(M,14,3,1) An Abbreviated Introduction To Using Chet's Editor on the FreePort Copyright 1991 Case Western Reserve University. All Rights Reserved. ***************************** Chet's Editor (CE) is an "Emacs-style" editor, for those of you familiar with such a descriptor. It is one of the six choices on the "set terminal" menu accessed by typing "go editor" at the "==>" prompt; if you're a SIGop, it's one of the five which will allow you to edit and answer messages using your xx account. Chet's editor is a full-screen editor, meaning that it allows you to edit text anywhere on your screen rather than just in a single line at the bottom -- thus, it's a lot more powerful than the standard "answer a message" facility in the post office. Why might I choose Chet's Editor? If you have selected Chet's Editor, it will appear whenever you choose to send mail or post a message anywhere on the system. General users might choose it to gain access to more editing power for Email and messages. SIGops might choose it to gain more flexibility in editing postings and replies. Chet's editor is the closest thing to a modern word processor available online with the FreePort. Why might I NOT choose Chet's Editor? For one thing, it requires that your own terminal software be able to emulate a VT52,VT100, or ANSI terminal (check your software documentation; many Apple // series terminal programs cannot do this). For another, if you're very much a novice you might find the editor commands a little confusing at first. ********************* These instructions are intended to be a brief introduction for people who have never used Chet's editor (or any Emacs). The following is a step-by-step introduction to choosing CE and using a few of its most fundamental commands. More detailed documentation for CE may be found on the system by typing "go help" at any "==>" prompt. ********************* *Section 1: How to Choose Chet's Editor* Log on to the FreePort and go to the main menu. Use the shortcut "go term" to move to the area where one specifies information about one's own equipment. Choose SET YOUR TERMINAL TYPE. Select either VT52 or VT100 from the menu. (Do so only if your own terminal software can emulate one of these two; if your software can't do this, you can't use Chet's editor.) The system will return you to the same menu forever here, so type the letter P to get back to the previous menu (the one from which you chose "set your terminal type"). Choose SET THE DEFAULT EDITOR. Chet's editor should be one of the choices; select it. The system should confirm this choice. This is another spot where you can loop back into this menu forever, so after you've seen this confirmation use an M to return to the main menu (or issue a GO command if you know where you're going). >>Important<<: The system does not store these settings from session to session unless you tell it to. After choosing CE, follow up by choosing "save your environment"; then the system will remember next time that you prefer Chet's editor. *Section 2: How to Use CE to send Email* First, go to the post office and work through the standard set of prompts for sending Email. If you've followed the steps above and selected CE, you will no longer see the old prompts of 65 dashes and a request to end your message with ###. Instead, your screen will look something like this: [EXAMPLE:] ********************************************** To: aa002 Subject: Demonstration with Chet's Editor Cc: -----ce 4.2: .letter (Fundamental)----Top----------------- (Though you can't see it, the cursor is blinking under the "T" of "to" at the upper left of the screen) ********************************************** The heading at the top is provided by the system for all messages ("To:" is the addressee, and you just specified the subject); the stuff at the bottom is the system talking to itself and will not appear as part of the message. The empty space between is expandable and awaits your message. When you first enter CE, your cursor will be blinking at the beginning of the heading. As you probably prefer to type in the body of the letter, you need to learn how to move the cursor around in CE. Let's do that first. Unlike some Emacs editors, Chet's editor supports arrows on the keyboard -- so, if you have up, down, right, and left arrows there's a good chance you can use them to move around. Try it. (You can move up & down freely; left and right only work across text and are inactive in empty areas). Notice that if you're using the left and right arrows they wrap around like a modern word processor. Chet's editor has alternative commands you can use to move around even if you have no arrows (or even if your arrows are not sup- ported). Here's the chart: Move up control-p Move down control-n Move left control-b Move right control-f. Try them out as well -- though arrows are a lot easier to remember. Chet's editor is "modeless". At any given time the cursor arrows or their alternatives (above) will move you around, without first having to invoke a special state of being. Also at any given moment, one can insert or delete text, equally without changing into some specific mode or state of being. Let's make use of those facts to begin typing in a message. I'm assuming that you're still in the post office, staring at the screen given as an example above. Your cursor is still blinking on the "T" of "To". Start by moving your cursor down into the blank area below the "CC" line. Use either the cursor arrows or control-N for this. When you get to the beginning of the line where you would like to begin typing the message, do just that. No fancy commands. No control or escape anythings. Just type. Remember to hit the return key as you approach the end of a line. (Actually, you don't have to here, but the results can be extremely confusing to the novice if you do not). Here's what my screen looked like when I did that: [EXAMPLE:] ********************************************** To: aa002 Subject: Demonstration with Chet's Editor Cc: It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt. --**-ce 4.2: .letter (Fundamental)----71%----------------- ********************************************** Well, that's all very nice... but such a classic quote deserves a proper attribution. Let's try putting one above the quote; use the arrows (or equivalent) to move the cursor to the beginning of the line above the message, and type in the attribution. Here's mine: ********************************************** To: aa002 Subject: Demonstration with Chet's Editor Cc: Here's a quote from Mark Twain: It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt. --**-ce 4.2: .letter (Fundamental)----35%----------------- ********************************************** That seems to have worked well enough, but I'm not happy with it yet. Perhaps I should have used Twain's real name. To do so, I need to do two things: get rid of "Mark Twain" on the upper line, and type in "Samuel Clemens". There are multiple ways to get rid of things in CE; the or key is probably the simplest for the first-time user. Use the arrows to get the cursor to the right of "Twain", and tap the (or backspace) key a few times. It should nibble away "Mark Twain" from the tail over, one character at a time. When you've finished nibbling just type in "Samuel Clemens". Here's mine: ********************************************** To: aa002 Subject: Demonstration with Chet's Editor Cc: Here's a quote from Samuel Clemens: It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt. --**-ce 4.2: .letter (Fundamental)----29%----------------- ********************************************** That's functional enough for a demonstration, but I've decided that I don't like that form of attribution at all. I'd like to get rid of that first line altogether and replace it with a simple "-Mark Twain-" after the quote. Here we go. Move the cursor to the "Here's a quote" line. Make sure it's at the beginning of the line. Hold down the key while tapping the letter "k". This will "kill" everything to the right of the cursor. Once will kill the text; if you do it again, it kills the empty line. Please kill both the attribution and its empty space. Here's mine: ********************************************** To: aa002 Subject: Demonstration with Chet's Editor Cc: It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt. --**-ce 4.2: .letter (Fundamental)----29%----------------- ********************************************** Having removed the old, move the cursor down to the line below the quote, tab over, and type in the new attribution. Here's mine: ********************************************** To: aa002 Subject: Demonstration with Chet's Editor Cc: It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt. -Mark Twain- --**-ce 4.2: .letter (Fundamental)----98%----------------- ********************************************** Those are the fundamental tools of the editor. You now know how to move the cursor around (using the arrows or alternative keystrokes), how to insert text wherever you wish, or how to delete text either a character or a line at a time. One thing remains: how does one get out of here? Exiting Chet's editor involves two keystroke pairs and the answer to one prompt. When ready to leave, hold down the control key and press the letter "x" (this is called "control-x"). Then do a control-c. A prompt will appear at the bottom of the screen... here's my prompt: ****************************************************** --**-ce 4.2: .letter (Fundamental)----Bot----------------- Buffer /u/19/wab2/.letter modified. Save [y/n]? ****************************************************** You're being asked whether you want to keep the message you've created. Answer by typing the letter y (for "yes"). No return is necessary. The result should be a return to the standard FreePort mail disposition menu, like this one: *********************************************** Would you now like to... 1. Send the message 2. Read the message over 3. Re-Write the message 4. Append to the message 5. Edit the message 6. Cancel the message 7. Check spelling for this message *********************************************** That's it! You can now select Chet's editor, perform simple editing functions, and leave the editor having saved your work. For more information -- including an online tutorial -- see the help section of the administration building online. *********************************************** *********************************************** *Section 3: Using CE to answer Q&A queries (SIGops only)* This section makes a couple of assumptions... first off, that you've set up your online session to use Chet's editor correctly (see section 1, above), and secondly that you learned a few fundamental CE commands in section 2 (above). In fact, you probably could use a bit of practice on this. Take the following steps to set up what we need for section 3: A. If you're not already there, log on to your XX ID (not your aa ID) and be sure you have selected Chet's editor. B. Go to the section of which you are a SIGop, and select the Q&A section. Specify that you would like to contribute a new message. C. When asked for the subject, type in something like "Test message for practicing Chet's editor answers". Here's what happened when I did that: [EXAMPLE:] ****************************************** Newsgroups: cwru.admin.questions Subject: Test message for practicing Chet's editor answers References: Organization: The Cleveland FreePort, Cleveland, OH (USA) -----ce 4.2: .article (Fundamental)----Top----------------- ************************************************** The "newsgroup" at the top is furnished by the system and differs for every bulletin board on the system (it's actually a pathname). The subject was specified as you began the message, and the organization is tagged to your xx ID. The bottom line is just the CE editor muttering under its breath. Well, we need a sample question to practice answering, so review your learning from section 2, move the cursor down (cursor arrows) and type some text. How about: "How many certain ethnics does it take to change a light bulb?" Having typed that in (fix any typos if necessary), exit the editor (control-x control-c, answer the prompt with a "y") and make the menu choice that says "post the message". There may be a brief delay here while the system ponders the joke... The message is now on its way to the mailbox of your xx account, where you will need to read it, approve it, and edit it to add an answer before sending it on to be posted publicly. So use a "q" to quit your section, and use "mail" to check your xx mailbox. If you've moved really fast, the message may not be there yet; if it's been more than about 30 seconds since you chose "post the message", the message you just created should be waiting for you. If it's not, go visit the Public Forum or some such for a few seconds and it will there upon your return. Assuming that the most recent message waiting in your box is the one you just created, choose it by number. The question, complete with header, should be displayed on your screen along with a "press RETURN to continue" message. Tap the as requested; the result should be a menu like this: [EXAMPLE:] ************************************** Would you now like to... t - Type out (Re-read) this message r - Reply to this message d - Delete this message u - Undelete this message n - Read the next unread message RETURN - Go back to the list of headers a - Approve message for posting to bulletin board ********************************************** You want to choose "a -Approve message." Please do so. The result looks like this: [EXAMPLE:] ************************************** From: wab2 (William A. Beasley) Subject: Test message for practicing Chet's editor answers How many certain ethnics does it take to change a light bulb? -- -----ce 4.2: mp016782 (Fundamental)----Top----------------- ************************************************* My question is sitting there waiting to have an answer provided. I'm going to use only the tools covered in section 2 to do it, just as an example. The cursor arrows take me down below the question to where I begin my answer: Answered by Wm. Beasley, aa002 Twelve. One to hold the bulb, and eleven to drink like crazy until the room starts to spin. (Remember, you need to strike the key manually at the end of each line) My screen now looks something like this: EXAMPLE: ***************************************** Newsgroups: cwru.admin.questions From: wab2 (William A. Beasley) Subject: Test message for practicing Chet's editor answers How many certain ethnics does it take to change a light bulb? -- Answered by Wm. Beasley, aa002 ______________________________ Twelve. One to hold the bulb, and eleven to drink like crazy until the room starts to spin. --**-ce 4.2: mp016782 (Fundamental)----47%----------------- ************************************************* My question now has an answer. As soon as I leave the editor, it will become visible back in the Q&A area where it was originally submitted. So I leave the editor with control-x control-c, answer "y", and choose "post the message " from the menu. The system pauses for a few seconds to ponder the wisdom therein, and then confirms the posting. You view the usual menu asking what you want to do with regard to messages; if you just press the key here, you find yourself back at the mail menu, and the subject of the question you just answered has an asterisk to the left of its number. Mine looks like this: EXAMPLE: ****************************************** Current message is #32 (33 is last) R26. (ab980 Carwil James) -- New BBS List (14050) R27. (ab245 ) -- Re: Inappropriate "For Sale" postings (1012) R28. (ab245 ) -- Re: Inappropriate "For Sale" postings (843) R29. (ac779 Warren D. Rayle) -- Re: Cleaning the list (705) R30. (ab980 Carwil James) -- Re: New BBS List (368) R31. (aa001 Thomas Grundner) -- State of the System Message - 1989 (13383) *32. (wab2 William A. Beasley) -- Test message for practicing Chet's editor ans 33. (ae422 Charles J. Brogan) -- Re: More on Cserve and Genie exchange (258) ------------------------------- n = Read next unread message d = Delete this message p = Back to previous screen h = Help, list of additional commands a = Approve message for posting to bulletin board Enter Command: **************************************************** The message complete with answer is now on public display back in the Q&A section where it originated. The original message (without answer) is still here in the mailbox. My final action needs to be deleting the old original message from my box, since it's no longer needed. That's easy enough. As the screen says, the command d will delete this message. Please press d; although it will not be immediately evident, once you have left the mail area and returned this message will have disappeared into the ether. There -- that's it. If you get comfy with Chet's editor, there are more commands than we could count (without borrowing our neighbors fingers) available... you can even cut and paste straight into CE if your own terminal software is happy with that sort of thing!