programs anyway, but a few run out of memory,
however. I will include a run-time module that will enable the editor
to detect and display any run-time errors when you run the program.
Simply $INCLUDE it in your mainline for debugging purposes.
To exit the editor, press the 'Esc' key. You will be prompted as to
whether you want to save the file, or not. Press 'Esc' again to abort
the exit.
The insert mode works a little differently. Insert is by default
always on. You can force overtype, but the first space switches back
to insert mode. I did this because I got tired of typing over text
after previously changing a word. It's one of those Rube Goldburg
things. [grin]
Mouse detection is automatic, left-button places cursor at pointer
position. Right-button brings up file listing for loading. If you
double click on a line that has an $INCLUDE, that file is loaded.
--- Maximus/2 3.01
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